A hearty thanks goes out to The Gay Gamer commenter and, far more importantly, developer (of Astroman and Tiny Barbarian DX, among other titles) Michael Stearns for pointing out the following Kickstarter, which is in support of British writer John Szczepaniak's ambitious quest to pen a book entitled "The Untold History of Japanese Game Developers."
Szczepaniak's goal for this £50,000 project: to cram "The Untold History of Japanese Game Developers" full of more interviews with Japanese developers than any previous gaming-centric tome.
"There are so many Japanese developers from over the decades who have fascinating stories, but they don't have the opportunity to communicate with English speaking audiences," Szczepaniak explains.
"This book will not be a nostalgia trip," he adds. "I am determined to have every page contain at least one previously unknown fact, anecdote or piece of trivia. My passion has always been the undocumented side of games, and regardless of who I speak with my intention will always be to ask them something no one else ever has."
To learn more about Szczepaniak's plan for "The Untold History of Japanese Game Developers," check out the video above or pay a visit to the project's Kickstarter page between now and 6 am EDT on June 30.
Thanks for posting this, you know I'm super excited about it, of course. :)
ReplyDeleteI appreciate what John means when he says it won't be a "nostalgia" trip, but I have to admit that I do have a certain nostalgia for the early days of Japanese game development, even though I certainly wasn't aware of it at the time. I expect this book to either satisfy that certain itch or maybe just de-romanticize it enough for me to stop being fixated on it. :)
Oh, I agree, Michael. Hopefully he just means it won't *only* be a nostalgia trip, as you'd think nostalgia would tinge his 'story' at least a bit.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I think that's the case, it's new material and real research he'll be doing, but I'm expecting that it will still have a certain nostalgic quality (depending on the reader, anyway) just because of the topic.
ReplyDeleteI sure hope so! Regardless, I'll be keeping an eye on its progress from here on out. Thanks again for making me aware of it!
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