Chaos
Gleick, J. (1988). Chaos: Making a new science (Nachdr.). Viking.
A great introduction to the topic. Very readable and a good clear narrative. Not actually finished it yet. And not sure how ‘academic’ it is, but a good grounding.
Games
Aristopoulos, M. (2023). The game music toolbox: Composition techniques and production tools from 20 iconic game soundtracks. Focal Press. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003146872
Reed, A. (2023). 50 years of text games: From Oregon trail to AI dungeon (First). Changeful Tales Press.
Salen, K., & Zimmerman, E. (2004). Rules of play: Game design fundamentals. MIT Press.
A fantastic survey of traditional and digital games. Very thorough and well researched.
Tekinbaş, K. S., & Zimmerman, E. (Eds.). (2006). The game design reader: A Rules of play anthology. MIT Press.
Totten, C. W., & Sandoval, A. (2024). World Design for 2D Action-Adventures (1st ed.). CRC Press. https://doi.org/10.1201/9781003441984
Yu, D. (2016). Spelunky. boss fight books.
Interactive media
Murray, J. H. (2017). Hamlet on the holodeck: The future of narrative in cyberspace (Updated edition). The MIT Press.
Javascript
Haverbeke, M. (2024). Eloquent JavaScript, 4th Edition (1st ed). No Starch Press.
Research
Qualitative, Quantitative, and Mixed Methods Approaches, Creswell, John and Poth, Cheryl, (2016)|London: Sage publications.