Stay Awhile and Listen tells the story of Blizzard on October 31
Stay Awhile and Listen, David Craddock's book on the life of Blizzard Entertainment, has received a release date and can fill your virtual shelf on October 31.
Digital Monument Press has announced a release date for the first book in the Stay Awhile and Listen series from author and longtime Shacknews community member, David Craddock. The story of the early years of Blizzard will make its debut on October 31.
The first book in Craddock's series will focus on the developers from both Blizzard Entertainment and Blizzard North, as they create the premiere Warcraft and Diablo titles. Future installments of the series will look into World of Warcraft's impact on Blizzard, the closure of Blizzard North, and the making of Starcraft and Warcraft, while also focusing on the Diablo trilogy.
"Diablo makes a fine lens through which to analyze both Blizzard North and Blizzard Entertainment since each studio had a hand in all three games," said Craddock. "By zooming in on one Diablo game per book, I can thoroughly explore the era in which each game was made, the people who came together to make the games, and how both studios evolved along the way."
Stay Awhile and Listen will be available for $9.99 on Kindle, iBooks, and Nook. For those wanting an early look, check out Shacknews' coverage, which includes an exclusive look at one of the book's chapters.
-
Shacknews
replyOzzie Mejia posted a new article, Stay Awhile and Listen tells the story of Blizzard on October 31.
Stay Awhile and Listen, David Craddock's book on the life of Blizzard Entertainment, has received a release date and can fill your virtual shelf on October 31.-
Pretty awesome. Congrats David!
-
Thanks!
-
-
Cool!
-
From my blog: the table of contents and an explanation of how bonus material works in the book
--
Prologue: The Corpse Run - 8
Chapter 1: Silicon and String Bikinis - 15
Chapter 2: Desktop Heroes - 28
Chapter 3: Project Condor - 41
Chapter 4: Superman Can't Kick - 53
Chapter 5: The Business Plan Du Jour - 73
Chapter 6: The World of WarCraft - 90
Chapter 7: The Game We'll Make Someday - 111
Chapter 8: The Velvet Hammer - 125
Chapter 9: The Condor Test - 147
Chapter 10: Spit, Bubblegum, and Floppy Disks - 167
Chapter 11: Light and Dark - 189
Chapter 12: Battles and Battle.net - 207
Chapter 13: The Golden Times - 221
Epilogue: Phenomenon - 245
Side Quests: Chapter 1 - 246
Side Quests: Chapter 2 - 249
Side Quests: Chapter 3 - 253
Side Quests: Chapter 4 - 256
Side Quests: Chapter 5 - 257
Side Quests: Chapter 6 - 263
Side Quests: Chapter 7 - 274
Side Quests: Chapter 8 - 276
Side Quests: Chapter 9 - 280
Side Quests: Chapter 10 - 291
Side Quests: Chapter 11 - 296
Side Quests: Chapter 12 - 307
Side Quests: Chapter 13 - 310
Bonus Round 1: Condor's Lost Games - 321
Bonus Round 2: "Rock Balls" - The Making of WarCraft II - 325
Bonus Round 3: Cartridge Chronicles - 340
Bonus Round 4: Interview with Brian Fargo, Founder of Interplay Productions, Inc. - 348
Bonus Round 5: Interview with Feargus Urquhart, Producer at Interplay Productions - 354
Bonus Round 6: Interview with Scott Coleman and Jay Cotton, Creators of Kali - 360
Bonus Round 7: Interview with Efraim Wyeth and Mike Sigal, Founders of FM Waves - 370
Bear in mind that this TOC reflects a double-spaced Microsoft Word document. On an iPad-sized screen, SAAL #1 weighs in at closer to 500 pages.
But you're not interested in the page count, are you? You're salivating over all that juicy bonus content. Allow me to explain how those "Side Quests" and "Bonus Rounds" work. Here's how it works, straight from an author's note at the beginning of SAAL #1.
--------------------------------------------------------
I accumulated a dragon's horde of material over five years of research and interviews forStay Awhile and Listen. So much material, in fact, that I risked cramming chapters so full of information that they became weighty and tangential. Rather than stuff each chapter to excess, I spread content across three sections: the main book, Side Quests, and Bonus Rounds.
Main Book
The meat and potatoes of Stay Awhile and Listen consists of an introduction, thirteen chapters, and an epilogue. You can skip the Side Quests and Bonus Rounds if you like, but you'll miss out on lots of behind-the-scenes stories and information if you do.
Side Quests
Side Quests collect supplementary material. As you read, you'll come across "[SQ]" markers. Touch a marker and you'll jump to an anecdote or bit of history relevant to the passage you just read in the main book. From there, tap "[Return to Chapter]" to zip right back to where you left off. Or, if you like, you can save the Side Quests for after you've finished the main book.
Side Quests come in seven varieties:
- Level 1: Game developers relate how they went from playing games to making games for a living. Readers who aspire to do the same should take these stories to heart.
- Byte-Sized History: Anecdotes from developers and historical overviews of studios, game hardware, and important figures in the games industry.
- Game Design 101: Lessons concerning play testing, storytelling, difficulty, pacing, how visuals and music enhance gameplay, and other areas of game design.
- Behind the Code: A peek behind the curtain to learn technical details such as implementing features in a game's code and creating art for characters and game levels.
- Cutting Room Floor: Game content that was conceptualized or developed, but left unused.
- Sanctuary Speaks: We asked various online communities to submit their most memorable anecdotes related to games covered in Stay Awhile and Listen. Sanctuary Speaks (Sanctuary being the world where Diablo unfolds) shares those stories.
- Author's Note: An introduction or explanation that provides a frame of reference for the content that follows the note.
Bonus Rounds
Bonus Rounds are extra chapters that expand on people, events, and games covered in the main book. You can read the Bonus Rounds whenever you choose, in any order you choose, but they are best absorbed after finishing the main book.
-
Two thumbs up but papyrus. :(
