I have stumbled upon an online version of this book.
It contains a ton of information about game design, but in a very serious and methodical manner (which is why I think a lot of you will enjoy this)

It IS a textbook, so there are 300+ pages.. But the book itself is structured very well, and UNIT 3: PLAY. is where it starts getting interesting...

Here's the Link: http://books.google.ca/books?hl=en&lr=&id=UM-xyczrZuQC&oi=fnd&pg=PP18&ots=2yHKvVaGVu&sig=N_kJUWmCXiAyeIwempHwq20AN2E#v=onepage&q=&f=false

Sorry for bump

Here's a better, more easy to read paper on Game Design:
http://arcarc.xmission.com/Magazines%20and%20Books/Art%20of%20Game%20Design.pdf

I find it less methodical, and draws more from digital games, while the first one I cited talks about philosphical theories behind Play, rules, and etc...

After a couple hours of searching, I found this book (Rules of Play: Game Design Fundamentals):

http://www.mediafire.com/?lyinwajtntz

There are typos in this copy, probably for copyright reasons, but oh well. It is readable. I highly encourage anyone who wants to have a better understanding of how to make games fun to read this book.

I just realized that my upload is acting weird. If the pages are blank or you get errors, then just put the thing on a flashdrive and it should work perfectly ;p

Alternate upload link: http://www.mediafire.com/?yy0u2mimrym

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Apr 21 2010, 3:19 am by CecilSunkure.