Rattle off a list of your top five favourite game designers of all time and there is a very good chance that they are profiled in full, glossy glory in Inside Game Design (pictured) – a beautifully designed new book compiled by Iain Simons, creative director of Nottingham’s GameCity Festival.

Inside Game Design profiles and interviews 20 top designers including, amongst others, Lorne Lanning, Keita Takahashi, Free Radical Design, David Braben, Bizarre Creations, Valve, Harmonix and Media Molecule. The book also charts each individual and group’s particular approaches to game design and development.

The glossily printed concept and finished artwork, detailing the progression of ideas from sketches to final in-game content really is a thing of beauty.

For anybody keen to know more about how these great games designers work, it’s a must. It also looks lovely on the coffee table - or next to the bog, should you not be posh enough to own a coffee table.

Inside Game Design is published by Laurence King and will be available in October. We'll be sure to remind you closer to the time, so that you can grab yourself a copy or pop it on your Christmas list.