The 7 Best Game Development Books (2023 reviews)

We consider a game development book to be a worthy investment in the long run. We are here to help you choose the right one for your purposes from all the best available products in market today.

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Our Top Picks:

Best Overall: Buy: Robert Nystrom Game Development Book READ REVIEW

Best For both A work Book: Buy: Scott Rogers Game Development Book READ REVIEW

Best For Game Developer: Buy: Jesse Schell Game Development Book READ REVIEW

Best For Game engine mathematics: Buy: Lengyel Game Development Book READ REVIEW

Best For youngsters: Buy: AE Colonna Game Development Book READ REVIEW

Best For beginner: Buy: Harrison Ferrone Game Development Book READ REVIEW

Best First Unity Book: Buy: Joe Hocking Game Development Book READ REVIEW

Best Overall: Robert Nystrom Game Development Book

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The book is a must have accessory for your daily usage. This book builds on previous experience and helps to correct mistakes made during initial game development. It covers common challenges in game programming and some useful ways of resolving the problem. It is written in a clear and very understandable style, with excellent examples and detailed explanations. The random bits of humor strewn throughout the text do a wonderful job of livening up a somewhat dry topic, without distracting the reader from the actual point.

The style is conversational and mildly witty making it easy to read with humour that always hits the mark. It contains concrete examples and critical explanations on when to use or avoid certain Design Patterns. The chapter structure is logical and consistent, which also makes it a good reference book. This book is more high level but with enough substantive supporting information that produces a strong general document on software design.

• Easy reading for those that are not novice programmers
• Great book for those wanting game specific designs
• Give you a 100% complete architectural blueprint for your next game

Best For both A work Book: Scott Rogers Game Development Book

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If you often find yourself scrambling for convenient and suitable book, scott rogers game development book is your end point. If you are looking for a "guide" or even just want to know how a Game Designer behaves, Rogers' book just nails it big time. It is built around designing a platformer and while it offers tips that are applicable for other genres, it is relatively thin on game design theory. It feels like a manual to create successful games, as in games that people like to play, keep playing till the end and then recommend to other people. It is great for newbies and as a comprehensive insight into game design.

It is full of helpful information including Scott's "Beat Chart" - a tool for developing and mapping the structure of your game. It is a very practicle book and offers some very useful "hands on" tips. It can also be used as a reference book.

• A virtual treasure chest for video game designers
• Fun, funny, and easy to follow
• A must have resource for game developers

Best For Game Developer: Jesse Schell Game Development Book

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Best part: jesse schell game development book costs comparatively low and it is available to ship in 24 hours. There are so many "lenses" that help you question your game in ways that you never thought of before. There is a lot of insight here for budding and experienced game designers, and also for those who are interested in how to make games of all kinds, in or out of the game industry. The Socratic method is a proven methodology, and the Author of The Art of Game Design has employed it with great effectiveness.

This book uses a good quality paper where you can use a highlighter on and it won't bleed through. The format, writing, and flow make this an easy to read book. It explains the fundamental principles of games and allows you to understand it's structure and how to manipulate them to create good games.

The packaging is awesome, and the book is in high quality. It looks like other games plus this book is worth the investment of time and money.

• Good brand reputation
• New and hot release

Best For Game engine mathematics: Lengyel Game Development Book

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Lengyel offers a variety of book for personal choice and yet maintaining quality in all the variants. This book is a must in game programming. It is essential to master mathematical concepts and skills. The inclusion of geometric/grassman algebra in a practical way makes it unique. It is able to cover basic game mathematics in an extremely clear and concise manner, and introduce new concepts along the way. The exercises are cool, not really complicated, but not too simple.

This volume is compact, but concise. It has excellent flow and is highly practical, while supporting/encouraging (and often providing) a deeper understanding of the concepts presented.

• Really good print quality for a paperback
• Good collection of basic mathematics for 3d.excellent for graphic and rendering devs
• Covers the basics well and introduces new concepts

Best For youngsters: AE Colonna Game Development Book

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We know from years of feedback from readers, customers and amazon sellers, what most people want in a convenient and appropriate book. The ae colonna game development book is exactly that - it's a simple book that hits all the right notes. Game Development Made Easy' is an educational and well-researched book designed specifically for beginners looking to start a career in game development. It is an introduction that will give you essentials for coding your game. This book provides some good guidance and understanding on several programming languages, which walks you through the basics and helps you to stay on track with coding your game.

This book is great for beginners as it introduces you to the basic tools required to get started with your game development journey. The nine-week program is also nicely structured so that you can gradually master the concepts and skills needed to become a successful game developer. The book features helpful real-world examples of the various elements of a 2D or 3D game and has enough graphics and pictures to be useful. It is well-written and easy for anyone to use. The inclusion of an online community provides valuable support for readers who may encounter challenges along the way.

• Great starter book for software development
• Great book to get started with game development in unity
• A great first step into game programming and development
• Easily digestible in 9 weeks / chapters with some really good well-rounded content

Best For beginner: Harrison Ferrone Game Development Book

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If you often find yourself scrambling for appropriate and satisfactory book, harrison ferrone game development book is your end point. If you're a gamer, there is no doubt that you've always wanted to make your own game, and this book will help you do it. It helps you work from scratch and develop a game using unity. This approach creates a positive feedback loop where the student keeps succeeding and encourages them to move forward.

The book does a great job of teaching you how to control the flow of the code through the use of if and switch conditional statements which makes it easier to work with collections like arrays, list, and dictionaries. These are clear enough without being a popup book, nor are the screenshots required to understand the code, as the steps are clearly stated.

If you need a unity tutorial for yourself or others this book will be well worth your time. It is suitable for complete beginners and it is now, they feel slightly tacked on.

• Like controlling a character, detecting collisions, health and score systems
• Fun to use to get an introduction to unity
• Teaches unity at a whole different level
• Programming concepts including data structures, persistence, generics, and functional programming techniques

Best First Unity Book: Joe Hocking Game Development Book

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The joe hocking game development book is suitable and reliable and fits well with your daily purpose. If you want to learn to use Unity to develop your own 2D and 3D games, this is a great first step. This book covers pretty much any topic you would want to get a jumpstart on learning. It is easy to follow, structured and simply works with the latest unity iterations, until this book. At the end of each chapter, the reader has a playable, albeit simple, game that exercises the core concepts presented in the text.

The structuring is also great, going from simple to complex, from 2d/3d environment creation to 1st person 3rd person movement and animation, to UI design, everything is covered in a nice, lean way. This approach allows the reader to continue to practice and apply previously learned skills and techniques while incorporating new concepts. The advantage this book has over video tutorials is how thorough it is.

• Great introduction to the unity platform
• Ray casting for ai pathing, and procedural collision is amazing
• Diagrams and screenshots guide the reader through completing these projects
• Code is clean, concise and works