Blood, Sweat, and Pixels: Introduction
“So you want to make a video game … Now what?” (xiii)
“the exact number of people you can afford to hire … a strict schedule … a demo for E3 [RIP] … then be ‘feature complete’” (xiii)
“Now you’re wondering if you’ll ever finish” (xiv)
“‘It’s a miracle that any game is made’” (xv)
“how difficult it is to design and produce games” (xv)
“People have been making games since the 1970s, haven’t they? With decades of lessons and experiences to draw from, shouldn’t game development have grown more efficient?” (xv)
“Why do game developers still have so many stories about staying at the office until 3:00 a.m.? Why is it still so difficult to make video games?” (xv)
“every single video game is made under abnormal circumstances” (xvi)
Reasons (xvii-xviv)
- “They’re interactive”
- “Technology is constantly changing”
- “The tools are always different”
- “Scheduling is impossible”
- “It’s impossible to know how ‘fun’ a game will be until you’ve played it”
“In all the stories in this book, you’ll see several common themes. Every game is delayed at least once. Every game developer must make tough compromises. Every company must sweat over which hardware and technology to use. Every studio must build its schedules around big trade shows like E3, where developers will draw motivation (and even feedback) from throngs of excited fans. And, most controversially, everyone who makes video games has to crunch, sacrificing personal lives and family time for a job that seems to never end” (xix)
Reporting Note
“based on interviews … between 2015 and 2017” (xxi)