Hitting the Books: An analog computer ushered in the video game era

Long disparaged by the Baby Boomer generation as either a childish distraction or a leading cause for the downfall of civilization, video games have weathered that criticism and grown into the dominant storytelling medium of the modern world — not to mention a $136 billion industry. In his latest book, Becoming a Video Game Designer, journalist Daniel Noah Halpern examines the career of gaming titan Tom Cadwell from his roots at MIT, where he became one of the world’s top Starcraft II players, to his meteoric rise as head of design at Riot Games. Through exhaustive interviews with Cadwell and other leading industry figures, Halpern provides a unique and valuable snapshot for aspiring designers into the business of gaming.