Accidentally reread because I forgot I had read it, haha.Anyway it is short and sweet and makes its basic premises (what is a game, why should we make them, why distribution is important and why corporate monopolization over distribution is bad, finishing with a handy recipe guiderail for how to make a really simple game under constraints (as compared to a perfect competitor to major studio or even professional indie games, which will probably be an exercise in failure)Along the way there are pe...

I'm not the target audience for this book. I play a lot of games, I've tried making them before, and I read Anna Anthropy's blog regularly. This book is probably for people who aren't so sure about this whole video game business, as it spends a lot of time talking about how games are usually made, and why that's a problem. The book talks about themes in games, and how limited they sometimes are, and how expansive they can be.For the most part, I knew all this stuff already. But the last chapter

Okay! This book is half essential manifesto, half terrible. So, .. three stars?The good: Chapters 4-7, plus the appendices, wherein the author makes the case that video games are in need of revolution, and that that revolution is in the same way zines brought it to publishing: everyone creating, everyone sharing, everyone evolving. (And everyone getting to tell their own stories.)This is solid, emotional, and excellent stuff. And it also is backed up by the appendices, which give examples of the...

I came to Anna Anthropy’s Rise of the Videogame Zinesters not as a videogame designer nor even as a videogame player. I remembered hearing a podcast in which Vincent Baker was interviewed (I no longer remember which podcast or interview it was) and stated that he had read this book and was thinking about games as things that explore experiences as systems. I thought it was a striking idea at the time, and it stayed with me. As I was posting my thoughts on Greg Costikyan’s Uncertainty in Games, I...

2 stars? 3 stars? Fuck stars, whatever. There are things I like about this book: what it's trying to say, what it *does* say, the few passages I highlighted in the instances where Anthropy says them very well and very clearly. I wish it dug into things more deeply (the state of video game development, the worker burn out and how, exactly, that is influencing the games like it's claimed, or the ways in which games can force a person to embrace a political ideology and the consequences of that...)...

p 137-139What to Make a Game About?Your dog, your cat, your child, your boyfriend, your girlfriend, your mother, your father, your grandmother, your friends, your imaginary friends, your summer vacation, your winter in the mountains, your childhood at home, your current home, your future home, your first job, your worst job, the job you wish you had.Your first date, your first kiss, your first fuck, your first true love, your second true love, your relationship, your kinks, your deepest secrets,...

One of the most inspiring books I've read in a long time. Anna's book is part manifesto about why games matter--they foster empathy and can be utilized in sharing experiences--and part how-to guide on creating personalized, small-scale videogames that buck the homogeneous, corporate-made publishing model that the industry relies on. It was one of the most inspiring books I've read in a long time. I really want to make a game now! I was thinking of writing a piece of interactive fiction in Twine....

This book is okay. I've never loved Anthropy's writing style or her idealization of raw, rough-draft game design (sometimes spending a long time on a thing is not the same as completely gutting its spirit! Sometimes spending a long time on an idea is the only way to make it reach its potential! Game jams are cool but they should not be the future of game design!), but her games are awesome and her creative voice cannot be denied. I think this book would probably work a lot better as a trio of bl...

if like me you grew up with computers, this book won't have a whole lot to offer, other than a host of links to games to be awed by. something like this was way more enlightening to me: http://www.newstatesman.com/lifestyle... - not to mention playing the actual games, which is the best way to learnbut i'm glad to have read it and i sure hope its optimism will inspire some people

Read previously.Probably should’ve been a zine? 😅

As a manifesto, it's really good. Inspirational, witty, interesting. Even with some aggression towards the popular game making "one percent", the book is far from whimpering and criticising. Many manifestos I've read were about how bad our world is. This one is quite the opposite: it's a story about how you can try and create something the way you probably never considered seriously. Something relevant for you. And about people who have been doing exactly that, with very interesting results.And

I am a big fan of Dys4ia. In fact, I like it so much that in secondary school I remember setting up a play session of the game on multiple monitors for one of our lunchtime Diversity Society meetings. I didn't know much about Anthropy then apart from what I could easily glean from the prose of Dys4ia: that she had clearly experienced a gamut of anxieties and transfigurations that HRT entails. The game, to me, was incandescent, and it helped me to better understand that experience which is so ali...

A surprisingly detailed look at video game history and culture, exploring everything from the toxicity of AAA game publishing companies (the depths of which we're still finding out about in 2021!) to the power of games to tell unique stories and explore new perspectives. The overwhelming message is that game design should be something available to everyone, to express our identities, share experiences, and tell the stories that no one else is telling. It's a great message and an important counte...

If you're interested in games and game-making, this book does a great job of offering some perspective on possibilities. You can start small, it is easier than ever, their are people you can find that are doing the same. She has some axes to grind that I don't, but I understand where she's coming from and that didn't get in the way of her message coming through clearly. And the appendices and guides to various tools -- sure they will age fast, but are great at pointing you in a direction to make...

The Garage bands of the 60s and the punk bands of the 70s proved that anyone and a few friends can become musicians. Disposable and instant cameras allowed anyone to become a photographer. Camcorders and camera phones turned anyone into a filmmaker. Paper and ink, and later typewriters and computers, made everyone a potential writer. Crayons and fingerpaint...well, you get the point. Making an art form accessible and its tools widely available does a lot for the art. It demystifies the way thing...

“It’s possible that your interest in digital game creation is purely academic and doesn’t extend to becoming an author. In that case, I hope what you take away from this book is that the videogame isn’t the creation of a corporation, but if an author, that this form is important, and that people are using it to do exciting things. What we call a videogame is not a product. It’s the creation of an author and her accomplice, the player; it is handmade by the former and personally distributed to th...

This book, which reads more like a loaded editorial than an analysis on gaming culture is a frustrating read. To begin, I was asked to read the book as part of an introductory course on video game history that was half analysis of the medium, and half game creation. Otherwise I wouldn't have bothered to buy or even finish this book. Anthropy does everything right as far as encouraging players to take advantage of little known sources like twine, or larger platforms like gamemaker to create, well...

If you are thinking about making a game but are intimidated by all the tooling options, or scared that it won't be "good enough," this book is for you. It's a great message that making games is for everyone, along with solid advice on how to get started.After years of talking about it, I finally made a game thanks to this book. Thanks!