I’m David L. Craddock, author of books that go behind the scenes to reveal how video games are made. My latest book explores the creation of the original X-COM. AMA!

Hey! My name is David L. Craddock, and I'm an author of fiction and nonfiction books. My most popular titles explore how video games are made and the people who make them. I've been a writer for 17 years and have talked to hundreds of game developers, and learned some pretty cool (and pretty horrifying) stories. Some of those can be found in my books like Stay Awhile and Listen volumes one and two, which (you may be stunned to discover) chronicle the history of WarCraft, StarCraft, and Diablo; Shovel Knight by Boss Fight Books; Rocket Jump, a look at the creativity and turmoil that informed Quake and other FPS games from the '90s (available free to read on Shacknews or as a book); and an upcoming book about the Mortal Kombat franchise to be published by Taylor & Francis in 2022, among others.

Last week, I launched a Kickstarter for Monsters in the Dark: The Making of X-COM: UFO Defense. Besides delving into the making of the original X-COM, Monsters goes into detail on legendary strategy game designer Julian Gollop's early career and the games he made before X-COM, such as Chaos, Rebelstar Raiders, and Laser Squad, among others. You can check the Kickstarter out here if you're interested. If you'd like to sample the book, you can read free excerpts on Polygon, Ars Technica, Vice, Shacknews, and two at Kotaku, including this one published this morning.

I'll start answering questions at 12pm Eastern/9am Pacific. Feel free to ask me about Monsters in the Dark, X-COM, strategy games, writing, what I've learned about the wild world of game development, how I pulled off this spectacular (he said humbly) parry in Dark Souls–in other words, AMA!

EDIT #1: Great questions so far! Keep them coming!

EDIT #2 (2:36 Eastern): Taking a short break for an appointment, but I'll continue answering questions when I get back.

EDIT #3 (4:10): That’s a wrap! Thank you again for such great questions. I’ll check back in periodically to answer others as they are added.