David Craddock's upcoming X-COM: UFO Defense book 'Monsters in the Dark' now on Kickstarter

X-COM is a legendary game for a lot of reasons. The ability to recruit soldiers you’d bond with over missions, the tragedy when they’d permadie, and the sheer difficulty of balance in time management and battle with the unknown… This alien invasion research, turn-based strategy, and earth defense management sim featured a wealth of gameplay mechanics and design that would influence further games across various genres for decades to come. That’s likely part of why Long Reads Editor David Craddock has chosen it as his next subject of interest with his upcoming book, Monsters in the Dark: The Making of X-COM: UFO Defense, available for backing now on Kickstarter.

The Kickstarter for Monsters in the Dark: The Making of X-COM: UFO Defense launched on March 9, 2021. In this book, David Craddock intends to take an expanded dive into the formative history of X-COM: UFO Defense and its creator, Julian Gollop. The book goes back as far as Gollop’s childhood, creating pen-and-paper games and learning programming on the ZX Spectrum and follows him through lessons learned in early games like Time Lords and Laser Squad before finally pitching what would become X-COM: UFO Defense.

The original X-COM was a marriage of strategy and resource management like no other, and Monsters in the Dark: The Making of X-COM: UFO Defense aims to tell the whole story of how it was made.

Backing of Monsters in the Dark: The Making of X-COM: UFO Defense is available through the Kickstarter up until April 8, 2021, with a goal of $12,000 to fully fund it. Reward tiers include everything from supporting it just to support it, up to and including digital and physical special edition copies of the book and the limited opportunity for a conversation with Craddock.

If you’d like to get a taste of what’s in store in Craddock’s latest book, you can read selected excerpts from Monsters in the Dark: The Making of X-COM: UFO Defense right here at Shacknews, as well as on Kotaku and further coming publications (check the Kickstarter description for more details).

With a final date of April 8 on Craddock’s Monsters in the Dark: The Making of X-COM: UFO Defense Kickstarter and some reward tiers limited, be sure to get in early if you want to get your hands on any special rewards you might be interested. Stay tuned for further coverage and information such as release dates here as well.