Nathan, who is a community manager here for Gameful approached me wanting to create a partnership between Gameful and Game Design Resources. From the partnership, the Gameful Beginners Guide started.
The guide, as the name suggests, has mostly beginners in mind. Although, we hope that game designers of all levels can learn from it. Currently it is composed by three parts: vocabulary, inspirational and how to give feedback.
The vocabulary is a list of words and concepts with their respective definitions. These are just some of the words and concepts that beginners might come across while studying and getting experience in the game design field.
The inspirational page has content that may help stimulate your mind and get ideas flowing. There’s content that may help you get ideas flowing and there’s also a list of resources that you may find motivational or inspirational.
Lastly, there is the How to Give Feedback part which is a mini-guide itself about approaching other game designers and giving them constructive criticism. It has content that opens your mind up to aspects that you may have not noticed or thought about the game that you’re evaluating. Thinking about these concepts and aspects of the game will increase your ability to create better games yourself.
There’s still more coming sometime soon, so keep an eye out for that. If you’re interested in taking a look at what is currently available, just click on any of these links:
Vocabulary — http://www.gamedesignresources.com/gamedesign/gameful-beginners-guide-vocabulary/
Inspiration — http://www.gamedesignresources.com/gamedesign/gameful-beginners-guide-inspiration/
How to Give Feedback — http://www.gamedesignresources.com/gamedesign/gameful-beginners-guide-how-to-give-feedback/
