I bought this book 7 years ago when I was trying to get into the industry. I'm a game designer now with six years of experience and I can tell you, this book really had very little to offer. Only part of the book covers actual game design and it doesn't go into much depth; I don't remember reading anything I didn't already know. Game design is a combination of creativity, user psychology and fundamental mechanics but this book seems to treat it almost as if it were a branch of programming that an engineer could pick up with a little extra study. If you want to understand games, study them -dissect what makes some fun and others not. If you want a book that gives an interesting perspective into game design, get Rules of Play.