CRUNCHING CODE
In Blood, Sweat and Pixels, Jason Schreier goes behind the screen to unveil how developers create video games, zeroing in on 10 games and 10 sets of developers ranging from a start-up team called Obsidian that’s flirting with bankruptcy to the massively successful Naughty Dog.
The recurrent theme, like the title implies, is the turbulent process of development. Obsidian Entertainment is about to go broke when it taps a new source of cash via Kickstarter. The indie farming game Stardew Valley takes its creator some five years to complete. The makers of Dragon Age: Inquisition grapple with multiple technical disasters. Each of these efforts results in a game that fans are crazy about. The one exception is Star Wars 1313, which despite all the blood and sweat was never released.
Schreier valorises the “crunching” hours these creators put into developing games without questioning the toll the process takes—though he does recount tales of soured relationships and crushed egos. Nobody else pushes Eric Barone to drive himself like a slave to finish Stardew Valley, and Naughty Dog insists its employees put in the gruelling extra hours voluntarily.
Still, Blood Sweat and Pixels unintentionally provides a grim insight into how video games are made while relating the stories of some of the most well known games—making it a must-read for those toying with the idea of a career in video game development. That said, it eases into a formulaic structure. After three chapters, it’s clear every story will include a few pitfalls and end in triumph, and the writing lacks the creativity of its heroes.