Postmortems from Game Developer: Insights from the Developers of Unreal Tournament, Black and White, Age of Empires, and Other Top-Selling Games

by Austin Grossman

The popular Postmortem column in Game Developer magazine features firsthand accounts of how some of the most important and successful games of recent years have been made. This book offers the opportunity to harvest this expertise with one volume. The editor has organized the articles by theme and added previously unpublished analysis to reveal successful management techniques. Readers learn how superstars of the game industry like Peter Molyneux and Warren Spector have dealt with the development challenges such as managing complexity, software and game design issues, schedule challenges, and changing staff needs.

Genres: Game Design, Programming, Games, Gaming

348 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2003

About the author

Austin Grossman graduated from Harvard University in 1991 with a plan to write the great American novel; instead he became a video game designer at Looking Glass Studios.

He has since contributed as a writer and designer to a number of critically acclaimed video games, such as ULTIMA UNDERWORLD II, SYSTEM SHOCK, DEUS EX, and TOMB RAIDER: LEGEND, and has taught and lectured on narrative in video games. He is currently a freelance game design consultant,

He is also a doctoral candidate in English Literature at the University of California at Berkeley, where he specializes in Romantic and Victorian literature.

SOON I WILL BE INVINCIBLE is his debut novel. (from the author's website)"

Reviews

[Adam Calhoun]

1. Game Development is primarily project management, not artistic endeavor
2. Scope creep and bad planning kills projects. You see this in the first section: basically every first-time game developer was like, "yeah this took way longer than we expected because we didn't plan properly"
3. Test your game early and often
4. Direct3D sucked (this was definitely true)
5. Make sure your team is cohesive - the programmers, designers, and artists must all have a coherent vision of what they are making