Each of the chapters of this book fall into one of three categories: an interview with a prominent game designer, an analysis of a successful game, or a discussion of game design principles. Each is valuable for different reasons, so I'd like to review each of them separately.

The interviews are interesting, and go into much greater depth than most interviews you see. As a result, you're able to get a good idea of how each designer approaches the game design process, which can be useful in analyzing your own methods.

The chapters analyzing games focused on a single game, but also looked at similar games in the genre. If you're an aspiring game designers, you'll benefit from these chapters. Partially because you will see what these games did well, but moreso because they will encourage you to analyze the design aspects of the games you're playing to see what they do right, what they do wrong, and how you can apply that to your own designs.

About half of the chapters of the book cover various aspects of game design, presenting the author's own theories about what's important, what isn't, and the things you should be thinking about. It's hard to review the value of this; some of it you'll agree with, and some of it you may not. Depending on your degree of experience, some of it may be obvious, some of it may be new, and some of it may help you focus on areas you've been neglecting.

Overall, I wouldn't consider this book a must-have, but if you're interested in becoming a well-rounded and successful game designer, there's a lot in here that will be of value to you.

What I like most about this book is how it completely avoids technical implementation issues to focus on something altogether more intangible: making fun interactive experiences for players. I've bought many books wanting to learn more about computer game design, but almost always got bogged down in programming information that would be dated within two years. Sure programming's important to game development, but it's not the hardest part of the process: coming up with a game that's fun is. These days projects have large teams and game designers almost always don't do any programming on the games they design. This is exactly the book that a game designer working in the industry today (or who wants to enter the industry) needs to read and study.

Following in the footsteps of Chris Crawford's great but out of print The Art of Computer Game Design (another book that hasn't dated with the passing of the years), Richard Rouse's book cuts away the technical side to explore the artistic side of game development. When so many of today's games are just glorified technology demos, the writing of this design book was a commendable undertaking, and, as it turns out, is a terrifically good read. The author's passion for the subject is obvious on every page, and though his pronouncements of the best way to design a game may seem preachy, when I thought about each topic he covered, I found little to disagree with. Furthermore, the long interviews provide more useful game design lessons than I've found in all the game programming books I've ever read. And the rules I learned in this book I will still be using in ten years, after all my old programming books are collecting dust. If you're looking to learn to code, you should definitely stay away from this book, but if you're looking for something that will stick with you, you need look no farther.

This book brings the very fundamentals of game design. I dont think its dated, because those are the things that every game will always have, period.

A very good read, with very good examples and interviews. Rouse talks a lot about his own games, specially Centipede 3D, but I think it's natural. To make everything complete, Rouse could get deeper about the commercial side of game industry, with things like schedule pressure, getting fund and etc. The main objective is to teach how to design games, but this kind of information adds great value.