Chris Crawford on Game Design

Chapter 2. Some Milestone Games

If you want to write novels, you've got to read lots of novels. If you want to make movies, you've got to watch lots of movies. And if you want to design games, you've got to play lots of games. Every game designer must try out a wide and exotic array of games. With about a thousand computer games released every year, it's impossible for any individual to be familiar with everything.

Indeed, any competent game designer is too busy making games to have the time to play many. Nevertheless, it is important to try out a variety of games, and I list here some games that I think would provide a broad education to any budding game designer. My list is far from complete, and it excludes many excellent games. My criterion ...