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!

It has been…Lord, it’s been a year since I’ve been here. Time for some serious clean-up.

As you may have gathered from my recent Tweets / Status updates / etc., I’m going to be at FanExpo this weekend, in Toronto.

I can be found – despite whatever the program says – Sat. afternoon at 4pm on the panel:
“The Video Gaming Industry: Overview and Opportunities”

It is being moderated by the esteemed Jason MacIsaac, Writer/Editor with Electric Playground, Design Director, Cerebral Vortex Games.

And the panelists include:

Victor Lucas – Host of Electric Playground and Reviews on the Run

Scott Jones – Host of Reviews on the Run

Matt Levitan – Managing Director for PlayStation Canada

and me.

If you know me, it will likely be me just spouting the usual lunchtime bullshit. But with luck it will be at least a bit entertaining and maybe a little edifying as we wax about the state of the industry.

Beyond the panel, I will try to come out tonight (Friday) to the Meet & Greet at Hoops Sports Bar (125 Bremner Blvd. just East of the MTCC, starting at 9pm)

And will otherwise be wandering the convention centre on Sat., possibly hanging out in Artists’ Alley.

If you see me, feel free to say hi!