My pal Peter Adkison appears in the business section of today’s New York Times. The article covers Peter’s new company, Hidden City Games, and its hit CCG, Bella Sara (which my daughter Helen adores). Peter and his crew recently raised $15 million in venture capital to push Bella Sara.
The article ends unsure about the chances of Bella Sara‘s success. All I know is I’d put every penny on Peter and the rest of his team.
My sister Jody pointed out to me a new site called FreeRice.com. It’s a neverending vocabulary quiz, with sponsors that put up money to buy rice for the United Nations World Food Program. As a professional writer, I’m always happy to expand my vocabulary, especially for a good cause. Plus, it helps hone my Scrabulous skills, so it’s research time well spent, right?
Given what I do for a living, it’s probably no surprise that I fully support the writers’ strike the WGA called for last week. John Rogers gives a good round-up of the reasons behind it, linking to other excellent analysis, and Christian Johnson provides quality commentary over at Cinerati. Be sure to check out UnitedHollywood.com if you’re interested in a steady stream of updates.
I’m not a member of the WGA, as I don’t work in fields they cover. They’ve made a few tentative steps toward bringing computer game writers into the fold, but none of that’s come to fruition yet. (I’m not sure it’s possible to unionize computer game writers, mind you, given the lack of any solid union in the rest of the industry, but that’s another long conversation.) Still, I count many WGA members as friends, and we’re all writers at the core, siblings in spirit if not union membership or blood. Best of luck to them, no matter how long it takes.
My pal John Nephew of Atlas Games fame won his race for one of the two open seats on the city council of Maplewood, Minnesota, last night. Congratulations, John! It’s always great to see someone step up and try to make a difference.
Those fortunate enough to live closer to the Black Library in the UK than I do can now officially get their hands on Blood Bowl: The Omnibus. This no-neck, gold-tusked linebacker of a book smashes all of the first three Blood Bowl novels (Blood Bowl, Dead Ball, and Death Match) together under one cover, plus a short foreword I wrote just for this tome. That’s 768 pages of hilarious, spike-balled mayhem for the low price of only £9.99.
The rest of the world has to wait until November 27. Oh, the humanity.
Yesterday, we moved into our new home here in Beloit. It’s much bigger and has a fantastic office for me. I’ve been working in an office downtown since the quads were born, and now I’ll be able to cut my commute down from 2 minutes to 20 yards.
Many new neighbors came by to welcome us to the neighborhood already, including Pam and Sam Lathrop, who live right next door. Sam’s the chief of police in town, and Pam is the administrative assistant to the city manager. She’s also the kind-hearted soul who brought us Sunday dinner every week for the first year we had the quads home. As part of their welcome gift, Sam mowed our lawn for us as we moved in.
Ginormous thanks go out to the strong-backed men who helped us move in: Andy Friedl, Mark Nosek, Lester Smith, Rob and Eli King, Don Perrin, and Dan Schooff. Also to Lori Gordon and Ellen Plunkett for watching the quads for the afternoon. As always, big thanks to my mom for pitching in at every chance.
More regular posts to resume shortly.
On Saturday, I blipped down to Hoffman Estates (north side of Chicago) for a wrap/Halloweeen party for High Voltage Studios. They celebrated not only the upcoming holiday but also the six different video games the company completed this year, including the Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law game on which I worked.
I had a great time. The place was decked out with horror movie posters, inflatable ghosts and gravestones, and a looped DVD of clips from various horror films. They also had an bar, keg beer, blackjack tables, and a DJ spinning tunes for a lively dance floor.
The costumes stunned me. I couldn’t even recognize some of my friends under them. Kevin Sheller and his fiance Jessa came as Birdman and Birdgirl, and their costumes beat out the ones seen on the live-action parts of the show. Eric Nofsinger made such a good Edward Scissorhands that I didn’t recognize him until I was on my way out the door. Micah Skaritka’s evil clown getup was so perfect he had to tell me who he was.
The unexpected highlight of the night came in the form of an old pal who’d also been invited to the party, along with some other friends from his company. However, due to NDAs, I’m not sure if I’m at liberty to reveal the identity of the mysterious luchadores I encountered that night. Such is the way of the computer game business, but perhaps it’s all for the best.
For myself, I didn’t get the invitation until last Wednesday and have been stuffing my family’s things into boxes ever since, so I didn’t have any time for a proper costume. My wife has a great costume, but it was her night for her book club, so we went our separate ways for the evening. I wore a High Voltage T-shirt under my button-down and went as an employee. I was told I should have come with an ax in my head (via special effects trickery, I hope) and been an “ax-employee.”
The Black Library, publisher of my Blood Bowl novels, has a new forum up. If you haven’t been there for a while, stop by and check it out. It’s something cool to do while you wait for Blood Bowl: The Omnibus, due out in the UK on November 5 and the US on November 27.
My fellow Alliterate and good friend Lester Smith is not only a great game designer but also a wonderful poet. In recognition of his talents, he was named the president of the Wisconsin Society of Poets. If you’d like to sample some of Les’s latest work for free (as well as selected bits from other poets), sign up for his new mailing list and have his latest opuses zapped straight into your in-box.
The Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law video game I worked on with High Voltage Studios has been officially bumped to 2008. Word is that Capcom didn’t want to release the game in such a crowded period of time. Putting a little breathing space between it at the third Phoenix Wright game won’t hurt its chances either, I’d guess.
While delays aren’t any fun, I’d rather the game had a chance to grow some legs rather than get sucked back into the sea by the pre-holiday tsunami. Birdman fully endorses this product and/or service.
P.S. Thanks to my friend Andy Friedl for the heads-up.