Miniature Mondays: Here There Be Dragons
It used to be that the phrase “Here there be Dragons,” was just a metaphor – just a way of saying that this bit over here is not well explored and might be a little dangerous. You know, illuminated yield or slippery when wet signs as re-imagined by the artist formally known as Chaucer.
It would be a real disappointment it that’s how I meant it in this case. Fortunately, it isn’t. This week I really do have some dragons (now on Kickstarter) to show you.
A Tormented Kickstarter Project
I think that by sheer numbers, redundant ipad accessories are the most numerous kind of project on Kickstarter. After this follows custom art filled decks of playing cards, and minimalist wallets. Somewhere just down the list though, slightly above custom exotic dice crafted from steel or stone materials comes the retro gamer category.
By dollar amount, retro video games, heart-breaker RPGs, and classic board games make up half of the top dozen or so projects on the games section of Kickstarter, and they aren’t going away any time soon.
This week a new contender is making a strong play for the number one spot. Check below to see if this is the one needs to be in your 2014 stocking.
Franchise Fatigue
Doesn’t he look just a leeeetle like Johnny Depp in the chin area? Just a leeetle?
A good video game is a thing of beauty. It’s engaging and immersive. A good game can carry you away from your worldly woes like little else besides a good book can. A good game is like a friend who will hang out at the drop of a hat, day or night, rain or shine. And like a friend who has overstayed their welcome, there is such a thing as too much of a good thing. Sometimes you need some distance to make you appreciate a friend all the more. So too with video games.
Naked Truth
Good morning everyone! Fresh off my root canal, which has me feeling slightly better than I was last weekend (my jaw is still quite sore, but I can eat again), I am back to our favorite topic: Kickstarter. While there are still quite a few drool-worthy projects out there that I would love to be backing, today I wanted to talk about a project I find to be less than desirable. Normally a prelude like that would lead me to tell all of you about how I don’t even think that such-and-such a project should be on Kickstarter; today I will take a slightly different tactic.
This project is, unfortunately, valid – I just think the world doesn’t need it. (more…)
Fiction of the Sixth World
We’ve had several posts lately on gaming-inspired fiction, so I thought I’d continue the trend by taking a closer look at a couple of my most recent reads. The thread that links them is my recent re-acquaintanceship with the Shadowrun setting. I’ve gone back to some of the setting’s most epic classic fiction, as well as the most recent, in print short works, and I’m going to share my thoughts. This will be my LAST post on Shadowrun for while (at least until new products from the “Year of Shadowrun” start to hit the stands), so I’ll try to make it a good one.
Miniature Mondays: Fresh Meat
Last week you all stopped by for a bite to eat, and unfortunately I had nothing to serve. Sure, there were a few stale projects that were ALMOST miniature projects.
But they didn’t satisfy.
Don’t worry though, since then I’ve gone out, restocked the cupboards, and prepared a real smorgasbord. I’m not hungry, but you go ahead an pig out on all those delicious projects, I’ll just sit over here and watch.
No, really – I’m fine.
Comic Projects in Review
I have backed a wide variety of projects and though I have not received rewards for most of them at this point, they do appear in dribs and drabs. Most of them, I admit, are pretty long horizons, but of those I am most eager to see reach fruition, the news is regular enough and generally good; one of them, the project I am most excited about, in fact, just announced that they are on schedule to start shipping in late March.
Not all projects take this long to materialize. One genre in particular seems to reach fruition quite quickly: Comic books. I have backed quite a few, and many of them have already reached me, with decidedly mixed results.
Interested? You know what to do.
Writers Write
Writing is perhaps the only profession out there where so many people who claim to do a thing, really only think about starting… sometime soon… when they get around to it… eventually. It is easy to abuse the label, after all anyone can do it, right? A quick walk down the aisles of your local (and endangered) book chain store will show you that there are great many people in this world that cannot write well but are nonetheless getting paid for it.
Talking about it just isn’t good enough. Writers write – this adage, stolen from a friend’s father, is the best and simplest way to put it. At the end of the day, they either do or they don’t. I don’t think it’s much more complicated than that.
but what if you are having trouble getting started? Well, I have a few words on that too.
I’m a Backer… of Nothing for a While
Over the last 6 months, I have become a frequent patron of Kickstarter projects. At best this makes me a serial backer that appreciates and supports all the hard work that creators are putting in to their passion projects, and at worst that makes me an addict (that can quit any time I want.)
Unfortunately, real life circumstances sometimes get in the way of the things we want to do. Today I unfortunately had to un-back a number of projects, and will likely be significantly curtail in the next few months.
Want to know why? Read on.
Stuck in the Comic Doldrums
I am a comic fan. And I am tired of comic books.
Okay, not entirely. But I’m in a bit of a slump.
I begin every week with good intentions. “I’m going to write about comics this week. Something is going to stand out to me. Something out there merits some attention, and I will find it!” Then, by week’s end, I’ve written about anything BUT comics. Why is that? Because I’m in a funk—I’m stuck in the comic doldrums.
Caffeineforge 