Bitmap Books founder Sam Dyer has been speaking to GI.biz about his line of excellent video game-related books and has opened up on the topics of nostalgia, growth and preservation.
Bitmap has produced a series of coffee table classics over the years and has worked with the likes of Sega, SNK and Atari – but Dyer admits that it would be a "dream" to collaborate with Nintendo on a book in the future.
"Who knows, maybe one day we could work with Nintendo," he says. "That would be a dream come true to produce books on their IP."
Such a move is all part of Dyer's strategy for his company, which has been in business for a decade now. "What I want to do in the future is become a lot more known for this," he explains. "Say, for example, a studio does a game, and they're like: 'We need an art book.' I'd love for Bitmap Books to be the go-to company that they approach to produce that art book."
Opening up on the reasons his company has managed to carve out its niche in the market, Dyer surprisingly takes a somewhat dim view of the current trend for embellishing the past for commercial gain:
There's an interesting conversation to be had surrounding the word 'nostalgia.' It's starting to become a bit overused, and it's actually got a few negative connotations, where there are a lot of companies that prey on peoples' nostalgia. Big companies include gaming in their adverts to use as a hook to engage with a certain audience, for example. So, I'm sort of always a bit wary about that phrase. Bitmap began with me just wanting to produce things that I would want to buy. Things that reminded me of childhood.
He also touches upon the future of Bitmap, which, lest we forget, is effectively Dyer on his own; he works with a core team of contributors and freelancers to produce around three books and year. He admits that hiring more full-time staff would help boost that number, but he doesn't see that as viable:
If we were 20 or 30 people, and we were producing a book a month, people would quite quickly get tired of that, and I would, as well. Producing three books a year – which is what we do at the moment – feels like a good amount for me, and it's a good amount for customers. The biggest thing is that people really look forward to when we release a book. It's like a real treat, and I would never want that to become like: 'Oh god, they've just released another book.' It would be time to pack up if that ever became the general feeling.
Some people might say that I've got no ambition, and they could criticise me for not wanting to grow the business. But, when you look at why businesses fail, a lot of the time it's because they grow beyond their means and then it all just sort of goes a bit wrong. Whereas, at the moment, I'm more than happy to grow the business slowly, and do it at my pace, so as to not churn out too many titles and burn myself out.
He's also clearly proud of Bitmap's position in the industry when it comes to preservation; for example, his King of Fighters and Metal Slug books have connected fans with two of SNK's most famous properties in a deep and meaningful way.
"A copy of each one of my books is in the British Library, and as far as I'm concerned, that's a pretty strong sort of preservation," Dyer says. "It's not just Bitmap doing this, it's other publishers as well. We're doing this job that is the most important way of preserving the history of video games."