Goodreads helps you keep track of books you want to read.

Start by marking “Blood, Sweat, and Pixels: The Triumphant, Turbulent Stories Behind How Video Games Are Made” as Want to Read:

Other editions

Enlarge cover

Rate this book

Clear rating

1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

Open Preview

Blood, Sweat, and Pixels: The Triumphant, Turbulent Stories Behind How Video Games Are Made

Jason Schreier (Goodreads Author)

4.22 · Rating details · 15,305 ratings · 1,565 reviews

Developing video games—hero's journey or fool's errand? The creative and technical logistics that go into building today's hottest games can be more harrowing and complex than the games themselves, often seeming like an endless maze or a bottomless abyss. In Blood, Sweat, and Pixels, Jason Schreier takes readers on a fascinating odyssey behind the scenes of video game deve

...more

Get A Copy

Kindle Edition, 304 pages

Published September 5th 2017 by Harper Paperbacks

More Details... Edit Details

Friend Reviews

To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.

Reader Q&A

To ask other readers questions about Blood, Sweat, and Pixels, please sign up.

Lists with This Book

Blood, Sweat, and Pixels by Jason Schreier

Non-Fiction Books About Video Games

175 books — 157 voters

Books on Video Game History

108 books — 29 voters

More lists with this book...

Community Reviews

Showing 1-30

Average rating 4.22 ·

Rating details

· 15,305 ratings · 1,565 reviews

More filters

Sort order

Start your review of Blood, Sweat, and Pixels: The Triumphant, Turbulent Stories Behind How Video Games Are Made

Oct 19, 2017 Tim O'Hearn rated it really liked it

I picked this book up for one reason: to learn why Diablo 3 was such a letdown. I vaguely remembered a well-known developer posting "F*** that loser" on Facebook in reference to a past contributor criticizing the new game and that being a big deal. I really hoped to get the full story behind what went on there. Speculation on Blizzard's next Diablo venture would have been cool, too. Really, I would have read a book entirely about the Diablo franchise.

By the time I got to the Diablo 3 section, I I picked this book up for one reason: to learn why Diablo 3 was such a letdown. I vaguely remembered a well-known developer posting "F*** that loser" on Facebook in reference to a past contributor criticizing the new game and that being a big deal. I really hoped to get the full story behind what went on there. Speculation on Blizzard's next Diablo venture would have been cool, too. Really, I would have read a book entirely about the Diablo franchise.

By the time I got to the Diablo 3 section, I was enamored by Jason Schreier's writing. I'm kind of embarrassed to admit that I knew little about any of the games developed aside from their names. That is, aside from recollection of my reaction to the Halo Wars announcement: "Something fishy is going on here." I'm so far behind the times that when Schreier kindly mentioned that Diablo 2's mechanics had been antiquated by more modern games, I honestly had no idea what games he was referring to. I need to get out more. This is a saying which, when extended to the realm of gaming, means the exact opposite.

I ended each chapter totally stoked for each game (and will probably buy Stardew Valley this weekend). What makes Jason such an effective writer for this subject matter is that he doesn't come off as a geek. I don't know how else to say it. He can communicate the joy of gaming to people that haven't experienced it- ever. In my case, he brought back memories that were long forgotten.

As an aspiring project manager and journeyman engineer, I found each tale of taking product to market fascinating. It's a few steps away from a business case study. Does the prevalence of "crunch time" become excessive? Yes, but it sounds like a lot of fun to me. The way that the teams are formed and how they deal with requirements passed down from the top of the organization could have been explained in greater detail, in fact. Great video games are culturally significant treasures, much like artwork or a fine wine. Just kidding about the wine. Capturing what has gone into some of the masterpieces of our time that transcends the underlying subject is important and exciting. I really enjoyed the book.

View this review and others on my blog ...more

flag 127 likes · Like · see review

Nov 06, 2017 Erik rated it really liked it

Shelves: detailed-review, non-fiction

Dear Goodreads Father, forgive me, for I have sinned: I love video games as much as I love books. It's true, I put them on an equal level. I know it is blasphemy, but I cannot help this corruption of my heart. Truth is, I love anything with a story, no matter the medium. Film, TV, books, video games, the secret hearts of strangers...

But, yes, video games, the newest and most immature of these media and therefore the one with the most room for growth. I have been there from nearly the beginning Dear Goodreads Father, forgive me, for I have sinned: I love video games as much as I love books. It's true, I put them on an equal level. I know it is blasphemy, but I cannot help this corruption of my heart. Truth is, I love anything with a story, no matter the medium. Film, TV, books, video games, the secret hearts of strangers...

But, yes, video games, the newest and most immature of these media and therefore the one with the most room for growth. I have been there from nearly the beginning and have watched it bloom from pixellated graphics, childish themes, and simplistic mechanics to what we have today, a verdant garden of diverse flowers, some merely a joy for the senses to behold but others a newer, more active exploration of humanity.

I've watched the culture of gaming grow too. I remember the days when being a gamer made you a GEEK (that is, a NERD). TV & film invariably depicted gamers as ultra-nerds and outcasts (think Stranger Things’ depiction of the kids). They weren’t wrong, exactly, but still, what made this hobby of mine inferior to the hobby of people gathering around a TV to watch grown men toss around a ball?

I didn't know and, for me, gaming felt a secret shame.

I remember, too, the first time I played an online game, in the late 90s. My uncle showed me a WW2 airplane dog-fighting game, and it blew my mind! People from all over the world connected to play with each other in real time, to engage together anonymously in this secret hobby. In that moment, in my mind, the world was made irrevocably smaller. Ever after, I found the idea of borders and countries rather quaint. I could feel no hate, no out-group bias, toward those of other countries, for such distance was but a light-speed hop and skip through the fiber optic nerves of the Internet.

Point is, I’m a huge fan of video games, so I thoroughly enjoyed Blood, Sweat, and Pixels, which gives a concise but intimate peek into the development and developers of some of the most popular games of the past decade. It’s all too easy to forget that behind these fantastical, otherworldly creations are artists who have sacrificed heavily to turn their vision into reality. That’s probably why my favorite chapters were about the indie teams or studios, like those behind Shovel Knight, Stardew Valley, and Pillars of Eternity. Their stories are all inspiring triumphant under-dog stories.

This is especially gratifying to me because I backed (on Kickstarter) the original Double Fine Adventure, despite absolutely hating adventure games, *solely* to demonstrate the viability of developer studios making games independently, without a publisher. The democratization of game development, if you will. So it was highly pleasing to me to read how Obsidian was inspired by the success of DFA to make their own Kickstarter for the isometric cRPG, Pillars of Eternity. Kinda feels like I helped make that possible, y’know?

With that said, I don't think any particular knowledge or engagement of video games is necessary to understand this book, as it’s written quite simply and many video game terms and systems are explained for those who may not know them. At the same time, there's no denying that a familiarity with video games does help one appreciate this book.

For example, one of the chapters is on Diablo III, and this chapter focuses heavily on the RMAH (Real Money Auction House). Before release, myself & others lobbied Blizzard to remove this system from their game because it would create a conflict-of-interest: the designers would need to make loot sparse and unsatisfying, in order to funnel players towards the RMAH. You never want that - adding tedium and inconvenience, just so people will pay to avoid it. That's bad design. Maybe even unethical, in its exploitation of people's addictive tendencies.

Of course, Blizzard ignored us. And surprise, surprise! we turned out to be correct, and the RMAH was eventually removed, a process that is touched upon in this book. So I have a lot of history that made reading this book a bit like seeing Wizard of Oz behind his curtain.

In summary, it’s easy to recommend this book to anyone who is a gamer, whether they’re specifically familiar with the games or not (There’s ten chapters/games: Diablo 3; Destiny; Witcher 3; Halo Wars; Uncharted 4; Shovel Knight; Star Wars 1313; Pillars of Eternity; Dragon Age: Inquisition; & Stardew Valley). For those who aren’t gamers, it’s still a light, humanizing read about an industry that is swiftly becoming a juggernaut and may even one day become the King of Story. ...more

flag 57 likes · Like · see review

Jan 03, 2018 Mike Horowitz rated it did not like it

Shelves: read-in-2017

As much as it hopes to show the "realities" of game development, Jason Schreier's book only succeeds at casually shrugging off crunch, "death marches" and glaringly evident worker exploitation. The stories sell, but his writing is grossly irresponsible.

This quote by Glen Weldon on NPR sums up my thoughts:

"There's another book lurking beneath the surface of the one Schreier's written, which ditches such blandishments and tackles the culture of gaming — and gaming development — with a saltiness t

...more

flag 41 likes · Like · see review

May 05, 2018 Thom rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction

Ten separate articles about the making of 10 particular video games, with no connecting materials or conclusions drawn. May be of interest to players of those games, but fails to live up to the cover blurbs, e.g. "A fascinating and remarkably complete pantheon."

The ten games, in order, are Pillars of Eternity, Uncharted 4, Stardew Valley, Diablo III, Halo Wars, Dragon Age: Inquisition, Shovel Knight, Destiny, The Witcher 3, and Star Wars 1313. Only the last was never released. There was only a v Ten separate articles about the making of 10 particular video games, with no connecting materials or conclusions drawn. May be of interest to players of those games, but fails to live up to the cover blurbs, e.g. "A fascinating and remarkably complete pantheon."

The ten games, in order, are Pillars of Eternity, Uncharted 4, Stardew Valley, Diablo III, Halo Wars, Dragon Age: Inquisition, Shovel Knight, Destiny, The Witcher 3, and Star Wars 1313. Only the last was never released. There was only a very scant conclusion with no "lessons learned", so here's what I gleaned from the stories.

Making video games is harder than you think. New consoles and platforms are challenging (though no mention was made of cross platform libraries that make it a little easier). Having a big company running things makes it easier (more money) and harder (less flexible deadlines). Games ship late because of bugs. Almost all games suffer from "crunch time" (serious developer overtime to finish the game), nobody wants to do that, and it usually results from bugs.

Now that I've lent Jason Schreier a concluding paragraph that at least sums up what this book is about, the worst thing I saw were the bugs. This isn't life and death quality software, but surely the libraries also come with test suites? If a particular scene is vulnerable to shots going out of bounds, surely there are "shoot every direction" bots that would test for that? Based on the stories in this book, I am appalled at the level of testing directed at video games, and the amount of developer hours it costs teams at the end of their projects.

If you have played one or more of the titles listed and really want to know some of what went behind making those games, this book might be of interest to you. Since the 10 articles are not connected in any way, it could also be read like a short encyclopedia. I didn't get much out of it, and wouldn't recommend it - it really didn't live up to the hype. 1½ stars.

Further cover quotes:

"Gripping, intelligent." - no.

"Opens a crucial door into an abnormally secretive industry." - maybe, is any other software more open?

"Brutal, honest, yet ultimately uplifting." - I do trust that the stories told here are honest, but don't see them as either brutal or uplifting, much less both. This last quote is from Adam Conover (Adam Ruins Everything) who goes further to say "I was surprised by every page." Adam has clearly never worked in software, and besides many of these stories are quite similar to each other. ...more

flag 19 likes · Like · see review

Nov 05, 2017 Rob rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: author-male, read-2017, nonfiction, video-games

Executive Summary: I think this book can appeal to both software developers and fans of video games alike, but it's definitely targeted more at the latter than the former.

Full Review
This book was previewed with an excerpt from the chapter on Diablo 3 (which incidentally is the ONLY game in this book that I've actually played/plan to play).

When I was younger I wanted to make video games. Somewhere along the way however I felt like I'd rather spend my time PLAYING games instead of making them Executive Summary: I think this book can appeal to both software developers and fans of video games alike, but it's definitely targeted more at the latter than the former.

Full Review
This book was previewed with an excerpt from the chapter on Diablo 3 (which incidentally is the ONLY game in this book that I've actually played/plan to play).

When I was younger I wanted to make video games. Somewhere along the way however I felt like I'd rather spend my time PLAYING games instead of making them. This book helps to illustrate why. I work 40 hours/week as a software developer. There have been days or weeks where I had to stay late, or when things went sideways and I was fighting a fire. But nothing like the "crunch" described in every single story in this book.

It's a wonder games get made at all. These people must really love making games. Personally, I'll stick to writing business apps for my day jobs and keeping video games something I consume.

I've read some better/more in-depth books about video games, but this made for a decent sampler with a variety of stories. It was a quick read, with each game getting a single chapter of about 20-30 pages each.

Each story in here is unique enough to be interesting, but they do all share a theme of things running over budget, behind schedule and requiring insane hours/overtime to finish at all. You get some stories of indie games, and huge big budget games and a few in between.

The tone is definitely more for fans of games, and not (potential) developers. Anything even slightly technical seems to be explained in a footnote that I often skipped, but I imagine will be useful to most readers. I didn't find that to be the detriment of the book however, as despite also being a software developer, I'm a fan of video games.

Of all of these stories, the Stardew Valley one was probably the most interesting. I had mostly picked this up to read the rest of the Diablo 3 story (so good job on that marketing Kotaku!), but I liked reading about all of these games.

I think if you're a fan of any of these games, or just a big fan of videogames in general, this is a pretty good read. ...more

flag 16 likes · Like · see review

May 15, 2018 Maurício Linhares rated it it was amazing

So you think your job as a software engineer sucks? Think again, you could be working on games!

Nightmarish environments with total and complete lack of management, direction, tooling or even a common dictionary, a bootload of manual testing and very little feedback until you finally deliver the final game to customers. Now add a sprinkle of 100 hour weeks (yes, you will work on weekends), no overtime pay and very little financial incentive and you end up completely burned out, broke and most lik So you think your job as a software engineer sucks? Think again, you could be working on games!

Nightmarish environments with total and complete lack of management, direction, tooling or even a common dictionary, a bootload of manual testing and very little feedback until you finally deliver the final game to customers. Now add a sprinkle of 100 hour weeks (yes, you will work on weekends), no overtime pay and very little financial incentive and you end up completely burned out, broke and most likely needing to visit a doctor at the end.

It is indeed surprising that we do get to play games with the incredible amount of madness that is involved in making them. It's even more surprising that people continue in the industry after going through these maddening and soul sucking crunch periods and delivering sub par games that don't live up to the expectations.

Including both indie and AAA games, "Blood, sweat and pixels" is a cautionary tale about the industry of games, while the heroism sagas to deliver that amazing game sound cool, they were most likely not cool for the people involved and the burnout they must have felt after it. The gaming industry definitely feels like an amateur cult, where even the most basic pieces of software engineering are thrown out for the sake of "art", whatever that is supposed to mean.

Studios lack clear leadership or management. Ensemble's "Halo Wars" chapter, with 3 different teams working on 3 different games when the only thing they should be working on is "Halo Wars" borders insanity, with people employed in the company just refusing to do what they were supposed to do like spoiled teenagers, eventually leading to the end of the studio, is just one of the examples.

Then you get to "Dragon Age: Inquisition", where the team decided to use the Frostbite engine but had no idea it was completely bereft of the features they would need to build an RPG (I mean, it was an FPS engine, maybe prototype and spike before you decide on it?). The team worked for more than a year "building" a game in feels only since they just could not play or do anything for real, luckily for them it worked out, but we all know the long list of games that just didn't make it.

Bungie's "Destiny" and it's fraught relationship with Activision that wasn't even an issue with Activision itself, as many would like to blame. Oh, it's the big corp owning the scrappy game developer. Nope. The wounds are almost all self inflicted, lack of communication between the people doing the story and building the game, lack of an holistic view of what the game should be and the usual over-promising. As much as it's cool to blame the huge corp, as a Bungie employee said, "we had to hold ourselves accountable now that we were free of microsoft" but they just weren't doing it. They went on to fight publicly with Activision on twitter but had to redo the game completely with less than a year for the final release that and we got the story we had on Destiny 1. Given how Destiny 2 came to be, the whole drama has most likely repeated itself.

Seeing the backstory of how these games are made makes me value them a bit more but also makes me sad at how the people building them are doing it mostly for passion and are getting the short end of the stick almost all the time. Amazing book! ...more

flag 14 likes · Like · see review

Oct 13, 2020 Nenia ✨ I yeet my books back and forth ✨ Campbell marked it as wishlist

Shelves: nonfiction, pop-goes-the-culture

On sale for $2.99 today! As a gamer who's played or wants to play several of the games mentioned in here, I am PUMPED ...more

flag 13 likes · Like · see review

Feb 14, 2018 Daniel Bastian rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: reviewed

"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 ...more

flag 10 likes · Like · see review

Oct 03, 2017 Jesse Billet rated it liked it

This is a very well written book that I think Jason spent a lot of time on. Time that leaves me a quite a bit confused. However, I want to address some very strange misconceptions that people seem to be having having about this book. This is not some guide to game development and this book is not going to help you make your Indie game. If you're buying this book for that reason then you're going to be left disappointed.

Now this is a really solid book and it's very well written but with the exce ...more

flag 10 likes · Like · see review

Sep 23, 2020 Kyle Muntz rated it it was amazing

Reading this book was a surprisingly personal experience for me. It covers the development of a wide selection of AAA and indie games--and, since I've developed two indie games, getting a glimpse of the pros initially felt like a window into very different world. But it's a fascinating reminder that, no matter what level you're working at, games are basically just hundreds of hours of monotony and fumbling in the dark. They're huge, complex, and it's almost like they "want" to be broken. Human e Reading this book was a surprisingly personal experience for me. It covers the development of a wide selection of AAA and indie games--and, since I've developed two indie games, getting a glimpse of the pros initially felt like a window into very different world. But it's a fascinating reminder that, no matter what level you're working at, games are basically just hundreds of hours of monotony and fumbling in the dark. They're huge, complex, and it's almost like they "want" to be broken. Human error interferes at every level; that polished final product emerges only slowly from chaos, and is never everything you dreamed it would be.

The chapter about Eric Barone, the developer of Stardew Valley, especially resonated with me, as he spent something like five years tinkering with his game in isolation. I lived very similarly to this in my early 20s, when I was making The Pale City; it's a very peculiar, insular life, one that even a background as a novelist had barely prepared me for. Between March and June this year, I briefly went back to game development to make "Home: A Quarantine Story," a short adventure game/interactive novel about a young woman stuck at home during the early days of COVID-19. Every day, life took on a very familiar rhythm: wake up; work on the game, pausing only to cook, exercise, and work remotely; then, at the end of the day, relax for an hour or two, and do it again.

Even that short game took hundreds of hours over just a few months--and professionals put in hours like this for years, often doing dozens of hours without being paid! I had always assumed that, in big studios, things ran more smoothly--but in many ways it seems much tougher than working on a small project by yourself. I especially appreciate the author's descriptions of how the developers feel after the project is done. Many seem deflated rather than ecstatic, awkwardly making brief returns to normal life before the next crunch begins... though, as the games covered are largely successful, most of the stories at least have happy endings. This definitely isn't the case for thousands of games that get buried beneath Steam's algorithms every day, and it's incredible to think of how much work was required to make the thousands (millions?) of games on there already.

The other inescapable question of this book is: is it worth it? I'm very unsure whether I plan to continue making games, and after reading this book, I'm surprised that many of these developers keep at it, especially when they have to contend with shareholders, changing leadership, the fickleness of the market, etc. But, whenever I do start playing again, this book has given me a much better appreciation of the sheer difficulty of bringing one of these things into the world, at any level. ...more

flag 8 likes · Like · see review

Apr 09, 2019 Kara Babcock rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: own, technology, culture, non-fiction, 2019-read

I love behind-the-scenes looks at industries that we don’t often think about. Whether you’re buying a game in the store or downloading it from Steam, chances are you aren’t that knowledgeable about what the game development industry is actually like. Oh, you might have read some horror stories on Reddit, heard some of the gossip going back and forth on gaming blogs. Blood, Sweat, and Pixels: The Triumphant, Turbulent Stories Behind How Video Games Are Made is about more than that, though. Jason I love behind-the-scenes looks at industries that we don’t often think about. Whether you’re buying a game in the store or downloading it from Steam, chances are you aren’t that knowledgeable about what the game development industry is actually like. Oh, you might have read some horror stories on Reddit, heard some of the gossip going back and forth on gaming blogs. Blood, Sweat, and Pixels: The Triumphant, Turbulent Stories Behind How Video Games Are Made is about more than that, though. Jason Schreier digs deeper into the pressures and structures of the video game development industry. The question (which he never really gets to answer): is there is a less gruelling, less stressful way to create games and still be “successful”?

Schreier structures the book into 10 chapters, each one recounting the genesis of a specific video game. Each chapter also has a central lesson. In some chapters, he focuses on the internecine politics of the game dev studios and the publisher. In others, he examines how developer dynamics, the size of the teams involved, the pressure from fans, contribute to how smoothly a game is developed.

Chances are that if you play games you will have heard of some, if not most, of these titles, including Stardew Valley, Dragon Age: Inquisition, Diablo 3, and The Witcher 3. This book might be worth buying for the story behind one of these games—for all 10 stories, it feels like a steal. Although common threads run throughout every chapter—most notably the intense pressure to “crunch” near the end of the development schedule—Schreier makes sure that every game highlights specific and different ways in which the industry functions (or doesn’t function).

Likewise, although he frequently points to dysfunctional parts of game dev, he is also quick to celebrate the amazing parts of the industry too. Schreier shows a lot of respect for the work that devs put into a game. He is careful to include all members of game dev in this camp—not just the programmers, but the artists and writers and musicians and voice actors and others as well. More than anything, Schreier definitely underscores that (with some exceptions, like Stardew Valley and Shovel Knight), modern games are the result of intensely coordinated and talented teams of people bending their talents to a single, interactive experience.

In all of these ways, Blood, Sweat, and Pixels excels. The entire book is basically a series of narratives assembled from interviews Schreier has done with various people, some of whom are featured in the chapters. He is fairly transparent about when/how he got his information. Ultimately, though, the stories seem rather restricted to within the game dev industry itself. By this I mean, while he raises questions around, for example, the fairness of crunching, he never really looks beyond the game dev industry for opinions. It would have been nice to see him interview some sociologists, psychologists, anthropologists, or other people who have studied this phenomenon or others. As it is, Blood, Sweat, and Pixels’ scope feels a little limited, a little too pixelated from zooming in too much.

This was a fun thing to read over the course of about two days, and I learned some interesting facts about some interesting games. Also, mad props to whoever put the Oxford comma into the title!

...more

flag 8 likes · Like · see review

Feb 27, 2018 Caitlin rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: nf-technology

"One surefire way to annoy a game developer is to ask, in response to discovering his or her chosen career path, what it’s like to spend all day playing video games.”

In Blood, Sweat, and Pixels, Jason Schreier gives readers a behind-the-scenes look at some major videogames (successes, failures and everything in between) to show what it’s like working in the video game industry. Among the games that Schreier looks at are Destiny, Stardew Valley, Shovel Knight, Dragon Age Inquisition and the fable "One surefire way to annoy a game developer is to ask, in response to discovering his or her chosen career path, what it’s like to spend all day playing video games.”

In Blood, Sweat, and Pixels, Jason Schreier gives readers a behind-the-scenes look at some major videogames (successes, failures and everything in between) to show what it’s like working in the video game industry. Among the games that Schreier looks at are Destiny, Stardew Valley, Shovel Knight, Dragon Age Inquisition and the fabled Star Wars 1313 that never came to be. Each chapter is devoted to one of the games, often with a particular theme or lesson that came of the development of that game.

As someone who has devoted a lot of hours in my life to video games, it was fascinating to get a closer look at video game development. While I knew enough to know that developers don’t just sit around playing games all day, there was a lot of the process that I wasn’t aware of. More than anything else, this book is a reality check about how many different aspects go into video game development and just how difficult that process can be. There are plenty of rewarding moments as well but Schreier doesn’t shy away from the less fun parts of the job.

I have a fair number of friends who aren’t fans of Kotaku (on which Schreier is a writer) because of the clickbait aspect and some of the reporting but I’d have to say that overall, Schreier’s writing is informative and interesting, without getting too bogged down in details or opinions. I say mostly because there is a single glaring exception: Dragon Age Inquisition. I’m not sure what the point is of poking the bear that is the rage against EA but it was more than a little annoying to have Schreier spend the first few pages of the chapter talking about how ridiculous it was that gamers voted EA the worst company in the world and that people should really be nicer about how terrible Dragon Age 2 was only to then admit that the things that made gamers frustrated with it was in fact due to the timetable that EA required of Bioware. So….perhaps not so ridiculous then? It was the same kind of unnecessary pot stirring that myself and others have previously complained about with Kotaku. It was the only chapter in which I found myself irritated rather than interested.

Overall, Blood, Sweat, and Pixels is a great look behind the scenes of some of the biggest videogames in the last couple decades and about how video games are made in general. It presents both the triumphs and the failures of various different companies and the aims for the games that they tried to create. It’s not perfect but if you enjoy video games, it’s well worth picking up. ...more

flag 7 likes · Like · see review

Oct 24, 2018 Philipp rated it really liked it

Shelves: non-fiction, journalism

Alternative title: How the sausage is made

Fun collection of essays/articles on how computer games are made, one game per chapter/article. Most of these games are fairly new, so if like me you're born in the 80s chances are you won't have played them (some games: Diablo III, Witcher 3, Uncharted 4, Stardew Valley, Pillars of Eternity). Some stories are success stories (Witcher 3), some are failures (Star Wars 1313, cancelled when Disney bought Lucasarts).

What struck me was how little planning or ...more

flag 8 likes · Like · see review

Oct 19, 2017 Michel Avenali rated it liked it

A revealing insightful look at the trials and tribulations that go into making some of the biggest games of today.
As a gamer it was a revelation of what goes on behind the scenes of game development and how incredibly hard it is for these teams of passionate developers to create these experiences.
Highly recommended if you are interested in game design and development , are a gamer yourself or wish to learn more about the industry.

flag 7 likes · Like · see review

Jun 23, 2018 Ioana rated it it was amazing

When a book makes you miss your station twice, you know it's a good one. I originally picked this up with the premise of 'I'm reading this for work', but I ended up really enjoying it and even played Stardew Valley and looked further into 'The Witcher 3'! I am not a massive gamer, but I do have my niche of games I get caught into ('The Sims', 'Need for Speed' to name a few) so I was at least hoping that if I read it for work I might find something that I would like to explore further and that wo ...more

flag 6 likes · Like · see review

Mar 02, 2022 Diz rated it really liked it

Shelves: video-games

This book provides insight into how difficult it is to make video games and how stressful that work can be. The games covered here are famous ones from the early to mid 2010s, both successful and unsuccessful ones. The stories told here are from the point of view of directors and producers of games, so there is a strong focus on the management of games rather than the actual production of games. The book could have been a bit better if it had also included more viewpoints from those in non-manag ...more

flag 5 likes · Like · see review

Jun 09, 2019 TraceyL rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction

Interesting look into the development process of video games. The author did a great job at picking which games to talk about. He chose a variety of big AAA games and smaller indie games, focusing on whichever games had the craziest stories. He researched them well but I already knew most of the information from gaming podcasts and news feeds. I would recommend this book to people who enjoy playing video games but haven't looked into the industry as a whole. ...more

flag 6 likes · Like · see review

Apr 03, 2020 Michelle Curie rated it it was amazing

Shelves: nonfiction

Just because playing video games are fun, doesn't mean making them is. This book is a fascinating testament to the dedication, difficulty and turbulence that goes into the creation of every single one of them.

Jason Schreier is a journalist who works as a news editor at Kotaku, a renowned blog that focusses on gaming related news. For this book, he set himself the task to give people a look behind the scenes by going round interviewing people at various studios to tell the story of their games' ...more

flag 4 likes · Like · see review

Jul 10, 2021 مشاري الإبراهيم rated it really liked it

Shelves: business

Such a good read. Learned so much about the industry. Each chapter is a story its own, with a propper story arc. Well done.

Although it gets a bit repetitive in the end, it is still worth finishing.

flag 4 likes · Like · see review

Dec 29, 2021 Jess rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: i-m-gonna-read-more-nonfiction, own

love all the studio drama in this, I wanted more of it tbh

Also not shocked but deeply saddened that literally the only studio that actually paid overtime was a Polish company, American labor laws continue to be trash

flag 4 likes · Like · see review

Jun 25, 2018 Artjoms Haleckis rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

I'm playing games since like I'm 4. And I'm not going to stop till I die.
Videogames and industry, in general, are my hobbies and it's great that it's possible to be a gamer nowadays without being ashamed (compared to my early school days and childhood).
I became a software developer because I started programming to write games on my own. I spent endless summers creating another text adventure quest on Basic or prototyping my own RPG.

Then life happened. I'm still a software developer, but I'm int ...more

flag 4 likes · Like · see review

Apr 10, 2018 Bon Tom rated it it was amazing

Shelves: non-fiction

I'm sure it's not intentional, just unavoidable because of the topic, but this book is for gamers. It's that one book the gamers will enjoy for sure, if they don't read anything else ever. This book is incredible fun, just like the best games are. And the amount of info on what's happening behind the scenes... priceless.

Also, just like it's the case with all arts, I strongly believe that increased understanding of laws that govern the production and performance also increases the amount of enjo ...more

flag 4 likes · Like · see review

Sep 20, 2018 Alex Givant rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: memoirs, tts, best-of-2018

Excellent book about what it takes to build game that players want to play for many hours. I love Diablo 3, but on start they had this auction for game items that many people hated, read in the book they dropped it and added lot of stuff to make it fun again - should check the game again!

flag 4 likes · Like · see review

Mar 19, 2021 Berry rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction, 2021-reviews

Blood, Sweat, and Pixels has certainly delivered on its premise of detailing the triumphant and indeed often turbulent stories behind the production and development of a varied and interesting video game selection. The chapters on Stardew Valley, Dragon Age: Inquisition, and Star Wars 1313 were my personal favorites: I've played both Stardew Valley and Inquisition extensively and was very intrigued by the premise of Star Wars 1313 which made these chapters even more worthwhile to me, but I did f Blood, Sweat, and Pixels has certainly delivered on its premise of detailing the triumphant and indeed often turbulent stories behind the production and development of a varied and interesting video game selection. The chapters on Stardew Valley, Dragon Age: Inquisition, and Star Wars 1313 were my personal favorites: I've played both Stardew Valley and Inquisition extensively and was very intrigued by the premise of Star Wars 1313 which made these chapters even more worthwhile to me, but I did find the remaining stories insightful, too. While a significant amount of them have not always inspired the most positive feelings towards the industry itself (especially when it comes to various, questionable practices that are all too prevalent within it), I did find the chapter on Stardew Valley in particular to be a heartwarming story in its core, as, for example, I hadn't been aware beforehand how significant Eric Barone's girlfriend Amber Hageman and her unwavering support (both financially and otherwise) had been during the (long and arduous) process of making Stardew Valley a reality. It makes me even happier to know how successful the game and its developer have become considering what the both of them have gone through.
I am looking forward to Jason Schreier's upcoming release on the topic of "ruin and recovery" in the video game industry, as I, overall, had a fun time reading his first book, and am incredibly intrigued and fascinated by the video game industry as a whole with all the good, bad, and ugly in it. Something that could be read as a negative criticism of this book is that the crunch culture in its omnipresence throughout pretty much every chapter is not delved into more deeply or questioned beyond the fact that it seems like such a natural part of the video game development process. I think this could have perhaps elevated the book to an even higher quality level of investigative journalism, but, at the same time, Jason Schreier has written several stories focusing on this phenomenon before and has given a lot of people involved in and impacted by crunch culture a means to speak about their experiences openly. And I certainly hope he will continue to do so! ...more

flag 3 likes · Like · see review

Mar 26, 2021 Zane rated it liked it · review of another edition

I'm more of an observer of gamers, not active player myself, but I enjoyed learning about the insights of video games making. I have not spared a thought about the challenges of this job, but wow, do I know more about it now and I'm glad about it!
It's always refreshing to learn more about some totally unrelated job from yours to open your eyes on what else is happening in the world.
...more

flag 3 likes · Like · see review

Aug 08, 2021 Mairi rated it really liked it

Shelves: audiobook

An excellent book for anyone at the start of their career in video game development, or players wondering how their favourite games are made!

In particular, I loved the chapter on Stardew Valley. A round of applause for the author for pulling together so many interviews from so many companies into a brilliant narrative about the highs and lows of game design.

flag 3 likes · Like · see review

Feb 02, 2019 Tyler Sampson rated it it was amazing

This is an absolutely fascinating read, and cool to see how some of this generations most revered games almost failed to see release. With games like Dragon Age Inquisition and Witcher 3 (two games that won many game of the year awards) and even the infamous Star Wars 1313 and its tremulous tale, this book is a must read for anyone interested in game development as a career, hobby or even just slightly interested in the inside baseball of it all.

flag 3 likes · Like · see review

Dec 14, 2019 Sven Kirsimäe rated it it was amazing

Shelves: at-audible

I'm not an avid video game player these days as I had my shares well in the early century still having a list of games in my Steam account to go through. Nevertheless, every time I fire up a video game, being a software engineer, I find myself wondering how it might have been to create what I see. This book lays down it all, using examples that can be downloaded and played today, knowing the blood and sweat sacrificed to get those pixels onto the screen. From now on, for sure, every time I fire ...more

flag 3 likes · Like · see review

Mar 11, 2020 Vladimir rated it really liked it

Shelves: read-original

Even though this book does feel like a collection of 10 (really good) articles, it is a very enjoyable read for any gamer. I especially admire the selection of games, most of which I played and loved. Books about games are such a rarity in general, so if Jason writes up another one with the same premise but about different games, I'd happily buy it instantly. ...more

flag 3 likes · Like · see review

Jan 26, 2022 Fadi Ashy rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

"A room full of developers setting themselves on fire" is the greatest description I've ever heard for a game studio, what a sentence, it takes a lot of effort to risk everything and dare to dream.

it's weird how this book gave me an immense amount of motivation toward pushing into my dream of being an indie game and having a studio but also shined an even brighter light on the hardship of that path. a must-read to every game developer.

...more

flag 3 likes · Like · see review

« previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 … next »

new topic
Discuss This Book

topics	posts	views	last activity
Kinemaster Mod APP	1	4	Feb 25, 2021 08:55PM
Goodreads Librari...: Link all editions of BLOOD SWEAT AND PIXELS	2	19	Jul 18, 2017 01:08PM

Readers also enjoyed

See similar books…

Goodreads is hiring!

If you like books and love to build cool products, we may be looking for you.
Learn more »

Genres

Nonfiction

654 users

Games > Video Games

151 users

Business

106 users

Games > Gaming

91 users

Sports and Games > Games

89 users

Science > Technology

70 users

History

54 users

Audiobook

53 users

Games > Game Design

38 users

Computer Science > Programming

21 users

See top shelves…

About Jason Schreier

Jason Schreier

339 followers

Books by Jason Schreier

Press Reset: Ruin and Recovery in the Video Game Industry

More…

News & Interviews

6 Great Books Hitting Shelves This Week

Need another excuse to treat yourself to a new book this week? We've got you covered with the buzziest new releases of the day. To create our...

Trivia About Blood, Sweat, and...

No trivia or quizzes yet. Add some now »

Quotes from Blood, Sweat, and...

“One surefire way to annoy a game developer is to ask, in response to discovering his or her chosen career path, what it’s like to spend all day playing video games.” — 10 likes

“Making a game is like constructing a building during an earthquake or trying to run a train as someone else is laying down track as you go...” — 5 likes

More quotes…

See a Problem?

Preview — Blood, Sweat, and Pixels by Jason Schreier

Blood, Sweat, and Pixels: The Triumphant, Turbulent Stories Behind How Video Games Are Made

Get A Copy

Friend Reviews

Reader Q&A

Lists with This Book

Community Reviews

new topic
Discuss This Book

Readers also enjoyed

Goodreads is hiring!

Genres

About Jason Schreier

Books by Jason Schreier

News & Interviews

Trivia About Blood, Sweat, and...

Quotes from Blood, Sweat, and...

See a Problem?

Preview — Blood, Sweat, and Pixels by Jason Schreier

Blood, Sweat, and Pixels: The Triumphant, Turbulent Stories Behind How Video Games Are Made

Get A Copy

Friend Reviews

Reader Q&A

Lists with This Book

Community Reviews

new topicDiscuss This Book

Readers also enjoyed

Goodreads is hiring!

Genres

About Jason Schreier

Books by Jason Schreier

News & Interviews

Trivia About Blood, Sweat, and...

Quotes from Blood, Sweat, and...

new topic
Discuss This Book