The Serious Art of Designing Fun

Recently, I've been searching the web for resources pertaining to game design theories. I was a little disappointed but unsurprised to discover that the search yielded information about the technical development of a game rather than the fundamentals of a game design. Whenever searches yielded hits regarding game design theories, it usually focused on availability of game design courses. Still, there were some really compelling online game design papers.

The following is my list of top picks:

1. The Art of Computer Game Design by Chris Crawford

   A game design book that talks heavily about the interdependency between design and technology. It was written in the early years of computer games but its theories are just as relevant today for the most part.

2. The Chemistry of Game Design by Daniel Cook

   The article talks about decomposing the game design into a testable model of skill chains. A must read.

The search for high quality online game design resources continue...