Leveling Up In The Video Game Industry, Without Checkpoints: 'Significant Zero'

Jason Sheehan knows stuff about food, video games, books and Starblazers. He is currently the restaurant critic at Philadelphia magazine, but when no one is looking, he spends his time writing books about giant robots and ray guns. Tales From the Radiation Age is his latest book.

Adderall and Red Bull. Pringles and cigarettes and scotch. More Adderall and more Red Bull and, if you mix them in just the right way and shake violently for months, you might end up with a videogame.

I learned this recipe from Walt Williams, whose debut book,, is all about the making of videogames. And also about the making of Walt Williams who, for years, has been involved (both seriously, tangentially, and in every way in between) with the production of some of the best videogames ever created: . Mostly Spec Ops, which is one of the darkest, most haunting, and most narratively daring games I've ever played. was Williams's masterpiece and is the story of everything it took to make it and everything it cost him — beginning years before, ending years after. Sure, it's a workplace memoir (more or less): A writer writing about writing, which can be the most annoying thing in the world. Except for one thing.