Red to Black: The Making of Rogue Legacy

I am a huge fan of Roguelike games. Not a big fan of this book. This book documents the path taken to produce Rogue Legacy. It was developed by two brothers. One of them kept a side job to pay the bills. The other programmed the game full time. They had previously made smaller Flash games..

This book did cover a bunch of details. An example is the story of how they hired musicians to produce the music for the game. But interesting details were missing. Game development itself is not such an exciting subject. I was hoping the author could make it exciting.

I can say that I have never played Rogue Legacy. This book did not make me want to run out and download the game. Too bad. I am working extra hard to choose a better book to read next time.

The Making of Prince of Persia

This book chronicles Jordan Mechner's life, through the time he made and helped market his game Prince of Persia. Jordan had made a game for the Apple called Karateka. His follow up was Prince of Persia. Surprisingly, he made the game for Broderbund, but his compensation was a percentage of sale. He was not an employee.

Prince of Persia was something special because Jordan used a video camera to capture how a real life person looks while running, jumping, and doing other Prince of Persia acrobatics. He developed the game near the end of the era for any demand for Apple II computer games. Of course there were ports to other systems like Nintendo and the PC.

The book goes on to follow Jordan after he finishes the game, as he pursues learning how to shoot movies, and also his consulting on Prince of Persia 2. By the end we find out that he forms his own game development company. Quite a thrilling read. Makes you want to run out and develop some video games.

#Girlboss

This book tells the story of Sophia Amoruso, CEO and founder of Nasty Gal Vintage Clothing. She started out reselling vintage clothes on eBay. Then she moved on to selling the clothes on her own website. This was pretty amazing as she barely made it through high school, and quit or was fired from a myriad of jobs.

Sophia does also introduce you to her outlook on life. The book is somewhat geared towards young girls who might grow up to be girl bosses themselves. I really wanted to read this book because, in the end, Sophia's company went bankrupt. This book was written when her company was near it's highs.

I would tell anyone to read this book for enjoyment. There are some annoying bits. But it is written well.