Further Reading
The Well-Played Game: A Player's Philosophy, by Bernard DeKoven As the former director of the New Games Foundation, Bernard DeKoven gives an overview of an ideology of play that focuses on giving players the power to affect their own play experiences by redesigning rules, social games to play and helping other players, and inventing new games of their own. The book is more of a gentle philosophical text than a game design handbook, butwe found it to be tremendously inspiring.Recommended: Chapter 2: GuidelinesChapter 3: The Play Community Chapter 5: Changing the Game The New Games Book, by Andrew Fluegelman and Shoshana Tembeck The bible of the New Games Movement, The New Games Book still makes a delightful read. It primarily consists of descriptions of games, organized by number of players and degree of activity. Some of the New Games. games are twists on classic designs; others are remarkably original. As a source book for well-designed physical and analyze, The New Games Book is an invaluable resource. Also included in spent countless hours designing play. In The Well-Played Game, DeKoven the book are a handful of essays. Recommended: "Creating the Play Community," Bernard DeKoven"Theory of Game Change," Stewart Brand For Examples of Iterative Design:
The Player-Referee's Non-Rulebook New VolleyballNew Rules for Classic Games, by R. Wayne Schmittberger New Rules for Classic Games is filled with exactly what the title implies- redesigned versions of games like Monopoly, Chess, Checkers, and Backgammon. Some of the variations change the numbers of players, others adjust the game materials, and some merely fix design flaws in the original games. A fantastic resource for game modification exercises, the final chapter recommended below lists suggestions for designing variants of existing gamesRecommended: Chapter 15: Creating Your Own Winning Variations