Dead Gentlemen Gen Con Report

The Dead Gentlemen just posted a report of their incredible experiences at this summer’s Gen Con. Their early cuts of The Gamers: Dorkness Rising were packed and got several standing ovations. I can’t wait to see the final cut.

They kindly name-check me as one of their friends too, although they misspell my last name. That’s the nature of conventions, of course. You know the people–you love hanging out with them–but things like spellings can slip your mind a month later. Even names. On Gen Con Sunday, for instance, I ended up calling Matt Shimkus (Rogar the Barbarian in The Gamers) Brian as I said good-bye. I know better and corrected myself, but such slips are too easy to make when working through the con fog.

They have a Flickr stream with pictures from the convention set up. You can spot me in a few of them, as well as a lot of other industry folk–if you know who you’re looking for.

I had a fantastic time with the crew, hanging out with them and getting to know them all better. This is a truly talented group of people, and I wish them all the best in bringing Dorkness Rising to screens of all sizes soon.

New Delazan Site

My friend Lori Ann Curley just revamped the website for her corporate face, Delazan Enterprises. If you’re looking for a excellent editor or indexer, you don’t have to go farther. Plus, she lives in Wisconsin too. What’s not to love?

R.E.V.s Site Goes Live

In more upbeat news, Playmates Toys has launched a website for R.E.V.s, the toy line I helped develop for the company earlier this year. The site includes some great pictures of the toys, plus the upcoming TV commercial. Woot!

Bye-Bye Battle Dice

As posted at MarvelBattleDice.com, Playmates has decided to cancel its Battle Dice game line. I’ve known about this for some time but been unable to say anything publicly until Playmates made its official announcement. It’s always sad when a game line goes away, but just because we won’t see any more Battle Dice supplements doesn’t mean we can’t keep playing with the figures and dice we have.

For those of us who prefer to keep playing, there are other, nonofficial sites out there. The best I know of is PopDice.com, run by the mighty Malakai. If you hear of others, be sure to let me know.

Marvel: Ultimate Alliance

My friends at Raven Software (now a division of Activision) are hard at work on the new Marvel: Ultimate Alliance videogame. I saw a preview of this at Comic-Con, and it’s stunning stuff, up to Raven’s usual high standards. I somehow ended up with a fistful of invitations to the game’s VIP site. If anyone out there is interested in joining up for free, drop me a line.

New Alliterates Site

The Alliterates site has a fresh, new look, courtesy of our webmaestro Lester Smith. Stop by and check it out. It looks great, although most of us haven’t had much of a chance to tinker with our sections yet. Look for more content there soon.

ACD Games Day Report

Last night, I drive up to Madison to catch the after-hours action for the ACD Games Day, a small trade show run by the #2 distributor in the adventure gaming industry. I would have gone up during the day, but with the kids in school my schedule wouldn’t permit it–not without a lot of juggling. So, it’s a quick evening for me instead.

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Write for the Black Library

For those aspiring authors out there, the Black Library is holding a new short-story competition. Winning entries will be purchased for a new Warhammer anthology based around the theme of invasion. The deadline is October 11, 2006.

Unlike many other competitions, you don’t need to submit a full story from the get-go. You only have to come up with a synopsis and a short writing sample to start. Either way, this could be a great way to get your foot in the door at the Black Library. Best of luck to anyone who decides to submit.