David L. Craddock - Stay Awhile and Listen: Book I

I accumulated a dragons horde of material over five years of research and interviews for Stay Awhile and Listen. So much material, in fact, that I risked cramming chapters so full of information that they became weighty and tangential. Rather than stuff each chapter to excess, I spread content across three sections: the main book, Side Quests, and Bonus Rounds.

Main Book

The meat and potatoes of Stay Awhile and Listen consists of an introduction, thirteen chapters, and an epilogue. You can skip the Side Quests and Bonus Rounds if you like, but youll miss out on lots of behind-the-scenes stories and information if you do.

Side Quests

Side Quests collect supplementary material. As you read, youll come across [SQ] markers. Touch a marker and youll jump to an anecdote or bit of history relevant to the passage you just read in the main book. From there, tap [Return to Chapter] to zip right back to where you left off. Or, if you like, you can save the Side Quests for after youve finished the main book.

Side Quests come in seven varieties:

- Level 1: Game developers relate how they went from playing games to making games for a living. Readers who aspire to do the same should take these stories to heart.

- Byte-Sized History: Anecdotes from developers and historical overviews of studios, game hardware, and important figures in the games industry.

- Game Design 101: Lessons concerning play testing, storytelling, difficulty, pacing, how visuals and music enhance gameplay, and other areas of game design.

- Behind the Code: A peek behind the curtain to learn technical details such as implementing features in a games code and creating art for characters and game levels.

- Cutting Room Floor: Game content that was conceptualized or developed, but left unused.

- Sanctuary Speaks: We asked various online communities to submit their most memorable anecdotes related to games covered in Stay Awhile and Listen. Sanctuary Speaks (Sanctuary being the world where Diablo unfolds) shares those stories.

- Authors Note: An introduction or explanation that provides a frame of reference for the content that follows the note.

Please note that many Side Quests include optional links to websites that provide more information on particular tangential subjects. Some e-reading devices lack the functionality to launch web browsers via links found within books, and may be unable to open these links.

Bonus Rounds

Bonus Rounds are extra chapters that expand on people, events, and games covered in the main book. You can read the Bonus Rounds whenever you choose, in any order you choose, but they are best absorbed after finishing the main book.

However you choose to tackle Stay Awhile and Listen, I hope you stay awhile and enjoy all that the book has to offer. Happy reading!

David L. Craddock

Max Schaefer moved the mouse cursor to the tile just in front of his character and clicked. On the screen, his Warrior took one step forward across a cavern bordered by lakes of bubbling lava. Just one. That was the best way to move in Diablo, Max knew. Better to inch forward than march brazenly into uncharted territory and wake up the demons lurking in the cave. Max had a good idea of the monsters that lurked on this level. His artists had created many of them.

He sent his cursor scouting ahead like a hunting dog. It landed on a treasure chest highlighted in gold. The chest sat just up ahead at the edge of the screen.

Max furrowed his brow, thinking. Maybe a shiny coat of mail would pop out of the box to replace his ravaged chainmail, or a new helmet, or gold. Maybe cracking the lid would trigger a burst of lightning that fried what little remained of his health. Or maybe the box held nothing at all. That was the thing about Diablo. You never knew what the game might spring on you.

Caught up in the moment, Max clicked the chest and the Warrior took off into uncharted territory.

What would happen was, you were in the cave levels, and you learned early to be very afraid of the acid-spitting dogs. You could see their splatters of acid on the ground before you saw the dogs themselves, and it would induce authentic fear in you.

You would either run away, or sit up in your chair, take notice, and put full effort into trying to beat them.

-Max Schaefer, co-founder, Blizzard North

A glob of acid sailed across the screen and smacked against his chest. His Warrior grimaced in pain. Max straightened, gripping his mouse. Two more wads of corrosive spit flew at him. Behind them, a pack of Poison Beasts, dog-like monsters that ran on all fours and hocked gobs of acidic slime at machine-gun speed, loped into view.

In a split second, Max made the choice to attack. He clicked from side to side, weaving his Warrior through a torrent of acid, but too many of the globs bit through his armor and deep into his flesh. Up ahead the pack dug in their heels and vomited an unending stream of poisonous discharge. Pushing forward to get within sword range was like shouldering through a tidal wave.