Blood, Sweat, and Pixels

Posted on 01 July 2017 by Jason Schreier

Developing video games hero s journey or fool s errand The creative and technical logistics that go into building today s hottest games can be harrowing and complex than the games themselves, often seeming like an endless maze or a bottomless abyss In Blood, Sweat, and Pixels, Jason Schreier takes readers on a fascinating odyssey behind the scenes of video game development, where the creator may be a team of 600 overworked underdogs or a solitary geek genius Exploring the artistic challenges, technical impossibilities, marketplace demands, and Donkey Kong sized monkey wrenches thrown into the works by corporate, Blood, Sweat, and Pixels reveals how bringing any game to completion is than Sisyphean it s nothing short of miraculous.Taking some of the most popular, bestselling recent games, Schreier immerses readers in the hellfire of the development process, whether it s RPG studio Bioware s challenge to beat an impossible schedule and overcome countless technical nightmares to build Dragon Age Inquisition indie developer Eric Barone s single handed efforts to grow country life RPG Stardew Valley from one man s vision into a multi million dollar franchise or Bungie spinning out from their corporate overlords at Microsoft to create Destiny, a brand new universe that they hoped would become as iconic as Star Wars and Lord of the Rings even as it nearly ripped their studio apart Documenting the round the clock crunches, buggy eyed burnout, and last minute saves, Blood, Sweat, and Pixels is a journey through development hell and ultimately a tribute to the dedicated diehards and unsung heroes who scale mountains of obstacles in their quests to create the best games imaginable. New Read Books Blood, Sweat, and Pixels By Jason Schreier – kino-fada.fr I picked this book up for one reason to learn why Diablo 3 was such a let down I vaguely remembered a well known developer posting F that loser on Facebook in reference to a past contributor criticizing the new game and that being a big deal I really hoped to get the full story behind what went on there Speculation on Blizzard s next Diablo venture would have been cool, too Really, I would have read a book entirely about the Diablo franchise.By the time I got to the Diablo 3 section, I I picked this book up for one reason to learn why Diablo 3 was such a let down I vaguely remembered a well known developer posting F that loser on Facebook in reference to a past contributor criticizing the new game and that being a big deal I really hoped to get the full story behind what went on there Speculation on Blizzard s next Diablo venture would have been cool, too Really, I would have read a book entirely about the Diablo franchise.By the time I got to the Diablo 3 section, I was enad by Jason Schreier s writing I m kind of embarrassed to admit that I knew little about any of the games developed aside from their names That is,...Dear Goodreads Father, forgive me, for I have sinned I love video games as much as I love books It s true, I put them on an equal level I know it is blasphemy, but I cannot help this corruption of my heart Truth is, I love anything with a story, no matter the medium Film, TV, books, video games, the secret hearts of strangers But, yes, video games, the newest and most immature of these media and therefore the one with the most room for growth I have been there from nearly the beginning Dear Goodreads Father, forgive me, for I have sinned I love video games as much as I love books It s true, I put them on an equal level I know it is blasphemy, but I cannot help this corruption of my heart Truth is, I love anything with a story, no matter the medium Film, TV, books, video games, the secret hearts of strangers But, yes, video games, the newest and most immature of these media and therefore the one with the most room for growth I have been there from nearly the beginning and have watched it bloom from pixellated graphics, childish themes, and simplistic mechanics to what we have today, a rich diverse field of wondrous flowers, some merely a joy for the senses to behold but others exploring the stories of humanity in a new,active way.I ve watched the culture OF gaming grow too I remember the days when being a gamer made you a GEEK, a NERD TV film invariably depicted gamers as ultra nerds and outcasts think Stranger Things depiction of the k...Executive Summary I think this book can appeal to both software developers and fans of video games alike, but it s definitely targetedat the latter than the former Full Review This book was previewed with an excerpt from the chapter on Diablo 3 which incidentally is the ONLY game in this book that I ve actually played plan to play When I was younger I wanted to make video games Somewhere along the way however I felt like I d rather spend my time PLAYING games instead o...Cuando uno entra al t pico foro de videojuegos no es raro llevarse la impresi n de que la masa consumidora de ocio electr nico est compuesta de cr os malcriados que, desde el desconocimiento de conceptos b sicos del mundo laboral, la econom a e incluso la vida real, despotrican con vehemencia de las desarrolladoras del objeto de sus desvelos Es como si fueran ni os peque os jugando a castillos en la arena, quej ndose del clima y las mareas de un inmenso oc ano cuyos entresijos desconocen Pues Cuando uno entra al t pico foro de videojuegos no es raro llevarse la impresi n de que la masa consumidora de ocio electr nico est compuesta de cr os malcriados que, desde el desconocimiento de conceptos b sicos del mundo laboral, la econom a e incluso la vida real, despotrican con vehemencia de las desarrolladoras del objeto de sus desvelos Es como si fueran ni os peque os jugando a castillos en la arena, quej ndose del clima y las mareas de un inmenso oc ano cuyos entresijos desconocen Pues bien, este libro deber a ser lectura obligada para todos ellos, es ameno, es informativo y te explica perfectamente las enormes vicisitudes que conlleva sacar adelante un proyecto complej simo como es un videojuego, quiz el producto cultural cuya elaboraci n mejor repres... Its a miracle that any game is made. Pokud jste sezn meni s konceptem hern ch post mortem , takov jak jsme ne ud lali hru psan s v voj i , i dokonce n kter z p edev m gameinformer.com tu a tam i tete, tak p esn v te do eho jdete Jde toti o post mortemy pravda s p idanou hodnotou, ale o tom pozd ji hned n kolika profl knut ch her Co je jedna z hlavn ch v tek autor knihy si toti vybral dost podobn vzorky Samoz ejm jedno je nez visl studio financuj c sv j projekt skrze Kic It s a miracle that any game is made. Pokud jste sezn meni s konceptem hern ch post mortem , takov jak jsme ne ud lali hru psan s v voj i , i dokonce n kter z p edev m gameinformer.com tu a tam i tete, tak p esn v te do eho jdete Jde toti o post mortemy pravda s p idanou hodnotou, ale o tom pozd ji...I can t say it really taught me a whole lot about game development, apart from I wouldn t want to do it due to all that crunch time Basically, people come up with an idea, there is a few problems along the way which are mostly all the same kinda thing technical issues, often publishers wanting to hurry a game out Dragon Age 2 and then horrendous crunch time Perhaps it would have beeninteresting if he d looked at game development as a whole, rather than breaking it down into chapter I can t say it really taught me a whole lot about game development, apart from I wouldn t want to do it due to all that crunch time Basically, people come up with an idea, there is a few problems along the way which are mostly all the same kinda thing technical issues, often publishers wanting to hurry a game out Dragon Age 2 and then horrendous crunch time Perhaps it would have beeninteresting if he d looked at game development as a whole, rather than breaking it down into chapters about individual games, because each chapter was rather repetitive and really only interesting if I d played the game, or at le...One surefire way to annoy a game developer is to ask, in response to discovering his or her chosen career path, what it s like to spend all day playing video games In Blood, Sweat, and Pixels, Jason Schreier gives readers a behind the scenes look at some major videogames successes, failures and everything in between to show what it s like working in the video game industry Among the games that Schreier looks at are Destiny, Stardew Valley, Shovel Knight, Dragon Age Inquisition and the fable One surefire way to annoy a game developer is to ask, in response to discovering his or her chosen career path, what it s like to spend all day playing video games In Blood, Sweat, and Pixels, Jason Schreier gives readers a behind the scenes look at some major videogames successes, failures and everything in between to show what it s like working in the video game industry Among the games that Schreier looks at are Destiny, Stardew Valley, Shovel Knight, Dragon Age Inquisition and the fabled Star Wars 1313 that never came to be Each chapter is devoted...Oh, Jason, he said It s a miracle that any game is made Finally, a book that captures the complexity of game development that anyone can pick up and enjoy Jason Schreier of Kotaku spent two years traveling around the world to score in depth interviews with the industry s most renowned gaming studios Drawing from sources speaking both on and off the record, Blood, Sweat, and Pixels provides a rare glimpse into the pain and passion that go into bringing a modern video game to market In ten Oh, Jason, he said It s a miracle that any game is made Finally, a book that captures the complexity of game development that anyone can pick up a...I normally don t read nonfiction because it bores me, but I wanted to knowabout how video games were made, and most importantly why the fuck Bungie thought their version of Destiny was worth 60 dollars plus over a 100in worthless DLC So when I started reading this book, I did not expect to fall in love with Schreier s writing style He writes each chapter and game as a story from the birth of the concept to the actual execution and everything that happens in between My first in I normally don t read nonfiction because it bores me, but I wanted to knowabout how video games were made, and most importantly why the fuck Bungie thought their version of Destiny was worth 60 dollars plus over a 100in worthless DLC So when I started reading this book, I did not expect to fall in love with Schreier s writing style He writes each chapter and game as a story from the birth of the concept to the actual execution and everything that happens in between My first instinct was to read the chapters of the games I knew about and then move on to the others, but after reading the first chapter Pillars of Eternity I was hooked and I read the book chronologically I loved the variety of different games he covered There were triple A games, indie games, RPGs, FPSs, huge developers with teams ofthan 100 people, small developers with no clout at all, games funded through large publishers and others funded by people through Kickstarter Reading this book made me muchapp...A revealing insightful look at the trials and tribulations that go into making some of the biggest games of today As a gamer it was a revelation of what goes on behind the scenes of game development and how...

01 July 2017

Jason Schreier