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Blood, Sweat, and Pixels should be required reading for every ResetEra member

TheDanimal

TheDanimal

победитель победитель куриный ужин
Member
Oct 25, 2017
855
I'm sure almost everyone here knows what Blood, Sweat, and Pixels is. It's a fantastic work of non fiction by the one and only Jason Schreier about the intricacies and crunch of video game development. It is a GOLD MINE of incredible quotes and hard to believe true stories. I wish it hadn't taken me this long to finally get around to reading it.
blood-sweat-and-pixels.jpg

Thank you, Jason, for writing such a fantastic book.
And thank you, game developers around the world, for continuing to create fantastic games for me and others to complain about anonymously. Video games are my favorite hobby, and this book made me realize how incredible it is that any game gets made.
 
Brass Body Dave

Brass Body Dave

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
16,568
I guess, I mean, if its your first book about game devs, and don't mind a very detached, distant writeup of some stuff. Not much meat on those bones.
 
Dojima

Dojima

Alt-account
Banned
Jan 25, 2019
2,003
It's a great book I enjoyed reading it and made all my friends get it but required reading? I don't understand.
 
Weebos

Weebos

Member
Oct 25, 2017
7,060
I listened to it on Audible, it was excellent. I'm looking forward to his next book.
 
SolicitorPirate

SolicitorPirate

Banned
Nov 3, 2017
2,223
No

Because then people here might actually know what they're talking about and this place would be a lot less fun to read
 
OP
OP
TheDanimal

TheDanimal

победитель победитель куриный ужин
Member
Oct 25, 2017
855
SolicitorPirate said:
No

Because then people here might actually know what they're talking about and this place would be a lot less fun to read
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Oh shoot uh disregard thread this guy is right
Brass Body Dave said:
I would highly recommend if anyone wants a deeper dive into all the different aspects of what game dev is actually like, spend your time here:

http://askagamedev.tumblr.com/
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I'll be sure to check this out, thanks!
 
Lukar

Lukar

Unshakable Resolve - Prophet of Truth
Member
Oct 27, 2017
23,413
Listened to the fantastic audiobook when it came out. It's absolutely worth a read / listen.
 
chrominance

chrominance

Sky Van Gogh
Member
Oct 25, 2017
13,641
Brass Body Dave said:
I guess, I mean, if its your first book about game devs, and don't mind a very detached, distant writeup of some stuff. Not much meat on those bones.
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Noppie said:
Was a fun read, but I'm not sure why this should be a thing.
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I imagine that for a lot of people on this forum, it WOULD be their first book about game devs. People seem to have so little concept of the tradeoffs and compromises inherent in game development, imagining that everything is possible if you just throw more people/money at a thing, calling devs lazy, and so on and so forth.

I think the book is a lot better than "baby's first game dev book," but even if it were just that, I think it would have immense value because it would dispel a lot of misconceptions and explain that yeah, making games is hard work, and decisions are often more complex than they seem at first.
 
Brass Body Dave

Brass Body Dave

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
16,568
chrominance said:
I imagine that for a lot of people on this forum, it WOULD be their first book about game devs. People seem to have so little concept of the tradeoffs and compromises inherent in game development, imagining that everything is possible if you just throw more people/money at a thing, calling devs lazy, and so on and so forth.
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I agree with that
 
Darryl M R

Darryl M R

The Spectacular PlayStation-Man
Member
Oct 25, 2017
9,721
People don't even take the time to read an OP and you expect them to read this book?

Nice try alt account.
 
BrickArts295

BrickArts295

GOTY Tracking Thread Master
Member
Oct 26, 2017
13,772
Aggred. After listening to that and Master of Doom, I have a lot of respect for all game devs. Even the ones that worked on games that are not well received. Cant say the same about some publishers though.
 
Mass_Pincup

Mass_Pincup

The Fallen
Oct 25, 2017
7,129
Bought it day 1.

An extremely insightful book and it helps my DA2 propaganda so 10/10 would recommand.
 
legend166

legend166

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
2,113
I bought it when it was on sale on a few weeks back and I'm about 70% through it now (I'm just starting the chapter on Destiny). It's definitely an enjoyable book, if a little high level.

One thing that is bugging me is the almost fetishization of crunch in the book. At that probably has less to do with the author and more the industry he's writing about, but it's been giving me an icky feeling the whole way through. It's one thing when you're reading about the indie teams who are crunching entirely off their own bat and will obviously be completely rewarded because they keep all the money, but it's different when it's a chapter on a AAA game and all you're hearing from is the heads of the studio who get all the acclaim and most likely the majority of the financial rewards. You're not reading the perspective of the QA guy who suffered depression because he had to work 90 hour weeks or the programmer who had a marriage breakdown because he never saw his wife. It's just, "yeah crunch sucks but we made a great game so it was all worth it!"

I guess the take away for me is yes games are really hard to make, but wow there is some criminal mismanagement going on in this industry. How many hours did Ensemble waste on a Halo MMO without ever even getting approval from Microsoft that they were allowed to make one?
 
OmegaDL50

OmegaDL50

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 25, 2017
9,690
Philadelphia, PA
Even if folks read the book, I'm not even sure that would stop some folks using lazy dev rhetoric.

No matter how much educational material you provide some folks to read, some simply don't care and will act with the mentality of "As a consumer, why should I care about this stuff?"

You have some folks that believe because bugs exist implies a game wasn't even given a testing stage, as if a team of 15 to 25 testers could possibly encounter every single problem a player base of thousands could potentially run into.

I know you mean well OP, but considering the mentalities of some armchair-types who even argue against actual devs on these forum. I don't think any good book on actual realities of game dev, no matter how great it is will convince those sort.
 
Ryan.

Ryan.

Prophet of Truth
The Fallen
Oct 27, 2017
12,889
I was actually looking into getting this along with a couple of other books earlier today. I think this is a sign.
 

Deleted member 7450

User requested account closure
Member
Oct 25, 2017
3,842
I'm automatically on "No mode" whenever someone says something is "required".

Saying "I highly recommend" is better and avoids the hyperbolic broad blanket statements.


That said, one of these days I'm definitely picking it up.
 
Unknownlight

Unknownlight

One Winged Slayer
Member
Nov 2, 2017
10,572
I was unfortunately underwhelmed by Blood, Sweat, and Pixels. I felt there was a real tonal disconnect between what the text was saying ("Game development is really really hard and everything can fall apart at any moment") and what actually happened in the stories (90% of them boiled down to "We all worked hard and it was a big success"). The Witcher 3 one was a particularly egregious example.

Even the story that ended in failure, Star Wars 1313, itself boiled down to "It would've been a big success, but then Disney took over and fired everyone."

Still a fine book. I don't at all regret reading it.
 
jschreier

jschreier

Press Sneak Fuck
Verified
Oct 25, 2017
1,098
Ha ha ha, good thread!

legend166 said:
I bought it when it was on sale on a few weeks back and I'm about 70% through it now (I'm just starting the chapter on Destiny). It's definitely an enjoyable book, if a little high level.

One thing that is bugging me is the almost fetishization of crunch in the book. At that probably has less to do with the author and more the industry he's writing about, but it's been giving me an icky feeling the whole way through. It's one thing when you're reading about the indie teams who are crunching entirely off their own bat and will obviously be completely rewarded because they keep all the money, but it's different when it's a chapter on a AAA game and all you're hearing from is the heads of the studio who get all the acclaim and most likely the majority of the financial rewards. You're not reading the perspective of the QA guy who suffered depression because he had to work 90 hour weeks or the programmer who had a marriage breakdown because he never saw his wife. It's just, "yeah crunch sucks but we made a great game so it was all worth it!"

I guess the take away for me is yes games are really hard to make, but wow there is some criminal mismanagement going on in this industry. How many hours did Ensemble waste on a Halo MMO without ever even getting approval from Microsoft that they were allowed to make one?
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I am very proud of Blood, Sweat, and Pixels, but my biggest regret is that I didn't come down harder against crunch and worker exploitation.

My next book (on which you can get updates here) will hopefully remedy that.

Also, I'll never re-create dialogue and fictionalize scenes the way books like Masters of Doom and Console Wars do--that's just not my preferred journalistic style--so as much as I also loved MoD, my work will always be very, very different. Great book, though.
 
Velocity:Design:Comfort

Velocity:Design:Comfort

Banned
Nov 23, 2017
4,302
legend166 said:
I bought it when it was on sale on a few weeks back and I'm about 70% through it now (I'm just starting the chapter on Destiny). It's definitely an enjoyable book, if a little high level.

One thing that is bugging me is the almost fetishization of crunch in the book. At that probably has less to do with the author and more the industry he's writing about, but it's been giving me an icky feeling the whole way through. It's one thing when you're reading about the indie teams who are crunching entirely off their own bat and will obviously be completely rewarded because they keep all the money, but it's different when it's a chapter on a AAA game and all you're hearing from is the heads of the studio who get all the acclaim and most likely the majority of the financial rewards. You're not reading the perspective of the QA guy who suffered depression because he had to work 90 hour weeks or the programmer who had a marriage breakdown because he never saw his wife. It's just, "yeah crunch sucks but we made a great game so it was all worth it!"

I guess the take away for me is yes games are really hard to make, but wow there is some criminal mismanagement going on in this industry. How many hours did Ensemble waste on a Halo MMO without ever even getting approval from Microsoft that they were allowed to make one?
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To Jason's credit he definitely seems to have evolved on how he covers that and he from what I am recall has posted and supported a ton of anti crunch and pro unionize stuff. Especially around the time of rdr2.


Edit: he beat me to it
 
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