Go deeper · The source texts

THE CANON

The course teaches every big idea in plain language so you never need these. But the people who wrote them are worth meeting. Here is the actual reading list behind the MIT studio, mapped to where each piece lands on your path, with a line on why it earns your time.

Almost everything here is a published book or paper we did not write and cannot reprint. We give you the full citation, who it is by, and what to look for, so you can find it through a library, a bookshop, or a legal preview. Two items are free and legal to read or watch right now. Those are flagged. All bibliographic info below is drawn from the MIT OpenCourseWare reading list for CMS.608.
/ start here

The two core texts

If you read nothing else, the studio leans on these two more than anything. Both are written for people making physical games with cardboard and dice, which is exactly the point.

CGD

Challenges for Game Designers

Brenda Brathwaite & Ian Schreiber

A workbook of non-digital design exercises. The course pulls its opening chapters on what a game even is, on "game design atoms" (the smallest pieces you build from), and on adding and cutting mechanics. Built to be done, not just read.

Brathwaite, Brenda, and Ian Schreiber. Challenges for Game Designers: Non-digital Exercises for Video Game Designers. Cengage Learning, 2008. ISBN: 9781584505808.
GDW

Game Design Workshop

Tracy Fullerton

The playcentric bible. The course assigns its chapters on prototyping and playtesting, which is the heartbeat of the whole method: make a rough version fast, put it in front of real people, change it based on what they actually do.

Fullerton, Tracy. Game Design Workshop: A Playcentric Approach to Creating Innovative Games. 2nd ed. CRC Press, 2008. ISBN: 9780240809748.
/ by stop

Deeper reading, mapped to your path

Each block matches a stop in the course. Read the stop first, build the thing, then come back here when you want the original thinking behind it.

M1 · M2

Mechanics & Meaningful Decisions

The Psychopathology of Everyday Things & Knowing What To Do
Donald Norman · from The Design of Everyday Things
Why: Not a game book at all. It is about doors, stoves, and light switches that confuse people. The course uses it because a confusing rulebook fails for the exact same reasons a confusing door does. Read it and you will never write an unclear instruction the same way again.
Norman, Donald. The Design of Everyday Things. Basic Books, 2002. ISBN: 9780465067107.
Core textThe Basics & Game Design Atoms
Brenda Brathwaite & Ian Schreiber · Challenges for Game Designers, Ch 1 & 2
Why: The cleanest definition of the raw parts a game is built from. This is where "a game is a set of verbs" comes from.
M3

Prototype & Playtest

Core textPrototyping & Playtesting
Tracy Fullerton · Game Design Workshop
Why: The two chapters that teach the loop the entire course runs on. How to make a throwaway version, how to watch a playtest without coaching the player, how to ask questions that get honest answers.
M4

The MDA Lens

Free onlineMDA: A Formal Approach to Game Design
Robin Hunicke, Marc LeBlanc, Robert Zubek · 2004
Why: The original four-page paper behind the Mechanics / Dynamics / Aesthetics framework and the "8 kinds of fun." Short, free, and the actual source of a model you will use forever. Search the title; the PDF is hosted openly by the authors.
Hunicke, R., M. LeBlanc, and R. Zubek. "MDA: A Formal Approach to Game Design and Game Research." 2004. (Bonus text, not in the MIT list but the source of the framework it teaches.)
M5

Luck & Hidden Information

The Role of Dice
David Parlett · from The Oxford History of Board Games
Why: A games historian on why randomness is not the enemy of skill. Helps you tell input luck (the hand you are dealt) from output luck (the dice roll that decides everything after you commit).
Parlett, David. The Oxford History of Board Games. Oxford University Press, 1999. ISBN: 9780192129987.
Randomness, Player Choice, and Player Experience
John Kaufeld · from Tabletop Analog Game Design
Why: A working designer on how randomness actually feels at the table versus how it looks on a spreadsheet.
Kaufeld, John. In Tabletop Analog Game Design. Lulu.com, 2011. ISBN: 9781257870608.
M7

Players & Systems

Games as Systems of Information & Games as Social Play
Katie Salen & Eric Zimmerman · from Rules of Play
Why: The heavyweight academic text of the field, but these two chapters are the readable ones. How information moves through a game, and how the table around the game is part of the game.
Salen, Katie, and Eric Zimmerman. Rules of Play: Game Design Fundamentals. MIT Press, 2003. ISBN: 9780262240451.
The 3 Player Problem
Greg Costikyan & Drew Davidson, eds. · from Tabletop Analog Game Design
Why: Why three-player games go weird. Kingmaking, alliances, and the player who can no longer win but can decide who does.
In Tabletop Analog Game Design. Lulu.com, 2011. ISBN: 9781257870608.
Watch · freeCooperation and Engagement: What can board games teach us?
Google Tech Talk · 2008 · YouTube
Why: The course's window into cooperative design and the "one bossy player runs everyone's turn" problem. Free to watch.
GoogleTechTalks. "Cooperation and Engagement: What can board games teach us?" April 30, 2008. youtube.com/watch?v=cdTVcFo2EQw
M8

Perspective & Simulation

Free onlineSimulation 101: Simulation versus Representation
Gonzalo Frasca · ludology.org · 2001
Why: The single most useful short read for the third build. The difference between modelling how a system works and just showing a picture of it. Free on ludology.org.
Frasca, Gonzalo. "Simulation 101: Simulation vs Representation." ludology.org. 2001.
Space Control & Corner Your Fauna
David Parlett · from The Oxford History of Board Games
Why: How games turn a flat board into contested territory. Useful when your model needs a space for players to fight over.
Parlett, David. The Oxford History of Board Games. Oxford University Press, 1999. ISBN: 9780192129987.
M9

Changing the Rules

Fair Isn't Funny: The Design of Cosmic Encounter
Peter Olotka · from Tabletop Analog Game Design
Why: A designer of a legendary game explaining why he made it deliberately unfair, because every player breaks a different rule. The clearest argument that balance is not the goal.
Olotka, Peter. In Tabletop Analog Game Design. Lulu.com, 2011. ISBN: 9781257870608.
Changing the Game
Bernard De Koven · from The Well-Played Game
Why: The warm philosophical heart of the whole course. De Koven on house rules, on changing a game mid-play, and on the difference between winning and playing well together.
De Koven, Bernard. The Well-Played Game: A Player's Philosophy. MIT Press, 2013. ISBN: 9780262019170.
M10 · history · guest

Ship It, History & the Indie Lens

Learning the Game, 1898–1910
Philip Orbanes · from The Game Makers
Why: How Parker Brothers turned games into an industry. Context for why the games you grew up with look the way they do.
Orbanes, Philip. The Game Makers: The History of Parker Brothers. Harvard Business Review Press, 2003. ISBN: 9781591392699.
Welcome Aboard
David Parlett · from The Oxford History of Board Games
Why: The opening of the definitive history of board games. Good for the "Game, Play, Sport" definitions debate.
Parlett, David. The Oxford History of Board Games. Oxford University Press, 1999. ISBN: 9780192129987.
The work of Jesper Juul
Guest lecturer, session 24
Why: The course closes with a guest talk from Juul on indie aesthetics and failure. His books are the best follow-on once you have finished all eleven stops: try Half-Real, A Casual Revolution, or The Art of Failure.
Juul, Jesper. Various. MIT Press. (Recommended follow-on reading, named after the course's guest lecture.)