Making Videogames: The Art of Creating Digital Worlds

An in-depth visual guide presenting the detailed creative journeys behind the development of the world’s leading videogames.

Making Videogames is an extraordinary snapshot of modern interactive entertainment, with insight from pioneers about the most important games in the industry. Illustrated with some of the most arresting in-game images ever seen in print, this book explores the unique alchemy of a technical and artistic endeavor striking a captivating balance between insider insight and accessibility.

Across twelve chapters, each focusing on a specific game from AAA blockbusters such as Control and Half-Life: Alyx to cult breakthrough games including No Man’s Sky and Return of the Obra Dinn, this volume documents the incredible craft of videogame worldbuilding. These chapters present masterful visual storytelling via the world’s most popular, but seldom fully understood, entertainment medium.

Demonstrating the magic and method behind each studio’s work, the book includes enlightening text by Alex Wiltshire complementing specially created imagery “photographed” in-engine by screen capture artist Duncan Harris. A book for die-hard videogame fanatics, aspiring designer-creatives, video game developers, and the visually curious alike, Making Videogames will showcase the boundless creativity of this thrilling industry.

350 color illustrations

Duncan Harris is a game-industry artist who has worked for companies including Sony, Square Enix, Bethesda, and EA. His writing has appeared in such places as Edge, PC Gamer, and Rock, Paper, Shotgun. He also runs a website, Dead End Thrills, which explores the art of games through the hobby of taking screenshots.

Alex Wiltshire is a journalist, writer, and former editor of Edge magazine. He edited Britsoft: An Oral History and is the author of several books, including the bestselling Minecraft: Blockopedia. He works as a publishing editor for developer Mojang, and among many other publications, writes a column about game design for Rock Paper Shotgun. He lives in Bath, England.