There are a few names in game design that I recognize, and Sid Meier is definitely in the top 3 for me. I remember the name from the first Civilization, and it was just awesome. So what about a book on his life? Sign me in.

Discussion

I’m always fascinating by people’s life. It’s very interesting to understand where they come from, what was their lucky breaks… Of course Sid Meier started creating games at the point where the market was starting, but he also had the ideas and skills to benefit from it.

I found that the book had two main parts. All chapters are going through his life and “tackle” a few games in chronological order. If the first half of the chapters talk about the times around the design of the games and Meier’s life, the last half is less well organized. We have games for each chapters, but they are not always relevant or even hinted in the chapters.

It’s not a bad choice, I suppose there is less to talk about the later parts of his life and we get more flashbacks in these later chapters, explaining why he may want to go in some game designs, but the last chapters are still less interesting, probably because there is less content to put in them.

Conclusion

It’s a very interesting read, I liked the pace, despite the shortcomings of the last chapters. I learnt a lot, and I hope we will get similar books for other famous game designers like Will Wright or Chris Roberts (when Star Citizen is delivered?)