A wide-ranging anthology of essays exploring one of the most vital art forms on the planet today.

From the earliest computers to the smartphones in our pockets, video games have been on our screens and part of our lives for over fifty years. Critical Hits celebrates this sophisticated medium and considers its lasting impact on our culture and ourselves.

This collection of stylish, passionate, and searching essays opens with an introduction by Carmen Maria Machado, who edited the anthology alongside J. Robert Lennon. In these pages, writer-gamers find solace from illness and grief, test ideas about language, bodies, power, race, and technology, and see their experiences and identities reflected in―or complicated by―the interactive virtual worlds they inhabit. Elissa Washuta immerses herself in The Last of Us during the first summer of the pandemic. Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah describes his last goodbye to his father with the help of Disco Elysium. Jamil Jan Kochai remembers being an Afghan American teenager killing Afghan insurgents in Call of Duty.

Also included are a comic by MariNaomi about her time as a video game producer; a deep dive into “portal fantasy” movies about video games by Charlie Jane Anders; and new work by Alexander Chee, Hanif Abdurraqib, Larissa Pham, and many more.

Based on 48 interviews and years of research, Game of X v.1: Xbox tells the many stories of Microsoft's unlikely entry into the game console business. In addition to the personal insights of the key players in the story, Game of X includes many previously unreleased documents that show what was going on behind the scenes. This is the story of Xbox and Xbox Live. Key Features Based on 48 interviews and years of research, Game of X v.1: Xbox tells the many stories of Microsoft's unlikely entry into the game console business. In addition to the personal insights of the key players in the story, Game of X includes many previously unreleased documents that show what was going on behind the scenes. This is the story of Xbox and Xbox Live.

Discover the power of Unreal Engine 5 and the MetaHuman Creator to develop realistic digital characters, infusing them with full body and facial animation Key Features * Create realistic characters using the MetaHuman Creator using a mixture of preset and custom tools * Import your character into Unreal Engine 5 to access more editing options and begin animating it * Combine face and body motion capturing to fully animate your digital humans Book Description MetaHuman Creator (MHC) is an online, user-friendly 3D design tool for creating highly realistic digital humans that can be animated within Unreal Engine (UE) and enhanced with motion capture technology. This means that filmmakers and game developers now have access to a high quality, affordable solution that was previously only available to specialist studios. This book will focus on using UE5 and MHC from a filmmaker angle. Firstly, you'll understand how to use the online MHC to create a digital character, changing its facial structure, body type, and clothing. After that, you'll learn all the necessary steps to bring the character into UE5 and set it up for animation. Then, using an iPhone and a webcam to capture face and body movements, you'll mix these motion capture files, refine the animations using the MetaHuman Control Rig, and save these takes to be reused and edited again within the Level Sequencer. On top of that, you'll learn how to create a rendered video file for film production using both the Level Sequencer and a VR Cinematic Camera. By the end of this book, you'll have created your own MetaHuman character, as well as face and body motion capture data, and learned the necessary skills to give your future projects further realism and creative control. What you will learn * Create your own bespoke character using MHC * Develop custom faces based on real people * Utilize Blueprints to take control of your digital character * Retarget animations using the Unreal Mannequin * Use DeepMotion and Live Link for complete body and face animation * Use the Control Rig to refine animations * Export and render your character Who This Book Is For This book is for filmmakers and hobbyists who are planning to make a film using Unreal Engine for the first time, having worked in live action or purely digital media previously, either professionally or as a hobby. No experience with Unreal Engine is required, however it is useful to have some knowledge of 3D development applications and concepts like wireframes, skin weights, transform tools, and motion capture. It is recommended that you have access to an iPhone X (or a later model). Alternatively, you can use a free or paid version of Faceware, along with a basic webcam.

Build a complete game from start to finish using Flutter and Flame while getting acquainted with each building block in game design along the way Key Features Begin your Flutter game development journey with step-by-step instructions and best practices Understand the Flame game engine and its essential elements for making games, sprite animation, tilemaps, and audio Build enjoyable games with Flutter that can be played across different platforms Book DescriptionWith its powerful tools and quick implementation capabilities, Flutter provides a new way to build scalable cross-platform apps. In this book, you'll learn how to build on your knowledge and use Flutter as the foundation for creating games. This game development book takes a hands-on approach to building a complete game from scratch. You'll see how to get started with the Flame library and build a simple animated example to test Flame. You'll then discover how to organize and load images and audio in your Flutter game. As you advance, you'll gain insights into the game loop and set it up for fast and efficient processing. The book also guides you in using Tiled to create maps, add sprites to the maps that the player can interact with, and see how to use tilemap collision to create paths for a player to walk on. Finally, you'll learn how to make enemies more intelligent with artificial intelligence (AI). By the end of the book, you'll have gained the confidence to build fun multiplatform games with Flutter. What you will learn Discover the Flame engine and how to use it in game programming in Flutter Organize the graphics and sounds used in your game Animate a sprite in your games and detect when the player collides with tiles Run the game as a web page and desktop app Expand our player control with key navigation Build your first game and make your enemies more intelligent with AI for games Who this book is forIf you are a Flutter developer looking to apply your Flutter programming skills to games development, this book is for you. Basic knowledge of Dart will assist with understanding the concepts covered.

Get hands-on with game development tools and techniques to build game project using the latest version of Unreal Engine and C++, two of the most widely used tools in the games industry Key Features Kickstart your career or develop a new hobby by learning game development with Unreal Engine 5 and C++ Learn techniques to prototype and develop your own ideas with key images printed in color Reinforce your skills with project-based learning by building a series of games from scratch Book DescriptionImmerse yourself in the Unreal game projects with this book, written by four highly experienced industry professionals with many years of combined experience with Unreal Engine. Elevating Game Experiences with Unreal Engine 5 will walk you through the latest version of Unreal Engine by helping you get hands-on with the game creation projects. The book starts with an introduction to the Unreal Editor and key concepts such as actors, blueprints, animations, inheritance, and player input. You'll then move on to the first of three projects, building a dodgeball game, where you'll learn the concepts of line traces, collisions, projectiles, user interface, and sound effects. You'll also discover how to combine these concepts to showcase your new skills. The second project, a side-scroller game, will help you implement concepts such as animation blending, enemy AI, spawning objects, and collectibles. And finally, you'll cover the key concepts in creating a multiplayer environment as you work on the third project, an FPS game. By the end of this Unreal Engine book, you'll have a broad understanding of how to use the tools that the game engine provides to start building your own games. What you will learn Create a fully functional third-person character and enemies Implement navigation with keyboard, mouse, and gamepad Program logic and game mechanics with collision and particle effects Explore AI for games with Blackboards and behavior trees Build character animations with animation blueprints and montages Polish your game with stunning visual and sound effects Explore the fundamentals of game UI using a heads-up display Discover how to implement multiplayer in your games Who this book is forThis book is for game developers looking to get started with using Unreal Engine 5 for their game development projects. Anyone who has used Unreal Engine before and wants to consolidate, improve, and apply their skills will find this book useful. To better grasp the concepts explained in this book, prior knowledge of C++ basics such as variables, functions, classes, polymorphism, and pointers is required. For full compatibility with the IDE used in this book, a Windows system is recommended.