The Way of O'Luanaigh

Patrick O'Luanaigh gives a very simple and easy to understand overview of some of the basic concepts in games and game design in the introductory chapter to his book Game Design Complete.  Being no stranger to these concepts, I found the most helpful parts to be the little asides he strews throughout the chapter in the forms of Creative Ideas and Reality Checks.  The thing I enjoy most about the Creative Ideas is that they give the reader new ways to approach games and the creative process.  I love reading about theory but sometimes have difficulty creating meaningful connections between disparate abstract ideas and how to creatively engage with them outside of the parameters created by the text.  Giving me something tactile, something tangible to relate back to what I read opens up a novel way for me to engage the material.

When he started going through core gameplay fundamentals there were a few points that I understood the spirit of but didn't agree with.  I was about to take arms against them fervently, with citations of games that have went against these so-called "fundamentals" very famously, until he ended it with the core fundamental of "Break the Rules When You Need To."  That's when I cooled off a bit and realized that most of the games that I was going to cite took the risk of going against the fundamentals and were able to pull off something phenomenal in their own right.