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StoryBundle Deal Offers Books on Games

StoryBundle featured image

StoryBundle featured image

Giga What?

StoryBundle, a bundle site devoted to digital books, is offering a Giga Game Bundle. With four books on various aspects of games, game design, and game history on offer – and another four bonus books – this one’s a must-have for IGR readers.

For a minimum price of three dollars, you’ll get DRM-free digital editions of the following four:

StoryBundle Giga Game Bundle books

Surviving the Game Industry: A Wasteland Guide

by Matthew Wasteland

Exclusive to StoryBundle, this book collects the Arrested Development columns that appeared in the back pages of Game Developer Magazine from 2008 through 2013. Written by Matthew Wasteland – otherwise known as game developer Matthew Burns – these columns provide a sharp, satirical view of a rapidly changing industry. They’re also pretty funny, even if columns like “Going Indie” hit a little too close to home.

How to Talk About Video Games

by Ian Bogost

If you’re interested in serious intellectual discussion of video games, it’s hard to go wrong with this classic from the legendary Ian Bogost. Lest you think serious criticism implies stuffy academia, keep in mind Bogost is also the developer behind Cow Clicker.

Playing at the World

by Jon Peterson

There’s more to life than video games, of course; there are also tabletop games! This volume by Jon Peterson examines tabletop “games of simulation” from their roots in 18th and 19th century chess variations through the rules-heavy war games Avalon Hill started selling in the 1950s up through the integration of role playing elements via Dungeons & Dragons.

A Psychogeography of Games

by Hannah Nicklin

An exploration of geography through video games and vice versa, this book is Hannah Nicklin‘s account of six walks she took in places important to six indie game designers, including Ed Key (Proteus) and Jake Elliott (Kentucky Route Zero). Including pieces previously published online, this volume is an answer to the question, “How do the places and spaces important to game designers affect their game design?”

If those four volumes aren’t enough reading material for you, pay $12 or more to unlock an additional four bonus books:

StoryBundle Giga Game Bundle bonus books

Boss Fight Books: Spelunky

by Derek Yu

This volume in the Boss Fight Books series features the story of modern Metroidvania classic Spelunky by none other than its developer, Derek Yu. The first “autobiography” in the Boss Fight Books series, this is a must-read for people interested in the down ‘n’ dirty details of indie game creation.

GameMaker Language: An In-Depth Guide

by Benjamin Anderson

The title kind of says it all with this one. It’s an in-depth guide to GML, the scripting language used in GameMaker Studio. Game Maker is responsible for such indie classics as Spelunky, Hotline Miami, Undertale and Hyper Light Drifter. There are many books about GML, but this one manages to get you through all the tough stuff right from the start without ever being intimidating or overwhelming. One of the better books out there on the subject.

So You Want to Play Go?

by Jonathan Hop

The game of Go has been in the news lately, with Google’s AI beating one of the top-ranked players, and this easy-going introduction to an intimidating game might be just the mental break you need after reading a bunch of books about video game criticism. Take a break from the postmodern VR future with a game twice as old as chess.

HG101 Presents: Taito Arcade Classics

by Kurt Kalata

Written by Hardcore Gaming 101’s Kurt Kalata, the second book in the HG101 Presents series features in-depth looks of 30 titles from Japanese game company Taito, including favorites like Elevator Action, Rastan and Darius.

Much like Humble Bundle and similar bundle sites, StoryBundle purchases allow you to donate a portion of your purchase to charity – in this case, the Prisoners Literature Project – as well as determine the allocation of your purchase cost between the authors and the site itself.