Canonical reference on agent-based computing
If you want to approach this field from a computer science perspective then the standard reference I would recommend is:

Yoav Shoham and Kevin Leyton-Brown [2009], &quot;Multiagent systems: algorithmic, game-theoretic, and logical foundations&quot;, Cambridge University press.

Currently, it seems like the focus of theoretical work in this field (and this is obviously biased by my own interests) is to consider environments where agents are limited in their interactions. If you just have agents meet randomly, then ABMs are usually overkill and things can be done analytically. However, if there is some interesting network structure (fixed or dynamic) to the interactions (as there often is in real life) then ABMs become an essential tool. A good book discussing some of these ideas from a CS perspective is:

David Easley and Jon Kleinberg [2010], &quot;Networks, crowds, and markets: Reasoning about a highly connected world,&quot; Cambridge University press. (draft available online)

Questions of interest:

Simulation modeling of diseases

Sources for Algorithmic Evolutionary Game Theory