David L. Craddock previously delved deeply into the depths of Diablo’s development with 2013’s Stay Awhile and Listen Book I and 2019’s Stay Awhile and Listen Book II. This Summer, he’ll do the same for X-COM: UFO Defense in the upcoming Monsters in the Dark: The Making of X-COM: UFO Defense.
Designer Julian Gollop pitched X-COM’s signature blend of tactical gameplay and resource management to MicroProse in the early 1990s, but Monsters in the Dark will travel even further back and revisit some of his earliest projects:
Monsters in the Dark: The Making of X-COM: UFO Defense is a narrative-style book that chronicles the early career of Julian Gollop, legendary designer of the original X-COM. You’ll walk alongside Julian during his boyhood, from spicing up the mechanics of chess and creating pen-and-paper games, to cutting his teeth on programming Sinclair’s ZX Spectrum. From there, you will learn how Julian partnered with his father and brother to develop X-COM with MicroProse UK, an off-shoot team eager to prove themselves to U.S.-based parent company and Sid Meier’s Civilization juggernaut developer MicroProse.
Craddock is currently seeking funding for the book’s first print run through Kickstarter. To entice prospective backers, he has partnered with a handful of publications to offer five different excerpts from Monsters in the Dark:
Vice Games – How a Publishing Nightmare Set the Stage for the Original ‘X-COM’
Ars Technica – Developing the distinctive look of the original X-COM: UFO Defense
Polygon – X-COM got its name, in part, because ‘XCON’ sounded like ‘ex-convict’
Kotaku – X-COM: UFO Defense Would Have Been Canned If Its Creators Hadn’t Secretly Revolted
Shacknews – Pro Strats: X-COM (1994) strategy guide author David Ellis on QA and writing guides
Monsters in the Dark: The Making of X-COM: UFO Defense will be published in June, but backers could receive the ebook edition as early as April.