cover image The Making of Doom 3

The Making of Doom 3

Steven L. Kent. McGraw-Hill/Osborne Media, $19.99 (192pp) ISBN 978-0-07-223052-9

DOOM 3 fans and would-be video game designers will drool all over this picture-packed, behind-the-scenes look at the legendary game. Reporter Kent (The Ultimate History of Video Games, etc.) has interviewed every one of DOOM 3's 22 developers about its creation; and the result is a vivid account of the decisions, reversals and advances that took place during the game's four-year development. Kent's long interviews with id's programmer, technical director and co-owner John Carmack will be of special interest to game designers--and the two-page ""lexicon"" that follows it will help make it intelligible to lay people. The volume is really a fan's book: big business fall outs are summarized with bland lines and nobody says anything that might make id look like less than a heavenly place to work. But who cares? With its sidebars on movie animation vs. game animation and its detailed descriptions of how each character was developed, this book is sure to satisfy its target readership.