I'll be chatting to authour David L. Craddock next Wednesday about his forthcoming book, Rocket Jump: Quake and the Golden Age of First-Person Shooters.
Please post any questions you'd like me to put to him in the thread below.
Rocket Jump Book Explores the Making of id Software's Quake Franchise and Other First-Person Shooters from the 1990s
February 16, 2018 –Author and gaming historian David L. Craddock has partnered with crowdfunding publisher Unbound to publish his popular online book Rocket Jump: Quake and the Golden Age of First-Person Shooters in hardcover and digital formats.
Originally published on gaming and technology website Shacknews.com, Rocket Jump: Quake and the Golden Age of First-Person Shooters recounts the making of developer id Software's groundbreaking Quake franchise and explores the studio's history and culture through firsthand interviews with key developers such as id co-founders John Carmack and John Romero.
Rocket Jump will be printed in full color complete with illustrations, photographs, and details of never-before-seen games from id Software's archive of abandoned projects. Additional chapters titled "Pause Screens" share interviews and oral histories on the making of other impactful shooters from the 1990s including Half-Life, Duke Nukem 3D, and Star Wars: Dark Forces.
At Unbound.com/Books/Rocket-Jump, readers can pledge financial support in exchange for rewards ranging from autographed books and bookplates to digital and print libraries of Craddock's previous gaming history books such as Stay Awhile and Listen: Book 1, Dungeon Hacks, and GameDev Stories: Interviews About Game Development and Culture.
"The 1990s was my favorite decade for first-person shooters," said Craddock. "It was a period of rampant creativity for these game developers, but there were also huge egos in play. Shacknews' leadership gave me the time necessary to write the most detailed account of that era possible for our readers, who also look back fondly on those games. I'm incredibly proud of how it turned out, and I'm thrilled to have the opportunity to publish Rocket Jump as a hardcover and digital book with the talented designers and editors at Unbound."
"I couldn't be more excited to publish Rocket Jump," said Beth Lewis, commissioning editor at Unbound. "This book is a fascinating look at the origins of an entire gaming genre, directly from the people who created it. I've been a gamer most of my life and I've never read such an in-depth, impeccably researched and well-written exploration of such a key area of the videogame industry."
Unbound and Craddock are targeting a Spring 2019 publication date for Rocket Jump: Quake and the Golden Age of First-Person Shooters. For more information, visit Unbound.com/Books/Rocket-Jump.
About David L. Craddock
David L. Craddock lives with his wife in northeast Ohio. He is the author of The Gairden Chronicles and War of the Elementalists fantasy series for young adults, Break Out: How the Apple II Launched the PC Gaming Revolution, the bestselling Stay Awhile and Listen books that recount the history of Blizzard Entertainment, and Rocket Jump: Quake and the Golden Age of First-Person Shooters. Visit him at davidlcraddock.com and on Twitter @davidlcraddock.
I'm afraid I don't have a lot of first-hand experience with the "Golden Age of First-Person Shooters", but I would be interested to hear your thoughts on the 2016 DOOM reboot and whether or not it manages to re-capture the design philosophy of the various 90's classics? Furthermore, what do you think of the recent resurgence of competitive multiplayer arena-style shooters such as Lawbreakers and especially the upcoming Quake Champions?
This Friday I'm going to interview David again, this time about his next project - Stay Awhile and Listen: Book II – Heaven, Hell, and Secret Cow Levels:
On June 29th, the 18th anniversary of Diablo 2's release, I'll be launching a Kickstarter for Stay Awhile and Listen: Book II – Heaven, Hell, and Secret Cow Levels. The book continues my narrative-style account of Blizzard Entertainment and Blizzard North, exploring each studio's culture during development of StarCraft and Diablo II, leading up to the summer of 2003 when Blizzard North co-founders David Brevik and Max and Erich Schaefer were ousted from their company along with roughly two-thirds of their staff.
I wrote the book based on extensive research as well as interviews with over 50 developers who provided insight into the evolution of both Blizzards and their projects, including never-before-revealed details on games that were cancelled.
The first book was a bestseller and garnered praise from design luminaries such as Julian Gollop, Richard Garriott, and Dr. Ray Muzyka.
Any questions that you'd like me to put to the author, please post them in this here thread.
Blizzard are notorious for long development cycles but also hyper polished and enjoyable games.
Do you think as they’re dabbling in console games more and more that it’s going to or already is having an effect on their development times?
With a company as big as Activision/Blizzard you’d hope that it’s speed up but whatever they’ve got coming next seems to be an absolute age away and hoping that more versions doesn’t mean a longer wait
I've always preferred the scifi setting of StarCraft over Warcraft and I find the world to be extremely rich and exciting. I wonder if the Starcraft universe wouldn't be a great sandbox for other types of games, though the failed StarCraft: Ghost makes me think Blizzard is less than enthusiastic about that idea. As a fan of StarCraft, should I be thankful Blizzard isn't churning out games with lesser quality or is this a hesitance on their part that maybe I could be a bit impatient with?
