Bitmap Books is known for its catalogue of visually stunningly books on the art, history and culture of video games. Each release demonstrates a genuine love for the subject matter and great attention to detail. Their latest offering, the upcoming book A Tale of Two Halves: The History of Football Video Games, is no exception. Written by Richard Moss, the book takes video game football fans on a nostalgic journey through their childhoods, leaving them misty-eyed over memories of countless pixel-perfect goals scored.
Bitmap Books owes its creation to Sam Dyer’s journey from graphic designer to owner and publisher. “By trade, I am a graphic designer. I graduated from Somerset Art College in the early 00’s and moved to London where I worked for a few branding agencies,” Dyer recalls. After relocating to Bath and feeling somewhat uninspired by his day job, he reconnected with his love for gaming.
The seeds of Bitmap Books were sown when he stumbled upon a book about retro gaming and realised that a passionate community still existed around these old games. Inspired, he began working on his own project in his spare time: Commodore 64: A Visual Compendium. “The Commodore 64 was my first love and I was obsessed with it as a kid. It’s the system I’m most passionate about and the one I know the most about. Long story short, this first book took off massively, and ten years and 25+ books later, Bitmap Books is my job. Crazy times!”
Creating The Books
Though some might assume the company’s name is a nod to iconic British developers The Bitmap Brothers, the choice was purely practical. “I wanted something alliterative that rolled off the tongue. I knew I wanted the word ‘Books’ in the name, so ‘Bitmap’ sounded perfect, especially as it also said ‘computing’ really clearly,” Dyer explains.
Every Bitmap release is a labour of love that involves countless decisions. Not just about content, but also design, production, and presentation. “From start to finish, it usually takes around a year to create a book. Then three to four months production and shipping,” Dyer explains. The complexity of the process depends on the scale of the project, and for A Tale of Two Halves, which spans decades of football gaming history, the challenge was immense. “This book has probably taken more like two years due to the sheer scale of the task to write and design it.”
Special Touches
The production process doesn’t stop at writing and design. Dyer goes into detail about how hands-on every stage of the process is. “Once the concept is agreed, I start thinking about how it could look, playing around with design layouts. After a style is decided, the task of rolling that design out through 300+ pages begins.” The attention to detail continues through the proofing stages, where everything is carefully reviewed before going to print. “We’d then get a physical sample to sign-off before the shipment is released.”
Dyer often incorporates special touches to the books that set their titles apart, such as the Metal Slug book, where the collector’s edition slipcase played sound effects from the game. In the case of A Tale of Two Halves, the book features bookmark ribbons made from football boot laces and the special edition has a ‘Captain’s Armband’ belly band wrapped around the cover. “These are the little details that sets Bitmap apart and the things that I personally love,” he says.
A Deep Dive
A Tale of Two Halves: The History of Football Video Games isn’t just another book about football games. It’s the definitive guide to a genre that has shaped the lives of millions of fans around the world. Author Richard Moss had long been interested in writing about the subject. “I grew up playing and loving football, both real and virtual, and I thought it’d be fascinating to look at how technology and real-world football happenings have helped shape the genre’s evolution,” Moss shares. His vision for the book was broad: “I especially wanted to examine the ever-shifting battleground at the top of the genre (Sensible Soccer vs Kick Off, Premier Manager vs Championship Manager, FIFA vs PES) and how it reflects our relationship with football. But also the many oddities and dead ends that litter the genre’s history.”
For Moss, the most enjoyable part of the project was uncovering the unusual or forgotten gems of football video games. “There are so many offbeat or outrageous ideas: a strategy game about hooliganism (Hooligans: Storm Over Europe), a world tour mode involving teams of dolphins and kraken (RedCard), a football-centric visual novel teen dating simulator (Tokimeki Memorial Drama Series: Nijiro No Seishun) and even cars-playing-football games long before Rocket League,” he laughs.
Football Game Development
Moss conducted over a dozen in-depth interviews with football game designers for the book. His research revealed just how difficult it is to create a great football game. “One of the big findings was simply that making good football games is really hard, especially when you get to the 3D era,” he explains. The complexity of player AI, dribbling mechanics, and zonal positioning in football translates into a massive technical challenge for game developers. “Tweaking the numbers so that an attacker running through the middle is covered might mean someone can run along the wing untroubled, or vice versa,” he says, highlighting how even small design choices can have big consequences for gameplay.
Developers also have to balance realism and fun, something that Moss found fascinating. “There’s a fine line between good, satisfying depth and excessive, tedious depth and designers often struggle to find the right balance point between the two,” he adds. “Where that line sits depends on a raft of other factors, such as the layout of the interface, the flows of interaction and the flavour of the experience.” It’s this balancing act what separates iconic games from their less successful counterparts.
Future of Football Games
As of now, EA’s FIFA franchise (recently rebranded to EA Sports FC) dominates the genre, but that’s not necessarily a good thing. “It’s disappointing, and also very very bad for the genre,” Moss states bluntly. He notes how competition in the early 2000s, particularly from Pro Evolution Soccer, forced EA to innovate and produce better games. “But since then, EA’s game has become a slave to the Ultimate Team beast, ever more bloated and scripted and uninspiring as time goes on. It’s unlikely they’ll make another great football game again unless someone else threatens their bottom line.” Moss holds out hope for future competitors like UFL, which might finally challenge EA’s dominance and reinvigorate the genre. “It could really fundamentally reshape the football video game landscape if they succeed in their goal of making a true modern football game.”
With A Tale of Two Halves, Bitmap Books and Richard Moss have created a celebration of football video games that goes far beyond nostalgia. It is a deep dive into a genre that continues to shape the way we experience both virtual and real-world football. Plus it’s another worthy addition to the expanding line-up of excellent video game books by Bitmap Books.
Check out the complete line-up of Bitmap Books. A Tale of Two Halves: The History of Football Video Games is out now.
Also check out Richard Moss’ work on TerrorBytes, The Evolution of Horror Gaming.