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This book has a chapter about Eric and the struggles he went through to get it developed. It's a great read!
IIRC the real hero of the story was his girlfriend who totally supported them both the entire period of several years while he obsessively tweaked and added new features with no clear end in sight. She worked two jobs to keep them afloat while he stayed in the house working on the game day in day out with no other steady income. It sounds like they're still together so I'm sure she's thrilled that she trusted him to pull it off now that all that hard, obsessive work has made him worth $34 million.
Empires of Eve Vol 1 (Vol 2 coming Nov/Dec). If you want a physical copy more are on the way (again, Nov/Dec).
Extremely well sourced, highly detailed book covering some of the most historically impactful events from a very neutral perspective. Gorgeous artwork.
Only UK version right now is the Kindle version here - http://www.amazon.co.uk/Empires-EVE-History-Great-Online-ebook/dp/B01DONPR0M/
By the way, it's a fantastic book. It covers EVE empires from launch through till around 2009 and goes quite in-depth whilst still offering plenty of explanations for people unfamiliar with the game. Interviews, sov maps, fun tidbits and all!
EDIT: This is not the Mittani's failed book (looking at you, random amazon reviewer). This is a previous book which was kickstarted for $95,000 a while ago.
Very cool, I hope you like it! Some of the chapters are a little uneven because they're about more big-budget games from major studios but overall it was a fascinating look at the game dev process from multiple perspectives.
A couple more good books like this:
Masters of Doom - about iD Software and how Doom was created - great insight to what made the original iD team tick. "mmm" - John Carmack
Console Wars - About Nintendo vs. Sega in the 90s - interesting but written in a bizarre faux-fiction style with made-up dialog attributed to the real people behind the scenes
It is interesting to read about Ensemble Studios' experience as a Microsoft Developer in Blood, Sweat, and Pixels, I reccomend it if you are interested in the topic.
There's a great chapter on Dragon Age Inquisition in "Blood, Sweat and Pixels" that covers this a bit. Probably sources from what you're talking about.
Have you read Empires of Eve?
It's an entire book about the rise and fall of Eve's Corporations and all the politics, espionage and backstabbing that accompanies their conflicts.
Use Shirtaloon's He Who Fights With Monsters as your case study.
He spent 20 months writing his first volume offline (roughly 350k words) then started posting on RoyalRoad with a large backlog for patreon. After he'd written and posted roughly one million words of content for free he published to Amazon through Atheon.
Obviously, he put a ton of work in and nearly two years of his life before even putting the story up for free, but he's been very successful now.
The Dungeon Slayer Series by Konrad Ryan. Here Wisdom and intelligence plays a big role. Protagonist was initially autistic. He gradually becomes socially apt.
It's here on Amazon US.
iTunes (movies and tv shows). Amazon's video/kindle store.
As an example: a e-book that you can't add to cart. Only one click buy.
He has written a book about game development, and it is a damn good book: https://www.amazon.com/Blood-Sweat-Pixels-Triumphant-Turbulent-ebook/dp/B01NAKSWW1/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1VIU92YP70RVK&dchild=1&keywords=blood+tear+and+pixels&qid=1610889119&sprefix=blood+tears+pi%2Caps%2C243&sr=8-1
That's not quite the case. I would recommend you give "Blood, Sweat, and Pixels" a read, it has a chapter on Destiny and if that book is to be believed then it was mostly just a mess of Bungie's own making.
That's rough. The e-Book is available from the Amazon US store. You may be able to make an amazon account on it (assuming you use amazon.de), and then read the book through a kindle reader. (PC kindle reader is free and not bad to use).
USA Link: here
*Edit: Goofed up the link format
The Dungeon Slayer By: Konrad Ryan
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08FFHXM4F/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_t45xFbJTPXCJ0
I was actually very surprised by this book. It kinda fits what you're looking for. Doesn't take place in a video game or anything like that, more of a superhero, feel to the overworld but heavy fantasy theme elsewhere(don't want to spoil anything) but it felt very unique.
I usually don't plug my books directly to people, but since no one has given you a suggestion in an entire day, I will - Especially since I only started writing because of Solo Leveling.
The series was inspired by Solo Leveling, as I'm sure you'll note the similarities, though I did do my best to make it my own and add to it, it diverges the more you go, though keeps a similar premise.
Its free for Kindle Unlimited, and if you don't have Kindle Unlimited, then I recommend holding off until tomorrow, since I'm putting the whole series on free for a couple days.
Happy reading
Dungeon Slayer by Konrad Ryan. On Earth the MC is the only one who has access to the system, everyone else is locked in with what they get (not everyone gets powers, and those who do get it in widely varying degrees and can change powerlevels), and only have an intuitive understanding of what they can do / how it works. Its interesting to see how the MC is sometimes able to offer insight to others to help them solve massive issues they were having.
While I do appreciate good story - I honestly would be happy if there was no "main stories" in MMOs or at least much less focus on them. Most of them are pretty awful, and even the few good ones are still deficient because they basically have limited amount of choices or no choices at all, same goes for limited amount of story-related NPCs, and the story will be useless once you experience all of it - there's no reason to replay through it ever again unless you suffer from amnesia (and most people do not have amnesia).
The best stories are always the ones that players themselves create through interaction with other players, and well-designed games give players plenty of tools to create such stories and I wish more games would provide such tools for players instead of abusing the dated, lazy, boring "here's another small bit of linear story you must go through in our annual 2-year expansion" system.
Konrad's Dungeon Slayer series has elements of this regarding the implications of stats. >!Oh, you have insanely high dexterity? Well have fun tearing your body apart as you don't have the strength to sustain it. Oh, you have insanely high vitality? Congrats, you are now an unkillable blob that sits on the group using skills and taunting people - you literally have to hire someone to carry you around.!<
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Apocalypse: Generic System also has elements of this, but its a major spoiler for book 2 >!someone works out that powerlevelling kids, then killing them, is the best way to get exp due to enlarging then consuming their potential.!< Bleak, but touches on that horror aspect your talking about.
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Then Ar'Kendrithyst has a later plotline that delves into the implications of some stats >!basically people who level a certain mental stat too high process too much information and can become incredibly paranoid without realising it. They start over-analysing everything and act out a 'first-strike' prevention mentality.!<
Unless you start digging through PC gamer archives or something like that, I don't think there's going to be much out there. There wasn't that kind of journalism back then.
Not BG related, but a good book in that area: Blood, Sweat, and Pixels
It's better than 95% of the Kindle Unlimited LitRPG and Urban Fantasy stuff. It isn't as well written as popular Fantasy authors, like Sanderson, Martin, Abercrombie, McClellan, etc. But I would consider it on the level of Dungeon Crawler Carl.
It technically isn't a game, but the mechanics work the same and it definitely falls under LitRPG. It has problems here and there, but far better than most LitRPG I've read. The characters feel distinct, there aren't typos or missed editing, 'I' and 'me' is usually used correctly, unlike most Kindle Unlimited books. The mechanics are interesting (kind of similar to Will Wight's Cradle, I wouldn't be surprised if it took inspiration) and it's an interesting premise, but the mechanics all still work like a game, HUD, etc.
The Tower of Somnus, on Royalroad, fits this criteria. There is the real world, which is a corporation domination dystopian future, and then the game world, which is a Universe-wide game that occurs during sleep that affects on your real-world ability. Only some people on Earth are given the ability to enter the game world, so the majority don't experience it. Its a good read, though I do find the jumps can sometimes feel a bit jarring when going from dream/game-world to real-world.
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Dungeon Slayer is a bit different to what you've asked, but is also interesting. In this there is only one world, but the majority of the 'game-like elements' exist in dungeons. So long as the dungeons are dealt with properly the people who haven't received game-powers are basically unaffected. Solo-Levelling is another with this style.
Solid list.
Queen in the Mud should definitely be on there as well.
Doll Dungeon is pretty good as well. She's mostly concerned with growing stronger. Although does occasionally comment on how attractive someone is, they're off-handed remarks that don't affect the story or her decisions.
I would recommend strongly "He who fights with monsters". I both it because my subscription was expiring, and it was... long. It litRPG, so it's basically a fantasy book, but the characters have stats and skills like in games. It doesn't affect the plot that much... maybe makes it a little growth-oriented (leveling) up. It's actually a really good book, disguised as trivial fun.
Yes, what you listed is a part of that, including ability for people to design and share their own dungeons. But also something that happened in EVE Online - even when I did not play it, I still followed it by reading official forums (back when they were still active) and subreddit (when it became more active than official forums), reading all the stories that players posted of their encounters with other players, as well as following drama and fighting between large alliances. And it was so significant in that game that someone actually wrote a history book about it:
https://www.amazon.com/Empires-EVE-History-Great-Online-ebook/dp/B01DONPR0M/
This is purely user-generated content and is something I've never seen in any other MMORPG (not to such extent).
Queen In The Mud by Maari is about a young woman who is reincarnated as a sort of salamander in a fantasy world. She focuses on using magic and her mighty tail. Good story, but only one book so far.
If you have time and are into reading stuffs try Empires of EVE
You will see that, unfortunately, dishonesty is a very important part of this game.
This is a sandbox game and anything goes. Good luck and have fun. People usually find the niche in a few months of EVE, provided that they find a good group of people to play with.
Currently reading Dungeon Crawler Carl myself (on Book 2!) and it has been a hilariously excellent read. Great way to start the genre.
My top recommendation that I think fits your request is He Who Fights With Monsters by Shirtaloon. Not only is it well-written with a great system and engaging MC, the surrounding cast is fantastic, and it includes some light romance. This story is a banger, so treat yourself to it once you wrap DCC.
He Who Fights with Monsters: A LitRPG Adventure https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08WCT9W26/ref=cm_sw_r_apan_glt_ZDWFPPRSB40K4MMVPMS7?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1
Once you are done with that and if you still want more, you can try out my novel, Dive: Endless Skies, which is currently a contestant in SPFBO 7. It's a more traditional fantasy setting about a young woman who falls in with a team of guild mercenaries on a Dungeon quest. You can expect great characters, good action, a little romance (more just awkward flirting and budding romance), and light litrpg elements.
Dive: Endless Skies (The Dive Sequence Book 1) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08XQVLJBL/ref=cm_sw_r_apan_glt_1TBZZF75RAMTV6CWJZY7
He Who Fights with Monsters by Shirtaloon has been great. Combat is fun and the dialog is increadable. I would avoid the audio book as it falls into the trap of having a stat sheet that is read out but the book for me is a must read. I would desibe this a a Isekia/Gamerlit with some great character building.
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Swing Shift by William D. Arand (Randi Darren is the same author) is another great book filled with modern fantasy fun. I would describe it as a mix of fantasy/mystery/action. All of this authors books share the same universe which is a plus.
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I would also recommend Demon Accords series but I would say it has some inexplicable character moments that really brought the series down as a whole. The Power Creep is also off the charts.