Rules of Play: Game Design Fundamentals (Mit Press)

Rules of Play is an in-depth guide to understanding games and game design, offering a comprehensive framework for analyzing and creating interactive systems.

Written by industry experts Katie Salen and Eric Zimmerman, this book provides a unified model for looking at all types of games, from board games to computer and video games.

With 18 game design schemas, or conceptual frameworks, Rules of Play covers everything from the basics of "play" and "design" to more advanced topics like games as social play contexts and sites of cultural resistance.

This book is a must-read for game scholars, developers, and designers, providing a solid theoretical foundation for the emerging discipline of game design.