We
at Just Adventure in our never-ending attempts to elevate our readers
above the pabulum so prevalent at other webzines (though it is a well-known
and widely accepted fact that adventure gamers are the Albert Einsteins
of the industry as compared to, say, action gamers, who are the Pauley
Shores) are proud to offer our first-ever book review. According to
statistics compiled from our recently conducted poll, adventure gamers
are voracious readers, so what better to while away those empty hours
spent not gaming than to devour a book devoted to the industry? And
what a book Game Design: Secrets of the Sages (2nd Edition)
is! 454 pages chock-full of trade secrets, interviews, and advice
from the gaming industry’s shakers and makers. Edited by Marc Saltzman,
it is a compilation that should be required reading for everyone who
has even a modicum of interest in the gaming profession. As an added
incentive, there are plenty of pretty pictures interspersed among
the text for our action friends who have problems with any word over
a monosyllable (though crayons are not provided for coloring).

Marc Saltzman, a closet adventure gamer, is a freelance journalist
whose work has appeared in publications as diverse as USA Today
and PC Gamer; Playboy and Next Generation (well,
considering some of the suggestive advertisements these gaming magazines
print, maybe they aren’t that different from Playboy). This
man bleeds nanochips. If you have ever attended any press junket,
any convention, or any E3, then you have met Marc Saltzman. He is
a gigabyte of gaming information. But for all his knowledge, he also
knows when to stay in the shadows and allow the celebrities to take
the podium. It is that quality that makes Secrets of the Sages
so intriguing. For in an era in which gaming “journalists”
are more concerned with spewing masturbatory reverie to enlighten
their readers as to what they think of everything in the gaming world
rather than providing a objective review, Saltzman is wise enough
to step back and let over 150 industry professionals do the talking
for him. Never does he allow his ego to take center stage. Never is
it, “I asked Al Lowe,” or “I spoke with Jane Jensen,”
but rather, “We spoke with … ,” or “According
to ….” This may seem a minor point to some, but it allows
for the personalities of each participant to shine through without
interference from the editor’s ego.

In 25 chapters, Sages covers every aspect of the gaming industry
imaginable. We learn how games are designed, characters created, and
puzzles implemented. Chapters are also devoted to animation, sound
engineering, and game control. Just this would be enough to make your
$24.99 well-spent, but we then get even more on marketing, public
relations, web site design, and, of special interest to someone like
our own Audrey Wells, an entire chapter with advice on how to break
into the industry. If there is any one problem with Sages, it
is that it covers too much ground. Saltzman himself admits as much
in the book’s forward. Other smaller nuances that could have improved:
pictures of Jane Jensen, Sid Meier, et al. would have been welcome.
Many readers have probably never seen these people. Probably the most
glaring oversight of all, though, is that a section entitled “Essential
Gaming E-Zines” fails to make mention of everyone’s favorite
adventure gaming webzine–Just Adventure. I’m sure it was just an
error on the part of the typesetter and will be corrected in future
editions.

If there is a consistent thread or theme that winds through Secrets
of the Sages, it is … have fun. Everyone from musician George
“The Fat Man” Sanger to David Perry, president of Shiny
Entertainment, to the honorable Sigeru Miyamoto, the father of Donkey
Kong and Mario Brothers, to name just a few, mentions “fun”
as a key factor in any game. Not just the fun of playing the finished
product, but more importantly the fun involved in creating the characters,
writing the plots, and scoring the music. What is most amazing is
that even though many of these people work in different areas of the
industry and even though many of them have probably never met, they
all saw this as the deciding factor in whether on not a game would
succeed.

As a die-hard adventure gamer, I found Sages to be an involving
read. It is fascinating to hear from these prominent individuals whose
informality make you feel as though you have been invited to a dinner
party. If you do purchase the second edition, you may also want to
hunt down a copy of the first edition as some interviews with adventure
notables have been excised. Regardless of which volume you purchase,
Game Design: Secrets of the Sages is guaranteed to be a welcome
(and well-thumbed) addition to yours or any gamer’s bookshelf.

Be with us next month as we delve into movies and bring you a scintillating
review of that little-known, cult-classic documentary–Laura Croft–Jailbait
or Role-Model?

Now, maestro, my traveling music if you please …