I believe this write-up is from the fourth game of the 1st Season, Skaven vs. Nurgle. Nurgle is a Chaos team, dedicated to the eponymous great Chaos God of Death, Decay, and Pestilence. Mostly Pestilence.

Hail and brimstone to the gutless and the grubbers out there in Interwarp land. This is the Blind Bastard Barnabas, and this one is gonna be a doozy. A floozy. A motherfucking barn-stompin’ eye-gouger.

It’s Coach Sarc’s SKAUS’s Screamers against Alastor’s Abominations under commander of the sly and salacious Coach Veengrd.

So kick up the fires and eat the dogs. Lock up your sons and raise hell with your daughters. WE got ourselves a BLOODBOWL match.

The bookmakers have looked both teams over, and decided that SKAUS’s new Rat Ogre, a lovely, slavering slob name of Zipkut, puts them way over the top. To balance things out, they have given Alastor’s Abominations 160,000 gold.

160,000 gold! What the hell! With that, he can buy the whole frickin’ stadium. Back in my day, they’d have given you a new pair of cleats, if you were lucky, and a board with some rusty nails, and said, “gud luck, guv’nor,” and that would be that.

Coach Veengrd is taking his sweet time licking his lips over every possible wizard or bloodweiser babe. Ah, he’s chosen. Wizard. Stinkin’ wizards what gave me this limp.

Our little epic is set in the Nordic ski chalet. A lovely land of snow, and cold, and ice, and shivering. And stupid snow over the pitch, so what a blind man can’t see what’s going on. Let’s get this schoolyard rumble started!

The little golden token flies up into the air – Abomination calls it, and chooses to receive!

SKAUS’s Screamers have a kicker, but somehow haven’t figured out to use him, what as he ends up on the Line of Scrimmage, and some knucklehead ends up kicking. High. A Pestigor plucks it right out of the air. A bad omen.

The Abominations mark half the Screamers right off the gate, knocking a few heads in the process. The Pestigor QB moves up to the line of scrimmage, well guarded.

The Skaven react. The Rat Ogre rushes forward in a furious blitz and throws a block and OH MY STARS AND SHIVS, he took out the Pestigor! A level 3! And my took out I mean he ripped out his fucking spine! Dead, dead, dead!

Nurlge is displeased. I can smell their aura from here, crackling like the stench of too sweet rotting meat lying on the beach. A Gutter Runner tries to run into position by sliding out of a tackle zone, but nope! He’s tagged. Crunch! I think I could hear his jaw break from way up here. That can’t be good.

The Abominations start to lay the hurt on the ratmen. You almost feel sorry for the poor Skaven. WHAM! Precious, Veengrd’s Beast of Nurgle, slams Zipkut the Rat Ogre to the ground and KOs him. This is ROUND 2, PEOPLE!

Ugh, and now Abomination lays into the Skaven Thrower, and fracture his skull (-1 AV). That’s…well, that’s not going to end well. It’s like Coach Sarc thought it was a lineman and failed to use his Apothecary. Yup, just like that.

Rotter Fractis Attractus picks up the ball. He hangs back, barely moving the ball down the pitch as his vanguard of Pestigors and Rotters and Warriors drum a bloody tattoo on the hides of the skaven. Down, down, down, boy, I said down!

ARGH! What is that horrible keening I hear? Ah, it’s Coach Sarc’s child. Well, one of his 101 children. A precious little who-ling, who is nothing but a vile distraction. He scoops her up and sends her to bed with a mug of milk, laced liberally with rum. I never said that.

By the time he’s back on the sidelines, that Rotter QB has moved up the field and is two runs away.

The Skaven try some ineffectual pushing, and Gutter Runner zips down to try to block the way. The Rotter is TWO STEPS away from scoring.

What’s this? Sarc is having a lineman making a suicide play – lord! He got out of the tackle zone and is trying to blitz! He’s got a both down / push, but he’s calling to the Chaos gods to reroll…and they laugh in his face: push/push!

The lineman pushes the Rotter with the ball one step closer to the goal line, but he’s still next to the Gutter Runner. The Gutter Runner tries a block and…Veengrd’s coaching turns it into a push.

Turn 6. The Rotter smiles wickedly, showing his three teeth. He smashes THROUGH the Gutter Runner and scores ICMF.

The teams line up. The Skaven take some small solace in looking at the corpse of that dead Prestigor. Name of Khar-tigors, I believe. He was a star player. Recruited from the pus pits of Dulles IV, with a record of 16 SPP. And now he’s deader than Owl City.

Two of the Skaven get back on the field, but not their Rat Ogre. Abominations kick. Brilliant coaching, snerk, gets Skaven an extra reroll. The Thrower grabs the ball from deep in the field and makes an easy toss to a Gutter Runner. A loose cage forms around him.

Precious bashes into said loose cage, like a jock rutting up against the prom queen at the end of prom night.

The Gutter Runner streaks out and around the cage, and dances on the edge of the sidelines…. This is not going to end well. Nope! The Abominations shove him out and the fans “greet him.” And by greet, I mean curb stomp.

HALF TIME. Which of you rotters is gunna git a me a cold one?

Uh-oh, Zipkut the Rat Ogre has given a slow, shuddering, shake and returned to the field. That’s some brilliant coaching on Sarc’s part (getting him another reroll – he’s gonna need it). Nurgle kicks it deep again…

The Skaven get the ball and fall back to the southeast corner of the pitch, almost to their own goal line.

One lone lineman dodges from a tackle zone and tries a blitz on the LOS – what the hell was that? The bookies went from giving him a 1 white die advantage to two red? Who ya gonna believe? The game rules or your own lyin’ eyes? Well, so much for that lineman.

It’s a brutal scramble around the edges of the cage. It’s become a bashing game. Precious gets up to the edge of the cage, shaking off a lineman that marked him, but WHAM! The Rat Ogre grabs those tentacles and slams him to the ground. He’s outta the game!

The Skaven fall back to the goal line and try some fancy passing to move the ball…and by fancy passing I mean drop the damn ball to the ground like a hot stone.

Phacto Decay, a Nurgle Warrior, rushes up for the loose ball. He’s one step away.

Skaven goes into a savage offensive. Knock two of the Abominations down for pretty much the first time all game, and grab the ball – and LOSE IT on a simple pass! What the hell, guys? Is it that horrifying stench of pus and festering wounds?

The scramble continues. The Skaven keep knocking Abominations down, and then immediately dropping the ball. That one was dropped on a hand-off. A HAND-OFF!

Finally, the Skaven Thrower, Whurform Cutter, gets the ball. He moves the ball a good ways up the field, almost to the line of scrimmage, with an “arrow” vanguard leading the way.

Suddenly, Coach Veengrd’s Wizard launches a FIREBALL! I can feel the hiss of smoke against my glasses, and feel my nose hairs singe. This could be it for the Skaven – NO! It takes out but a single Skaven lineman…AND one of the Rotters!

The Rat Ogre lashes into an Abomination and breaks his leg!

The ball is given to Modifle Scuttle, a Gutter Runner, who makes a savage run. He’s got one more turn to run it in, if he’s lucky. But I think he overran it a few paces. He’s pretty wide open. If those Rotters can reach him, this might not go well.

Rotter #1 runs up to him to mark him. Immediatelys followed by his buddy Rotter who blitzes – SUCCESFULLY – and slams Scuttle to the ground. The ball is loose!

The Skaven have one more wild, hail Horn Rat play. If their lineman can blitz…and if their thrower can grab it…the lineman is going for it AND HE DODGES out of the tackle zone! He PUSHES the Rotter away from the ball! It’s open!

The Skaven Thrower sees his chance and leaps forward … and fails to get out of the tackle zone! He stumbles, and is KOd. That, as they say in the upper 53, is that, folks.

1-0, for the Abominations.

In summary, Nurgle’s Abominations got 1 catch, 3 tackles, 3 KOs, and 2 casualties.

The skittery Skaven Screamers had 4 passes, 4 catches, 1 tackle, 1 KO, 3 casualties, and 1 death.

This is Blind Bastard Barnabas. Lights out.

A few months ago a number of office mates started up an online Blood Bowl League, playing on the PC game developed by Cyanide. This computer game has a tremendous amount of, uh, quirks (to be kind). They took the original Games Workshop minis/board-game, which has a lot of moments of built-in frustration, is heavily luck dependent, and occasionally rewards Holy Hell Rand! plays while punishing basic strategy, and adds a layer of bugs, poor UI, and peculiar oddities.

Yet the fun of playing in a league, and sharing your pain (and the losers’ humiliation), and your victories, and the intense flavor that GW develops so well, makes it worth it. Well, almost worth it. It’s a very easy game to rage at when the dice decide to hate you and are doing everything in their power to turn your brilliant strategy to ashes.

For the first season, we had 10 teams. I played SKAUS’s Screamers, a Skaven team. And after the third or fourth game, I decided to start writing up game reports, in-character; assuming that character to be a strange mash-up of Friday Night Lights Mojo Radio (with a heavy nod towards radio personality Slammin’ Sammy Meade), a bit of Howard Stern, a dash of Hunter Thompson, and a few bottles of Dwarf Skull Grog, all in the character of the Orc Blind Bastard Barnebas (with a heavy nod towards Happy Harry Hardon).

The first of those write-ups follows.

HAIL and BRIMSTONE, all you out there in interweb land. This is Blind Bastard Barnabas with another epic tale of woe and damnation. So feed the hogs, kick up the fire, lock up your daughters, siddown and shaddup, cuz it’s GAME TIME, you rotters!

Saturday night is right for fighting, and it’s a messy slug fest down in the pit tonight. SKAUS’s Screamers enter the arena with one Gutter Runner down, but a mess of ‘em and Throwers on the field.

Across from them Coach CleveRoh lines up Koballer – a nasty looking crew of Chaos Warriors and beastmen what crawled from the undermuck of the Warp.

The coin is flipped high and called…and Chaos receives. But what is this? The fans are bloodthirsty tonight and RIOT onto the field. Looks like the ref is gunna let the clock run a spell. I’ve always hated that ref. Shifty looking corn-suckler.

The crowd has been cleared off, and the Skaven are lining up to kick-off. A Skaven lineman kicks it solidly into Chaos’s side. They grab it up but don’t move the ball much. Skaven’s moving…

Oh, lookit that! One of the Gutter Runners just threw a hard elbow at a screening beastman, finding his glass horn and knocking him out cold! What a blow in the first minutes of the game! I can hear Coach CleveRoh yelling from the sidelines, but it ain’t enough to wake that beastman up from his nap.

The Skaven are trying to take advantage of the hole in the offence. A Skaven Lineman pushes another beastman, and moves to follow up, but THERE’S A HITCH IN THE SIGNAL. He’s frozen in time! The players aren’t moving! The crowd is screaming bloody murder! The coaches are about to spit nails! The ref is panicking. Someone is scrambling to get the Interwarp signal restored…one long minute passes…then two…is the game gonna hang???

Whew! Connection restored. Someone sacrificed something hot and wet and tasty to the Old Ones beyond the stars tonight!

The Lineman moves away from the line of scrimmage and the game continues!

Another Skaven Lineman dodges away from the blockers on the line of scrimmage and slams into the ball carrier. The ball bounces and ends up in the hands of a free Gutter Runner, but he’s out of time.

This could hurt. Chaos forms a tight wall around the Gutter Runner ball carrier – but the gods are frowning. Skull / Skull / Both Down result! Coach CleveRoh uses a reroll, and takes out the ball carrier. The ball drops and bounces loose.

The Skaven are rushing over each other to reclaim the ball. A tactical error! A Skaven threw a block to knock down one of the beastmen marking the ball, but instead pushed him on top of the ball! I thought I was the Blind Bastard, but Coach Sarc needs some new specs, clearly!

The scramble for the ball continues, but that lucky sumbitch beastman scoops it up and hands it over to a Chaos Warrior blessed with an Extra Arm.

That Chaos Warrior, we’ll call him “Extra Arm” what cause he’s got an additional appendage y’see, blitzes! QB Extra Arm is on a tear, pushing a Skaven outta his way and running for it.

Skaven are not happy that Extra Arm is so deep in their territory. I can see it in their hateful, beady, unblinkin’ eyes. They race down the pitch, zigging, and zagging, and zoning in on him and BAM! QB Extra Arm is sacked, two spaces away from a touch down!

The ball is loose! Skavens pick it up!

Chaos in on the assault, so close to a goal they can taste it. A flurry of blows is exchanged on the mud-turned-blood pitch! Those Skaven ain’t gonna just take it. They strike hard, rat-piling onto one beastman who goes down with a smashed hip!

This just pisses Chaos off more, and someone, I couldn’t hear who, grabs onto a Skaven by the arm and KRAK! That Lineman is off the field and outta the fight. Luckily for Coach Sarch, it was just a mercenary.

Extra Arm tries to sack the Skaven ball carrier, but it’s just a push. Back in the midfield, another Skaven lineman takes one for the team and is KO’d.

But the Skaven shove back hard! Another Chaos teammate goes down, and then another on a Both Down! These rat men are vicious tonight! Ain’t they being fed?

The Gutter Runner with the ball sprints up and is almost at midfield.

Extra Arm blitzes, but once again only gets a push. Then a Chaos gets an attacker down.

It’s Turn 8 for the Skaven, but the Coach sees he cannot make a touchdown this half, so he lobs an easy pass for the experience of it.

HALFTIME, you rotters and snotlings! I need a beer!

AND we’re back. Eight Chaos creatures hurl themselves onto the field of battle, facing nine Skaven. NINE Skaven! Unheard of!

Chaos kicks off and it’s a HIGH KICK. The Skaven Thrower has plenty of time to move directly beneath it, and he plucks it out of the air. But he’s looking too cocky. Is he watching for a special mousey someone in the stand? ‘cuz he nearly blows his fucking pass! Coach rerolls and Thrower lobs it to a Gutter Runner, who streaks it down the field. Damn lucky.

A beastman and Extra Arm race at the Gutter Runner QB, forcing him to stumble. He dodges to stay upright, but ends up pressed against the sideline! If he steps over, he’s done for. I can see Coach Sarc sweating bullets.

The Skaven push back, and the Gutter Runner QB has an opportunity for a touch down, but what’s this? He tries to throw a block at Extra Arm to take him down a notch because…? Revenge play? Apparently he got confused by the audible and decided to be a hero but forgot someone else had already blitzed this round. All he does is push Extra Arm back and set himself up for some pain.

AND somebody’s gonna get a hurting real bad. BAM, the Gutter Runner is sacked. Chaos gets the ball.

Whoah, someone mute Coach Sarc. You sure as hell can’t say that on the Interwarp.

Chaos tries to pass and fails! A Chaos warrior tries a dodge/run for the ball but, wham, gets knocked down! Turnover and the ball is still loose.

That lucky sumbitch Gutter Runner snaps it up and leaps over the line, scoring a Touch Down!

It’s Turn 11, and Chaos is down to one reroll. The kick results in someone trying to get the ref, but shockingly both teams are playing straight and no one cares much about an extra bribe. The kick is good and lands square in the middle of Chaos’s side.

Chaos throws a block but gets Skull / Both Down, and burns his last reroll to avoid the turnover. Man, Coach CleveRoh is getting a ton of Skull / Pushes this game. He really displeased the Chaos gods tonight.

Another block is thrown at a Skaven Lineman at the line of scrimmage, and both go down. No one has even picked up the ball yet!

There’s confusion – AGAIN! – on the Skaven side. Confusion from the audible. Who is going for the ball? A Gutter Runner has a clear sight on it, but NO! A Lineman scoops it up! What the hell is he doing? Why would he do that?

Chaos rushes at the Skaven Lineman ball carrier, but can’t bring him down. They just push him toward the endzone, but are forming a cage around the Skaven.

The ball is handed to a Gutter Runner who is running for it. He tries to make it through the tackle zones, but damn, he loses it and gets knocked flat. The ball is loose, people!

Turn 13, Chaos immediately gets a Skull / Both Down – oof!

Skaven throw a good tackle, then the QB scoops up the ball. He throws a perfect pitch to a Gutter Runner who hops across the line for an easy Touch Down! Skaven are up by 2 points!

Skaven kicks, and again the ref tries to hand out bribes and no one cares. However, a Chaos Warrior snatches the ball out of the air and starts the clock with the ball on the line of scrimmage.

Chaos pushes and stumbles a Skaven lineman, then pushes another. They are having a devil of a time poking a hole in the Skaven defense. Waitabloody minute? Where is Extra Arm? Why isn’t he on the field? What? He got wounded? When the hell did that happen? What, am I blind up here?

Nevermind that. The Chaos Warrior QB doesn’t have much of an opening, but he’s running and gunning for it. He dodges between TWO tackle zones! He’s a machine! ‘course, now he’s way out in the open…

Skavens are still a bit of a hot mess, despite their advantage. One Skaven runs up to standin the way of the Chaos Warrior QB, but he’s not got much back up. The others are trying to support him, but…What the hell was that? A one-roll block far from the action got a Skull, and the reroll got … another skull! Attacker down!

Turn 15, Chaos is two runs from a touch down. What’s it gonna be? A Chaos Warrior KOs a Lineman back on the line of scrimmage, keeping the rear defense up. The Chaos Warrior QB blitzes and stumbles the Lineman in his way, who falls, stunned! The way is open, though there’s another Skaven in the way. The Chaos Warrior jumps out of the tackle zone! He’s not a machine, he’s a Terminator! He’s one run away from scoring!

A Skaven Lineman runs all out. He’s got one chance to Blitz from the front and…fails.

The Chaos Warrior QB shoves the lineman out of the way and he is wide open. There is no stopping this and he strides purposefully over the goal line!

AND THAT IS THE GAME, you miscreants and salacious cretins! And what a game! SKAUS’s Screamers win, 2-1, over Koballer!

Skaven made some spectacularly stupid plays due to exhaustion, and maybe the coach’s baby? Did I hear that right? Was there a baby on the field for the first minutes of the game? But their sneakiness and perseverance helped. Also, Chaos got shit luck on their rolls. Next time they’ll know they should sacrifice a black goat coated in honey and peppers to the demented gods before game time.

Lights out, y’all. This was Blind Bastard Barnabas.

October was a very busy month. And November doesn’t look like it will let up much, but considering I just made it through: getting a big “chapter” of story contributed to Wizard 101; GDCOnline; and the Austin Film Festival; I figured it might be worth posting a few things, for posterity if nothing else.

First up, today marked the release of the new Wizard 101 trailer for Zafaria – I was the main writer for this “act” of the ongoing storyline, under the direct supervision of Jason Durall (and of course tons of input from the whole team).

PC Gamer describes it thus:

Wizard101 players will soon be able to explore the Spiral’s ninth and newest world, Zafaria, a savannah and jungle-themed place that takes its inspiration from Africa. It also plays a major role in Wizard101′s ongoing storyline, forming the “second act” as Morganthe, the Umbra Queen, makes her return.

And here is the trailer video on IGN:
http://www.ign.com/videos/2011/11/01/wizard-101-zafaria-world-unveil-trailer

I’m super excited to be a part of this great game — it’s a wonderful team, and they turned a bunch of mad ramblings into something epic. Now I’m crossing my fingers that the players like it, too.

Having been sans famille (which is apparently teaghlaigh gan in Irish; thanks iGoogle) for a few weeks now, I’ve managed to catch up on a number of movies and TV that I have missed on these past couple or five years.

I’ve managed to watch:

* Iron Man 2 (entertaining, and frustrating because it had all the working parts of a good movie, except for perhaps a coherent story)
* The Brave One (a terrible Jodie Foster and Terrence Howard flick from 2007)
* Hustle and Flow (a surprisingly good Terrence Howard pimp-turned-rapper movie form ’05)
* Swingers (revisited, to see the storytelling technique Jon Favreau first developed, to be ultimately used on Iron Man 2)
* Rounders (revisited, probably my favorite poker movie)
* the first half of the last season of Friday Night Lights (amazingly one of the best TV shows of the last few years, though nothing compares to its phenomenal first season; Go Lions!)
* and the first four episodes of The Wire.

But you knew I was going there.


The Wire (HBO, 5 seasons, 2002-2008) is regularly lauded as one of, if not the best, television drama of the past, well, ever. At least of the last 10 years, which of course really means “of all time.” I never saw the original run, and never managed to find or make the time for it on DVD (er – or Blu Ray, Netflix on Demand, torrented AVI, etc. Seems like we need a word to encompass everything post-broadcast).

This is despite hearing rave reviews, from people like friend & penmonkey Chuck Wendig (@chuckwendig or Terrible Minds) my favorite TV critic, Alan Sepinwall (@sepinwall or Hitfix). Apparently there’s a university course on it (Harvard, natch.) (Oops, there have been at least three, and Duke and Middlebury both did it before Harvard). So I finally fired up season 1, episode 1, “The Target.”

If You Walk Through the Garden, You Better Watch Your Back

“The Target” opens with blood streaked pavement and a body. Detective McNulty, who seems to be our hero (or at least our protagonist), sits on a stoop with a fairly helpful young black male witness, talking about the deceased: Snot Boogie. “Doesn’t seem fair,” says McNulty, about the deceased’s unfortunate nickname. “Life just be that way, I guess,” replies the witness. Snot Boogie watched the local back alley craps game every week from the sidelines. And once a week, every week, as soon as a big pot of money built up, Snot would dash in, grab the pot, and make a run for it. And they’d chase him down and beat his ass, but never more than that. So McNulty asks the obvious question — if Snot stole the money every week, why did they let him play? And the witness replies: “Got to. This America, man.”

A solid opening for what has so far been four fairly strong episodes. But it’s also been a bit of a slow burn, to say the least. Not Rubicon slow, of course, but that show is not described as the “best teevee program in existence,” (Ryan Creighton, of Untold Entertainment). So I’ve been impressed, but not blown away. There are a lot of characters, a lot of angles, and a big city to cover. Yet. I expect good things to happen. Tumblers to click. Things to fall into place. Blow up, maybe. But this has got to stand against my favorite TV shows, which include none other than:

* Mad Men
* Friday Night Lights (the first season is almost perfect)
* Breaking Bad
* The Shield (the sequence in the pilot where the Strike Team gears up to take down Two Time, and Kid Rock’s Bawidtaba is blaring, always sends chills down my spine. Let’s not even talk about the brutal, breathtaking journey to its ultimate, irrefutable ending.)
* The Sopranos (which is, to date, my personal favorite for “best teevee ever”, only marginally edging out the list above).

I’m sure I’m in the for the long haul with The Wire but I’m not a total convert yet. Now, on to episode 5…

Austin skyline by v-tek

Funny ole world, innit? In 2005 I was given the opportunity to move from Toronto, ON to Austin, TX. I went to work for NCsoft as the Community Writer for City of Heroes, and ended as the writer for about 60% of the slate of NC-games. It was a good year, despite some personal and professional challenges, but in the end I decided Toronto was where I needed to be.
Returning to the Great White North, I spent some time resting and recuperating and trying to figure out what to do next. I went on safari. I did some freelance work. I wrote a script (well, the first draft at any rate). And I managed to catch the eye of the people at Ganz, the makers of Webkinz.

I worked with several teams at Ganz – on some Webkinz projects, on some top sekret prototypes, and eventually on the recently announced Tail Towns. (Also see: Tail Towns Insiders for some actual shots of product and things for the game). I met some amazingly talented people there, who I hope to work with again.

But last summer I made another big decision and elected to stay home and take care of our daughter (then 18 months). I snuck in a few freelance projects (“dad-by-day, freelance-crimefighter-by-night;” which is to say I also managed a bit of Batman: Arkham Asylum).
Work included:

• An essay for The Bones.
• A world bible top sekret projekt.
• A chapter for the Smallville High School Yearbook.
• A script for an indie short.

I could wax on about my experiences as a Stay-at-Home-Dad, but that probably requires its own entry. Let it be said that the seven months I stayed home were some of the most fun, and some of the most taxing, of my life.

And Now You Are Two. Merry Xmas. Also, We Are Moving To Tejas.

My daughter was born right before Christmas (‘08), so I have learned (and will continue to learn) how stressful-crazy-OHGOD the December build-up is. This year was complicated by a major job offer. A “can we upset everything in our lives (again) and do we do this” offer. A “I don’t think I can say no to this” kind of offer. I said yes. R said yes. Our daughter said yes (actually, she probably said, “Mama and Dada and A-nana go to Circle Time,” but she was supportive). I would go back to work, and R would stay home and take care of A.

Once again I was moving from Toronto to Austin.

It meant pretty much all of our energies were being spent on packing up the house, planning for A’s birthday event, and somehow squeezing in a bit of Christmas cheer. Oh, and while my Mom was around and being a tremendous help, she was also in the process of separating her stuff from our house and moving it to Montreal. Hectic is nowhere near strong enough a word. Three-fingers of 12-yr Cragganmore was almost potent enough.

And so it came to pass that I broke the news to the inner circle in early January. I didn’t want to distract people with our fuss while they were in the midst of their holidays. But damn I had a lot of people to try to say goodbye to in Toronto. I regret missing a bunch of you, but it gives me an excuse to do better next time I’m up north, or you come down here, or we meet in San Francisco or Berlin or Shanghai or Ulan Bator – wherever the next GDC-franchise happens.

I flew down in late Jan to look for an apartment. Or as A started to say at the time, “Dada in AustinTexas to look at swimming pools.” Zipped home, finished packing, and returned on Jan 31st to start working on Feb 1st, at KingsIsle Entertainment. My car is somewhere between Buffalo and here. The apartment is chock-full-of-boxes. Work is already starting to build. But man, this is going to be a helluva ride.

_{NOTE: The awesome photo above was supplied by my new colleague, Mark “v-tek” Vittek.}

An HDR shot taken by Michael “v-tek” Vittek

Writers & Producers

My first time moderating a panel, and no one burst into fire (spontaneously or otherwise), or was mangled, or died, so I call that a success.

My two producers (Joseph Ganetakos from Ganz, whom I know well; and Alex Parizeau from Ubisoft, whom I just met and has a great rep) were terrific, and my two writers (Kim Sparks; Max Piesner) were awesome.

After the panel, Mia Herrera interviewed me about it for C&G Monthly. I think it went well, but I fear I rambled a bit while trying to restore my proper adrenaline/caffeine equilibrium. I’ll post a link when she shoots me one.

State of the Industry

Jason MacIsaac, from the IGDA & Electric Playground, graciously offered to moderate the second panel, and he did a fine job. Jason’s recap of the panel is here.

And one of our panelists, Ryan Henson Creighton, talks about it here. With much color.

The other panelists – Lesley Phord-Toy (Ubisoft), Ryan MacLean (DrinkBox), Ian Kelso (Interactive Ontario), and Philippe McNally (Longbow Games) were all very generous with their time, and I hope I thanked them all sufficiently.

It became very much a “how do I break into the industry panel,” but that’s ok as it’s clearly what the attendees wanted.

I’m already thinking of an expanded video game panel track next year, with a specific panel to address that. Not sure I’ll be able to put the time in, but I think we could easily cover:
* State of the Industry in the GTA
* How Do I Convince You To Hire My Rosy Cheeks?
* Writers in Video Games, and the Big Bad Boss Producers
* Bringing Your Art to Life – A Panel for Artists in/wanting to get into the Industry
* Hobby Games to Computer Games, Spanning the Bridge

I’m thrilled to announce I’m going to be moderating a panel at FanExpo this year:

The Role of the Writer and Producer in Today’s Video Games

Saturday, Aug 28
12:00 pm (noon),
Room: 205A

While writing is essential in many video games today, the role of the writer is highly contested and often misunderstood. Writers are often seen at one end of the design spectrum, and the producer at the other. Producers are critical for getting the game done and out to market. Come join writers and producers to hear what challenges and hurdles they face; what producers are looking for, and the differences between writing for a cell phone game to a AAA game.

The list of panelists is terrific – click through to see the full list.

Max Piesner
Freelance Writer and Narrative Designer

Having laboured in his father’s blacksmith shop throughout his youth, Max later decided to make the less than obvious transition from blacksmith to wordsmith, trading the occupational hazard of third degree burns for paper cuts.

Max studied journalism and creative writing (with minors in foosball and pub crawls) in Halifax, Nova Scotia at the universities of King’s College and Dalhousie. He went on to earn a Master’s degree in creative writing, as well as a fear for ginger-haired hooligans, at Queen’s University of Belfast.

Previously, Max was a Lead Narrative Designer and Writer at Silicon Knights, where he collaborated on the X-BOX 360 exclusive, Too Human for Microsoft, as well as several other yet-to-be announced titles for leading video game publishers.

Kimberley Ann Sparks
Freelance Writer

Kimberley Ann Sparks is a writer of video games, television, and film. She is also a professor at the University of Ontario Institute of Technology where she teaches video game writing, and at Seneca College and Humber College where she teaches Media Writing. She has spoken about video games at conferences, including the Game Developers Conference and Future Play. When not chasing her two-year-old daughter, she can be found playing the occasional game of pinball.

Joseph Ganetakos
Creative Lead, Ganz

Joseph Ganetakos has been involved in the video game industry since 1999, working on titles for Xbox, PS2, Game Cube, Xbox360 and PS3. He worked at Pseudo Interactive on Cel Damage, Cel Damage Overdrive, Full Auto, and Full Auto 2: Battle Lines. Currently, Joseph is Creative Lead of a project team at Ganz, the makers of Webkinz, one of the world’s largest online kids’ games. He is spearheading a Unity3d based MMO, bringing boundless energy, a positive attitude, and unrelenting passion to the project’s lead design efforts. He also wears a producer’s hat in order to work through the grind with other departments to deliver the project on time and to spec.

Alexandre Parizeau
Senior Producer, Ubisoft Toronto

Alex Parizeau has been with Ubisoft in Montreal since 2005, and shipped Rainbow Six Vegas and Splinter Cell Conviction. With more than 13 years in the industry, Alex has a broad range of experience within the game production pipeline starting from his early roots in QA and game design. A few months ago, Alex joined the Ubisoft Toronto studio as senior producer on the next Splinter Cell title.

I just reprinted them before GenCon, and am very happy to have them again. However, one day I’ll commission him to make ME my own coffee-ring card (click on his name above, if you missed it).

* Just got back from GenCon, where I bought too many games (lots of Trail of Cthulhu,Armitage Files, Delta Green, and Ganonoque: the ice-people who fear the dawn is coming) and have a head filled with too many ideas.

* I’m in THE BONES. Why do you not own this book yet? It is very good.

* I will be at FanExpo 2010 in one week!