Rework

OK I admit that talking about book could miss the point of a fun reading experience.But anyway, I really want to talk about this one. And another one, the last I promise, but it'll the story of the next entries.

Well today the book's name is Rework and is written by Jason Fried & David Heinemeier Hansson.

Reading Rework was like taking a strong shot of adrenalin : my eyes open wide and my brain melts.
Each chapter and each advice was an opportunity to learn, analyze and change the way I was thinking about work and business.

Rework is about successful business people breaking down brick by brick the old wall of business beliefs.
This book empowered me. Not like I get superpower only by reading a book, but more like something that give me a boost in confidence and an awarness for new opportunities.

Let's take three punchlines from the book for example :

• Ignore the real world : As they explain it, don't listen to people saying "Your idea will not work in the real world.". In fact this "real world" is just an excuse. An excuse that help this people avoiding to take risk or initiative and even worse breaking your motivation. Well everything is possible and there is far too much success stories to be told for someone to try to hide this real, real world :)
• Make a dent in the Universe! : When creating a business or choosing a job, do something that matter for you and for the others. First for you because it's the best way to do it well and then for the others because you want customers.
• Inspiration is perishable : An obvious but too regularly forgotten advice. When you're inspired, whenever it is, catch your inspiration and work on it NOW! Or you will forget it, oh yes you will. With inspiration you can make the work of a week in half a day. So don't postpone your meeting with inspiration. I'm sure you had already experience that, hadn't you?

Of course there are many others useful and ready to use advices like them in this book.

As I said at the beginning, more than advices, Rework is also packed with a great bunch of motivation and freedom, so don't miss it.

I hope you'll enjoy reading it and share your opinion with me.

The Art of Game Design

As I tease it in my first post, I'll start writing about books I recently read and learned from.

The Art of Game Design is written by Jesse Schell a designer with a great vision and understanding of his work.
If you missed it listen to his "Design Outside the Box" presentation. It gives a good picture of who he is.

But really why would I like to speak about this book ?
Pretty simple, this book helped me a lot. It still does and will obviously help me again.

I even buy the card game sells beside the book which help me to keep in mind the book's lenses.

Let's talk about the lenses. As the book was obviously written to be used, and not only read, Jesse Schell smartly summarize his book's essence in 100 lenses.

The power of these lenses are not only in their subject, shortness or simplicity.
In fact, the greatest power of these lenses are in their form : they are questions.

Not guidelines, not checklists, not creeds, just useful questions to ask yourself, and every answer you'd have will shape your game in the right direction.

Add to this simple and useful feature a clear and humorous writing tone and you will have an easy to read, easy to use and easy to understand book, for any designer.
I willingly said designer and not game designer. Because in fact most of the lenses could be apply to any product or content creation process.

To conclude, the most valuable thing I learned from this book is to ask myself questions when I make games. Or even when I study them.
Questions beginning by what, why, how, are now by far the most useful tools I use when making game, thanks to this book in particular.
This book also help me keeping in mind my player, and believe me (or not) but it's sadly way to easy to forget about him. Don't let your player down, keep him in mind, always !

So if you want to or are already designing games, give this book a try, I assure you will not regret it.