Rules of Play: Game Design Fundamentals is a book on game design by Katie Salen and Eric Zimmerman, published by MIT Press. Will Wright, a game designer for Sim City, when describing this book, said "This is the most impressive book on game design I've ever seen. Broad in scope yet rich in detail, Rules of Play sets a new standard for game analysis".
Rules of Play expresses the perspective that a theoretical framework for interactive design has not yet been established. This is not the first time this has been recognized or explored, but is explored in a fresh way in great detail. The book is divided into four units, first introducing core concepts, then expanding on these with a detailed discussion of rules, play and culture.
Meaningful play - The authors introduce the concept of meaningful play as the goal of successful game design, providing their own definitions.
Design - The authors discuss definitions of design, and introduce their own. They go on to discuss semiotics, the study of meaning, describing Charles Sanders Peirce's semiotic elements.
Systems - The authors introduce four elements all systems share, as defined by Stephen Littlejohn in his textbook Theories of Human Communication, and go on to identify each of these elements in the game of chess, when framed as a formal (mathematical), experiential (social), or cultural (representational) system.
Interactivity - The authors connect interactivity with the concepts introduced thus far, and identify various modes of interactivity, citing examples of cognitive, functional, explicit, and "beyond-the-object" interactivity.
Defining Games - The authors discuss the relationship between play and games, highlight existing definitions of a game, and provide their own intentionally narrow definitions of games and game design.
Defining Digital Games - The authors insist that "the underlying properties of games and the core challenges of game design hold true regardless of the medium in which a game manifests," but they do identify four traits that are particularly strong in digital games: Immediate but narrow interactivity, the manipulation of information, automated complex systems, and networked communication.
The Magic Circle - The authors borrow the term magic circle from the book Homo Ludens by Johan Huizinga, using it to describe the space within which a game takes place. They explain how players enter into the magic circle by adopting a lusory attitude, another borrowed term, taken from Bernard Suits' book Grasshopper: Games, Life, and Utopia.
Defining Rules
Rules on Three Levels
The Rules of Digital Games
Games as Emergent Systems
Games as Systems of Uncertainty
Games as Information Theory Systems
Games as Systems of Information
Games as Cybernetic Systems
Games as Game Theory Systems
Games as Systems of Conflict
Breaking the Rules
Defining Play
Games as the Play of Experience
Games as the Play of Pleasure
Games as the Play of Meaning
Games as Narrative Play
Games as the Play of Simulation
Games as Social Play
Defining Culture
Games as Cultural Rhetoric
Games as Open Culture
Games as Cultural Resistance
Games as Cultural Environment
The book is punctuated by guest contributions, including one essay and four commissioned games, each discussed alongside various prototype materials.
Foreword: Frank Lantz
Commissioned Essay: Reiner Knizia
Unit 1: Commissioned Game: Richard Garfield
Unit 2: Commissioned Game: Frank Lantz
Unit 3: Commissioned Game: Kira Snyder
Unit 4: Commissioned Game: James Ernest
