Most game design books are either painfully academic or spend 300 pages explaining how to make a pixel move on screen. Video Game Design for Dummies doesn’t bother with that.
Instead, it focuses on the one thing indie devs, students, and hobbyists struggle with the most: actually finishing a game.
The author, Alexia Mandeville, has walked the solo dev path, shipping smaller titles, figuring out what kills momentum, and learning what actually helps a game cross the finish line.
This book is a collection of those lessons, written clearly and without ego.
What’s inside the book?
The Reddit thread that announced it summed it up well: it’s for people who don’t know where to start or don’t know how to finish. You’ll find:
- Practical frameworks for shaping your ideas
- Advice on trimming scope without killing the core vision
- Real examples from Alexia’s own projects
- A section dedicated to publishing, not just prototyping
- Resources that are actually up to date
And importantly—it’s not pretending to be the final word. It’s grounded in doing, not theory.
Why this book matters
The game dev community is full of smart folks with unfinished projects. Good ideas that stall because people overbuild, overthink, or burn out. Video Game Design for Dummies doesn’t promise to fix that completely, but it does give you a process to follow.
That alone makes it worth your time.
One Redditor put it perfectly:
“I don’t want to just design or develop. I want to publish. That means getting my game out into the world.”
This book helps you get there.
If you’re stuck on your game, or sick of starting over, give it a look. Not perfect, not magic—but practical.
Which, honestly, is what most game devs need.
