Game developer Tozour’s assured, highly original debut offers a peek behind the scenes of two fictional gaming companies, the process of producing a ground-breaking video game, and four core values, derived from Tozour’s own experience, that a group of developers learn along the way, each paired with a legendary sword inside their own game of choice, an MMORPG called Dream of Dragons. Like a good RPG, the narrative of The Four Swords kicks off with mystery and character choices. At the insistence of a “synthesized voice,” game developers Tim, Leo, Jake, and Alison—who have just helped release one of the most successful games in industry history—must reveal their surprising story, from the beginning, as the "the voice" considers.

Jake and Leo, who work at Scrub-Liminal Studios, and Tim and Allison, who work at Green Gryphon Games, are central to the inner workings of their respective companies and trade work anecdotes as they bond over gaming sessions. Through their meetups and work days, Tozour tells a story digging into business, gaming, coding, and more, while sharing wisdom and insight into ethical business practices and the taxing roles of leadership. The Four Swords is an epic of epic-making, an adventure about what it takes to craft adventures, set in a world of cutthroat business and workplace antics.

Their journey, in the real world and on bloody raids in a convincingly drawn Dream of Dragons, will find their personal lives, friendships, and careers all beginning to bleed into each other as Tozour spins an engaging story of workplace drama, lessons for leadership, and the discovery of those core values. Lovers of games will appreciate appearances from characters inspired by game history, like the RPG pioneer “Lord Austin,” who aspired to building “a coherent moral framework and actually living by it” in games—and shares inspired advice when a team is demoralized. The Four Swords makes a compelling quest out of what it takes to be an impactful leader in business.

Takeaway: Inventive novel of game development and leadership values.

Comparable Titles: Gabrielle Zevin’s Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow, Gene Kim, Kevin Behr, and George Spafford’s The Phoenix Project

Production grades
Cover: A
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: A
Marketing copy: A