Book SummaryBlood, Sweat, and Pixels, by Jason Schreier

1-Page Summary1-Page Book Summary of Blood, Sweat, and Pixels

Video games are meant to be fun, but making video games can be anything but. In Blood, Sweat, and Pixels, video game journalist Jason Schreier gives a rare look into the inner workings of the video game industry and the harsh reality of being a game developer: long hours, enormous pressure to meet deadlines, and an unpredictable, constantly changing work environment.

Schreier discusses the development cycles of 10 games, ranging from indie darlings to AAA flops, as told by developers whom Schreier interviewed. He also emphasizes that, while these stories seem extreme and unusual, they really aren’t; similar things happen in the video game...

Blood, Sweat, and Pixels Summary Challenge 1: Interactivity Creates Unique Challenges

Schreier explains that video game development is a hugely challenging career for numerous reasons. Game development demands creativity, flexibility, and a near-fanatical devotion to your work to overcome the unique challenges of the video game industry.

(Shortform note: Video gaming has grown into an enormously popular pastime—it’s a $100 billion industry in the United States alone, and there are an estimated 3 billion gamers in the world today. There’s enormous market pressure for game studios to churn out new, high-quality video games, which helps to explain the lengths that developers go to while creating those games.)

The first major challenge that game developers face comes from the very nature of video games: They’re interactive. Because games are meant to be played, instead of just watched or listened to, there are a myriad of extra factors that developers have to consider while creating them.

First, Schreier explains, video...

Blood, Sweat, and Pixels Summary Challenge 2: Hardware and Software Change Constantly

The second major challenge that video game developers have to tackle is ever-evolving technology. As Schreier says, computers get more powerful every year, allowing for bigger games with better graphics. Consumers expect their games to keep up with that constantly changing technology.

(Shortform note: To provide some context for just how much technology has progressed, the original Super Mario Bros. game (released in 1985) had a total file size of 40 KB. In contrast, Super Mario Odyssey (released in 2017) had a file size of around 5.6 GB, which is 140,000 times as large. Even that’s small by modern standards—many modern games take up well over 100 GB. The fact that modern gaming systems are able to store and process all that data speaks to the technological advancements of the last 40 years.)

Also, game developers must constantly learn how to use new tools and find new ways to adapt existing technology. Remember...

Blood, Sweat, and Pixels Summary Challenge 3: Scheduling Is Difficult

The third major challenge that game developers face is knowing exactly how long it’ll take to finish making a game. Schreier notes a few reasons for this.

First, delays and setbacks are almost inevitable during game production, due in large part to the development challenges discussed in Blood, Sweat, and Pixels. Second, developers might underestimate how long certain tasks will take.

(Shortform note: As risk analyst Nassim Nicholas Taleb notes in Antifragile, predicting the future—such as how long a game will take to develop—is practically impossible. Furthermore, predictions become less accurate the farther into the future they go; for example, weather forecasts are only accurate for a few days, after which they become infamously untrustworthy. So, for video games with development cycles lasting years, any kind of predicted timeline is likely to end up being inaccurate.)

Schreier adds that another common reason for delays is that games are art, and it’s hard to know when a work of art is finished. Even if a game is fully functional, it’s hard to...

Blood, Sweat, and Pixels Summary Challenge 4: Outside Forces Interfere With Development

The final challenge we’ll discuss doesn’t relate to game development itself. Instead, it’s a product of collaboration with investors, publishers, and other people outside of the game studio whose interests in selling the product might conflict with the developers’ interests in creating it.

Games Often Require Collaboration

Schreier points out that there’s more to making a video game than writing endless lines of code. Developers also have commercial and legal matters to tackle before releasing a game, which usually means getting other people involved in the development process.

First, studios need to pay their developers and cover overhead costs. Unless a company is large enough to cover all of its costs, that means striking funding deals with people outside of the studio.

However, when investors are funding a game, they have a say in the development process. For example, they might push for a game to be released before developers think it’s ready so they can start seeing returns on their investments. They can also pull their financial support if they’re unhappy.

(Shortform note: Problems like these often come from a [lack of a shared...

Shortform Exercise: Reflect on Game Development

You’ve now had a rare look into some of the challenges that developers face while creating new games. Reflect on what you’ve learned about the gaming industry and how much work went into making the video games available today.

What, if anything, did you know about the game development process before reading this guide?