Blood, Sweat, and Pixels by Jason Schreier

SummaryDeveloping video games—hero's journey or fool's errand? The creative and technical logistics that go into building today's hottest games can be more 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 more 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.
Review: Blood, Sweat, and Pixels was fascinating. Obviously, if you aren't into video games or game development, this is not for you. I've been playing video games since I was very small. I religiously played games in the Zelda, Pokemon, Mario series just to name a few. While I don't know all the technological ins and outs of making a video game, I still found this book extremely enjoyable. It was mostly because Jason doesn't only talk about how games are made. He also talks a lot about the politics that go into running a company and how companies can often get pretty screwed over (I'm looking at you, Star Wars 1313). Some of the stories were adorable. I loved reading about the making of Stardew Valley. Others were heartbreaking. Making Destiny was really sad. I will say that I would have definitely enjoyed this book more if I had played any of the games Jason discussed. I watch people play video games on Twitch, so I was familiar enough with all of them, except for Star Wars 1313. If you haven't played these games, but you want to read this book, I would HIGHLY recommend at least watching some snippets of game play on Twitch or You Tube so you understand how the worlds/characters/controls are established. It would give you a really good idea of how difficult it is to make these incredible games. The biggest downside I had was some of the explanations. Maybe it's just the way my friends and I grew up, but I really didn't need Jason to explain a sprite to me. I also thought it was weird how Jason kept calling PAX by its full name, Penny Arcade Expo, but never referred to E3 by its full name, Electronics Entertainment Expo. He also talked about PAX in general, but didn't specify if demos/trailers were displayed at PAX East, or PAX Prime (West). Don't worry, I know those little things are just me being a bit picky. *pushes glasses up bridge of nose* I would consider this required reading for anyone who loves video games in any way.
4 howls

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