When a beloved game studio's last-ditch effort means transforming their single-player masterpiece into an always-online experience, chaos isn't just expected-it's a feature.
First-Chance Exception chronicles what happens when "just add multiplayer" meets reality, and Murphy's Law isn't just a theory-it's a game design document.
Follow Tim, a veteran backend engineer who thought his eCommerce days had prepared him for everything, as he returns to game development only to discover that managing shopping carts was nothing compared to preventing horses from phasing through mountains.
Along with his team of sleep-deprived developers, he must navigate:
⢠Cross-platform features that make herding cats look easy
⢠An AI system that gives rabbits existential crises
⢠A UGC system that turns player creativity into questionable architecture
Written by someone who's survived the trenches of game development, this book offers a hilarious peek behind the scenes of modern game development. It's a story about friendship, technical debt, and the hijinks that ensue when players create content without proper moderation.
Perfect for:
⢠Developers who want to feel better about their own launch disasters
⢠People who think adding multiplayer to a game is easy (spoiler: it's not)
⢠Those who enjoy watching carefully laid plans encounter actual players
Warning: May contain traces of rubber-banding, inappropriate geometry, and philosophical rabbits. Reading this book will not make your game run better, but it might make you feel better about your own development struggles.
Remember: Every bug is just a feature you haven't documented yet.
Industry Reviews
"Made me laugh. More than once."
- MARK MANDEL, Game Developer Advocate, Founder of Agones and Quilkin projects
"We spend hundreds and thousands of hours playing our favorite video games, but most have no idea how they are made. First Class Exception tells a realistic behind-the-scenes story about the not-always-pretty way game developers build the games we love so much."
- MIKE FISCHER, Interactive Media Executive, Advisor and Educator (Microsoft, Amazon, Square Enix, Epic Games)
"Humorous, fast-paced and nostalgia-inducing. It had me reliving all those gut-wrenching WTF moments that make up the madness and passion that is real game development."
- PHIL TOSSELL, Game Creator (AccelByte, Microsoft, Rare)
"A fun narrative about video game development, whether you've been part of a similar journey or just interested in the chaos that engineering teams have to go through to ship their games. I found myself connecting with the characters, chuckling every once in a while and felt terrified in some of the early decisions as I could foresee how they were going to develop."
- ISAIAS FORMACIO-SERNA, Engineering (Rec Room, PlayStation, Xbox)
"OMG! What an amazing way to mix storytelling and game industry insider experience! :) "
- SUMEET JAKATDAR, Technical Director (Sony, Amazon Game Studios, Treyarch)
