Books covering board game designing

Unfortunately, there are not a lot of books about board game designing.

I posted a thread about such a book the same day. Did you even try? :)

http://www.bgdf.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=2251&start=...

Do a search for book in the forums and you'll find other discussions about it.

I will second the recommendation for Rules of Play, although with 2 caveats:

1. It's a beast. It's definitely a textbook, very long, and packed with information - not light reading, and you really have to be constantly paying attention to every word.

2. It doesn't tell you how to design games. Not even a bit. It gives you different "perspectives" for looking at game design (the rules, the player's experience, etc.), some more useful than others. If anything, it makes the design process harder, since you now have many MORE things to consider, that you never did before. But that's a good thing, since your games will probably be better.

So, if you go in with those expectations, you won't be disappointed. It's the best book for serious game designers, bar none.