Tag: software-development

Book: Raphaël Lucas “The History of The Witcher”

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The Witcher is one of the few Eastern European franchises to achieve worldwide fame and recognition. In his book, Raphaël Lucas set out to tell the story of how this franchise came to be.

I know that many fans of both the games and Andrzej Sapkowski’s literary original were thrilled when this book was announced. It quickly became a coveted gift for any occasion. I’ve read the main saga (except for the later novel that stands somewhat apart) and played through all three games in the series adapted by CD Projekt RED. My feelings toward the books are lukewarm, which has earned me the disapproval of some of my more fervent fan friends. Among the games, I especially highlight the third one, where the developers clearly sold their souls to the devil (and I say this with firsthand knowledge of what it takes to create games).

That said, I’m always interested in reading about how such iconic products come to life, especially from industry peers, so it didn’t take long for me to pick up the book—luckily, it’s not very long.

While expecting a comprehensive overview of the franchise, I knew this wouldn’t just be about the games (even though the cover prominently features a poster from the third installment). However, the author started from an even earlier point.

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Book: Egor Yatsenko “IT Recruitment”

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In recent years I’ve been reading quite a lot about hiring specialists, and I find it interesting to look at the topic from both sides. I interview candidates myself, and I’m constantly trying to get better at it. At the same time, when reading books about hiring, I always try to recall how I was interviewed, how I behaved as a candidate, and what I liked or disliked about the people doing the hiring.

About a year ago, Alpina released a new book on IT recruitment. I wasn’t familiar with the author, Egor Yatsenko, but the reviews were generally quite positive, so it would have been a shame not to pick it up.

With this kind of literature, though, it’s always important to understand the qualifications of the “trainer.” Egor Yatsenko is the co-founder of the recruitment agency Wanted: Profi, which specializes in hiring for the IT sector. In addition, he’s well known as a frequent speaker at various industry conferences, regularly giving talks, and he’s also involved in teaching sourcing (a professional term that essentially means targeted candidate search across different platforms).

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Book: David Kushner “Masters of Doom”

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It seems like not so long ago I used to get carried away in computer clubs, where you had to move a few squares across the screen from point A to point B, and then there was a masterpiece in the form of the game Karateka. These days you look at a game that’s, say, five years old — ten, heaven forbid — and you already think: ugh, how could we even play that? And yet 35 years ago it was those very squares on the screen that seemed to us like a miracle of miracles.

And that’s why it’s so fascinating now to read the biographies of people who are, essentially, already legends, who rapidly changed both the video game industry itself and society’s attitude toward it. The story of id Software is just such an example.

David Kushner’s book is titled Masters of Doom, making it clear which game is considered the most famous, which name can attract potential readers. Modern players are more likely to know Doom (2016) and its sequel Doom Eternal, and are unlikely to have ever played those very first games.

For me, though, the acquaintance with the company’s games began much earlier — although back then I paid no attention to who actually made them. I remember playing Commander Keen in the school computer lab. And later, when Wolfenstein 3D appeared, it became not only a breakthrough and the progenitor of all shooter games. It was also the first game my father ever played on a computer — and at that time he was about as far from technology as one could be. So, you could say I’ve walked almost the entire path alongside this company — only as a player.

But when I say that the book tells the story of id Software, that’s not quite true. It’s not so much the story of a company as it is the story of its two founders — “the two Johns,” as the author constantly calls them: John Romero and John Carmack, two guys who “created an empire and transformed pop culture.”

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Books Worth Reading (2017–2022)

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I am sometimes asked which books I would recommend reading. For the blog, this is generally not difficult — it’s enough to open all posts with the tag “I-recommend.” But since it’s been almost five years now since I revived my blog and began writing about the books I’ve read, I decided to put together a selection of non-fiction books I’ve read during this time that fall into the category of “you must read them.”

I have already written detailed reviews of all these books, so this time I’ve selected only the very best, grouped them by topic. For each book I give only brief recommendations on why they are worth reading, but you can always open the link to the full review. I hope this will be useful to someone. So, let’s begin.

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Book: Dan Irish “The Game Producer’s Handbook”

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The word “producer” entered our everyday vocabulary in the former USSR around the 1990s. For many, it was associated both with a person who could turn any idea into a product and any person into a star, and at the same time with something shady. Apparently this was because many people back then had a lingering sense that any business was tied up with some kind of crime or vulgarity.

Later, however, the word no longer felt foreign in the language. In film it replaced the position of “film director” (in the sense of production management), and in many other industries the role finally came to mean what it should — someone who helps organize production as a whole, and who enables the team to create the product.

In the game industry, to which I have already devoted many years, this role exists as well. Yet to this day, few could really explain to you what exactly a producer does on a team. People still do not understand the meaning of a producer’s work, and some consider producers to be arrogant, overpaid idlers and budget-burners.

Dan Irish is an experienced game producer (the legendary Myst series was created with his participation, starting from the third installment). In 2005 he wrote the book The Game Producer’s Handbook, which is still often recommended to novice (and not only novice) producers.

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Book: Richard Knaster, Dean Leffingwell “SAFe 4.0 Distilled”

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It’s impossible not to know about Agile development nowadays. Heaven forbid someone catches you unaware—it’s practically a career-ending move. I’m joking, of course, but the fact remains: every developer and manager in IT can talk at length about how they’ve implemented Scrum, Kanban, sprints, and plenty of other fancy terms in their teams. However, in practice, it turns out that very few people actually know how to make all this work properly (and the author of these lines harbors no illusions about his own expertise, even though I’ve been working in this field for a long time). While these methodologies have been actively used for many years, it eventually became clear that in their pure form, they work well for small teams, but when applied to projects with a large number of participants, the results are less impressive. That’s when the next wave of development began, as people started thinking and experimenting with how to scale these practices.

A lot of new methodologies emerged—some faded away, while others developed through trial and error and found their use. Among them are Scrum of Scrums, LeSS, and SAFe, though there are many others as well. It’s hard to say which one is clearly the best, but SAFe has recently gained a lot of followers and seems to be leading the pack statistically. At some point, I couldn’t ignore it because every methodology has its advantages. Even if it doesn’t fully take root for you or your team, you can always borrow some elements, implement them first, then move on to the next… and so on, as long as it genuinely improves quality, transparency, and, of course, the final result.

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Consulting: Company Analysis

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I have often heard opinions that the work of a consultant is useless and lacks prestige. Something like, “They show up, give a bunch of advice, and leave, without caring about what happens next.” Such an approach to work has always been unacceptable to me, and now that I myself work as a consultant, I want to briefly describe one type of task I have performed at the request of several CEOs, whose feedback on the results was positive.

With experience in both software development and operational management, I can take an external view of a business and evaluate different aspects of its work. As a result, analyzing existing processes—everything I can get my hands on—has proven to be in demand. (Sometimes this is called an audit, but I prefer the term “analysis” as this term has a less negative connotation.) I begin high-level examination of a company by interviewing its CEO: why they reached out, what they want to achieve, what they are dissatisfied with, and what their key products, departments, and people are. Then I compile a list of individuals and competencies that can provide insight into internal processes. It’s crucial to identify who will be available and as open as possible for discussions. During several interviews, I try to understand what the person’s work entails, what motivates them, how they interact with and perceive their colleagues, and so on. Simultaneously, I ask to join key meetings of managers and leads, simply to listen to how they discuss topics, set agendas, conduct meetings, and follow through on decisions. Of course, I also gather relevant documentation about products and processes for further study.

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Book: Minako O’Hagan, Carmen Mangiron “Game Localization”

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In game development (and software development in general), there is one discipline that, in my opinion, receives far too little attention. Yet it is extremely important and can significantly impact both the perception and the sales of a product. This is localization—the process of preparing a product for another market, which is often understood simply as translating it into another language.

I can talk quite a lot about the topic of localization in general and game localization in particular (and, if all goes well, I’ll share more separately), as I spent many years as the head of several service departments at Wargaming, including the Localization Department. This is precisely why any materials on this subject are always of interest to me.

One of my former colleagues recommended the book Game Localization, where the authors decided to take an in-depth look at this phenomenon from the perspective of a scientific approach to translation in general.

The scientific approach is both a strength and a weakness of the book. The strength lies in its thorough exploration of the topic, its study of the history of the issue, and its examination of many aspects of localization. The weakness lies in the same excessive scientific rigor: countless references to other academic works on translation, an overwhelming number of quotes from analytical studies by other authors… in short, all the hallmarks of a scholarly work that tend to be too tedious for the average reader. Such readers are usually more interested in understanding the essence of the topic rather than the various methods for preparing academic research.

The authors begin their narrative from afar, discussing the history of video games in general and their localization in particular—covering the period from the mid-1980s to roughly the present day (the book was published in 2013, and much has changed in the industry in the past eight years). They then delve into the essence of the game industry (GameDev), explaining key terminology, genres, the role of narrative elements, the industry structure, and so on.

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Book: Kiril Egerev “This Button Needs Text”

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The discovery of the past few months for me is the book This Button Needs Text by Kiril Egerev. It likely would have gone unnoticed if Alexey Arefyev hadn’t recommended it in his Telegram channel about product management.

Kiril Egerev is a seasoned copywriter who has worked in many online publications, both as an author and as an editor. Recently, he has been working as a UX writer at Russia’s Sberbank. For those unfamiliar with professional terminology, let me clarify: a “copywriter” is someone who professionally writes various types of non-fictional texts. These can include advertising copy, descriptions, official letters, and so on. UX stands for “User eXperience,” which essentially refers to how users interact with your product and what emotions they experience during this interaction. A UX writer (or UX copywriter) is a specialist focused on creating product texts. Here’s a direct quote from the book:

“UX writers are typically the ones who write clear and non-annoying texts for error messages, buttons, switches, and all other interface elements. They help develop the product’s voice, compile style guides, ensure consistency and adherence to typography requirements, and often handle user emails as well.”

In his book, Kiril aims to explain “briefly and clearly” what his work entails and why it is essential for any product, countering the common misconception of “who cares what we call the buttons; everyone will understand anyway.” In IT, there is also a role known as UX specialist (often called a “UXer”). In practice, the line between a UX specialist and a UX writer is very blurred. It’s generally accepted that the former focuses more on the overall interface and interaction (proper arrangement of elements, creating an intuitive design), while the latter specifically handles interface texts. However, in reality, one doesn’t exist without the other. As a result, the tasks often fall to either a team of two specialists with narrower roles or a single person who does it all.

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