Good news everyone!

The Virtual Cities atlas has finally been published, and I am incredibly happy to see the great, kind feedback people have been sharing. What's more, I want to, once again, thank you all for your incredible support and patience without which this atlas simply couldn't have happened. Seriously, thank you!

As for the Virtual Cities book itself, it should be available in…

Hello everyone! Just a short update to let you know that the Virtual Cities backer copies and rewards will very soon be in the post (they may actually already be on their way towards you), and that the book will officially be published on the 12th of November 2020! It should be available in most major online retailers and several bookstores, and copies can already be pre-ordered via Amazon, the…

We are less than a month from publication date (12 November 2020), the signed bookplates have been signed, backer rewards are being finalised, and the Virtual Cities atlas is about to be shipped to backers and retailers! Pre-orders for those who missed the crowdfunding campaign have opened on Amazon, the Book Depository, and Waterstones, and I do feel the time has come for me to reveal the artwork…

Good news everyone! We've hit the printers a week (or so) ago, and Virtual Cities will soon become a very real, very published atlas! Expect more news and details soon.

My best,

Konstantinos

Hope everyone is doing well, and that you are all keeping as safe as possible during these trying times.

As for me and mine, we are all thankfully fine. I'm currently waiting for the final Virtual Cities proofs to reach me and be approved, and I only now realized I hadn't updated you on the going ons regarding the publication of Virtual Cities for quite some time.

So, though the book is essentially…

Hello again and thank you all so much!

The Virtual Cities campaign hit 201%, admittedly surpassed the wildest of my estimations, and I have you all (as well as your generosity and support) to thank! So, thank you all for making this happen!

Also, the crowdfunding period is now over, and all the stretch goals have been unlocked. This means that while the final touches and corrections are being…

As the Virtual Cities crowdfunding campaign is reaching its end, I'm happy to announce that the campaign hit 200% of its funding goal, and thus the third stretch goal has been unlocked! This means that all backers of the Virtual Cities atlas will also be receiving a digital booklet packed with sketches, early artwork, initial ideas, and notes.

Pre-ordering your copy before MIDNIGHT SUNDAY 26…

Happy 2020 everyone! It is a brand new year, and the time for a rather important Virtual Cities announcement to go along with my warmest wishes for health, luck, happiness, and peace!

So... Τhe supporters list for Virtual Cities will be closing on the 26th of January 2020, which means that this will be the very last date for people who pledge for a reward to also get their names listed in the back…

While the designers of Unbound are busy making Virtual Cities as beautiful a book as it can be, I've been working on the ebook promised to the people backing the atlas at the Collection of Game Design Articles, Three Prints, Map Print, Postcards and Prints, Hangout, Slipcase Edition, Patron, and Super Patron levels. This collection of articles, essays, talks, and new and previously unpublished…

With the summer safely behind us, the time for another short update has come. The book, you see, has been written and edited since quite a while, and the excellent Unbound team is currently working hard on the final design of Virtual Cities -- obviously both I and Maria were asked for our input, and the first drafts are looking great. 

Parallel to that the two of us are working to finalize the…

Hello everyone,

I am happy to let you all know that Virtual Cities has entered its pre-press phase, meaning that all the thoroughly edited, touched-up, and polished texts, illustrations, and maps are now ready to be assembled into the final version of the atlas. There are of course things still left to be done by the excellent Unbound team (mainly design work, type-setting, proofreading, and the…

Due to your continuing (and touching) support of the Virtual Cities campaign, we just hit 175% funded, and unlocked our second stretch goal! As promised a new reward level has thus been made available: the exclusive Slipcase Edition. It features the (expensive to produce in limited numbers) slipcase, the hardcover book itself, the signed bookplate, and the map print. 

Oh, and editing the book has…

Hello! It's taken longer than expected, but now the last of the city maps, as well as the book's introduction have finally been submitted, and, with this, the first (and greatest) step towards the completion of the actual atlas has been achieved! Virtual Cities is actually, truly happening, and I honestly have to thank you all for the incredible support, and believe that you will all love what…

The 45th city to appear in the Virtual Cities atlas will be the dystopian Union City from 1994's Beneath A Steel Sky. This beautifully illustrated, rich, sci-fi metropolis governed by the all-powerful LINC computer is the final addition to the book's contents (previously announced here); the 45th atlas entry.

What's more, after countless hours of work the Virtual Cities manuscript is finally…

January, 2019 is almost over, and we have finally moved past the 50% mark, meaning that I do expect us to submit the final manuscript of Virtual Cities (complete with illustrations, and maps) in less than two months from now. What's more, my amazing wife, Vivi, an engineer with a masters in urban planning herself, has joined the team to lend us her cartographic expertise, help us make even better…

Happy holidays everyone, and here's to a wonderful, healthy, happy, and creative 2019! 

With eighteen entries finalized --admittedly Orgrimmar proved a bit trickier than expected, and mapping Metro City wasn't as straightforward as I believed it would be-- we are making good progress on Virtual Cities, and are still on schedule. My original estimate of delivering the manuscript to Unbound in the…

Narrowing over forty years, dozens of platforms, a menagerie of genres, and a multitude of game city types (and styles) down to the 45 entries of the Virtual Cities atlas wasn't an easy task. I will not bore you with the details, but know that a few hundred hours were dedicated to researching, playing, re-playing, reading, and finally deciding on 41 of those cities. The remaining four were selected…

[illustration courtesy of Colorfiction and 0°N 0°W]

I was hoping to be able to announce the final list of the atlas entries in this update (and was thus postponing it), but am still working with a couple of our super-generous 'Name A City'-level backers on the cities they did like to see featured in Virtual Cities; we are thus not there just yet. Happily though, after dozens of hours of researching…

Amazingly, Virtual Cities hit its very first stretch goal at 150% funded, and five more entries have been added to the book! The atlas will thus now grow bigger to include 45 game cities, and I can't help but thank you all so very, very much. We honestly never really expected this much love, and support to be shown to our project.

Oh, and even though at least another 10 illustration, 5 maps…

Brilliant detective adventure Lamplight City by Grundislav Games has just been released on Steam and GOG, and I am happy to announce that its rich, atmospheric, Victorian, steampunk-ish city will be part of the Virtual Cities atlas. What's more, creator Francisco Gonzalez has been kind enough to provide me with a pre-release copy of the game, concept artwork, design documents, and all of the city…

Summer's (almost) gone, a lot of work has been done on the Virtual Cities atlas, and the lovely Polygon published  an excerpt from the book on Grim Fandango's Rubacava. Read it here. You'll also notice that the words are accompanied by a new illustration by Maria Kallikaki.

- Konstantinos

It's been a while since the last update on the Virtual Cities atlas, and as you may have noticed the campaign is steadily climbing towards its first stretch goal. Achieving 150% feels like something we can actually reach, and I've thus slightly readjusted our plans to allow for the inclusion of 45 cities in the book; that's roughly an extra 10 illustrations, 5 maps, and over 5000 words.

Speaking…

Virtual Cities, being an atlas that intends to cover all aspects of videogame urbanism, is, appropriately, also aiming to encompass the entire range of gaming's cities. So, following last week's announcement regarding the inclusion of 0°N 0°W's surreal urban entities, here's a short update to let you know that the contemporary, realistic, and yet imaginary (to the point of utopianism some…

0°N 0°W was released only a few months ago by indie studio Colorfiction, and is a truly unique exercise in surreal urbanism, and the crafting of strange, dreamlike cities. An unexpectedly meditative interactive experience exploring the possibilities of imaginary, experimental planning, I simply had to include in the Virtual Cities atlas.

As visiting 0°N 0°W can be pretty…

I never expected Virtual Cities to be funded in less than three weeks, and both I and Maria Kallikaki are truly grateful for your support, and very excited to be working on our atlas of game cities. Also, having discussed things with the lovely people of Unbound we are now in the happy position of being able to announce our stretch goals:

• At 150% of the funding goal five additional cities…

Game cities are a fascinating subject, and as is the case with all fascinating subjects, they can be approached, explored, and appreciated in a multitude of ways. Readers intrigued by our Virtual Cities atlas might thus also be interested in a radically different approach.

The Continuous City by Gareth Damian Martin is a collection of wonderful, black and white, analogue photography exploring…

First of all, a huge THANK YOU to all you wonderful people who helped the Virtual Cities campaign reach its funding goal in less than three weeks! Both I and Maria Kallikaki are beyond excited in the knowledge that our atlas is indeed happening! We also now know how (and where) to spend our summer.

What's more, we are looking --along with the wonderful team @ Unbound-- for ways of making this…

Popular demand --expressed both publicly in the book's FAQ secion, and privately via emails-- led us to the inclusion of two new pledge levels for the Virtual Cities campaign:

- the Signed Bookplate and Postcards (a special offer) level offering the book, the signed bookplate, and the postcards,

- and the Book Bundle pledge aimed at retailers, and indie shops featuring five copies of the atlas…

Fallen London, the wonderfully dark and deliciously devilish Victorian Gothic metropolis of Failbetter Games, and also the intricate urban setting of both Fallen London and Sunless Sea will be a part of the Virtual Cities atlas!* What's more, the incredibly generous people of Failbetter Games shall be helping me and Maria Kallikaki map this fabulously intricate imaginary city, capture and re-interpret…

We have decided to remove all references to GTA V, and Los Santos, as well as all references to Bioshock from the campaign (and the relevant updates). We will be focusing on other virtual cities instead.

Thank you all for the wonderful, heart-warming support!

The Virtual Cities atlas, this artful, and very cartographic journey through gaming's cities would never be possible without the love you have shown it (and us). Honestly, thank you!

The campaign is already approaching the point of being 50% funded, and I'm certain that by spreading the word even further, we'll be hitting 100% very soon…

Back in 2017 I and artist Maria Kallikaki decided that launching a virtual cartographic expedition to map, explore, and capture the essence of gaming's most intriguing cities would be an adventure worth embarking on.

Now, almost a year later I can't help but feel we are almost there. Virtual Cities is happening, and I'd like to ask all you wonderful people for your help in spreading the word on…