Embed with Games

Just finished reading Embed With Games by Cara Ellison. This was written by a journalist who took a year off to travel. She visited independent game developers all over the world and shared her experiences. You would think that I would like this based on that setup. Unfortunately, I did not.

Part of the problem may have been that Cara is a Scot having lived in Britain. So there is a culture gap there. She also compares and seems to expect that you know about a bunch of games out there. I mostly do not, so that was all lost on me.

The other weird thing is what Cara focuses on in this book. A lot of it is her itinerary and her beliefs on what makes for a great indie game. I am not so interested in that. I was hoping to hear the details of independent game development all over the world. Did not seem to get a lot of that.

By the end of the book, I was looking forward to moving on to my next book to read. Not good. Not good at all.

Jacked - The Outlaw Story of Grant Theft Auto

Just finished reading this book about Grand Theft Auto. Actually, the book is more about the guy who founded Rockstar Games, creator of Grant Theft Auto. I have heard a lot about the game in the past. Did not really know a lot about it.

The real surprise was that Sam Houser, CEO of Rockstar Games, comes from Britain. He did bring his boys with him to New York to develop the games. But they all fared from England.

A large portion of the book covered the fight of Jack Thompson. Jack was against games such as Grant Theft Auto. He was a lawyer and was good a getting the media to follow him. He really was a pain to the Grand Theft Auto developers.

This book goes through Grand Theft Auto I through IV. I like how the developers did research on the cities where the games would take place. That was a dangerous mission as they set their scenes in some pretty dark neighborhoods.

It was disappointing that many original team members tried to spin off with their own game development companies but failed. Rockstar Games has a number of other game lines other than GTA that have had some level of success too.

Dungeon H@cks

I read a print version of this book. Got to know about the book when the author shared one of the bonus sections from the book online. This book tracks the history of Rogue-like games. These are my favorite types of games. I have been playing them for over 20 years. So you know I am biased.

The thing I loved about this book was that I learned a lot about the author of the specific rogue-like game I play called Angband. I have been sharing this guy's story with friends and family. I always see his name in the credits when I play the game. Now I know a little more about him.

This book probably is only of interest to people who are into Rogue-like games. Only the hardcore can appreciate the deep history of Nethack, Rogue, Moria, and Anagband. I did learn a bunch about some even earlier games in the genre.

I want to get another book by this author. Unfortunately it is only available electronically, and I am on a print version kick right now.