Red to Black: The Making of Rogue Legacy

by David L. Craddock

On June 27, 2013, Kenny and Teddy Lee were broke and jobless. After four years working together on smaller videogames—some written over the course of a week, others in a few hours—the two brothers had agreed to pool their resources and create Rogue Legacy, a game exponentially larger in scope than any they had attempted before.

If Rogue Legacy failed, it would also be their last.

Seven days later and 100,000 sales later, they were back in the black. Their recipe for success? Eighteen months, countless arguments, a surprisingly popular game about holding one's bowels, and unwavering trust.

Based on interviews with the development team, Red to Black: The Making of Rogue Legacy tells the story of two brothers who poured blood, sweat, tears, and exactly $14,878 into their most ambitious videogame yet.

Genres: Video Games, Nonfiction

64 pages, ebook

First published March 22, 2017

About the author

David L. Craddock lives with his wife in Ohio. He is the bestselling author of Stay Awhile and Listen : How Two Blizzards Unleashed Diablo and Forged a Video-Game Empire - Book I, and Heritage : Book One of the Gairden Chronicles, an epic fantasy series for young adults. Please follow along with him on his website/blog at DavidLCraddock.com .

Reviews

[David]

I wrote this book, so I won't cheat by leaving a star-rating or critique. Instead, I'll talk a bit about the process of writing it. (I'm also counting it toward books read in 2017 since I revised and read it several times earlier this year to get it ready for inclusion in a storybundle.com set of books about game design.)

As the title clearly states, RED TO BLACK tells the story of the making of Rogue Legacy, a fantastic platformer/roguelike game released in 2013. I interviewed the game's two designers, brothers Teddy and Kenny Lee, as well as contractors they hired to help with art and music.

What I enjoyed most about talking to the Lees, and what interested me in writing their story, was how working on games continually puts their relationship as brothers to the test. That relationship informed many of the design choices they made, and not without a great deal of, ah, "healthy debating" along the way.

No matter how severe their arguments, Teddy and Kenny trusted one another. Moreover, they never let working on Rogue Legacy or other projects get in the way of their personal relationship. Rogue Legacy is a great game, and the Lee brothers have a great story. I was honored to write it, and had a blast putting it to paper.

[Kelsey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good overview of the making of Rogue Legacy! I found it particularly interesting that the game had two composers, and it was interesting to read about how they worked together.

[Jacob Tjornholm · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a fan of the game I really enjoyed learning about how it was made. The story of the process was interesting, but even more interesting were the details about why the mechanics of the game are designed the way they are.

[Jonathan Lee B. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Red to Black: The Making of Rogue Legacy is a candy factory tour.