First-Chance Exception

A Tale of Games, Gaffes, and Going Online

Raymond Arifianto, Jessica Arifianto

$34.95 $31.10

Paperback

Not in-store but you can order this
How long will it take?

Availability Information

We source books from suppliers in Australia and overseas. For books we don't currently have in stock, the time it takes to get them from our suppliers can vary widely - from a few days to a few months - so we check each book with each supplier to determine the expected time it will take to be supplied to us.

We then advise you accordingly. If the time taken to get any book is too long for you, you can let us know and we will cancel or adjust your order, and refund as required.

To find out the anticipated arrival time for specific items prior to ordering, please contact us by phone or email:

Phone +61 2 9264 3111, or 1800 4 BOOKS (1800 4 26657) if outside Sydney:
option 1 Abbey's Bookshop (Crime, History, Science, Kids & more) • info@abbeys.com.au
option 2 Language Book Centre (ESL & Foreign Languages) • language@abbeys.com.au
option 3 Galaxy Bookshop (Sci-fi, Fantasy, Romance, Graphic Novels) • sf@galaxybooks.com.au

QTY:

English

Imprint
15 February 2025

Games development & programming

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.

By: Raymond Arifianto
Edited by: Jessica Arifianto
Imprint: Imprint
Dimensions: Height: 203mm, Width: 133mm, Spine: 15mm
Weight: 227g
ISBN: 9781069371706
ISBN 10: 106937170X
Pages: 238
Publication Date: 15 February 2025
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Raymond Arifianto spends his days helping game studios navigate the treacherous waters of online game development. After working on platforms like Xbox Live and PlayStation Network, and franchises like Need for Speed and Fable, he's collected enough development disaster stories to fill a book. So he did.When not writing about philosophical rabbits or debugging server catastrophes, he tries to make online game development less mysterious through his podcast ""Boring Launch."" A firm believer that the best development stories start with ""you're not going to believe this,"" he decided to write ""First-Chance Exception"" to share the chaos, camaraderie, and occasional triumph of turning single-player games into online services.He lives happily in New Brunswick, Canada, with his wife, kids, and pets.

Reviews for First-Chance Exception: A Tale of Games, Gaffes, and Going Online

""Made me laugh. More than once."" - MARK MANDEL, Game Developer Advocate, Founder of Agones and Quilkin projects ""We spend hundreds and thousands of hours playing our favorite video games, but most have no idea how they are made. First Class Exception tells a realistic behind-the-scenes story about the not-always-pretty way game developers build the games we love so much.""- MIKE FISCHER, Interactive Media Executive, Advisor and Educator (Microsoft, Amazon, Square Enix, Epic Games) ""Humorous, fast-paced and nostalgia-inducing. It had me reliving all those gut-wrenching WTF moments that make up the madness and passion that is real game development.""- PHIL TOSSELL, Game Creator (AccelByte, Microsoft, Rare)""A fun narrative about video game development, whether you've been part of a similar journey or just interested in the chaos that engineering teams have to go through to ship their games. I found myself connecting with the characters, chuckling every once in a while and felt terrified in some of the early decisions as I could foresee how they were going to develop.""- ISAIAS FORMACIO-SERNA, Engineering (Rec Room, PlayStation, Xbox)""OMG! What an amazing way to mix storytelling and game industry insider experience!: ) ""- SUMEET JAKATDAR, Technical Director (Sony, Amazon Game Studios, Treyarch)