Update and a Happy New Year
Belated Happy New Year!
The reason for the delay is that I’ve been busy with family stuff over the holidays and a new programming project that I’ve been working on. Generally, to relax, I tend to write software whenever I take a bit of a break from writing. Yeah, I’m that weird.
Anyways, I just want to thank everybody out there who has taken the time to read the stories I’ve had published recently. I really appreciate this (and if you missed any, check out this list).
I also want to thank everybody who has bought copies of my Lazy Designer game design books. As some of you know these books were originally slated to be a single volume, but I decided to release what became the first, “How to Start a Career in Game Design” as an experiment in publishing non-fiction. It was not very successful, to be honest, but it was successful enough to justify writing the second book. When I released the second book it did not do spectacularly well either but it drove up sales of the first volume. Now the two are making enough money to justify writing the third and fourth books and I really appreciate this! I’m not seeing a lot of feedback/reviews being posted, so I am hoping those who have bought them are enjoying the books.
Anyways, now’s the time for the update bit.
I’m still writing the third Lazy Designer book. The second book ended up being over twice the size of the first and this seems to be some sort of horrible pattern I’m attempting to emulate. This third book is themed around Gameplay and Story and though I’m not done with the Gameplay section, the book (so far) is over ten thousand words longer than the second book! If it gets too much longer I may end up putting the chapters on Story into their own volume. We’ll see.
I anticipate being done book 3 by the end of January (rough draft) but instead of polishing the text, I’m going to move on and write the last Lazy Designer book (about being a design manager). A lot of my effort with the third book has been avoiding duplication with the existing books and this just seems to make more sense, to have the entire series finished, in rough, then go back and polish and release the third book.
So… March is probably when book 3 will be released and sometime later in summer or fall I will release the last book. (I also have to write Novel #6 this year, so I’ll be busy!)
Enjoy the week!
– Brent
3 Comments
Mordi Peshkess
How many books in that series do you intend on having? Also, do think you;ll ever have them in one volume?
In other news; I don’t know if you’ve ever played Planescape: Torment (A setting I hold very dear to my heart) back in the day but it seems there’s a spiritual successor to it in the works. You can read more about in the link below if you wish.
http://www.joystiq.com/2013/01/09/spiritual-successor-to-planescape-torment-in-very-early-stage/
Brent Knowles
There will be four Lazy Designer books (maybe 5 if I split Story/Character into its own book) and yes, they’ll (eventually) all appear together in a single volume, as originally intended.
I did play Planescape and this new game seems promising too. I agree that the Planescape setting is cool (though I never really got far into the game itself).
I don’t go on the BioWare forums much either, but over the years the negativity was definitely increasing. I can understand a dev not wanting to be part of that.
Mordi_peshkess
While I loved the Planescape setting it did not sit well with many gamers. It was just too different from what they were used to. I think the fact that it was set in just one city, even though it’s location was very unique, just irked a lot of player who were too used for a big expensive planes and land masses. It also marked a major shift in DnD art style to a more grittier, water based art, then the usual LOTR/medieval art style that DnD had to this point. I still remember the first time I got exposed to that setting. I was instantly fascinated by it and I in effect it kinda ruined all other settings for me. Though Ravenloft and Dark Sun still hold a very special place to
Unfortunately, the positive reviews and the cult following it got wasn’t enough to sustain it. Eventually WOTC retired the settings but at least it got some closure with The Faction Wars adventure.