Videogame Atlas

A beautiful and information-rich graphical journey through twelve modern videogame environments, offering new insights into the art of virtual world-building.

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Overview

Through panoramic maps, intricate exploded diagrams and illustrations all prepared exclusively for this publication, Videogame Atlas presents wholly new perspectives on twelve popular videogame worlds. Taking influence from late-20th-century experimental architecture publications, this large-format book offers a playful yet detailed new way of seeing these beloved virtual environments using the practices and thinking behind architectural theory in the real built environment.

Titles such as Minecraft, Assassin’s Creed Unity, and Final Fantasy VII are analyzed and explored in depth in over 400 illustrations at the micro and macro scale, each supported by informed commentary and architectural thinking – the ‘fourth wall’ of familiar virtual worlds are breached and deconstructed as complex urban landscapes. For videogame fans, architects and visual artists alike, this information-rich yet sumptuous publication gives a rare glimpse into the staggering complexities of modern videogame design, delighting the eye and enriching the brain on every page.

Set for general book-shop release in autumn 2022, this Read-Only Memory edition of Videogame Atlas features an exclusive slipcase and three specially commissioned prints. It is available only on Volume as a limited edition pre-order.

Featured titles: Assassin’s Creed Unity, Cities: Skylines, Dark Souls, Death Stranding, Dwarf Fortress, Final Fantasy VII + Remake, Fortnite, Katamari Damacy, Minecraft, No Man’s Sky, Persona 5, Stardew Valley.

Authors

Luke Caspar Pearson
Sandra Youkhana

Genre

Videogames

Imprint

Read-Only Memory

Specification

340 x 240 mm
288 pages
Exclusive slipcased edition
Black holofoil case details
3 x heavyweight art prints housed in folio
Limited to 500 copies

A Read-Only Memory exclusive

This limited Read-Only Memory edition is only available on Volume. The slipcase, designed specially for this collector’s volume, is stamped in black holographic foil that features graphic symbols developed exclusively for this edition by the authors. It will not be available beyond 500 copies.

Housed in the slipcase are three exclusive art prints that draw on the structures and game-world topographies featured in the book; they are designed to be framed with either vertical or horizontal orientation. Each artwork is printed in a bold pink Pantone ink and finished with a high gloss UV laminate, for a plasticized finish.

Founded in 2012, Read-Only Memory is dedicated to producing high-end, design-led books on videogames. Videogame Atlas will join hit titles on its list such as Sega Mega Drive/Genesis: Collected Works, Japansoft: An Oral History and Arcade Game Typography and is sure to become a cult item for fans and collectors of videogame books.

This book is an attempt to unravel … game worlds in the same way an architect or an urban designer would analyze a physical site or space, by seeking to grasp their conditions and complexities.

Luke Caspar Pearson and Sandra Youkhana

The aesthetic experience of videogames is immersive yet fragmentary, inconsistent and often seemingly illogical. We might die thousands of times in a game world but also feel at home there.

Luke Caspar Pearson and Sandra Youkhana

Meet the authors

Luke Caspar Pearson and Sandra Youkhana are architectural designers who run their own studio, You+Pea. Their work explores the integration of videogame technologies into architectural design, leading conversations on how games can engage new participants in the design of cities.

Videogame Atlas is a culmination of Pearson and Youkhana’s work, which includes founding the Videogame Urbanism studio at the Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London, which promotes the use of game technologies in architectural education.