It’s often hard to think of suitable images for the cover of academic texts, particularly in the mathematical sciences. In the olden days, publishers tended to use geometric patterns and diagrams, or occasionally photos of natural phenomenon that begged for some kind of mathematical modeling/simulation.

Random nature photos on computer science books are a bit of a non-sequitur, but it’s not unexpected nowadays.

I would guess that it’s much like how we have fruit / flowers / plants in modern offices: That in places far removed from the natural world (such as computer environments), seeing pieces of the natural world can be beneficial to our well-being.

Are there any talks of releasing a “dead tree” version ?

But I’d like to say something about the cover…The design would be well suited for a formal postgrad text. For a book about game jams, I’d personally have gone with a design that’s hand drawn and playful, so reflecting the mood of the jam.