Game design, game programming and more

Stay Awhile and Listen

Developing games is a full-time occupation, so it is no surprise that I’ve had less time for blogging as I’ve started creating a new game. After a two-year stint helping other folks publish their games I’m back to coding and game design full-time and having a wonderful time.

But for those of you who have enjoyed my blogging about the early years of Blizzard Entertainment and the development of Warcraft, StarCraft and Diablo, and want more, I’m glad to be able to share the news: there’s a book available today about those very subjects!

Back in January, 2011, an author named David Craddock contacted me to chat about my experiences in the game industry, and what caused Blizzard to go from an unassuming startup to the dominating presence it has today.

Over the past couple of years David interviewed me and many other folks who were there from the early years of Blizzard and Blizzard North, and his book provides an intimate look at their games and the people involved.

During those formative years of my career in the game industry — Blizzard was my first job coming out of college — I discovered joy and sorrow in large measures. I still have raw feelings from some events of those times, and I still look back with fondness on many others. This book is about our naivete and hopefulness as we undertook an adventure to reinvent the game industry.

I hope you’ll enjoy the book: Stay Awhile and Listen: How Two Blizzards Unleashed Diablo and Forged a Video-Game Empire

About Patrick Wyatt

As a game developer with more than 22 years in the industry I have helped build small companies into big ones (VP of Blizzard, Founder of ArenaNet, COO of En Masse Entertainment); lead the design and development efforts for best-selling game series (Warcraft, Diablo, Starcraft, Guild Wars); written code for virtually every aspect of game development (networking, graphics, AI, pathing, sound, tools, installers, servers, databases, ecommerce, analytics, crypto, dev-ops, etc.); designed many aspects of the games I've shipped; run platform services teams (datacenter operations, customer support, billing/accounts, security, analytics); and developed state-of-the-art technologies required to compete in the AAA+ game publishing business.

Comments

  1. Seems, it’s not available in my courntry(China, Asia&Pacific), sign!
    Could you please contact the author to lift the regional restrictions or provide any other way to get the book?(Maybe iBook Store and Google Play are good Choices.)

    • I forwarded your message to David. I hope he will be able to get a version up that you can read forthwith!

    • David L Craddock says

      Hey there, kxxoling. A team from Korea approached me just last week about translating STAY AWHILE for the Asia-Pacific territory. If you’d be so king as to email the publisher at [email protected], we’d be happy to keep you informed on the progress of that conversation.

      Also, you’ll be glad to know that we’ve started the process of releasing the book on Google Play. I’ll let you know when that version becomes available.

  2. Twilit Soul says

    Want!

  3. First place I went to after catching wind of this book was right here at this very blog. After reading posts here, I’m so stoked to see that you were included in interviews (I wonder how much screentime you get? :). With the combination of that and your own endorsement, this is a no-brainer. I’m excited to start reading!

  4. Any chance of this coming to Nook books?

  5. Oh man, I’ve been looking forward to this book for a long time!

    “Blizzard was my first job coming out of college — I discovered joy and
    sorrow in large measures. I still have raw feelings from some events of
    those times, and I still look back with fondness on many others.”
    -> I miss the Blizz of those days (as a consumer). You guys did amazing stuff.

  6. Excellent. Eagerly awaiting the google play release :)

  7. Reading through the trial and planning to buy it soon! Looking forward to soak in all the industry insights I can get.

  8. Anonymous Coward says

    Will there be a printed edition available?

  9. Thanks for the heads up on this one, I know what to put on my christmas wishlist!

  10. Vasiliy Lyan says

    Thanks for sharing!

  11. Great read, what an interesting book. I really loved learning about the design challenges and direction the projects took. It is awesome how everyone pretty much just went with the gothic horror vibe, something I doubt any other game will ever pull off again the way blizzard north did.

  12. Steve Magras says

    Oh! Very cool! I’ll buy it I think =) it is only in digital format? :/

  13. Ian Gosalbes says

    Please! Create a game with the Guild Wars 1 PvP system! :( We ALL really miss it :_(

  14. Adam Simmons says

    Thanks for the work tthat you do!

  15. Any new blog posts planed? I’d like to hear what are you currently working on.

  16. Motoka Smash says

    Is the book any good? From the sample chapter I just saw quotes from different people, is the book structured in a way that makes it enjoyable reading it?

    • I personally liked the book because I learned more about Diablo and Blizzard North. I think the book would have been better served — and more enjoyable — if it had fewer quotes and more narrative structure.

  17. luiz hartke says

    why did you stop posting your articles??

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