One of WoW's First Level Designers to Explore the Making of World of Warcraft

If you're fan of World of Warcraft, a new book in the works called "World of Warcraft Diary" may be of interest. The author named John Staats was one of the original level designers and someone who worked on WoW for 10 years. He will be providing readers with the inside story of the development of the biggest and most successful MMORPG ever made. In order to bring his book to fruition, Staats has started a KickStarter initiative to raise $400,000.

Readers will find over 336 pages of information illustrated with more than 130 personal photographs and images used with Blizzard's permission. His Vanilla WoW portfolio includes half of the game’s instanced dungeons, and 90 percent of non-instanced caves, crypts, dens, mines, and hive tunnels.

I was a games industry outsider before joining Blizzard Entertainment in 2000 as the company's first 3D level designer. After many of my misconceptions about game development were dispelled, I thought it would be a compelling subject to write about. I began The WoW Diary by interviewing my team members to build a broader understanding of how a computer game company works, and I logged monthly updates our progress over the next four years (until we launched). This book focuses on the highs and lows of making massively multiplayer online games, and because WoW is so familiar, it's excellent common ground for covering both the basics and specifics of game development.

You can check out the book's KickStarter page or visit Staat's page WhenItsDone.com.

Check out the table of contents below.

Thanks for the tip, Mr. Staats!