Blood, Sweat, and Pixels

Blood, Sweat, and Pixels: The Triumphant, Turbulent Stories Behind How Video Games Are Made by Jason Schreier
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Published: 2017
Narrated by: Ray Chase
Length: 07:57 (304 pages)

This is a great one for anyone who enjoys a behind-the-scenes look at how games are made from a project management point-of-view. It covers both major Triple-A titles and indie games, from Uncharted 4 to Stardew Valley. There’s a look into the fairly new phenomenon of crowd-funded games (a craze that has already become much more subdued), with Pillars of Eternity, as well as what went wrong with some of the more well-known disappointments in the industry (lookin’ at you Halo Wars, Dragon Age 2, and the never released Star Wars 1313).

I especially liked the chapters on the indie games in this book, such as Eric Barone’s rags to riches story with Stardew Valley. After graduating from university, he dedicated five years of his life into what was essentially a passion project, a replacement for Harvest Moon that played the way he wanted. It was, quite honestly, terribly irresponsible if you ask me, and his girlfriend had to support him financially throughout those years, but once released it was obvious that the game was something special. To date, 3.5 million copies have sold. I also enjoyed the story behind Shovel Knight, where three friends, veterans in the industry, came together to make the game they wanted instead of other people’s games. Indie game success stories are always great to see.

I thoroughly enjoyed this. Jason Schreier does a great job of telling these stories in a clear and entertaining way, and as a software developer and a huge fan of gaming, it was an interesting look into the business of game development. Most of these projects, particularly the big ones, have similar issues to one another – trying to cram in too much content in too short of a timeline and allowing major scope creep (changing goals without re-evaluating the budget or deadline), which results in months of unhealthy overtime for the developers and releases plagued with issues.

At the end of the book, Jason Schreier comes to the conclusion that this is just how game development works, and it’s not going to change. That’s just the process of creating art, and developers just need to deal with these insane crunches at the end of each project. I really disagree with that. It will happen, yes (trust me I know), but it shouldn’t have to happen on every project. You can see it in the stories he tells in this book. Pretty much every case study has a combination of unrealistic project timelines and poor management. What it comes down to is that this has become a standard in the industry, so much so that companies now plan for months of overtime at the end of each project. It’s never a surprise. It’s how the releases are now scheduled. I honestly think the games suffer because of this, with so many major titles being released with game-breaking bugs these days. I know it’s not as easy as ‘don’t do that’, but I think that comment of resignation at the end of the book really bothered me.

While the industry certainly has its issues, it’s also important to remember that many of these games are majorly ambitious projects, and the fact that they get made at all, and often turn out so beautiful and entertaining, is a pretty amazing thing. Jason Schreier shows the human side of game development, and sometimes it’s nice to have a reminder that actual people are making these games and putting so much of themselves into them.

Schreier’s writing a second book right now, and I’ll be sure to check that out when it’s released.