Rise of the Video Game Zinesters
Seven Stories Press, 2012

From the publisher:
"Part critical essay, part manifesto, part DIY guide, and altogether unprecedented, Rise of the Videogame Zinesters shows why the multi-billion dollar videogame industry needs to change—and how a new generation of artists can change it. Indie game designer extraordinaire Anna Anthropy makes an ardent plea for the industry to move beyond the corporate systems of production and misogynistic culture and to support games that represent a wider variety of human experiences.

"Rise of the Videogame Zinesters is a call to arms for anyone who's ever dreamed of making their own games. Anthropy’s guide to game design encourages budding designers to bring their unique backgrounds and experiences to their creations and widen the playing field of an industry that has for too long catered to an adolescent male consumer base."

Cover: A checkerboard of pixel art figures in yellow and magenta, represting the diversity of people taking back game creation.

A Game Design Vocabulary
Pearson, 2014

Co-written with Naomi Clark, A Game Design Vocabulary is a textbook that is taught in schools worldwide.

“A Game Design Vocabulary marks an important step forward for our discipline. Anna Anthropy and Naomi Clark’s extraordinarily lucid explanations give us new ways to unpick the complexities of digital game design. Grounded in practical examples and bursting with original thinking, you need this book in your game design library.”
—Richard Lemarchand, Associate Professor, USC, Lead Designer, Uncharted

Cover: Black and orange text on a white background. The title floats above a cluster of polygonal arrows.

ZZT
Boss Fight Books, 2014

One of Boss Fight's debut titles, ZZT is a personal history of the shareware game-making tool that made a generation of kids game designers. I conducted extensive interviews with ZZT creators in order to make sure I documented ZZT not just as a game, but as a living community.

"Her analysis effortlessly straddles computer science, design, art history, anthropology, and gender theory, all wrapped in a personal story of her childhood. It is a very easy, enjoyable, and insightful read."
–Robert Yang

"It’s so grounded, so accessible, and so clear and, unsurprising for Anthropy, so grounded in a broader sense of culture and politics and not just Videogames as this thing disconnected from the rest of society. Easily the best book produced by Boss Fight Books to date."
–Brendan Keough

Cover: A purple antique key on a white background.

Make Your Own Twine Games!
No Starch Press, 2019

One in a trilogy of DIY books for kids on game design, each tackling a different free game-making tool: Twine, PuzzleScript and Scratch. Full of illustrations from Caitlin Rose Boyle.

Cover: Cartoon of two cat people at a computer, one wearing a daisy and the other wearing glasses. A Twine-style flowchart can be seen on the screen.

Read a sample of my non-fiction writing.