Forging Worlds: Stories Behind the Art of Blizzard Entertainment

by Micky Neilson

To celebrate Blizzard's 30th anniversary, a gorgeous retrospective on artistry at Blizzard and the impact the studio has left emblazoned on gaming history. For thirty years, Blizzard has been pushing boundaries and breaking expectations of what it means to draw for video games. Get a glimpse behind the curtain at how art has evolved at Blizzard and meet some of the artists who've shaped Blizzard's style and range to what it is today. Discover how art cross-pollinated amongst game teams and how grassroots movements from fans inspired some of Blizzard's most iconic artwork. With insights from more than fifty artists, animators, designers, and storytellers, this sweeping compendium is fans ultimate keys to the kingdom of three decades in Blizzard artistry.

Genres: Video Games, Nonfiction, Art

Hardcover

Published December 16, 2021

About the author

Micky Neilson is a two-time New York Times best-selling author whose graphic novels, Ashbringer (#2 on the list) and Pearl of Pandaria (#3) have both been published in six languages. As one of the first writers at Blizzard Entertainment, he has more than two decades of experience in the cutting edge of the gaming industry. He has self-published three horror novels in his original series The Turning, on Amazon. In 2017 Micky was tapped to write The Howling: Revenge Of The Werewolf Queen, a comic book continuation of the beloved 1981 Joe Dante horror film The Howling. In 2018 Micky completed his first original sci-fi novel, Ridgerunners, and co-wrote the graphic novel The Invisible Empire: Madge Oberholtzer And The Unmasking Of The KKK, as well as the illustrated novel Strange Highways. Most recently Micky wrote the bestselling book The Art Of Spyro: Reignited Trilogy and completed his sci-fi trilogy Skiptracer. Micky lives in beautiful Washington State with his wife and daughter where he enjoys life's essentials: movies, comic books, chocolate and sushi.

Reviews

[Selene Evenstar · Rating 4 out of 5]

A gorgeous art book offering insight into Blizzard's inner workings on all of their big franchises - there is amazing art to see here and interviews from the biggest artists in the company (a large part of it is soundbites from Metzen himself).
However, at times the book felt too corporate, with the core ideals of the company mentioned far too often in passing and even plastered on a statue, everyone desperately trying to hammer down on the fact that Blizzard is the coolest, best, most creative place to work where everyone's voice is heard. It almost reads like a poster you would see in the hiring office of an insurance company or bank. In light of (at this stage not so recent) revelations as to the happenings behind the scenes, it feels a bit false to me, but still - the company's good old days before they became the corpo-titan they currently are may truly have been magical and full of limitless collaboration.
A thing that I learned from the book and surprised me, was the Blizzard Fine Arts Programme - I feel like this was not advertised enough at the time and you can barely find any info on it online nowadays. I wish they would do an art book containing solely the art from the Programme, I feel like this would be an instant win as so many people would love to see their favorite characters drawn by world-renowned artists. If you are a fan of Blizzard and all their properties, this is an instant must, since there is quite a lot of art even from Heroes of the Storm (the dominating franchises in the book, however, are Warcraft and Overwatch, which makes complete sense when you take into account the date of publication.)

[Zach Leete · Rating 4 out of 5]

A shockingly relatable book that provides deep insight into the creative process at Blizzard. There are plenty of helpful lessons here that apply to non-artists, making this a quality read whether you’re a Blizzard fan or not.

[Iain Hawkes · Rating 4 out of 5]

(Chef's kiss)