Boss Fight Books is currently funding its seventh season of “documentary-style” books about video games , and as a nice surprise, the latest reveal will be very familiar to fans of Australian-made games. As announced, one of the upcoming books set to be published by Boss Fight is , by award-winning Australian writer and frequent contributor to , . O’Connor has a long history writing for and about video games, with his critical work charting and .
In his history-focussed exploration of , O’Connor will chart the development of the game “before the critical acclaim, the tweets from celebrities, the major awards, the memes, the fan art, and the legion of players” when it was simply a fun idea being developed by a group of friends based in Melbourne, Australia. “Through interviews with the creators and their co-conspirators, journalist and developer James O’Connor tells the story of how this indie megahit came to be, revealing how the team succeeded by evolving their friendship into an art practice, contributing to the wider Australian game development scene, trusting their own good taste, and never, ever naming their game,” the book’s description reads. Interview contributors include all four lead developers from House House – Nico Disseldorp, Jake Strasser, Michael McMaster, and Stuart Gillespie-Cook – as well as composer Dan Golding, artist Kalonica Quigley, programmer Cherie Davidson, and more.
O’Connor has expressed great excitement about publishing this chronicle – his first book – and finally telling the deep story of one of Australia’s most successful independently-developed games. “My initial pitch for this book was to examine as a title that released at the end of a very interesting and transformative decade of Australian game development, looking at how the indie boom that happened within the local scene had culminated in a huge hit,” O’Connor told . “I got to tell that story, but the more I talked to people about – including the game’s developers – the more I realised I’d struck gold.
The story of how this game was made is just as joyful as the game itself. As a critic and game dev myself, writing this book was a hugely energising experience – I hope people will have the same feelings when they read it.” You can pledge for a digital or physical copy of by James O’Connor , although it’s worth noting the book will also be available for purchase following the conclusion of this Kickstarter.
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