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1. Accessible to avid and casual gamers alike. Highly recommended.
   “Oh, Jason,” he said. “It’s a miracle that any game is made.”Finally, a book that captures the complexity of game development that anyone can pick up and enjoy. Jason Schreier of Kotaku spent two years traveling around the world to score in depth interviews with the industry’s most renowned gaming studios. Drawing from sources speaking both on and off the record, Blood, Sweat, and Pixels provides a rare glimpse into the pain and passion that go into bringing a modern video game to market. In ten absorbing chapters Schreier covers the downright grueling development process behind such hits as Blizzard’s Diablo III, Naughty Dog’s Uncharted 4, CD Projekt Red’s The Witcher 3 and, of course, Bungie’s Destiny.Speaking of Destiny, it was Schreier’s crucial 2015 exposé that laid the groundwork for this wonderful little book. (Portions of his chapter on Destiny are taken directly from that article.) As fans of the blockbuster series will remember, that Kotaku piece brought Destiny’s murky origin story to light. Importantly, it provided the necessary background for understanding how the company that gave us Halo could have produced — at least at launch — such a lackluster title. Subpar development tools, a strained relationship with publisher Activision, and the complete reboot of the story (following the departure of lead writer Joe Staten) a year out from release had much to do with it. As a source tells Schreier, “A lot of the problems that came up in Destiny 1…are results of having an unwavering schedule and unwieldy tools.”What we learned then from Scheier’s keen reporting, and what comes across clear as day in his first book, is that making games is incredibly hard and almost impossibly demanding. Harder, perhaps, than any other creative medium. Thanks to their interactive nature and sheer potentiality, games are capable of delivering the boundless, memorable experiences we’ve come to love. But it’s those same elements that make them such a chore to create, even for seasoned veterans.One of the designers at Obsidian (of Fallout: New Vegas fame) he interviews puts it this way: “making games is sort of like shooting movies, if you had to build an entirely new camera every time you started.” Indeed, the tools and technologies used to develop the latest games are constantly in flux, as is the creative vision of the producers and directors at the top. A change in either area can prove hugely disruptive to the overall process — a process that hinges on pushing a marketable product out the door by an agreed upon deadline. It’s that constant give and take between concept and technology, between developer and publisher, that defines the medium.Internal conflicts can also run a project off course. Artists and programmers might spend months, years even, sketching and coding characters, environments, quests, set pieces and combat mechanics, only to see it all thrown out as a result of higher-ups taking the game in an entirely different direction. When Naughty Dog replaced Uncharted 4’s creative director Amy Hennig in 2014 — roughly two years into the game’s development — the story was more or less scrapped. That meant that cut scenes, animation, and thousands of lines of recorded voicework on which the studio had already spent millions of dollars got the axe, too. For an artist emotionally invested in their work, this can be heartbreaking and demotivating.In other cases, such as the abortive Star Wars 1313, a decision by the publisher can bring it all crashing down. As Scheier recounts in the closing chapter, LucasArts, formerly a subsidiary of Lucasfilm, began work on a new action-adventure Star Wars game in 2010. The game debuted at E3 in 2012 to wide critical acclaim. Shortly afterward, the company was acquired by Disney. By 2013, Disney had shuttered the studio and canceled every one of its projects. For all the work the dedicated crew at LucasArts poured into their pet project, Star Wars 1313 was never meant to be.Given the many technical hitches, logistical nightmares, corporate pressures, and unforeseen obstacles that threaten success, it’s no small wonder that any games are shipped at all. As Schreier points out, there’s hardly a game on the market today that doesn’t run up against insane crunch periods and dramatic setbacks over the course of its development. Whether it’s a small team working on a 2D side-scroller à la Yacht Club Games’ Shovel Knight or a massive effort spread across hundreds of staff in the case of BioWare’s Dragon Age, producing a quality game in today’s highly competitive environment is by any measure a herculean effort.Virtually every insider consulted for the book talks about how taxing the job can be on one’s physical health and personal relationships. Burnout is common. And even with working around the clock for months on end — often sans overtime pay, as it’s not required in the US — games rarely come out on time. Delays and cancellations are a feature, not a bug. To be sure, any successful career in game development is built on passion and an enthusiasm for creating unique playable spaces, but it’s one that comes with significant costs that only the truly dedicated may be equipped to endure.Closing ThoughtsLeave it to Jason Schreier to shatter any utopic notions about game development. Behind the glossy visuals and destructible environments we take for granted on screen lies a hellish landscape of Sisyphean creative challenges and brutal working hours. As the title suggests, Blood, Sweat, and Pixels constantly reminds us that game production is as much about self-sacrifice as it is about crafting quality interactive experiences. And if these breezy oral histories are any indication, it’s a principle that holds true whether you’re a bootstrapped indie developer beholden to Kickstarter donors or a lowly cog in the big-budget corporate machine.Schreier is a most welcome guide, bringing more casual readers up to speed on esoteric conversations ranging from rendering paths and game engines to bug testing and content iteration times. It’s a testament to his talents that the book never seems to flag, even when exploring games I didn’t particularly care about. While I wish Schreier had ventured more deeply into the ethics of crunch culture, his penchant for meticulous, well researched investigative journalism is on full display here.If you have even a passing interest in gaming be sure to pick this one up. I came away with a better understanding of the personal sacrifices and creative compromises that appear to go hand in hand with making video games, and a newfound perspective on increasingly commonplace monetization strategies like paid downloadable content (PDLC) and microtransaction (MTX) systems. Above all, it left me with a more profound appreciation for my most cherished hobby.

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2. How Videogames are Made – A Project Management Perspective
   Overview – Jason Schreier’s Blood, Sweat and Pixels is a fascinating look at how videogames are made from a production standpoint. Taking ten games, ranging from indie-darlings to the most high-profile games made in the last decade, he investigates the production process to determine what does it take to make a hit game. Written as a series of exemplars, Jason Schreier highlights how each game’s development is different but experience common challenges.Each exemplar is well-written and an unexpected page-turner. Part history and part business textbook, each exemplar has lessons for those outside the gaming industry. While each of the 10 games are a good read, Jason Schreier leaves it to the reader to identify the good project practices and lessons. Project management is incredibly difficult, Scherier illustrates how high profile games have multiple teams that are interdependent (for example: the art team is reliant on the tech team and vice-versa). Recommended.The Good – Each of the ten games that Jason Schreier uses as examples are well known. He goes into how each were developed, the problems, and how they may have been overcome. Few of the games were 100% successful, with many of the production problems dragging down the game’s final reviews and sales. He is sympathetic to the designers and that shines through.The Bad – Jason Schreier loves videogames – and this book is an ode of those in the industry. The book reads like a series of vignettes as opposed to a unified whole. Each vignette is interesting but if the reader is looking for a book more focused on the business and project management of videogames, than it will be a disappointment, but still a fascinating book. It would have been valuable if Schreier highlighted some of the games that appear to have a less rocky development process (such as Call of Duty or Madden) to illustrate successful production methods.

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3. A great book and present for any of your gamers
   This book covers a lot of the major games that came out in the last 4 or 5 years that all have had interesting stories that are just “the norm” for video game designers. If you’re interested in getting into this profession or if you love one of the games listed in the book, I would highly recommend buying it. Great writing, great insight into the business, stresses you out because they’re stressed out. Each game is allotted at least 30 pages to tell their tale. Again, i highly enjoyed it, i recommend it, and I even bought 2 additional copies for friends of mine.

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4. There were some interesting stories contained within this book and it was great to get some insider information about the development of video games. I wish the author would release another book that covered more games, particularly Fable.I’m not sure this book would be very interesting to anyone who isn’t interested in video games, but it’s a great book for the fans.

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5. Interesantísimo libro donde se relatan diez desarrollos de videojuegos diferentes, con sus retos y problemáticas. Como en cualquier reto empresarial y más artísticos, se narran los altos y bajos del periodo de desarrollo de estos videojuegos, desde Stardew Valley a Pillars of Eternity.Un indispensable para cualquiera que le interese la industria del videojuego.

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6. Se souber inglês não compre a versão traduzida, que altera em muito o conteúdo do livro, e para pior.Essencial para quem pretende ser desenvolvedor de jogos conhecer o que os aguarda e para os amantes de games enxergarem o lado de quem os faz.

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7. Livre fort excellent. 10 chapitres sur 10 développements de jeux très différents. Une très grande variété. Jason nous explique le développement très turbulent de nos jeux préférés et leurs créateurs. Il interview directement les développeurs pour leur faire raconter leurs histoires. Fascinant. Hyper bien écrit. Un must pour les fans de jeux vidéos.

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8. Siendo uno de mis más grandes hobbies, tenía mucha curiosidad por leer este libro, especialmente al ser escrito por Jason Schreier, del cual he leído y seguido varias de sus notas informativas en el medio de comunicación “Kotaku”, me agrada la manera en que informa, y me pareció suficiente para darle comprar a este libro.Cuenta con 10 historias que lo que tienen en común son prácticas que te hacen cuestionar porque hay tanta gente dedicándose a este medio. Los desarrolladores de videojuegos viven un torbellino eterno de estrés y trabajo, horas extras y poco tiempo de familia, cambios repentinos y acciones legales en contra de su voluntad. Es una industria terrible, y este libro es la mejor prueba de ello.Ganarás mucho respeto hacia los grupos que crean todos esos videojuegos que tanto amas. Ya que en verdad hubo mucho sacrificio, lágrimas y sangre detrás de cada uno.

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