In 2014, Yacht Club Games released its very first game, Shovel Knight, a joyful 2D platformer that wears its NES influences on its sleeve. This unlikely pastiche of 8-bit inspirations manages to emulate the look, feel, and even the technical limitations of nostalgic titles like Mega Man, Zelda II, and Castlevania III—imbued with a contemporary sense of humor and self-awareness. But how is a fundamentally retro game created in the modern era? And what do the games of the past have to teach ...

It is the Year 1994…In North America, turn-based strategy games were trampled by flashier video games like Doom and Mortal Kombat. All but one: Sid Meier's Civilization, a game of conquest and megahit developed by Maryland-based MicroProse.Over in southwest England, the producers at MicroProse UK aspired to design a tactical game that matched or exceeded the success of their American counterparts, who viewed the UK branch as nothing more than a support studio. Nearby, a bes...

To politicians and parents, Mortal Kombat was a menace to society. To gamers, it was a way of life. From dedicated hustlers who put thousands of miles on their odometers driving coast to coast to challenge the top players in arcades, to fans who devote their free time to collecting action figures, setting world records, and plumbing the depths of its lore, the Mortal Kombat franchise has topped sales charts for thirty years, and its popularity shows no signs of waning.

Game Dev Stories: Interviews About Game Development and Culture Volumes 1 and 2 are a collection of interviews from renowned author David L. Craddock as he explores all corners of the video game industry. Collected from the author's archives, Game Dev Stories gathers conversations with individuals from all corners of the industry: Who they are, the paths they paved, and their contributions to this multibillion-dollar industry. This text of...

In 1980, computers were instruments of science and mathematics, military secrets and academia. Stern administrators lorded over sterile university laboratories and stressed one point to the wide-eyed students privileged enough to set foot within them: Computers were not toys.Defying authority, hackers seized control of monolithic mainframes to create a new breed of computer game: the roguelike, cryptic and tough-as-nails adventures drawn from text-based symbols instead of state-of-...

Game Dev Stories: Interviews About Game Development and Culture Volumes 1 and 2 are a collection of interviews from renowned author David L. Craddock as he explores all corners of the video game industry. Collected from the author's archives, Game Dev Stories gathers conversations with individuals from all corners of the industry: Who they are, the paths they paved, and their contributions to this multibillion-dollar industry. This text of...

Two companies. Two opposing cultures. One multi-billion-dollar video-game empire.Stay Awhile and Listen: How Two Blizzards Unleashed Diablo and Forged a Video-Game Empire - Book 1 invites readers to discover the origin of Blizzard North, a studio built by gamers, for gamers, and Blizzard Entertainment, a convergence of designers driven to rule their industry.Composed from exhaustive research and hundreds of personal interviews, the Stay Awhile and Listen series divulges the...

"An entertaining, race-against-time narrative."—Kobo review"A fast-paced look into seven-day roguelikes, something so niche most people wouldn't have heard about, but the book is well written and shows how important it is to get your thoughts down so you can sort out your ideas."—Goodreads reviewEleven game designers. Eight grand ideas. Seven days to will them into reality.Every year, programmers around the world compete in the 7-da...

As a kid, Nicholas DiMucci dreamed of growing up and creating the world's next mega-best-selling video game. As an adult, he's got the money for an education and the passion to make his dream come true. There's just one problem. He's deathly afraid of math.Angels, Devils, and Boomsticks: The Making of Demons with Shotguns follows an aspiring designer as he conquers his fears and pursues his dream of releasing his first commercial video game.

In 1980, computers were instruments of science and mathematics, military secrets and academia. Stern administrators lorded over sterile university laboratories and stressed one point to the wide-eyed students privileged enough to set foot within them: Computers were not toys.Defying authority, hackers seized control of monolithic mainframes to create a new breed of computer game: the roguelike, cryptic and tough-as-nails adventures drawn from text-based symbols instead of state-of-...

Reginald Bacon was no Drake, Hawke or Nelson, yet in a naval career that spanned four decades of critical change for the Royal Navy, he was a pivotal figure among Admiral ‘Jacky’ Fisher’s ‘five best brains in the navy’ who revolutionised Britain’s naval warfighting capability between 1900 and the end of the First World War.This new biography traces Bacon’s remarkable career from his service as a fifteen-year-old Midshipman aboard Sir Geoffrey Hornby’s Mediterranean flagship to his ...

A colorful history of visual signalling methods used at sea, from AD 900 to today.What Ship, Where Bound? takes its title from the familiar opening exchange of signals between passing ships, and celebrates the long history of visual communications at sea. It traces the visual language of signalling from the earliest naval banners or streamers used by the Byzantines in AD 900 through to morse signalling still used at sea today.The three sections, Flag...