Acknowledgments

Since the first edition of this book came out, I’ve been traveling around the world, training and coaching teams on what you find in this book. It has been an illuminating privilege and honor to visit around 20 studios per year. None are the same, but everyone making games seems to be part of an amazing single tribe. The tribe is composed of creative, passionate humans who, in my opinion, form the most exciting tribe in the world. They have shared stories, struggles, and innovations. I thank them the most.

This book took a year from start to finish. During this time, I received much feedback and advice from those who downloaded draft chapters and helped steer the direction the book took. Thanks to Bruce Rennie, James Birchler, James Everett, David West, and Justin Woodward for reviewing chapters and contributing ideas.

This edition was made far easier with the contributions and reviews from Andie Nordgren, Brian Graham, Bruce Rennie, Caroline Esmurdoc, Dante Falcone, David West, Erik Theisz, Grant Shonkwiler, Greg Broadmore, James Birchler, James Everett, Justin Woodward, Kalle Kaivola, Michael Riccio, Rory McGuire, Shelly Warmuth, and Tim Morton.

Many thanks to everyone from Pearson, including Haze Humbert, for her persistence, vision, and support seeing this book through; and Tracy Brown, Lori Lyons, and Paula Lowell for their patient editing.

To everyone at the studios I’ve visited, for allowing me to work with and learn from them. Finally, thanks to the great people at Magnopus for the photos on the cover.

I would like to acknowledge the inestimable debt to my mentor and friend, Mike Cohn. Mike visited High Moon Studios as a coach. Seeing the impact of his teaching inspired me to want to do the same. I couldn’t have taken this major step without his support and encouragement.