First-Chance Exception: A Tale of Games, Gaffes, and Going Online (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781069371706)

When a beloved game studio's last-ditch effort means transforming their single-player masterpiece into an always-online experience, chaos isn't just expected-it's a feature.

First-Chance Exception chronicles what happens when "just add multiplayer" meets reality, and Murphy's Law isn't just a theory-it's a game design document.

Follow Tim, a veteran backend engineer who thought his eCommerce days had prepared him for everything, as he returns to game development only to discover that managing shopping carts was nothing compared to preventing horses from phasing through mountains.

Along with his team of sleep-deprived developers, he must navigate:

- Cross-platform features that make herding cats look easy

- An AI system that gives rabbits existential crises

- A UGC system that turns player creativity into questionable architecture

Written by someone who's survived the trenches of game development, this book offers a hilarious peek behind the scenes of modern game development. It's a story about friendship, technical debt, and the hijinks that ensue when players create content without proper moderation.

Perfect for:

- Developers who want to feel better about their own launch disasters

- People who think adding multiplayer to a game is easy (spoiler: it's not)

- Those who enjoy watching carefully laid plans encounter actual players

Warning: May contain traces of rubber-banding, inappropriate geometry, and philosophical rabbits. Reading this book will not make your game run better, but it might make you feel better about your own development struggles.

Remember: Every bug is just a feature you haven't documented yet.