The company was founded by Gabe Durham in June 2013, and following a successful Kickstarter campaign in July, they released their first book, EarthBound by Ken Baumann in January 2014.

[9] On the other hand, in a review at The Collagist, Ian Denning found the autobiographical sections an "emotional high point", passages on Baumann's relationship with his brother were described as "interesting, sometimes tender and funny".

He concludes that the Boss Fight Books series could provide "an alternative future where video games no longer rot young minds and incite violence, but spur philosophical discussions and self-improvement.

[16] In his review for the Baltimore City Paper, Brandon Soderberg lauded the treatment Kimball gave the game, rejecting the "BuzzFeeding of the immediate past", and instead providing depth and poignancy.

The book caused Soderberg to reflect on his own life, and how video games act as windows into trauma, as he recounts the experience of playing Contra following a friend's suicide.

In between these flawed passages, Kunzelman found Kimball displaying expert craft in telling a moving personal story about "coping with the world through videogames" that "many, many people can relate to".

[24] In the Baldur's Gate series of games, the story asks players to reconcile their character's good nature with their murderous heritage.

Sattin sees the book as "an uneasy, courageous, and ultimately vulnerable attempt to bridge a divide most of us are unwilling to admit exists", which succeeds through revealing this conflict.

Couture found the conversational tone between the authors comforting and approachable, their differing viewpoints well suited to a game that "[bounces] between outlandish and serious".

At Paste, Kunzelman was in agreement, finding that the alternating voices of the authors provided "a nice point and counterpoint that allows the text to disagree with itself".

[31][32] Due to the autobiographical nature of the work, Nate Ewert-Krocker, in his review at ZAM describes it as having a different flavour than other books in the series.

While giving the "clearest understanding of a game’s construction and design" than any other book in the series, the lack of distance between author and subject made the telling of the story straightforward.