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

Jason Schreier

4.26 · Rating details · 3,587 Ratings · 387 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

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Kindle Edition, 304 pages

Published September 5th 2017 by Harper Paperbacks

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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 let down. 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 let down. 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. ...more

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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 rich diverse field of wondrous flowers, some merely a joy for the senses to behold but others exploring the stories of humanity in a new, more active way.

I've watched the culture OF gaming grow too. I remember the days when being a gamer made you a GEEK, 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, some hints of which I feel to this day.

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 of ours. 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 have no hate, no out-group bias, toward those of other countries, for such distance was but a light-speed hop and skip through the fields 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 most particularly, the 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

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

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

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

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Sep 16, 2017 Fiona rated it liked it

Shelves: 2017, ebook, non-fiction

I can't say it really taught me a whole lot about game development, apart from I wouldn't want to do it due to all that "crunch" time.

Basically, people come up with an idea, there is a few problems along the way which are mostly all the same kinda thing - technical issues, often publishers wanting to hurry a game out (Dragon Age 2) and then horrendous crunch time.

Perhaps it would have been more interesting if he'd looked at game development as a whole, rather than breaking it down into chapter ...more

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Dec 07, 2017 fonz rated it really liked it

Cuando uno entra al típico foro de videojuegos no es raro llevarse la impresión de que la masa consumidora de ocio electrónico está compuesta de críos malcriados que, desde el desconocimiento de conceptos básicos del mundo laboral, la economía e incluso la vida real, despotrican con vehemencia de las desarrolladoras del objeto de sus desvelos. Es como si fueran niños pequeños jugando a castillos en la arena, quejándose del clima y las mareas de un inmenso océano cuyos entresijos desconocen. Pues Cuando uno entra al típico foro de videojuegos no es raro llevarse la impresión de que la masa consumidora de ocio electrónico está compuesta de críos malcriados que, desde el desconocimiento de conceptos básicos del mundo laboral, la economía e incluso la vida real, despotrican con vehemencia de las desarrolladoras del objeto de sus desvelos. Es como si fueran niños pequeños jugando a castillos en la arena, quejándose del clima y las mareas de un inmenso océano cuyos entresijos desconocen. Pues bien, este libro debería ser lectura obligada para todos ellos, es ameno, es informativo y te explica perfectamente las enormes vicisitudes que conlleva sacar adelante un proyecto complejísimo como es un videojuego, quizá el producto cultural cuya elaboración mejor representa los entresijos de nuestra sociedad post-industrial. Un proceso en el que intervienen cientos de personas a lo largo de varios años, absolutamente imprevisible, un deslizarse a toda velocidad sobre el filo de una navaja sometida a multitud de fuerzas tecnológicas, económicas, comerciales, laborales y personales, un caos de partes móviles interconectadas entre sí y que, a menudo, se elabora prácticamente a ciegas y sobre la marcha.

En el debe, pues quizá para el ya iniciado resulte algo superficial, dada la naturaleza de una obra concebida como la recopilación de varios artículos de divulgación periodística sobre el desarrollo de diferentes videojuegos. Por poner un ejemplo, muchas veces se nos dice que una mecánica o un diseño de niveles "no funcionan" o resultan aburridos, pero nunca se nos explica el por qué, quizá no había espacio para estas cuestiones más técnicas. Por otro lado la selección de títulos no es especialmente variada, de diez desarrollos, tres tratan acerca de juegos de acción/aventuras tipo Uncharted y otros tres sobre RPGs, dos de ellos action-RPG en tercera persona (el género favorito del autor según confiesa en una nota al pie). No hay ningún juego deportivo, ni de carreras, ni "casual", ni de móviles, ni de lucha... Las historias también parecen escogidas según similares desarrollos narrativos un tanto melodramáticos, la historia de éxito y superación de enormes adversidades es la tónica general, salvo en el caso del desarrollo en solitario de Stardew Valley, la obsesión de un tipo que llega a absorber su vida (es muy interesante este capítulo que subraya lo ineficiente que resulta desarrollar un videojuego en solitario, aunque en este caso resultara un éxito) y la emotiva historia del fracasado Star Wars 1313, a los que quizá podríamos añadir el agridulce final de Destiny. En todo caso, y a pesar de las pegas, una lectura entretenida, informativa y recomendable. ...more

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Feb 12, 2018 DaViD´82 rated it liked it

Its a miracle that any game is made. Pokud jste seznámeni s konceptem herních post mortemů, takové „jak jsme (ne)udělali hru psané (s) vývojáři“, či dokonce některé z především gameinformer.com tu a tam i čtete, tak přesně víte do čeho jdete. Jde totiž o post mortemy (pravda s přidanou hodnotou, ale o tom později) hned několika profláknutých her.

Což je jedna z hlavních výtek; autor knihy si totiž vybral dost podobné vzorky. Samozřejmě jedno je nezávislé studio financující svůj projekt skrze Kic It´s a miracle that any game is made. Pokud jste seznámeni s konceptem herních post mortemů, takové „jak jsme (ne)udělali hru psané (s) vývojáři“, či dokonce některé z především gameinformer.com tu a tam i čtete, tak přesně víte do čeho jdete. Jde totiž o post mortemy (pravda s přidanou hodnotou, ale o tom později) hned několika profláknutých her.

Což je jedna z hlavních výtek; autor knihy si totiž vybral dost podobné vzorky. Samozřejmě jedno je nezávislé studio financující svůj projekt skrze Kickstarter, druhé Sony vlastněné monstr studio, třetí jednočlenný indie „tým“ apod. Ovšem vše to jsou západní typy her určené ne zcela svátečním hráčům na PC/Xbox/PS. A především jsou to vše mediálně profláknuté projekty, které navíc (s jednou specifickou výjimkou) uspěli kriticky i komerčně. Vyloženě chybí zmrvený projekt, komerční propadák, zapadlý klenot, když už tedy zaměření na ty projekty z nejsledovanějších, tak i Nintendo apod.

Již zmíněný přesah tkví v tom, že autor obstojně balancuje nezaujatou investigativu, procedurální popis vývoje a osobní sympatie, je mistrem čtivé zkratky (resp. je to psané tak, že se v tom zorientuje i někdo, kdo by o hrách nevěděl ale lautr nic) a především má u všech stejný postup, ať již jde o hru po nocích bastlenou jedním týpkem či mnohaset členné studio. Díky tomu vyplují na povrch společné jmenovatele i úskalí vývoje bez ohledu na velikost či finanční zázemí. A jednoho až zarazí, jak týmy postavené z léty ostřílených veteránů stále dělají stejnou botu za botou (půlroční i delší uzávěrky "odnevidimdonevidim" v Naughty Dogs jsou naprosté selhání managementu; to už není o vášni). Ovšem ať se to autor snaží jakkoli zaonačit, tak je z toho patrné, kdo si ho pustil více k tělu a kdo ne. Což má dopad na některé kapitoly.

Ve výsledku je to sice pouze takové „making of poplácávání se po zádech zbavené“, kterých je na internetech pěkných pár tuctů, ale nepopiratelně dobře napsané, přístupné spíše hráčům a široké veřejnosti než vývojářům, navíc zastřešené společným konceptem. A jakkoli jsem výběr her kritizoval, tak pravda je, že díky tomu, pokud aspoň někdy něco hrajete, si tu najde každý tu svou hru, kterou zná a které by se rád podíval pod pokličku vývoje. ...more

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

Shelves: nonfic-tech, videogames

"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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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.

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Sep 12, 2017 Juan-Pablo Scaletti rated it it was ok

Depressing. Almost all stories are about teams of 50+ devs in continuous crunch mode.

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May 23, 2018 Miguel Sanz rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Aparte de estar muy bien escrito y narrado, este libro me ha cambiado la forma de ver los juegos y, sobre todo, su industria. Es inspirador conocer las historias de personas que aman lo mismo que tú y han conseguido sacar adelante proyectos inverosímiles de forma brillante (o fracasado estrepitosamente y, aún así, siguen al pie del cañón). Desde que empecé a leer este libro, cada vez que sale un juego me pregunto qué historia habrá detrás. Ya estoy deseando leer el siguiente de Schreier.

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Nov 19, 2017 Aali Hashim rated it it was amazing

I normally don't read nonfiction because it bores me, but I wanted to know more about how video games were made, and most importantly why the fuck Bungie thought their version of Destiny was worth 60 dollars plus over a 100 more in worthless DLC. So when I started reading this book, I did not expect to fall in love with Schreier's writing style. He writes each chapter (and game) as a story - from the birth of the concept to the actual execution and everything that happens in between. My first in ...more

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Apr 10, 2018 Bon Tom rated it it was amazing

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

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Sep 22, 2017 Xane rated it really liked it

Shelves: nonfiction

Video game development is a hard thing to write about. In most cases, it's such a large, expensive, and lengthy process that trying to describe it in a single chapter is essentially an impossible task. Blood, Sweat, and Pixels attempts to tell the stories of ten games in ten chapters. Largely, it succeeds. The book accurately captures the insane difficulty of creating a game (not to mention making a successful game) and presents it in an engaging, easily readable format. It also has some flaws. ...more

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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

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Aug 20, 2018 Sebastian Gebski rated it really liked it

Fun to read, indeed.

I've expected something more like an analysis of why game development is different to all the other kind of software (why all the crunch), how does this industry evolve (early access, PTW, internal marketplaces, streaming), etc. What I've got instead is few (6? 7? I don't remember) stories of how few certain high profile (very well known) games were developed, what were the biggest challenges & how did the creators achieve their goal. In fact, not all of the stories are s ...more

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Jul 19, 2018 Pavel Dobrovsky rated it really liked it

Tahle kniha o zákulisí vývoje současných videoher má dva typy čtenářů: Buď patří k fanouškům jedné z her (Destiny, Zaklínač 3, konzolové Diablo 3 nebo Shovel Knight, Pillars of Eternity a spousta dalších) anebo jsou videoherní / popkulturní novináři, kteří chtějí zůstat v obraze. Pak možná ještě sadističtí voyeuři, kteří chtějí vědět, jak strašně lidi při vývoji trpí, jak se jim rozkládají životy, nemají peníze na kontě, dupou po nich vydavatelé, koroduje jim sebevědomí, zdraví a rodiny a v průb ...more

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Apr 03, 2018 Michael rated it it was amazing

Having spent several years in a software development house, this provided me with plenty of flashbacks. Admittedly my years in the barrel were not at a game development studio, but I could appreciate the craziness that the game devs go through to get a game out the door. The stories behind the games were fascinating, and if there's one common theme running through each story it's the soul crushing doubt that dev teams go through when working on games. I see this in other creative types I know, a ...more

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May 13, 2018 Sebastian rated it really liked it

Shelves: other-non-fiction

I have been an avid video gamer in the 1990s and 2000s and pretty much stopped playing video games about a decade ago. Also, I have to mention that I haven't played any of the games covered in this book but was somewhat familiar with them through various media. Nonetheless, I really enjoyed this book since it was a really diverse selection of developer stories: People who developed their first video game, developer companies who became independent and/or switched to crowd-sourcing, developers wh ...more

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Jul 15, 2018 Mike Arvela rated it really liked it

Enjoyable, if a bit shallow read into what kind of struggles there have been in getting some major games done. Learning about all the hardships made me appreciate them so much more.

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Dec 17, 2017 Levent Pekcan rated it liked it

Yine gereksiz şekilde abartılan bir kitap. Araştırmasının iyi yapılmış olduğunu kabul ediyorum ancak anlatılan öyküler ne yeterince ilginç, ne de öğretici. Keza, tüm kitap boyunca tek bir fotoğraf, tek bir ekran görüntüsü kullanılmaması da belgesel nitelikli bir kitap için iyi olmamış. Sonuçta okuduğunuz için pişman olmayacağınız bir kitap, ancak beklentileri düşük tutun.

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Sep 08, 2017 MR M TOPPING rated it it was amazing

Incredibly detailed and both very informative and interesting

An incredibly in depth and interesting look into the development process of some of the most popular video games out there, which didn't fail to keep me hooked to each page, I highly recommend Blood Sweat and Pixels.

With each chapter focusing on the story of a particular game, the book is perfect reading I'm bite size chunks, ie whilst commuting, or in one sitting. The stories behind the games are entertaining, enlightening and surpri ...more

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Feb 02, 2018 David rated it it was amazing

The theme is who diffrenet people make video games

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Nov 27, 2017 Sau Fei rated it it was amazing

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Video game has always have a special place in my heart. Looking at my childhood with a rose-tinted glasses, I vividly remember pouring ungodly amount of hours battling dungeons and dragons, saving countless princess and eventually the world.

Strolling around leisurely in Pallet Town, talking to numerous NPCs to learn about the lore of the world and their background story, with the most relaxing background music playing all the while, I could have sworn that at times, the game world feels more re ...more

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Oct 30, 2017 Seng Wee Wong rated it really liked it

This book was written from a third person's view, where the author interviews various key appointment holders of the companies to find out more about the game development process. For those of you who are interested in game development, this book can be quite demoralising. Almost all the case studies mentioned in the book eventually made it big but still all of them went through an incredibly tiring and insane phase to keep the game running.

For some reason, I felt educated on business management ...more

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Sep 25, 2017 Erin Satie rated it liked it

Shelves: 2017, audio

I picked this up as a light, fun amuse bouche between other weightier nonfiction reads. I was familiar with at least a few of the games (I've played & enjoyed Stardew Valley, Inquisition, and the Witcher III) and I'm just generally interested in video games because it's an industry where art and commerce are always either dancing or dueling. For a genre writer, there's some useful distance and a lot to learn.

Anyhow, it was a light, fun amuse bouche of a book. But it was a little lighter, a l I picked this up as a light, fun amuse bouche between other weightier nonfiction reads. I was familiar with at least a few of the games (I've played & enjoyed Stardew Valley, Inquisition, and the Witcher III) and I'm just generally interested in video games because it's an industry where art and commerce are always either dancing or dueling. For a genre writer, there's some useful distance and a lot to learn.

Anyhow, it was a light, fun amuse bouche of a book. But it was a little lighter, a little less substantial, than I'd hoped it would be.

For one thing, this is a book about letting the game makers tell their story. Which is fine, in theory, except that (as Schreier points out a number of times) most of the people he interviews are bound by all kinds of non-disclosure and non-disparagement agreements. Most of them are still working in the industry which means that even if their hands weren't tied legally, they've all got a strong incentive to be circumspect.

So if you're reading for behind the scenes glimpses of how games are made, it's a little disappointing. Schreier isn't playing gumshoe here; he's not trying to dig up the secrets the devs won't share. And he doesn't let his own point of view interfere; there's no sharp authorial eye to dissect the cleaned-up accounts, no critical insight digging deeper than the developers want to go.

Each chapter focuses on a different game. That's great because he covers companies of different sizes, facing different kinds of challenges. You read about an interesting cross-section of the industry; AAA and indie, RPGs and shooters, geeks and bros. On a big picture level, it's a fun book to read and a good overview.

But the downside of this structure is that every chapter is pretty shallow. There are, as I said, three games in the book that I was pretty familiar with. For two of them, Stardew Valley and The Witcher III, I didn't learn anything from the book that I didn't already know. Everything Schreier had to tell me I'd already read in interviews or articles. The third, Dragon Age: Inquisition, focused on the problems that the Bioware dev team had adopting the Frostbite engine. That was new to me, and really interesting.

Still, one out of three is not a great ratio.

So, yeah. It's fun enough. I listened to the audiobook and I really disliked the narrator; he read the whole book like an infomercial, very chirpy and upbeat, even when he was reading lines like, "crunch turned me into a miserable wreck of a human being." ...more

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Du sang, des larmes et des pixels (TEXTE POP CULTU)

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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.” — 2 likes

“The biggest differentiator between a studio that creates a really high-quality game and a studio that doesn’t isn’t the quality of the team,” said one person who worked on Destiny. “It’s their dev tools. If you can take fifty shots on goal, and you’re a pretty shitty hockey player, and I can only take three shots on goal and I’m Wayne fucking Gretzky, you’re probably going to do better. That’s what tools are. It’s how fast can you iterate, how stable are they, how robust are they, how easy is it as a nontechnical artist to move a thing.” — 0 likes

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