Required:

The Game Begins with an Idea, Jesse Schell (PDF)

Optional:

Brainstorming, IDEO (PDF)

Required:

The Game Improves through Iteration, Jesse Schell (PDF)

Highly Recommended but Optional:

Rapid Prototyping, The Experimental Gameplay Project

Advanced Prototyping, Chris Hecker

Required:

Playtesting, Tracy Fullerton

Playtesting, Jesse Schell

Required:

XEO Design - Why We Play Games (PDF)

Game Development

• Gamasutra - Production section (postmortems are really insightful)
• Gamasutra - Art section
• Gamasutra - Programming section
• Gamasutra - Design section
• Gamasutra - Audio section

• Agile Game Development - from the Author of Agile Game Development with SCRUM

Intelligent Discussion on Games

• Kill Screen - "for gamers who grew up on games and want to talk about them with the same wit and rancor that can be found in dialogues about film, television, etc."

Indie Games Community

• TIG source - a good place to post your games and get feedback.

Indie Game Studios (formed by students)

• The Amiable - Capstone students from last year who made Tetrapulse kickstarter
• Young Horses - DePaul students behind Octodad
• 2DBoy - Students who made World of Goo formed this successful studio
• ImpactGames - Students who made PeaceMaker formed this successful studio

Art Games

• Cactus - he's made a lot of compelling art games exploring the potential of the medium
• Antie Pixelante - she's made games for Adult Swim from a (self-ascribed) "butch dyke" perspective

Game Scholars

• Ian Bogost -Author of Persuasive Games, artist behind Cow Clicker
• Grand Text Auto - A group of academic weblogs