Featuring interviews with the creators of 31 popular video games--including Grand Theft Auto, Strider, Maximum Carnage and Pitfall--this book gives a behind-the-scenes look at the origins of some of the most enjoyable and iconic adventure games of all time. Interviewees recount the endless hours of painstaking development, the challenges of working with mega-publishers, the growth of the adventure genre, and reveal the creative processes that produced some of the industry's biggest hits, cult classics and indie successes.

“Wonderfully well organized, the book showcases what happens behind the scenes in the development of video games....An informative and inspiring read, this is a book for anyone who is interested in gaming development or the history of adventure video games....recommended”—Choice
“Welcome to the journey. At each chapter you’ll have two paths to choose from. One is to continue on to the next chapter. The other is to put the book down and play the game. Follow the first option each time. I guarantee that when you finish reading the book and play the games they’ll be more fun because you’ll appreciate what went into the creation of them.”—Leonard Herman, author of Phoenix IV: The History of the Videogame Industry
“Patrick delivers a refreshingly sober look at video game development through the context of his interviews. The stories these legends of the game industry tell are full of disappointment and excitement - failure and success. The stuff video games are made of. The stuff of life.”—Jeffrey Paquette, designer, KROOM
“Patrick Hickey Jr. doesn’t just parrot off the facts like other books in the field, he does his homework, digs deep, and asks the right kind of questions. When you read this book chock full of interviews with those in-the-know you will undoubtedly be pleased!”—Michael Thomasson, author of Downright Bizarre Games: Video Games that Crossed the Line.

Patrick Hickey, Jr., is the founder and editor-in-chief of ReviewFix.com and a lecturer of English and journalism at Kingsborough Community College, in Brooklyn, New York. Over the past decade, his video game coverage has been featured in national ad campaigns by Nintendo, Disney and EA Sports. Series editor Matthew Wilhelm Kapell teaches American studies, anthropology, and writing at Pace University in New York.