For the past year, I’ve been reporting and writing a book full of stories about how video games were made. Today, I’m psyched to announce Blood, Sweat, and Pixels, a look behind the scenes of games like Uncharted 4, Star Wars 1313, and many more. It’ll be out on September 5.
I set out to do a couple of things with Blood, Sweat, and Pixels. One was to demystify the process of game development, shedding some light on an industry that’s traditionally kept as dark as possible thanks to NDAs and a culture of secrecy. The other was to answer a question that I know many of you have always wondered: Why is it so damn hard to make video games? (The short answer: lots of moving parts. For the long answer, you’ll have to read the book.)
Each chapter of this book tells the story of a different video game. For one chapter, I went to Edmonton, Canada to talk to BioWare about the technological nightmares of Dragon Age: Inquisition (and how it was haunted by the specter of Dragon Age 2). For another chapter, I sat down with Stardew Valley creator Eric Barone for the full story of his lonely four-and-a-half-year journey from a college graduate being supported by his girlfriend to a sudden multi-millionaire. And of course there’s a chapter about Destiny, a video game in which players travel through space, complaining about the meta and wishing they were instead reading my book.
Here’s the full list of games this thing covers:
- Stardew Valley
- Diablo III
- Destiny
- The Witcher 3
- Halo Wars
- Pillars of Eternity
- Dragon Age: Inquisition
- Shovel Knight
- Uncharted 4
- Star Wars 1313
You can pre-order the book here. We’re doing a trade paperback run so it’s super cheap. And if you pre-order now, we’ll throw in, uh, free DLC? An exclusive outfit that you can only get at GameStop? Sorry, I’m not very good at this.