Significant Zero: Heroes, Villains, and the Fight for Art and Soul in Video Games
From the award-winning video game writer of such hits as Star Wars Battlefront and BioShock comes an exclusive “compelling look into a world that doesn’t like to spill its secrets to outsiders” (NPR): the video game industry.

When his satirical musings in a college newspaper got him discharged from the Air Force, it became clear to Walt Williams that his destiny in life was to be a writer—he just never thought he’d end up writing video games, including some of the biggest franchises today.

A veteran video game narrative designer, Williams pulls back the curtain on an astonishingly profitable industry that has put its stamp on pop culture and yet is little known to those outside its walls. As Williams walks you through his unlikely and at times inglorious rise within one of the world’s top gaming companies, he exposes an industry abundant in brain power and out-sized egos, but struggling to stay innovative. Significant Zero also provides clear-eyed criticism of the industry’s addiction to violence and explains how the role of the narrative designer is crucial for expanding the scope of video games into more immersive and emotional experiences.

Significant Zero is a rare and illuminating look inside “the video gaming industry in all its lucrative shine and questionable morality...[and] provides a refreshing and realistic portrayal of succeeding at attaining a dream via an unforeseen career trajectory” (Booklist).
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Significant Zero: Heroes, Villains, and the Fight for Art and Soul in Video Games
From the award-winning video game writer of such hits as Star Wars Battlefront and BioShock comes an exclusive “compelling look into a world that doesn’t like to spill its secrets to outsiders” (NPR): the video game industry.

When his satirical musings in a college newspaper got him discharged from the Air Force, it became clear to Walt Williams that his destiny in life was to be a writer—he just never thought he’d end up writing video games, including some of the biggest franchises today.

A veteran video game narrative designer, Williams pulls back the curtain on an astonishingly profitable industry that has put its stamp on pop culture and yet is little known to those outside its walls. As Williams walks you through his unlikely and at times inglorious rise within one of the world’s top gaming companies, he exposes an industry abundant in brain power and out-sized egos, but struggling to stay innovative. Significant Zero also provides clear-eyed criticism of the industry’s addiction to violence and explains how the role of the narrative designer is crucial for expanding the scope of video games into more immersive and emotional experiences.

Significant Zero is a rare and illuminating look inside “the video gaming industry in all its lucrative shine and questionable morality...[and] provides a refreshing and realistic portrayal of succeeding at attaining a dream via an unforeseen career trajectory” (Booklist).
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Significant Zero: Heroes, Villains, and the Fight for Art and Soul in Video Games

Significant Zero: Heroes, Villains, and the Fight for Art and Soul in Video Games

by Walt Williams
Significant Zero: Heroes, Villains, and the Fight for Art and Soul in Video Games

Significant Zero: Heroes, Villains, and the Fight for Art and Soul in Video Games

by Walt Williams

Paperback

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Overview

From the award-winning video game writer of such hits as Star Wars Battlefront and BioShock comes an exclusive “compelling look into a world that doesn’t like to spill its secrets to outsiders” (NPR): the video game industry.

When his satirical musings in a college newspaper got him discharged from the Air Force, it became clear to Walt Williams that his destiny in life was to be a writer—he just never thought he’d end up writing video games, including some of the biggest franchises today.

A veteran video game narrative designer, Williams pulls back the curtain on an astonishingly profitable industry that has put its stamp on pop culture and yet is little known to those outside its walls. As Williams walks you through his unlikely and at times inglorious rise within one of the world’s top gaming companies, he exposes an industry abundant in brain power and out-sized egos, but struggling to stay innovative. Significant Zero also provides clear-eyed criticism of the industry’s addiction to violence and explains how the role of the narrative designer is crucial for expanding the scope of video games into more immersive and emotional experiences.

Significant Zero is a rare and illuminating look inside “the video gaming industry in all its lucrative shine and questionable morality...[and] provides a refreshing and realistic portrayal of succeeding at attaining a dream via an unforeseen career trajectory” (Booklist).

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781501129964
Publisher: Atria Books
Publication date: 07/03/2018
Pages: 304
Product dimensions: 5.40(w) x 8.30(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Walt Williams is the award-winning video game writer known for his work on such beloved franchises as Star Wars Battlefront, Bioshock, Civilization, Borderlands, Mafia, The Darkness, and the acclaimed, genre-bending Spec Ops: The Line. His book, Significant Zero, explores the hardships and insanity of AAA game development. He lives in Louisiana with his family.

Table of Contents

Author's Note xi

1 Tutorial 1

2 God, Lies, and Video Games 11

3 Breaking in 25

4 Eat Shit or Die Trying 37

5 The Cruel Tutelage of Peter Griffin 65

6 Enraptured 79

7 Made Men 105

8 Lost at Sea 135

9 Significant Zero 155

10 Character Flaws 163

11 Walking the Line 179

12 We Am Not Heroes 201

13 Development Never Changes 217

14 Airplanes 229

15 Into Darkness 249

16 Not the Fall but the Stop 269

Epilogue: New Game Plus 281

Acknowledgments 289

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