Significant Zero: Heroes, Villains, and the Fight for Art and Soul in Video Games

From the award-winning videogame author behind Spec Ops: The Line comes an unique behind-the-scenes have a look at how at this time’s blockbuster video video games are made.

When his satirical musings in a school newspaper bought him discharged from the Air Power, it turned clear to Walt Williams that his future in life was to be a author—he simply by no means thought he’d find yourself writing video video games, not to mention engaged on a number of the most profitable franchises within the trade—Bioshock, Civilization, Borderlands, and Mafia amongst others.

Williams pulls again the curtain on an astonishingly worthwhile trade that has put its stamp on popular culture and but is little recognized to these outdoors its partitions. In his reflective but comically-observant voice, Williams walks you thru his unlikely and at instances inglorious rise inside one of many world’s prime gaming firms, exposing an trade plentiful in mind energy and out-sized egos, however struggling to remain revolutionary. Vital Zero additionally supplies clear-eyed criticism of the trade’s dependancy to violence and explains how the position of the narrative designer—the poor soul answerable for harmonizing gameplay with storylines—is essential for increasing the scope of video video games into extra immersive and emotional experiences.

Vital Zero presents a uncommon look inside this fascinating, billion-dollar trade and a path ahead for its gifted women and men—avid gamers and nongamers alike—that imagines how video video games would possibly encourage the perfect in all of us.

Writer ‏ : ‎ Atria Books (September 19, 2017)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 304 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1501129953
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1501129957
Merchandise Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.02 kilos
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.5 x 1 x 9.5 inches