“What are the best books about or featuring Video Games?” We looked at 158 of the top Video Game books, aggregating and ranking them so we could answer that very question!

The top 16 titles, all appearing on 3 or more “Best Video Game” book lists, are ranked below by how many lists they appear on. The remaining 140+ titles, as well as the lists we used are in alphabetical order at the bottom of the page.

Happy Scrolling!

Top 16 Best Video Game Books

16 .) A Theory of Fun for Game Design

Lists It Appears On:

• Complex
• Game Designing
• Game Industry Career Guide

A Theory of Fun for Game Design is not your typical how-to book. It features a novel way of teaching interactive designers how to create and improve their designs to incorporate the highest degree of fun. As the book shows, designing for fun is all about making interactive products like games highly entertaining, engaging, and addictive. The book’s unique approach of providing a highly visual storyboard approach combined with a narrative on the art and practice of designing for fun is sure to be a hit with game and interactive designers. At first glance A Theory of Fun for Game Design is a book that will truly inspire and challenge game designers to think in new ways; however, its universal message will influence designers from all walks of life. This book captures the real essence of what drives us to seek out products and experiences that are truly fun and entertaining. The author masterfully presents his engaging theory by showing readers how many designs are lacking because they are predictable and not engaging enough. He then explains how great designers use different types of elements in new ways to make designs more fun and compelling. Anyone who is interested in design will enjoy how the book works on two levels–as a quick inspiration guide to game design, or as an informative discussion that details the insightful thinking from a great mind in the game industry.

15 .) Jacked: The Outlaw Story of Grand Theft Auto written by David Kushner

Lists It Appears On:

• 80LV
• Game Pedia
• Games Radar

Inside the making of a videogame that defined a generation: Grand Theft Auto Grand Theft Auto is one of the biggest and most controversial videogame franchises of all time. Since its first release in 1997, GTA has pioneered the use of everything from 3D graphics to the voices of top Hollywood actors and repeatedly transformed the world of gaming. Despite its incredible innovations in the $75 billion game industry, it has also been a lightning rod of debate, spawning accusations of ethnic and sexual discrimination, glamorizing violence, and inciting real-life crimes. Jacked tells the turbulent and mostly unknown story of GTA’s wildly ambitious creators, Rockstar Games, the invention and evolution of the franchise, and the cultural and political backlash it has provoked. Explains how British prep school brothers Sam and Dan Houser took their dream of fame, fortune, and the glamor of American pop culture and transformed it into a worldwide videogame blockbuster Written by David Kushner, author of Masters of Doom and a top journalist on gaming, and drawn from over ten years of interviews and research, including firsthand knowledge of Grand Theft Auto’s creators and detractors Offers inside details on key episodes in the development of the series, including the financial turmoil of Rockstar games, the infamous “Hot Coffee” sex mini-game incident, and more Whether you love Grand Theft Auto or hate it, or just want to understand the defining entertainment product of a generation, you’ll want to read Jacked and get the real story behind this boundary-pushing game.

14 .) The Art of Game Design: A Book of Lenses

Lists It Appears On:

• Complex
• Game Designing
• Game Industry Career Guide

Anyone can master the fundamentals of game design—no technological expertise is necessary. The Art of Game Design: A Book of Lenses shows that the same basic principles of psychology that work for board games, card games and athletic games also are the keys to making top-quality video games. Good game design happens when you view your game from many different perspectives, or lenses. While touring through the unusual territory that is game design, this book gives the reader one hundred of these lenses—one hundred sets of insightful questions to ask yourself that will help make your game better. These lenses are gathered from fields as diverse as psychology, architecture, music, visual design, film, software engineering, theme park design, mathematics, writing, puzzle design, and anthropology. Anyone who reads this book will be inspired to become a better game designer—and will understand how to do it.

13 .) Blood, Sweat, and Pixels: The Triumphant, Turbulent Stories Behind How Video Games Are Made written by Jason Schreier

Lists It Appears On:

• 80LV
• Geek
• Hey You Video Game
• IGN

Developing video games—hero’s journey or fool’s errand? The creative and technical logistics that go into building today’s hottest games can be more harrowing and complex than the games themselves, often seeming like an endless maze or a bottomless abyss. In Blood, Sweat, and Pixels, Jason Schreier takes readers on a fascinating odyssey behind the scenes of video game development, where the creator may be a team of 600 overworked underdogs or a solitary geek genius. Exploring the artistic challenges, technical impossibilities, marketplace demands, and Donkey Kong-sized monkey wrenches thrown into the works by corporate, Blood, Sweat, and Pixels reveals how bringing any game to completion is more than Sisyphean—it’s nothing short of miraculous.Taking some of the most popular, bestselling recent games, Schreier immerses readers in the hellfire of the development process, whether it’s RPG studio Bioware’s challenge to beat an impossible schedule and overcome countless technical nightmares to build Dragon Age: Inquisition; indie developer Eric Barone’s single-handed efforts to grow country-life RPG Stardew Valley from one man’s vision into a multi-million-dollar franchise; or Bungie spinning out from their corporate overlords at Microsoft to create Destiny, a brand new universe that they hoped would become as iconic as Star Wars and Lord of the Rings—even as it nearly ripped their studio apart. Documenting the round-the-clock crunches, buggy-eyed burnout, and last-minute saves, Blood, Sweat, and Pixels is a journey through development hell—and ultimately a tribute to the dedicated diehards and unsung heroes who scale mountains of obstacles in their quests to create the best games imaginable.

12 .) Game Over: How Nintendo Conquered the World written by David Sheff

Lists It Appears On:

• Game Industry Career Guide
• Game Pedia
• Games Radar
• IGN

The riveting story of Nintendo’s conquest of the interactive entertainment industry offering true tales filled with cocky arrogance, confidence and international intrigue that rival any novel. Whether it is recounting the struggles over the game”Tetris,” offering blow-by-blow narrative of Nintendo’s bitter legal warfare or its see-saw competition with other companies for market leadership, Game Over is a masterful piece of business journalism and technical reportage-a book both cautionary and hugely entertaining.

11 .) Replay: The History of Video Games written by Tristan Donovan

Lists It Appears On:

• 80LV
• Games Radar
• Hey You Video Game
• IGN

A riveting account of the strange birth and remarkable evolution of the most important development in entertainment since television, Replay is the ultimate history of video games. Based on extensive research and over 140 exclusive interviews with key movers and shakers from gaming’s past, Replay tells the sensational story of how the creative vision of game designers gave rise to one of the world’s most popular and dynamic art forms.

10 .) Service Games: The Rise and Fall of SEGA written by Sam Pettus

Lists It Appears On:

• Bad Game Hall Of Fame
• Game Pedia
• Games Radar
• Hey You Video Game

New Edition! More content, images, and corrected text and facts. Starting with its humble beginnings in the 1950’s and ending with its swan-song, the Dreamcast, in the early 2000’s, this is the complete history of Sega as a console maker. Before home computers and video game consoles, before the internet and social networking, and before motion controls and smartphones, there was Sega. Destined to fade into obscurity over time, Sega would help revolutionize and change video games, computers and how we interact with them, and the internet as we know it. Riding the cutting edge of technology at every step, only to rise too close to the sun and plummet, Sega would eventually change the face of entertainment, but it’s the story of how it got there that’s all the fun. So take a ride, experience history, and enjoy learning about one of the greatest and most influential companies of all time. Complete with system specifications, feature and marketing descriptions, unusual factoids, almost 300 images, and now enhanced Europe specific details, exclusive interviews, and more make this the definitive history of Sega available. Read and learn about the company that holds a special place in every gamer’s heart.

9 .) The Making of Prince of Persia written by Jordan Mechner

Lists It Appears On:

• Digital trends
• Game Pedia
• Games Radar
• Hey You Video Game

Before Prince of Persia was a best-selling video game franchise and a Jerry Bruckheimer movie, it was an Apple II computer game created and programmed by one person, Jordan Mechner. Mechner’s candid and revealing journals from the time capture his journey from his parents’ basement to the forefront of the fast-growing 1980s video game industry… and the creative, technical and personal struggles that brought the prince into being and ultimately into the homes of millions of people worldwide.

8 .) The Ultimate History of Video Games: From Pong to Pokemon–The Story Behind the Craze That Touched Our Lives and Changed the World written by Steven L. Kent

Lists It Appears On:

• 80LV
• Complex
• Hey You Video Game
• IGN

With all the whiz, bang, pop, and shimmer of a glowing arcade. The Ultimate History of Video Gamesreveals everything you ever wanted to know and more about the unforgettable games that changed the world, the visionaries who made them, and the fanatics who played them. From the arcade to television and from the PC to the handheld device, video games have entraced kids at heart for nearly 30 years. And author and gaming historian Steven L. Kent has been there to record the craze from the very beginning.

7 .) Ready Player One written by Ernest Cline

Lists It Appears On:

• Cheat Sheet
• Geek
• Goodreads
• Hey You Video Game
• Lit Reactor
• The Holleywood News

In the year 2045, reality is an ugly place. The only time teenage Wade Watts really feels alive is when he’s jacked into the virtual utopia known as the OASIS. Wade’s devoted his life to studying the puzzles hidden within this world’s digital confines, puzzles that are based on their creator’s obsession with the pop culture of decades past and that promise massive power and fortune to whoever can unlock them. When Wade stumbles upon the first clue, he finds himself beset by players willing to kill to take this ultimate prize. The race is on, and if Wade’s going to survive, he’ll have to win—and confront the real world he’s always been so desperate to escape.

6 .) Power-Up: How Japanese Video Games Gave the World an Extra Life written by Chris Kohler

Lists It Appears On:

• 80LV
• Game Pedia
• Games Radar
• Geek
• Hey You Video Game
• IGN

BradyGames’ Power-Up: How Japanese Video Games Gave the World an Extra Life, by Chris Kohler, is a unique book that gives readers an entertaining and authoritative look at the indelible influence the video gaming, particularly, Japanese gaming, has had on the world.Power-Up is the first English-language work of its kind to examine the reasons behind the success of Japanese video games, rather than focusing on the history of video games. Just some of the features readers will find in this book include:Profiles of some of the most fascinating Japanese video game designers in the industry, along with a critical look at Japanese video games from their earliest beginnings to new, exciting trends that ride the bleeding edge of popular culture.Explanations on why Japanese video games are unique and why they resonate so well with young American players.Fresh insight into classic Japanese video games and the elements that made them so different from American games, the origin of Nintendo, Japan’s oldest and largest video game producer, Japanese Role-Playing Games, and much more!In addition, the future of the Japanese gaming industry is also explored. This product is available for sale worldwide.

5 .) All Your Base Are Belong to Us: How Fifty Years of Videogames Conquered Pop Culture written by Harold Goldberg

Lists It Appears On:

• 80LV
• Digital trends
• Game Pedia
• Games Radar
• Hey You Video Game
• IGN

Through the stories of gaming’s greatest innovations and most beloved creations, journalist Harold Goldberg captures the creativity, controversy–and passion–behind the videogame’s meteoric rise to the top of the pop-culture pantheon. Over the last fifty years, video games have grown from curiosities to fads to trends to one of the world’s most popular forms of mass entertainment. But as the gaming industry grows in numerous directions and everyone talks about the advance of the moment, few explore and seek to understand the forces behind this profound evolution. How did we get from Space Invaders to Grand Theft Auto? How exactly did gaming become a $50 billion industry and a dominant pop culture form? What are the stories, the people, the innovations, and the fascinations behind this incredible growth? Through extensive interviews with gaming’s greatest innovators, both its icons and those unfairly forgotten by history, All Your Base Are Belong To Us sets out to answer these questions, exposing the creativity, odd theories–and passion–behind the twenty-first century’s fastest-growing medium.

4 .) Console Wars: Sega, Nintendo, and the Battle that Defined a Generation written by Blake J. Harris

Lists It Appears On:

• 80LV
• Cheat Sheet
• Digital trends
• Game Pedia
• Geek
• Hey You Video Game
• IGN

Following the success of The Accidental Billionaires and Moneyball comes Console Wars—a mesmerizing, behind-the-scenes business thriller that chronicles how Sega, a small, scrappy gaming company led by an unlikely visionary and a team of rebels, took on the juggernaut Nintendo and revolutionized the video game industry. In 1990, Nintendo had a virtual monopoly on the video game industry. Sega, on the other hand, was just a faltering arcade company with big aspirations and even bigger personalities. But that would all change with the arrival of Tom Kalinske, a man who knew nothing about videogames and everything about fighting uphill battles. His unconventional tactics, combined with the blood, sweat and bold ideas of his renegade employees, transformed Sega and eventually led to a ruthless David-and-Goliath showdown with rival Nintendo. The battle was vicious, relentless, and highly profitable, eventually sparking a global corporate war that would be fought on several fronts: from living rooms and schoolyards to boardrooms and Congress. It was a once-in-a-lifetime, no-holds-barred conflict that pitted brother against brother, kid against adult, Sonic against Mario, and the US against Japan. Based on over two hundred interviews with former Sega and Nintendo employees, Console Wars is the underdog tale of how Kalinske miraculously turned an industry punchline into a market leader. It’s the story of how a humble family man, with an extraordinary imagination and a gift for turning problems into competitive advantages, inspired a team of underdogs to slay a giant and, as a result, birth a $60 billion dollar industry.

3 .) Extra Lives: Why Video Games Matter written by Tom Bissell

Lists It Appears On:

• 80LV
• Cheat Sheet
• Complex
• Digital trends
• Geek
• Hey You Video Game
• PC Gamer

Tom Bissell is a prizewinning writer who published three widely acclaimed books before the age of thirty-four. He is also an obsessive gamer who has spent untold hours in front of his various video game consoles, playing titles such as Far Cry 2, Left 4 Dead, BioShock, and Oblivion for, literally, days. If you are reading this flap copy, the same thing can probably be said of you, or of someone you know. Until recently, Bissell was somewhat reluctant to admit to his passion for games. In this, he is not alone. Millions of adults spend hours every week playing video games, and the industry itself now reliably outearns Hollywood. But the wider culture seems to regard video games as, at best, well designed if mindless entertainment. Extra Lives is an impassioned defense of this assailed and misunderstood art form. Bissell argues that we are in a golden age of gaming—but he also believes games could be even better. He offers a fascinating and often hilarious critique of the ways video games dazzle and, just as often, frustrate. Along the way, we get firsthand portraits of some of the best minds (Jonathan Blow, Clint Hocking, Cliff Bleszinski, Peter Molyneux) at work in video game design today, as well as a shattering and deeply moving final chapter that describes, in searing detail, Bissell’s descent into the world of Grand Theft Auto IV, a game whose themes mirror his own increasingly self-destructive compulsions. Blending memoir, criticism, and first-rate reportage, Extra Lives is like no other book on the subject ever published. Whether you love video games, loathe video games, or are merely curious about why they are becoming the dominant popular art form of our time, Extra Lives is required reading.

2 .) Masters of Doom written by David Kushner

Lists It Appears On:

• 80LV
• Bad Game Hall Of Fame
• Digital trends
• Game Pedia
• Games Radar
• Geek
• Hey You Video Game

Masters of Doom is the amazing true story of the Lennon and McCartney of video games: John Carmack and John Romero. Together, they ruled big business. They transformed popular culture. And they provoked a national controversy. More than anything, they lived a unique and rollicking American Dream, escaping the broken homes of their youth to produce the most notoriously successful game franchises in history—Doom and Quake— until the games they made tore them apart. This is a story of friendship and betrayal, commerce and artistry—a powerful and compassionate account of what it’s like to be young, driven, and wildly creative.

1 .) Reality is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can Change the World written by Jane McGonigal

Lists It Appears On:

• Cheat Sheet
• Complex
• Digital trends
• Game Pedia
• Geek
• Hey You Video Game
• PC Gamer

More than 31 million people in the UK are gamers. The average young person in the UK will spend 10,000 hours gaming by the age of twenty-one. What’s causing this mass exodus? According to world-renowned game designer Jane McGonigal the answer is simple: videogames are fulfilling genuine human needs. Drawing on positive psychology, cognitive science and sociology, Reality is Broken shows how game designers have hit on core truths about what makes us happy, and utilized these discoveries to astonishing effect in virtual environments. But why, McGonigal asks, should we use the power of games for escapist entertainment alone? In this groundbreaking exploration of the power and future of gaming, she reveals how gamers have become expert problem solvers and collaborators, and shows how we can use the lessons of game design to socially positive ends, be it in our own lives, our communities or our businesses. Written for gamers and non-gamers alike, Reality is Broken sends a clear and provocative message: the future will belong to those who can understand, design and play games.

The 140+ Additional Best Books About Video Games

18 Best Video Game Book Sources/Lists