I’ve been privileged to have enjoyed Adam Porter’s excellent videos about game design – quite a few of them are videos I wish I had seen years ago.
Disclosure: Adam in Wales provided review copies, and all links are affiliate links.
First up: an introspective designer journal
Adam’s goal here is disarming: an interactive workbook / journal that focuses on you as the designer. You, the designer, are the project here, not your games. This makes for a fun angle to explore through a workbook, and Adam walks us through… ourselves… step by step. I appreciate starting with a section called ‘My Definition of Success’ and ‘My Gaming Preferences;, which begins the process of reflecting on those places to start. There’s plenty to establish and fill out along the way – more than enough that you’ll want the printed copy of the book to fill out with a pen.
This book is as carefully designed as any game, and comes complete with plenty of structure to fill in your thoughts as you read through… but this isn’t just a book to read. A nice touch: lots of quotes from designers you’ve heard of. There’s a bunch of excellent tools in the back, including a Hook Generator.
If there’s any critique I have of this book, it’s that the last half or so might feel repetitive between the Perspectives and Reflective Logs.. They’re different enough so you never feel like you’re answering the same thing twice.
Overall, this is easily the most interactive book of the three, and the one that’s best suited as a physical book.
Recommended.
Next up: Adam’s take on playtesting
With quite a few published games, it’s safe to say Adam’s run a playtest or five. This book about playtesting is no-nonsense to the point of minimalist – very matter-of-fact with plenty of short, bite-size chapters.
One of the book’s greatest strengths is its sheer practicality. Porter does not dwell on abstract theory or game design philosophy; instead, he delivers actionable advice rooted in experience. He lays out different types of playtests, from solo testing to blind playtesting, and provides clear strategies for documenting and filtering feedback. His advice on testing with different player groups, from casual gamers to hardcore enthusiasts, helps designers understand how various audiences will perceive their games.
I appreciate Adam’s detail in going through a bunch of questions to ask, along with his rationale for asking them. These, along with the alternative questions asked near the end of each section. make for plenty of variety. There are enough details and anecdotes along the way to pay attention and enjoy the ride.
This is one of those formats you’ll either like or hate, but it’s one that works. Most of the questions are focused on what to ask the playtester, but there’s a good section of questions to ask yourself.
Recommended.
Next up: focusing on your game as a product
A product design approach places the end user at the centre of the process from day one. It demands that you know your customers, you understand their desires, their goals, and their problems.
The irony, perhaps, is that this minimalist-covered third entry is perhaps a reminder of its subject matter. ‘Product design’ is often the furthest thing from our minds when designing a game, but this book gives it the proper focus it deserves..
This one’s my favorite of the three, since it’s the topic that so many game designers can easily forget about when making a game. There’s an excellent focus on the many different things players want from board games, and there’s a fine primer on playtesting, in case you didn’t read through the second of his books (Do read through it, though.)
Chapter 6 focuses on a new way of modelling players, complete with four quadrants described in a way I haven’t seen before. Chapter 7 acknowledges accessibility and the many ways designers should strive to make their games as accessible as possible. Chapter 9 focuses on complexity, and so on.
What Adam calls product design, I think of as engineering a creative product to potentially fit a specific use case. Either way, the focus of this book is less about the creative side of your game and more about the many other considerations that go into creating a game for a paying audience. Plenty more to take in on your own time, of course.
If your focus is on creating a game you’ll crowdfund or pitch to a publisher, this is the book to read of the three.
Highly recommended.
Overall
Adam’s a great writer who is both writing from his own experience and backing it up with quotes from many other designers. There’s a lot to like throughout all three of these books, which are all available as physical or e-books on various platforms. You’ll want the physical version of the journal in order to fill it in with pen (unless you want to buy the PDF and print it off), but the other two books are fine however you prefer to read books.
