r/gamedev · 2019
Most-mentioned books in r/gamedev during 2019
This page ranks books by exact tracked mentions in r/gamedev within the published source unit for 2019. Counts come from the reconciled subreddit-by-month matrix; a source unit may be a bounded sample.
#1 Design Patterns
Erich Gamma
The 1994 Gang of Four catalog that named 23 object-oriented patterns, gave developers a shared vocabulary, and taught a generation to over-apply both.
#2 Game Engine Architecture
Jason Gregory
Jason Gregory's map of every system inside a AAA engine — memory, audio, rendering, physics — written by someone who shipped them at Naughty Dog.
#3 Clean Code
Robert C. Martin
The book 536 Reddit threads cite when arguing about naming variables — revered by beginners, argued over by seniors.
#4 The C Programming Language
Brian W. Kernighan
The 1978 book that defined C's syntax, co-written by its creator, still cited by name 281 times across Reddit in 7 years.
#5 The Mythical Man-Month
Frederick P. Brooks Jr.
Fred Brooks spent the 1960s building IBM's OS/360 and wrote down everything that went wrong — in 1975, and it still lands.
#6 Theory of Fun for Game Design
Raph Koster
Raph Koster's 2004 illustrated argument that games are just pattern-recognition engines, and fun is the brain's reward for learning a new one.