Description

The designer of Unreal and Gears of War offers an eyeopening personal account of the video game industry as it grew from niche hobby to hundredbilliondollar enterprise

Video games are dominating the planet In 2020 they brought in 180 billion dollars globallynearly 34 billion in the United States alone So who are the brilliant designers who create these stunning virtual worlds Cliff Bleszinskior CliffyB as he is known to gamersis one of the few whove reached mythical rock star status In Control Freak he gives an unvarnished allaccess tour of the business

Toiling away in his bedroom Bleszinski created and shipped his first game before graduating high school and at just seventeen joined a fledgling company called Epic Games He describes the grueling hours obscene amounts of Mountain Dew and obsessive focus necessary to achieve his singular creative visions He details Epics rise to industry leader thanks largely to his work on bestselling franchises Unreal and Gears of War and later his input on a little game called Fortnite as well as his own awkward ascent from shy acneriddled introvert to sports cardriving celebrity rubbing shoulders with Bill Gates As he writes No one is weirder than a nerd with money While the book is laced with such selfdeprecating humor Bleszinski also bluntly addresses the challenges that have longfaced the gaming community including sexism and a lack of representation among both designers and the characters they create

Control Freak is a hilarious thoughtful and inspiring memoir Even if you dont play games youll walk away from this book recognizing them as a true art form and appreciating the genius of their creators