Ironic Writing

I am the Warden!!

Before I get started, I've been experimenting a bit with the opening tagline. My "pregnature," if you will. Tried capitalizing the "the" in the Warden and didn't like it. Too smug, not my style. I'm humble with exclamation marks!!

Anyhow…

After two weeks away from the word processor, I was finally able to fire off a couple of entries for an upcoming project. And it felt goooooood. Under normal circumstances, I'd use this opportunity and your current attention to go into detail about what those entries are and for which project. It's part of the process and something missing from my regular activities (and I must apologize for that).

But there's a catch. For a couple of months now, I've been working on an unannounced project I can't talk or write about. Not because someone's life is at stake and if the kidnappers find out I squealed, they'll kill Victor for sure. No. It's simply not my project to announce or discuss. (So yeah, it's not a Broken Ruler project.)

So here I am. Following a routine from conception to writing to blogging and kinda hanging myself on the last part. All I'm doing is wasting your time, right? Wow, what was I thinking?

I've been itching to share something about [secret project] for a while now, especially after receiving some concept sketches this past weekend. Those very sketches forced me to plant my arse down in this chair and getting cracking, dammit! If for no other reason than to provide assurance of my involvement in something. I've been firing off about a lot of potential projects on this blog, some of them brought up earlier than I would normally reveal to provide relief when I wanted to talk about this one. With this new job, I've had to reduce my design work to a single project at a time (in a manner of speaking) and [secret project] was it.

Hence I've reached a dilemma: how to tell you about [secret project] without breaking my promise to [secret publisher]? Maybe - just maybe - I can avoid breaching my agreement and instead tease you with subtle, non-specific revelations. For now, I can leave you with this icon to indicate the system. The rest will depend on time.

Real Decisions

I am The Warden!!

Yeah, it's been pretty quiet around here for a while, hasn't it? If you haven't been following me on Twitter (maybe even Facebook or G+), you'll know I started working at a real job two weeks ago. And seriously, if you're reading this and not following me on any social media… c'mon!

In fact, I'm at work right now, but the networks are down (ahh, that familiar feeling) and this seemed like the perfect opportunity to post something I've been wanting to write about for days. The fact that I've been wanting to post this for days is just a prime example of the reason for this post. Taking on a real job has been incredibly demanding.

First off, the job itself. As the Graphic Designer/Social Media Specialist (yep, I tweet for a living now) for Calabogie Peaks Resort, I am responsible for all graphics and online content produced for this ski resort. On their own, either aspect of the job would occupy a full 8-hour day, but together makes for a crazy learning curve. The design hurdles are similar to many other places: learning where files are kept, how they are processed, learning to reflect your employer's values in your designs, and more are all here and more. There are many other side projects and committees on the go that I am involved in, including one for the new website design and working on developing a revised strategy for those handy little monitors you see in many resorts today.

Now let's get to the Social Media Specialist aspect. Um, there's never been one here before. It's building up a social media presence from (almost) the ground up and that's a full-time job on its own. After a couple of weeks, I've been able to develop a three-phase strategy for getting our social media presence as a strong representation for the resort's customer service and sales force, a process that will take months, if not a year, to reach full effect.

Juggling It All

I am The Warden!!

Recent events have really put a strain on many of my previous plans, but in a good way. For the past three years, I've had the unfortunate luxury of too much time to work on damn near any RPG project I wanted. What started with the final days of my Emerald Press work in D&D support became Broken Ruler Games and lead to nearly six ongoing projects waiting to be first to the finish line. Optional Core, Killshot Files, Wildpath, Fenga, and a couple more that have either never been mentioned or is not yet ready for an announcement. 

Now, I'm employed. And going to school. This seriously changes my output for the next while, yet I'm really glad it's working out this way. One, a little stability at home is far more important as my wife is busting her pretty little butt on her own school work. As cool as it is to have some cash coming in for Killshot, it's not even close to providing anything other than some online movie rentals and PDF purchases after covering all my core expenses (domain name, stock art for Killshot Files, etc.). 

Two, all of the work done over these past couple of years was an exploration into my potential and understanding of game design. I've learned a lot about my skills, the industry, marketing, and more that there's a solid ground for me to stand on now. I know what worked and what didn't, providing a stronger starting point for all the other projects on my plate. What remains standing as the smoke clears is an ability to cut through the hiccups and incertainties of before and get straight to work. 

The question is how to give all these ideas the time and devotion they need to either reach their endpoint or fold if the project loses its appeal. There's no doubt I won't be able to juggle as many projects as I could before and my new work will certainly occupy a lot of my attention and there's a (currently) top secret freelance project hogging that time. It doesn't mean the other projects will sit by the wayside, just that they've been paused. 

Juggling projects is like buying movies from the $5 bin. You grab it because the flick is a steal and you're excited to watch it, but that doesn't mean you get around to it right away. These projects will remain on my shelf; it's a matter of when I get to play them, not if. 

So if you've been reading this blog and there's a project (or two or four) you're tuned into, feel free to give me a little poke every now and then. I'll do my best to try and keep them on my plate without spinning onto the floor. 

The Next Step

Behold the splendour of Calabogie Peaks!
This is not only the general location of where I'll be working,
but the very building where I'll be plugging away. 

I am The Warden!!

Anyone who's been a regular reader or occasional peaker may know it's been a while since my life was normal. A good career with a stable income and the ability to life a healthy life were both out of my reach for a time. It's been an uphill struggle, but it all comes to an end today. 

This morning, I was offered the Graphic Designer/Social Media Specialist position for the Calabogie Peaks Resort and Conference Centre, a year-round outdoor heaven for skiiiers, golfers, hikers, and more. It isn't something I've mentioned on this blog before because I intentionally kept it to myself. When I discovered the want ad for this baby, I knew it had to be mine. Not only would I be able to use my newly enhanced graphic design skills before graduating, I'd get to tweet/post/blog for a living. Gee, doesn't that suck? <end sarcasm>

There's still paperwork to review and I'm not scheduled to start until the 14th (the previous two days will find me in Hamilton for some unwanted, yet required, follow-up tests), but this job is in the bag. And the best part? The true reason why I got this job? 

Killshot. 

Through the Video Shelves: 28 Days Later

I am The Warden!!

For no particular reason, I felt like throwing on the DVD of the classic "zombie" flick, 28 Days Later. After picking it out, it dawned on me this was my first movie on the shelf. Now, when I say "my first movie," it should be clear there are some movies in our collection that are primarily for my enjoyment. For reasons, I cannot understand, my wife will not watch this movie. The only way it's going to play on any TV in this house is when the missus is studying or sleeping. So when she fell asleep on the couch last night... bingo. In fact, with her school work, this could be the start of a movie-watching marathon. Go through all my movies in alphabetical order. 

Then I had another thought. My blog posts have been slipping lately. Perhaps this could be an extra project to get my ass back on the blog. It's not gaming related, that's for sure, but are we really so particular that a man writing about the cool movies inspiring his games and their designs cannot simply do so because... well, just because? I didn't think so. 

Here we go: 28 Days Later

I Now Pronounce You... Fenga!

I am The Warden!!

We have a habit of tweaking games in my house. Sure, sure, here's how the game works according to the regular rules, that's great. Maybe for the first play just to give us the overall idea of how it's supposed to work. After that, we need to find a way to make it something more our speed and style. It's something my wife and I have done long before we met and it's become one of the bonds uniting us. Sometimes, I think the discussion and debate on revising our games is the majority of the fun.

And what madness did we concoct over the weekend. Fenga! No, no, not "Fenga." Fenga! With gusto.

It's simple, really. It's Jenga played with Fudge/Fate dice. Build the tower as usual and remove 3 pieces from the top. Set them aside. Determine the starting order for the game as per the usual Jenga rules and the every player rolls 4 dice on their turn.

• Every "-" is a piece you have to remove from the tower. Set it in the pile. 
• Every "+" is a piece from the pile you must add to the top of the tower. 
• Every blank means you don't have to do nothing. 

Otherwise, everything else works exactly the same as the original wood piling classic. For a game that can already be incredibly suspenseful, adding in that random element of how many pieces you have to pull and place on your turn really ramps it up a notch. Oh, and to try it as part of Dread? There's only one way to find out.

Graphic Designers vs. Graphic Technicians

I am The Warden!!

During my recent job hunting, I've been looking at two fields: retail management and graphic design. The first is more out of experience (I used to be a retail manager for close to eight years) and availability, but it's the second one that truly has my interest and attention. Graduated and trained as a graphic technician back in 2007, I started a 1-year online graphic design course back in June to update my skills with the latest versions of Adobe as well as pick up a few extra tricks to make myself all the more awesome. (Hey, this is job hunting. Confidence is right up there with wearing nice pants.)

Run back over that sentence again. I'm already a graphic technician and am now taking a course in graphic design. So what's the difference? I'm glad you asked because it's come up quite a bit over the past couple of years and I wanted to take the time to address it.