Websites! Get Your Websites!

My friend Rich Kummer, former owner of ACD, pointed me to a new gaming blog a friend of his is writing as part of a class. Brandon is clearly a sharp guy asking intriguing questions. I may not always agree with his terminology or his sentiments, but it’s fun to watch him wrestle with various issues either way. Meanwhile Matt …

Day Late, But Still Great

There’s a heartwarming story going around the web about Patry Francis and her book The Liar’s Diary. Patry busted her hump writing the book, which got rave reviews in hardcover. Then she was diagnosed with cancer, making her unable to do much if anything to help promote the book. Yesterday, the book came out in paperback, and over 300 bloggers …

Star Wars Bikers for Cancer

Tommy Lee Edwards, the fantastic artist who provided covers for my Dracula’s Revenge comics from IDW, is taking part in the Ride for Kids on May 4,2008. For this event, thousands of motorcyclists ride to raise money for the Pediatric Brain Tumor Foundation, which funds research for a cure for brain tumors in kids. This is a great, worthy cause …

On a Walkabout

Fellow Alliterate and longtime friend Steve Sullivan recently launched his own publishing company, Walkabout Publishing. He already has four books out with more in the works. This joins two other self-publishing efforts from the Alliterates. Steve was involved in the first too–Popcorn Press–along with Lester Smith and Rob King. For the second, Wolfgang Baur is ramping up his fifth Open …

Enter the Judge

Friday afternoon, my father wore his judge’s robe for the first time. My 85-year-old grandmother flew out from Michigan to help him into it during his investiture ceremony. My father’s 14 grandchildren sat in the jury box (which has 14 seats)–all except for his namesake (and my son) Kenny, who stayed home sick. His brother Patrick proudly carried Kenny’s framed …

Storytellers Unplugged

My latest essay is up at Storytellers Unplugged. Still deep in depression about the results of last night’s Packers-Giants playoff game, my thoughts inevitably turned to football fans and how we’re all alike under the facepaint. I hope you enjoy it.

Nextcat Feature

For some reason, the folks at Nextcat (a networking site for people in various entertainment fields) have placed me on their featured people page for the gaming category. Steve Ince, who I’ve met online through the IGDA Writers SIG, headlines the page, while I share the bottom ranks with the likes of John Tynes, who makes for no shabby company …

Macs and ARGs

Last year, a group of marketers decided to try to sell a package of Mac shareware by means of an alternate reality game (ARG). To that end, they launched MacHeist, and for every mission you went on (puzzle you solved) you received a discount on the package. (Wikipedia has a good article on it, including the criticisms of the concept …

Birdman Reviews

Darrel Hardy kindly pointed me to a Gamasutra.com roundup of the major online reviews for the Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law video game. Overall, they’re positive, especially about the writing, for which I’m grateful. They all say roughly the same thing: Funny game, but don’t expect dozens of hours of deep, involved gameplay (as you get in the Phoenix Wright …

“Getting Your Game Published” via Podcast

The fine folks at Pulp Gamer recently posted a podcast featuring Aldo Ghiozzi of Impressions and myself blathering on about games publishing at last year’s GAMA Trade Show. I had a great time working with Aldo, especially since he and I come at the question of “Getting Your Game Published” from different angles. I often handle seminars like this on …