What Is Meant By Game Design?

For many, myself included, game design is an ambiguous topic.

Here's a definition I like:

Game design is the creation of the rules and content of a game. It does not involve programming, art or animation, or marketing, or any of the other myriad tasks required to make a game. All of these tasks collectively can be called “game development” and game design is one part of development.

There are many tasks associated with game design: system design, level design, content design, user interface design, world building, and story writing.

Cheers,

Danny