Tag: games

Book: Sid Meier “Sid Meier’s Memoir! A Life in Computer Games”

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In the video game industry, there are trendsetters, visionaries like Steve Jobs, and other legends. And then there are the gods. I’m not afraid of this comparison—Sid Meier can be counted among the gods of game development. Because it’s impossible not to know him, and his creations have forever changed the industry, setting the course for a significant number of genres and franchises. Even players who may not recognize his name almost certainly know at least one of his games, and that game is Civilization.

There are people whose names became their calling cards. Their games were bought without question, their name alone enough of a guarantee, because they had already created masterpieces in the past. But I can’t readily recall anyone else whose name was consistently placed directly in the titles of their games. With Sid Meier, this happened multiple times, starting with that very Civilization, officially titled Sid Meier’s Civilization (though the idea of adding his name to the titles didn’t actually come from Sid Meier himself).

Why can he be called a god? Precisely because, with resources modest by today’s standards, he managed to create an entire world with its own nations, a world that grew and evolved according to the rules set by its creator. He made his own Earth, where every player could also feel a bit like a god, guiding their chosen group of people from the dawn of time to the era of space exploration (in the original game, humanity’s journey to Alpha Centauri was one of the possible endings).

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Book: Vasiliy Sabirov “The Numbers Game”

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A few weeks ago, I wrote about Alexey Savchenko’s book Game as Business, which provides an excellent description of the gaming industry from the perspective of production and working with publishers. However, it says almost nothing about what comes next. Especially if your game is designed to last for years: how to work with users, how to study their behavior, and, ultimately, how to make millions.

That’s why Vasiliy Sabirov’s book Game by Numbers, which was also published last year, serves as a perfect complement. Its subtitle, How Analytics Helps Video Games Thrive, speaks volumes.

But first, a bit about the author. Vasiliy Sabirov is an analyst with extensive experience. Over the course of his career, he worked as an analyst and head of the payment solutions department at Xsolla (one of the largest players in the gaming payment market), as a lead analyst at the gaming company Alternativa Games, and then moved on to the emerging devtodev (now the largest gaming analytics service in the Russian-speaking game development sector). At devtodev, he worked as head of the analytics department and also served as an evangelist for both the service itself and its educational platform, where he released a course, including one on gaming analytics. In 2020, he made a major life change, transitioning (and relocating) to work as a lead analyst at the gaming company Easybrain (also one of the major players in the mobile gaming market). In other words, Vasiliy knows what analytics is and how it works. I would even say that if you’re talking about game analytics in Russian-speaking companies, Vasiliy Sabirov is the first name that comes to mind.

Now about the book and game analytics. If people around you are throwing around strange terms like MAU, LTV, ARPPU, and others, and you find yourself staring blankly, it’s time to read this book. Because behind these intimidating acronyms lie concepts that aren’t all that complicated. Learning how to work with this data properly, however, is the next step. But let’s take it one step at a time.

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Book: Alexey Savchenko “Game as a Business”

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Alexey Savchenko is a name well-known in the Russian gaming community, and not just there. For some time, he officially held the position of Evangelist for the Unreal game engine, and even now, many still refer to Alexey by that title. Open in communication, always ready to help—a remarkable colleague. When he announced that he was planning to release a book about the gaming business, I had no doubt that it would be worth purchasing and reading.

Although Alexey is now primarily involved in working with business partners, he has had a long journey and knows game development from many different angles, including as the owner of his own studio. In his book Game as a Business, he set out to describe all aspects of the gaming industry and project development—”from dream to release,” as the subtitle states.

Alexey structured the book along this very path, beginning with “I have a dream… I want to make games.” From there, he meticulously yet accessibly explains what awaits an aspiring game developer on the road to creating their dream game and, ideally, achieving fame and fortune.

It is evident that the author has a deep understanding of the subject, and the book is both accessible to industry newcomers and engaging for professionals. Despite my many years in the gaming industry, I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book.

One of the most valuable aspects is how Alexey begins his advice by helping newcomers understand what lies behind their dream. Does the aspiring developer truly want to create their own game? Are they ready for the challenges this path entails? This guide is specifically for people who have decided to start their own business and are willing to risk their time, money, family relationships, and ambitions. Because if all you want is to make games, then joining an established studio is also an excellent path to consider.

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Book: Dmitry Glukhovsky “Metro 2035”

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In September, I wrote in this blog about the game Metro: Exodus—the latest part in the trilogy about Artyom. I also briefly covered the original source material, Dmitry Glukhovsky’s Metro series. The first game followed the plot of the first book quite closely, but after that, the games and books began to diverge, though they clearly influenced each other, especially since Dmitry Glukhovsky was heavily involved in the development of the games.

I really liked the first book in the series back in the day, despite some critiques of its writing style. However, it was easy to forgive the author because the concept was so intriguing. The plot itself wasn’t new: yet another “messiah” traveling from point A to point B to bring happiness to everyone. But the setting of a post-apocalyptic world, where only a few survivors now have to live underground—this was captivating. Glukhovsky added mysticism and science fiction elements, and, unexpectedly, the book became a hit, turning Dmitry Glukhovsky into a mega-star. His books have been translated into numerous languages, Metro inspired a highly successful video game, and his relatively new novel Text was adapted into a film in Russia featuring top Russian actors. But I covered all of this in my last post, so I won’t repeat myself.

After the first book, I quickly read the second, but it featured different characters and lacked both the originality and emotional impact of the first. However, when Glukhovsky released the third book in the series in 2015, I bought it immediately and started reading right away. I managed to get through at most 100 pages before putting it down in frustration and even wrote a brief, emotional post on Facebook. I simply couldn’t keep reading—I disliked the book that much.

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Game: Metro Exodus

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Though belated, I want to share my thoughts on the third part of the Metro game universe—Metro Exodus. But first, let’s dive into a historical overview of its origins and the earlier games.

The Metro series, developed by the Kyiv-based company 4A Games, is based on the works of Dmitry Glukhovsky. Glukhovsky wrote the first novel, Metro 2033, back in 2002, but it was not quite the novel we know today. It originally had only 13 chapters, and Glukhovsky published it online for free. Unexpectedly, the novel gained popularity, but readers didn’t like everything about it. So, in 2005, Dmitry made significant revisions to the book, expanding it to 20 chapters and altering the main character’s fate (in the original version, he dies). It was in this revised form that the novel first appeared in print.

The story is set in the year 2033, 20 years after a nuclear war that left few survivors, and Moscow itself became an almost uninhabitable place. To make matters worse, various mutants emerged, eager to finish off the last remaining humans. Only those who were lucky enough to be in the Moscow metro system during the attack managed to survive. The metro became their new home, eventually dividing into micro-states with their own authorities, rules, and even ideologies. The entire book is essentially a quest in which the main character, Artyom, must travel from one point in the metro to another. Along the way, he encounters various stations and faces both human adversaries and mutants, as well as supernatural elements.

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Literary Games: Me in Books

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In the early 2000s, I was deeply involved in the Russian sci-fi community, writing my own stories and reviewing all the latest sci-fi releases in Russian. They say my resource on this topic was among the most popular at the time and later even inspired the name of this blog—The Notes of Glitch the Hamster.

Back then, there was a kind of game among sci-fi writers: they would insert their colleagues into their works in various ways. Maybe this tradition continues today, though I no longer follow it. Or perhaps everyone has grown up and stopped playing the game.

The most notable character was Yuri Semetsky, who became a kind of Sean Bean—not in movies, but in Russian fandom. He was “killed off” in one way or another in nearly every book, and it even became a trend. He would joke that this would ensure his long life.

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GOG Galaxy Unites Platforms

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CD Projekt continues to develop its GOG service, which began as a store for selling classic, DRM-free games. In my observation, it hasn’t managed to win the platform war against Steam, but they recently made an excellent move. Forget the platform war; they’ve chosen to target the numerous launchers from different platforms and essentially become a single aggregator for your gaming library. Steam has long been connectable via a plugin, but official integration first came with Xbox Store and now with Steam’s growing competitor, the Epic Games Store.

I fully support this initiative because they haven’t just consolidated a game library in one place; they’ve also maximized the functionality of each platform they can integrate with—friends, statuses, achievements…

They’ve even added a rating system and filtering features. With this, they are gradually moving into a different territory, suddenly competing with game databases like rawg.io and igdb.com.

Well done!

https://www.pcgamer.com/epic-games-store-has-officially-integrated-into-gog-galaxy-20

Game: FRAMED Collection

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This week’s unexpected discovery—FRAMED. Or rather, two games, as it’s sold as the FRAMED Collection, including both parts.

The game is remarkable for its concept: it tells a story through an interactive comic. Each level is like a page from a comic where you can interact with the “frames.” As you progress, new actions become available. At first, you can only swap two frames. Then, you must create a sequence that leads to the desired outcome. Each attempt shows how the story unfolds with the current sequence, helping you understand what went wrong. Eventually, you can rotate frames or change them mid-action, even multiple times.

Add to that vividly drawn silhouette-style characters, and the game becomes nearly a masterpiece.

It’s rather short, though. Both parts together took me around two hours. But my whole family was captivated, one by one, fascinated by the idea and the mechanics.

I highly recommend it to all puzzle game lovers. It’s worth every cent, 100%. And right now, it’s on a 60% discount on Steam, making it practically a steal.

Andrey Podshibyakin “Time of Games!”

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It seems that the book Blood, Sweat, and Pixels was quite successful in demonstrating that the public is very interested in stories about games and their creators. Suddenly, previously published books started being reprinted, and new ones began to appear quickly. One of these is a book by Andrey Podshibyakin, who started his career in the gaming industry as a journalist for the “GAME.EXE” magazine. Unlike Jason Schreier’s aforementioned book, Andrey focused only on Russian games and companies, including our very own “World of Tanks.”

Like Schreier, Andrey Podshibyakin selected a few games around which he built his book, giving it the subtitle “The Russian Gaming Industry in Faces and Dreams: from Parkan to World of Tanks.” The list includes:

  • “Parkan,” 1997
  • “Vangers,” 1998
  • “Hard Truck,” 1998 (and sequels from 2001 and 2009)
  • “Rage of Mages: The Seal of Mystery,” 1998
  • “Sea Dogs: The Curse of the Distant Seas” (actually, it’s called “The Curse of Far Seas”), 2001 (and the sequel from 2003)
  • “IL-2 Sturmovik,” 2001
  • “Silent Storm,” 2003
  • “Perimeter,” 2004
  • “S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl,” 2007, and “S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky,” 2008
  • “Cut the Rope,” 2010
  • “World of Tanks,” 2010
  • There are also several unreleased titles, such as “Vseslav the Sorcerer” and “The Adventures of Captain Blood,” among others.

Even this list shows that just text may not be enough for such a book. While Schreier covered globally recognized games, here are titles that many modern readers may not know, and those who do may not remember the details. Hence, illustrations would be very helpful. Memory is unreliable: you may recall that something was fantastic, but you still want to look back and compare those breakthrough graphics with today’s standards.

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Jason Schreier “Blood, Sweat, and Pixels”

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A month ago, I celebrated my 10-year anniversary working at the game company Wargaming.net. However, my entire professional career actually began with video games, back when I used to write out the program for a computer version of Monopoly in a notebook. I never finished it—making games is tough, especially when all your work can vanish due to a faulty audio cassette where it was saved. But even my first programs were related to games: business simulations, educational, and card games. So, you could say I’ve been in the industry, with breaks, for over 25 years.

That’s why it was especially interesting for me to read Jason Schreier’s much-talked-about book Blood, Sweat, and Pixels, which, as its subtitle suggests, reveals “stories behind how video games are made.”

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