Blood, Sweat, and Pixels
The Triumphant, Turbulent Stories Behind How Video Games Are Made
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Blood, Sweat, and Pixels
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Narrated by:
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Ray Chase
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By:
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Jason Schreier
About this listen
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 listeners on a fascinating odyssey behind the scenes of video game development, where the creator may be a team of 600 overworked underdogs or a solitary geek genius. Exploring the artistic challenges, technical impossibilities, marketplace demands, and Donkey Kong-size monkey wrenches thrown into the works by corporate, Blood, Sweat, and Pixels reveals how bringing any game to completion is more than Sisyphean - it's nothing short of miraculous.
Taking some of the most popular, best-selling recent games, Schreier immerses listeners in the hellfire of the development process, whether it's RPG studio Bioware's challenge to beat an impossible schedule and overcome countless technical nightmares to build Dragon Age: Inquisition; indie developer Eric Barone's single-handed efforts to grow country-life RPG Stardew Valley from one man's vision into a multimillion-dollar franchise; or Bungie spinning out from their corporate overlords at Microsoft to create Destiny, a brand-new universe that they hoped would become as iconic as Star Wars and Lord of the Rings - even as it nearly ripped their studio apart.
Documenting the round-the-clock crunches, buggy-eyed burnout, and last-minute saves, Blood, Sweat, and Pixels is a journey through development hell - and ultimately a tribute to the dedicated diehards and unsung heroes who scale mountains of obstacles in their quests to create the best games imaginable.
©2017 Jason Schreier (P)2017 HarperCollins PublishersWhat listeners say about Blood, Sweat, and Pixels
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Paul Stewart
- 28-10-2017
Insightful
An insightful, clear and well-paced book. It puts a human face on game development. Having enjoyed Schreier's work on Kotaku, I had a feeling it would be solid, but it was better than expected The attention to detail was particularly pleasing.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Anonymous User
- 13-01-2020
Essential reading for gamers
For anyone interested in video games, this is essential reading! Jason Schreier does a fantastic job collecting stories of how game devs actually make a game, and how lucky we are that this art form exists.
Having each chapter focus on a single game makes the book easy to digest, and they way it is written is very easy to follow.
I highly recommend this book. Please read it!!
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Anonymous User
- 27-10-2019
wish Jason read it himself.
Learning what it can take to make a game was fasinating, loved the amount of detail in the book can't wait for the second installment.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Rhett Leech
- 28-01-2020
Very interesting collection of developer interviews
As a corporate software developer is was extremely interesting to hear the same issues scheduling, unclear management and shifting priorities extend to other like companies.
Structuring each chapter as a separate game provided a natural break point.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Gage
- 25-01-2018
Fascinating Throughout
Was hoping there'd be more small scale stories but a worthwhile listen regardless. Narration was appropriate and competent.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Annabelle
- 30-12-2020
Amazing
Loved every minute, super interesting and well written. Great narration and great stories! Thank you!!!
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Rohan Thomas
- 22-01-2019
Surprisingly good
Great listen. Such an in-site into the world of gaming development. I've played most of the games talked about in this book and it was great to hear all the in depth trauma and elation that goes into making them.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Markus Howard
- 11-01-2022
A definitive truth behind the games we love.
Blood, Sweat and Pixels is the forefront of investigative journalism in the video game industry, like every industry on Earth Blood, Sweat and Pixels shows that this industry is far from innocent and it too has its dark moments. Jason Schreier does an amazing job explaining his witness to some of the more significant behind the scenes stories in the industry, from personal accounts of the Devs behind the games they're making to creative direction that challenges the studios and the money making boards behind the decisions that often lead to a worse game than visioned.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Daniel
- 18-07-2022
Good insight into the industry
Well written and broken up into studios/games that helped to showcase unique and common challenges and setbacks in the world of game development.
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- Very low quality. Not happy
- 22-09-2022
my new favourite non fiction book
I never knew a book about game development would be so great. I was hooked on every story. Thank you for writing this book and I will be looking forward to reading the next one.
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