I am looking for some reading on inductive vs. deductive game design. I am puzzling on this a bit myself and was hoping for some help.

In case my words are not clear, here is what I mean by inductive and deductive. Others may use different terms and that would be very helpful to me as well.

Inductive game design tries to get players to have certain kinds of experiences. It pushes players to certain types of decisions. It starts with a goal and tries to get players to go there.

Deductive game design tries to think about what players might want to do and provide frameworks for them to do it. It creates language and mechanics that facilitate play.

Universal game systems tend to be very deductive in design. Systems married with settings tend to have inductive properties, though there is still great diversity. One example of induction from here is the experience system from Polaris which pushes a player toward a tragic ending.

If anybody can suggest readings or wants to have a discussion here about the subject, I would be appreciative.

I really can't direct you to any written work. The closest thing that I can think of that might touch on your topic would be recordings of game design and game writing discussions, seminars, and round tables. I recently have been going through the Sons of Kryos archives and listening to them. They have two recordings of Game Design sit ins which I know were good to listen to get some ideas flowing. But this mostly applies to what your talking about as Inductive Games, ones with setting and mechanics that are specific to those settings.

Recording A part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3
Recording B