Game development resources

The Art of Game Design: Russian edition

Jesse Schell

Schell’s lenses examine player experience, rules, interfaces, stories and iteration. A broad reference for questioning your design decisions; this link is the Russian edition.

Paid book; publisher overview and sample available.

Game Design Workshop

Tracy Fullerton

Tracy Fullerton’s practical approach to paper prototypes, experience goals, playtesting and iteration. A useful structure for a project that needs repeated player feedback.

Paid book; publisher page.

Challenges for Game Designers

Brenda Brathwaite, Ian Schreiber

Exercises in rules, constraints, chance and prototyping. Many challenges can be explored with paper rather than an engine or programming. Links to the book’s companion site.

Paid book; companion website, contents and extra materials are free.

A Theory of Fun for Game Design

Raph Koster

Raph Koster connects fun with learning patterns. A short, illustrated starting point for thinking about learning, boredom and challenge.

Paid book; the author’s site includes an excerpt and resources.

Game Feel: A Game Designer’s Guide to Virtual Sensation

Steve Swink

Steve Swink examines how input, movement, space and polish shape the sensation of control. Useful when a mechanic works but still feels unsatisfying.

Paid book; publisher page.

Rules of Play: Game Design Fundamentals

Katie Salen, Eric Zimmerman

A detailed foundation in rules, systems, meaningful play and culture. Useful for developing a shared vocabulary for analyzing games and discussing design.

Paid book; overview and contents from MIT Press.

How to Create Stories: game writing and narrative design in 12 steps

Natalya Andrianova, Svetlana Yakovleva

A Russian introduction to game writing: worlds, characters, dialogue and production documents. Useful for a first narrative project and understanding the writer’s role in a team.

Paid Russian book; publisher overview and excerpt.

Architecture of Video Game Worlds: Level Complete!

Maria Vazhenich, Artemy Kozlov, Ieronim K.

An architectural view of game spaces, scale, world structure and player experience. Useful for level design, environments and environmental storytelling. Russian-language book.

Paid Russian book; publisher overview and excerpt.

The Level Design Book

Robert Yang and contributors

A practical reference for designing 3D levels, from intent and blockouts to routes, playtesting and iteration. Useful across game engines.

Free online book; some sections are still in progress. Text: CC BY-NC-SA 4.0.

Try it: Read How to make a level, build a one-room blockout and test its route with a player.

Platformer Toolkit

Mark Brown / Game Maker’s Toolkit

An interactive essay about platformer controls. Change movement and jump parameters, then immediately test how the same level feels.

Free in the browser; desktop downloads are also available.

Try it: Change one jump parameter, replay the same section and note which actions become easier or harder.

PuzzleScript

Stephen Lavelle and contributors

A small open-source puzzle engine and browser editor using text rules. Useful for quickly exploring a mechanic on a grid.

Free browser editor and open-source code.

Try it: Change one rule in an example and create three levels: introduction, interaction and an unexpected consequence.

Twine

Twine community

An open-source tool for interactive stories and branching dialogue. Build a simple story without code, then add variables and conditions.

Free browser and desktop versions.

Try it: Build a scene with two decisions. Make a later line react to the first choice, then merge the branches again.

Baba Is You

Arvi Teikari / Hempuli

A puzzle game in which the rules themselves can change. Useful for analyzing interactions, unexpected consequences and teaching through small levels.

Paid game; the linked page offers Windows, macOS and Linux versions.

Try it: Analyze one level: which rule does it teach, which mistaken assumption does it challenge, and which objects could be removed while preserving the puzzle?

Game Builder Garage

Nintendo

Nintendo’s guided lessons and visual construction of small games. Connect input, rules, objects and feedback in a working prototype.

Paid Nintendo Switch game.

Try it: After one lesson, change a prototype’s win condition and test whether a new player understands the goal without explanation.

Super Mario Maker 2

Nintendo

A Mario level editor for practicing level design. Introduce a mechanic, develop it and test route readability. A creation game rather than a complete design course.

Paid Nintendo Switch game. Online features require Nintendo Switch Online.

Try it: Build a short level: a safe introduction to one mechanic, a variation and a final test. Ask another player to play without hints.

Game Mechanics: video game mechanics catalog

A catalog of video game mechanics with descriptions and examples from games for finding references and comparing approaches.

Boss Fight Atlas: boss mechanics

An atlas of boss mechanics with animations, game references, and a builder for designing encounters.

ink / Inky

inkle

Write branching stories and dialogue with variables and conditions. Useful for separating narrative rules from the game engine’s implementation.

ink, Inky and the Unity integration are free under MIT. Plan the game’s UI, saves and localization separately.

Try it: Create a short dialogue in which an earlier choice changes an available line.

Tiled

Thorbjørn Lindeijer and Tiled contributors

A level editor with tiles, object layers, custom properties and JSON or Lua export. Useful for map prototypes and keeping level data separate from game code.

The open-source editor and documentation are available for free. Map, object and collision support depend on the integration with your chosen engine.

Try it: Create a map with two routes and an obstacle object layer. Export it, load it into a game and test passage using the character’s actual collider.

Game Design Concepts

Ian Schreiber

A structured course on rules, prototyping, iteration and testing a game. Useful as a foundation for learning game design through small projects.

The 2009 lectures and assignments are open; the syllabus requires the paid textbook Challenges for Game Designers. Class forums are archival.

Try it: Start at Level 1 and build a small paper prototype.

MIT OpenCourseWare: Game Design

MIT OpenCourseWare

Open university course materials with lectures, readings and assignments for designing and testing games. Useful for structured practice with a small group.

Course materials are free; some recommended books are paid.

MDA: Mechanics, Dynamics, Aesthetics

Robin Hunicke, Marc LeBlanc, Robert Zubek

A short research paper connecting rules, system behavior and player experience. Use it as an analytical model and compare your conclusions with playtests.

Free paper PDF.

Game Balance Concepts

Ian Schreiber

Ian Schreiber’s course examines balance through models, probabilities and interacting systems. Useful for explaining a change beyond adjusting numbers.

The 2010 course materials are free under CC BY 3.0 US. They cover balance fundamentals rather than current engine APIs.

Try it: Choose one game statistic and describe its cost, benefit and constraints.

Reverse Design: Super Mario World

The Game Design Forum

A detailed analysis of levels and how Super Mario World develops familiar challenges. Useful for moving from impressions to structural analysis.

The web analysis is open; revised print editions are sold separately. It is an interpretation rather than Nintendo’s production documentation.

Try it: Break a short level into recurring challenges and their variations.

Lost Garden

Daniel Cook

Essays on game systems, player learning, prototyping and the business of design. Use their models as hypotheses to examine in your own game.

Public articles are free. Publication dates vary; test the author’s models against your own game.

Try it: Open Worth reading, choose a model and compare it with observed player behavior.

Godot: your first 2D game (Russian tutorial)

Godot contributors

Connect scenes, controls, enemies, scoring and UI in a complete small game. A next step after GDScript basics; links to the Russian tutorial.

The official tutorial and source are free. Some programming experience is expected; choose documentation matching your Godot version.

Try it: Build Dodge the Creeps, then independently add a pause or a new loss condition.

GDQuest: Learn GDScript From Zero

The GDQuest team

Learn programming fundamentals through small browser exercises. Useful for understanding code before relying on an AI assistant to produce it.

This particular course is free and open source. Other GDQuest courses may be paid.

Try it: Complete the variables, conditions and functions exercises, then modify one task yourself.

Unity Learn: prototyping

Choosing a prototype approach and investigating the core experience.

Game Loop: Game Programming Patterns

How input processing, world updates, and rendering fit together.

Godot: input handling

Events, InputMap actions, and input propagation through the interface.

MDN: 2D collision detection

Rectangles, circles, and separating broad-phase and narrow-phase checks.

State: Game Programming Patterns

The author’s chapter on finite state machines, states, and transitions.

Godot: physics introduction

Physics object types, shapes, collision layers, and masks.

Fix Your Timestep!

Glenn Fiedler’s article on simulation steps and accumulated time.

requestAnimationFrame on MDN

Animation callbacks, timestamps, and background-tab behavior.

Game Accessibility Guidelines

Game Accessibility Guidelines studios, specialists and researchers

Concrete checks for controls, text, sound, color and difficulty. Useful for game requirements and reviewing work by developers or AI assistants.

Guidelines and examples are open. Choose relevant recommendations and test them with players.

Try it: Review Basic, then check remappable controls, readable text and alternatives to color-only signals.

Xbox: accessible motion settings

Guidance for camera movement controls and distracting visual effects.

Kenney Assets

Kenney

Consistent packs of art, interface elements, models and sounds for building readable prototypes quickly.

Individual asset packs are free under CC0. All-in-1 and some tools may be paid; the logo is outside that asset license.

Try it: Prototype one mechanic using assets from a single pack.

Develop.games

Jason Thor Hall / Pirate Software

An introductory guide to skills, tools, teams and releasing a game. Useful for mapping the questions behind a first small project.

The text is open. Check the author’s advice, prices and engine terms against official sources.

Try it: Identify three unfamiliar parts of your project and choose one minimal prototype.

Godot: performance measurement

Finding bottlenecks and checking the results of optimization.

Red Blob Games

Amit Patel / Red Blob Games

Interactive explanations of A*, hex grids, visibility and map generation. Change parameters to see why an algorithm behaves as it does.

All articles are free, without registration or ads. Accompanying code uses MIT or Apache 2.0; text rights are separate.

Try it: Read Introduction to A* and compare BFS, Dijkstra and A* on the same map.

3D Math Primer for Graphics and Game Development

Fletcher Dunn, Ian Parberry

A foundation in coordinates, vectors, matrices and transformations. Useful for understanding movement, cameras and object orientation.

The full book is free on the author’s site. It teaches mathematics rather than a particular game engine.

Try it: Study coordinates and vectors, then explain how to transform a direction from local to world space.

The Nature of Code

Daniel Shiffman

Connects vectors, forces, particles, autonomous agents and generative systems through small experiments. Examples use JavaScript and p5.js.

The complete online book, examples and exercises are open. Text: CC BY-NC-SA 4.0; check code terms separately.

Try it: Build an object with forces and a speed limit, then add steering behavior.

Game AI Pro

Steve Rabin, series editor, and chapter authors

Professional articles on NPC behavior, pathfinding, utility AI, behavior trees and debugging. Covers game AI rather than LLM coding assistants.

All chapters are free to download. Publication dates vary; rights holders prohibit rehosting the chapters on other sites.

Try it: Choose a chapter on a simple FSM or utility AI and implement one testable opponent.

Procedural Content Generation in Games

Noor Shaker, Julian Togelius, Mark J. Nelson

Explains generation of dungeons, terrain, rules and quests, along with ways to evaluate generators. Useful for distinguishing randomness from controllable quality.

The final author versions of the 2016 chapters are legally available as PDFs. The book covers foundational PCG methods.

Try it: Use the constructive-generation chapter to build a room generator and a connectivity check.

Fast-Paced Multiplayer

Gabriel Gambetta

Explains authoritative servers, prediction, reconciliation, interpolation and lag compensation step by step. A conceptual starting point for networked games.

The articles and demo are open. Transport, security and server operation require separate design.

Try it: Compare a delayed client’s behavior before and after client-side prediction.

Lospec Pixel Art Tutorials

Lospec and tutorial authors

Find tutorials on sprites, animation, palettes, shading, tiles and 1-bit art. Useful for solving one specific visual problem.

The catalog and many tutorials are free; some links lead to paid books. Check access for the selected material.

Try it: Use the 1bit or walkcycle tag to make several frames and compare silhouette readability.

Saint11: Pixel Art Tutorials

Pedro Medeiros / Saint11

Compact illustrated pixel-art lessons, each focused on a particular technique. Useful for short exercises and targeted reference.

All tutorials in this series are open. A ZIP archive is sold as a convenient package of the same material.

Try it: Choose one lesson, reproduce the technique and apply it to your own sprite.

Blender Manual

Blender Foundation and contributors

The official reference for modeling, materials, animation, rigging and export. Use it to check a particular operation or tool limitation.

The official documentation is free. Choose the manual matching your installed Blender version.

Try it: Open the section for a concrete task, such as animation or glTF export.

LearnOpenGL

Joey de Vries

A step-by-step guide to the graphics pipeline, lighting, materials and rendering effects. Examples use C++ and OpenGL.

Reading and the PDF are free. The About page lists CC BY-NC 4.0 for code examples; check the terms before reuse.

Try it: Complete Getting started and render a textured object with your own shader.

The Book of Shaders

Patricio Gonzalez Vivo, Jen Lowe

Introduces fragment shaders through shapes, color, noise and procedural patterns. Links to the Russian translation with browser-based examples.

Published chapters are free; some planned chapters are unfinished. The link is the Russian translation; other languages are available on the site.

Try it: Modify smoothstep and coordinates in an example, then build your own mask or effect.

Catlike Coding

Jasper Flick

Detailed text tutorials on Unity, C#, movement, procedural meshes, noise and rendering. Useful for connecting an algorithm to its implementation.

Public tutorials are free; supporting the author is optional. Series target particular Unity and package versions.

Try it: Choose Movement or Procedural Meshes and match its Unity version to your project.

Ray Tracing in One Weekend

Peter Shirley, Trevor David Black, Steve Hollasch

Build a small path tracer to understand ray intersections, materials, sampling and lighting through your own code.

The books and source code are free; the project specifies CC0. This is an educational offline renderer.

Try it: Use the first book to render a sphere, then add a material and sample accumulation.

Physically Based Rendering

Matt Pharr, Wenzel Jakob, Greg Humphreys

An in-depth reference on physically based rendering that connects mathematical theory to a complete renderer’s implementation.

The complete third and fourth editions are free online. Requires mathematics, C++ and graphics fundamentals.

Try it: Read the system overview and trace a ray through the implementation.

Game Audio Learning Portal

Greg Lester, Jonny Sands and community contributors

Connects sound fundamentals, recording, synthesis, game integration, middleware, pipelines and QA in one learning roadmap.

The roadmap and published articles are open. Recommended books, libraries and tools may be paid.

Try it: Read How Sound Gets Into Games and create an event with several sound variations.

Freesound

Music Technology Group, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, and the community

A library of field recordings, effects and audio snippets. Useful for finding source material and building your own sound design.

Downloads are free after registration and sign-in. Individual licenses vary: CC0, CC BY, CC BY-NC and older variants.

Try it: Find several source recordings for an event, check their licenses and combine them into an effect.

Poly Haven

The Poly Haven team

HDRIs, PBR textures and models for 3D scenes. Useful for prototyping and learning how material sets are organized.

Assets are available under CC0. Check texture sizes, memory, geometry and rendering cost for your game.

Try it: Build a small material set and test it on the target device.

OpenGameArt

The OpenGameArt community

Community-made 2D art, models, textures, music and sound effects. An additional source of prototype and genre-specific assets.

Downloads are open. Licenses and attribution requirements vary by asset pack; there is no single catalog-wide license.

Try it: Choose a small set with compatible licenses and keep attribution beside the files.

Yet Another Roguelike Tutorial

TStand90 and Roguelike Tutorials contributors

Build a small roguelike while learning maps, entities, turn logic, visibility, enemies and inventory within a limited project.

Published chapters are free. The TCOD tutorial is labeled 2020; check Python and library versions.

Try it: Implement map movement and one interaction rule before adding content.

Steamworks Documentation

Valve

The primary source for a Steam Coming Soon page and preparing a release. Useful for checking platform requirements against third-party advice.

Public documentation is free. Publishing on Steam requires an account and compliance with the platform’s terms.

Try it: Read the Coming Soon requirements and list the materials needed for the store page.

How To Market A Game

Chris Zukowski

Case studies on positioning, Steam pages, festivals and wishlists. Useful for thinking about how a game reaches its audience.

The blog is free; courses are sold separately. Findings from particular samples do not guarantee your game’s sales.

Try it: Compare your store page with one case study and propose a testable change.

OpenSpec

The official repository for specification-driven development tooling.

GitHub: contributing to a project

The official guide to forks, branches, and pull requests.

GDC: Juicing Your Cameras With Math

Squirrel Eiserloh / SMU Guildhall

A talk on framing, smoothed motion, camera shake and dynamic split-screen. Connects the mathematics of camera behavior to game readability.

GDC labels this 2016 talk as free content. The recording is in English and covers camera mathematics rather than a current engine API.

Try it: Compare immediate and smoothed following along the same route. Check obstacle visibility and whether shake can be disabled without losing hit feedback.

Riot Games: Automated Testing for League of Legends

Jim ‘Anodoin’ Merrill / Riot Games

An engineering account of gameplay automation: state setup, commands, result checks and conditional waits. Useful when turning acceptance scenarios into executable checks.

The public article was published on February 26, 2016. Examples reflect Riot’s infrastructure at that time; this is an approach to study rather than a library for your engine.

Try it: For one ability, set the initial state, issue an action and wait for the expected condition with a timeout. Check that a deliberate rule defect makes the test fail.

RenderDoc

Baldur Karlsson and RenderDoc contributors

A graphics debugger with frame capture and rendering-state inspection. Helps investigate draw calls, resources and incorrect output in your own game.

A free MIT-licensed tool for Windows, Linux and Android. Compatibility depends on the graphics API; macOS and Metal are unsupported. Check the project’s support matrix.

Try it: Capture a frame from your small project on a supported API. Find one object’s draw call and inspect its bound textures and blending state.

jsfxr

Eric Fredricksen and Chris McCormick; based on Tomas Pettersson’s sfxr

A browser generator for short retro sound effects and a JavaScript library based on sfxr. Useful for prototypes and distinct jump, hit and pickup cues.

The Unlicense repository contains the library and links to the sfxr.me web generator. The library can be used in a browser or Node.js.

Try it: Create distinct jump, hit and pickup sounds. Save their parameters and compare the cues in a prototype at matched loudness.

Pixelorama

Orama Interactive and Pixelorama contributors

A pixel art and animation editor with layers, palettes and spritesheet export. Useful for taking a first sprite through to an animation checked in a game.

An open-source MIT-licensed project. GitHub Releases provides stable builds for Windows, Linux and macOS; a web version is also available. Documentation is still being expanded.

Try it: Create a four-frame animation and export a spritesheet. In the game, check frame order, transparency and sharpness at the chosen scale.

Game Maker’s Toolkit

Mark Brown

Analyses of teaching, levels, difficulty, accessibility and game systems. Watch with a specific design decision from your own project in mind.

Free videos on YouTube.

Masahiro Sakurai on Creating Games

Masahiro Sakurai

Short explanations of feedback, pacing, controls and information presentation by the creator of Kirby and Super Smash Bros. Links to the English channel.

Free videos on YouTube.

GDC: developer talks

Game Developers Conference and guest developers

Talks and production breakdowns by developers themselves. Explore systems, levels, narrative and playtesting while accounting for each team and game’s context.

The channel offers free talks; access to other GDC materials varies.

Curious Archive

Curious Archive

Video essays about fictional worlds, creatures and stories. A source of worldbuilding and narrative inspiration; use individual analyses to question your own fictional world.

Free videos on YouTube.