#and a bunch of film to dev and print

[rustyelias]

ngl photography at the moment is so joyous the sun has shown her face I can feel my chronic vitamin d deficiency withering away

[amandi-mga2023mi6011]

Professional Character/Concept Illustrations

Since Animayo centers not only characters but also a clear and creative sense of place for them to exist in, thought that maybe looking into different concept artists and vis dev work would help me understand how to go about the process of creating an illustration that conveys story, worldbuilding, and characters.

Evaline Ness – she was an illustrator who studied painting at the art institute of Chicago and also did some cool funky commercial work. e.g: 1950s Good Housekeeping; she kept it really loose and painterly. She’s also known for her mixed media approach to children’s books. She used wood cuts and wood prints, silk screens and rubbings. Just a skillful mix of textres from different printing and drawing techniques. She would work in the text into her illustrations and just add so much energy to the whole thing. She created the art for the black cauldron.

Eyvind Earl did a lot of concept art for Disney. Known for his work on Lady and the Tramp and Sleeping Beauty. There was a sense of romanticism to his use of textures, colours, and lines. The drama of his paintings on sleeping beauty especially felt unreal. What really makes his work for me is the ability to synthesize different influences. He was looking at a lot of medieval illuminated manuscripts and tapestries and how they dealt with space and colour. Pre-renaissance art has this way of breaking things down into their iconic shapes and foregoing notions of shading and perspective. And you can really see how he found the link between that medieval style and the modern painting techniques that he was schooled in. The end result is this absolute visual feast for the eyes.

Claire Keane – she did the concept art for frozen. Disney had been wanting to make a Snow Queen adaptation for decades, but they could never really figure out how to get this odd old fairytale to be relevant to the modern day. Enter Claire Keane; if you look at her concept art you can see glimpses into the different things they were trying out. I personally really enjoyed her character concepts where, for example, the ice queen is this Cruella de Vil type villain. I especially loved her costume design for this concept. I believe at one point they were considering Bette Midler for the voice of Elsa, and you can see how that influenced her character design. The artwork after the team decided the two girls were going to be sisters is a lot more compelling. Theres a bunch where Elsa has so much attitude and spunk. They explored versions of her that were moody and thus costumed her in alternative subculture styles. There’s also some concept art that are hauntingly sad. Theres also several variations on what their childhood was like; and you can see that through how they also push the style in different kinds of ways. I especially loved Keane’s concept art where she really makes use of patterns and distorts the space in this modernist way.

Keane also worked on the visual development for Tangled. Immediately you can see just the atmosphere she created. You can see how her soft lighting and lived in look carried over to the final film. I love the loose personality of some of them and just how the line quality plays up this idea of a tangled mass of hair.

This village sketch in particular is so charming. Not only did Keane develop the art style for Rapunzel, she also developed Rapunzel’s art style. Theres so many layers of expression between designing a character and designing something that the character designed.

Furthermore, Keane came at this project from every angle; she used storybook art styles, she used ink, she used oil paint, and many more. Some of my personal favourites are the pieces that include this dreamy light that you can recognise from the final film, with some of them having a little bit of a more ominous edge to them.

What did I learn from Claire Keane? Explore different visual styles and concepts. Don’t be tied down to one specific visual language or character design. Also, the way you construct your character also has an effect on their costuming. Furthermore, be open to exploring alternate character relationships. Lastly, draw inspiration from different art movements and experiment with styles.

Mary Blaire – she was an artist for Disney who was known for her vivid colours. How did she develop these colour palettes? The answer involves global politics, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and llamas. Earlier in her career, Blaire’s watercolour paintings looked more like the ones below. There’s this cohesive California lighting going on. So then how did she move from this to her work in Alice in Wonderland for example? In the years leading up to World War II, Roosevelt wanted to solidify the US’s relationships with the countries of Latin America. Roosevelt chose Walt Disney to be the cultural ambassador and go on this tour of a number of Latin American countries. Walt, with his group of animators and illustrators, packed their bags and went to Mexico, Peru, Argentina, Chile, and more. All the while, Blaire is painting what she sees. Her friends and colleagues describe this almost as an epiphany for her; not only in terms of subject matter but also in technique. She started experimenting with patterns and colour combinations. The abstraction, composition, and colours are something that carried through the rest of her career. Not only was that trip direct research for pieces such as The Three Caballeros, but it also changed the way that she made art.

Its almost impossible to talk about art is Disney without mentioning Mary Blaire. Her use of colour, flatness, and pattern was what took Disney from their pre-war aesthetic and pushed it into modernism. Early Disney animators were very much brought up in the school of illustration’s golden age. Concept art for Snow White, Pinocchio, and Bambi, were very beautiful and very grounded in perspective, anatomy, line work, and all the other traditional techniques of art. When they started working on Cinderella – the first big princess movie since Snow White – Blaire brings in a completely new colour direction. This is a huge shift from where they were with movies such as Bambi. She brought in colour and folk art patterns to the forefront of her work. Furthermore, rather than focusing on this illusionistic perspective, all of her work was much more interested in showing the interplay of colour and flatness, as well as breaking shapes down to just their core elements. Her modern use of shape and colour is absolutely stunning. She even proudly mentioned once that “Walt said [she] knew about colors he had never heard of before,”. Even looking some of the final interiors for Cinderella, we can see her influence shining through; they were a fwr cry from the interiors in pieces such as Pinocchio. By the ‘60s Blaire was working on It’s a Small World in Disneyland, and its very clear that her influence was enormous.

What can I take away from this? Draw inspiration from real life, put emphasis and deliberation on your use of colour and composition.

Shelia Beckett – a fairy tale illustrator who has done work in advertising. She’s explored many styles and mediums from pencil drawings, to watercolour, to marker pieces, and much more. She pushes her style in different ways which is evident in her portfolio. She has an amazing grasp on costume and character which I believe you can see best in her illustrative work for Snow White and Rose Red. Additionally, she’s a master of composition, which you can see in her illustrations for a Hansel and Gretel book. In her 90s she did a lot of digital work, and you can see how she builds on all those techniques (e.g.: her use of patterns, her composition and movement).

[davemurphyphoto]

Initial Assessment

I just traded a bunch of gear and a bit of cash for a Nikon D810. So, naturally, now I’m wanting to shoot film and work in the darkroom.

To that end, I repaired my enlarger. It had separated between the light head and the upper bellows. Specifically, the flange that connects to the condenser separated from the bellows above the negative tray. I repaired that and then took stock. There were questions that needed answers.

What do I have?

What do I need?

I have a handful of film cameras. I have a way to process B&W roll film. I have a way to process prints, up to 11x14 anyway, sort of. I can only mix 600ml at a time of individual chemistry. I need 1.6L of dev, stop, and fix for my 8x10 trays. So, 3 batches of 600ml each. I have a Beseler 23C II that can do up to 6x7. I also have a Graflex Graflarger (no, seriously). That little beastie is a lamp and negative holder that mounts to a Graflex (or International Standard) camera back and turns a 4x5 camera into a medium and large format enlarger. I have negative carriers for 35mm, 6x7, 6x12, and 4x5 film.

I need a motherfrakking darkroom. Right now, I load film in the development tank in my bathroom, at night, with all the lights off in the house. For loading the Harman paper, I have a red safe light. But undeveloped film can only be handled in absolute dark. I could really use a print washer. I also need an enlargement easel.

And then there are supplies. Film, paper, chemistry. Chemistry is kind of a pain in the ass. Most chemistry goes bad faster than a bowl of ice cream in the sunshine. Film and paper will keep almost indefinitely in the fridge or freezer. Cooler is better.

[theonyxpath]

Kind of a hold-over from last week’s talk about Justin Achilli, this week we start with one of the quotes from Tombstone that JA and I would lob at each other over the years – and check out this week’s Reason To Celebrate for why the movie comes to mind.

They’ve mentioned that Justin is the final member of the WoD team at Paradox, even if he may be pretty much still stuck here because of Covid-19, and if you want to, you can learn more about the person pulled into the WoD team before Justin by checking out this coming Friday’s Onyx Pathcast interview with Outstar, the WoD Brand Community Manager!

How Lewd.

Another daisy has been Jon Hodgson and his extremely talented crew at Handmade Games, who we’ve worked with on many pieces of art and on the creation of the newest Creature Collection for Scarred Lands. They ran the Kickstarter, as well, and did a fantastic job with the project!

Now that the Creature Collection is at our traditional printer – where we had to send it because our more expansive plans for printing and shipping in Europe were torpedoed by Covid-19 (I feel like there’s an underlying theme here) – Jon and team have handed off the project to us in its entirety to fulfill it and get the book into stores.

With that, we’re also making the PDF and the PoD versions available this week on DriveThru. So if you prefer to get a gorgeous collection of monsters usable for any 5e gaming, this is your week.

Contagion Chronicle art by Luis Sanz

I’m In My Prime!

Talking about ways we’re all getting through this pandemic, let’s start with quite the difference in our industry with GenCon going online and not live in Indianapolis. First time in something like 40+ years, at least, that there’s no physical con. But like ourselves, the GenCon crew have decided to run an online version filled with gaming and panels and interviews and all sorts of stuff.

Fresh from our more us-focused Onyx Path Virtual Gaming Convention last month, we are still representing at GenCon Online with a What’s Up With the Onyx Path? panel, as well as a bunch of our games. Check out details and links below in the Conventions section, and check out last week’s Onyx Pathcast, for the Terrific Trio’s talk about online gaming and more thoughts about our online con.

Lunars art by Gong Stysi

Keeping up our efforts to keep in closer contact with our developers during this time of isolation, we had another pair of Developer Town Halls last week, which seemed to go very well.

One thing that came up, which we are very aware of, is how hard it is to stay aware of the passage of time these days. Obviously, that has huuuuge impact on the projects folks are working on, as so much of freelance creation depends on creating a certain amount of X (X being words, or pages, or pieces of art, or whatever you’re creating) a day and a week and a month.

Luckily for all, Eddy Webb has spent over a decade exploring time-management techniques and processes, and while he has always been helpful for our creators on an ad hoc basis, he’s now going to run a developer work processes workshop for our devs instead of a Town Hall next month.

Our hope is that we can use this workshop to present a lot of tools and methods to heighten everyone’s ability to focus longer, faster, better.

And I almost lost my focus right there. I was just about to write “…focus longer, faster, better on our: Many Worlds, One Path!”. But I still have one more thing to mention!

More details in the Kickstarter section below, but I do want to announce that we’re going to start the Kickstarter for They Came From Beyond the Grave!, the second of the They Came From…! games, next week on Tuesday the 21st!

Phew! Glad I managed to get that mention in, and I’m expecting to go into a bunch more next week about the Hammer/Roger Corman Films genre of horror movies and why we’re very excited to be able to emulate that genre with Grave!. For an idea of how it plays, here’s the game we played at our online convention:

One more world to add to our:

Many Worlds, One Path!

Blurbs!

Kickstarter!

Next Up On Kickstarter: They Came From Beyond the Grave!

Next week on Tuesday the 21st at 2pm EDT, if we can pull it together! And keep your eyes open for:

Onyx Path Media!

This week: a fantastic interview with Outstar aka Martyna: Paradox‘s new World of Darkness Brand Community Developer, who’s renowned for her World of Darkness lore videos, and who also has a history in the video game industry, having worked on games like The Witcher 3!

As always, this Friday’s Onyx Pathcast will be on Podbean or your favorite podcast venue! https://onyxpathcast.podbean.com/

It’s an exciting time for the Twitch channel, as ahead of the Kickstarter, Vorpal Tales commence their They Came from Beyond the Grave! actual play!

This week on Twitch, expect to see:

V5 – Chicago by Night

They Came from Beyond the Grave!

Changeling: The Dreaming – The Last Faerie Tale

Mage: The Awakening – Occultists Anonymous

Scarred Lands – Purge of the Serpentholds

Chronicles of Darkness: Tooth & Claw

Deviant: The Renegades – A Cautionary Tale

Get watching for some fantastic insight into how to run these wonderful games and subscribe to us on Twitch, over at twitch.tv/theonyxpath

Come take a look at our YouTube channel, youtube.com/user/theonyxpath, where you can find a whole load of videos of actual plays, dissections of our games, and more, including:

Onyx Path News Live: https://youtu.be/5UHRO66VKi4

#OnyxPathCon | Onyx Pathcast Live [Panel]:https://youtu.be/XxNvUPUtC1o

#OnyxPathCon | Learn the Storypath System [Panel]:https://youtu.be/YOr-WIe4nuA

#OnyxPathCon | They Came from Beyond the Grave! Actual Play: https://youtu.be/qLEFXntIa3g

Changeling: The Lost – Littlebrook Reunion: https://youtu.be/aEVm_G1Dhzo

Subscribe to our channel and click the bell icon if you want to be notified whenever new news videos and uploads come online!

Occultists Anonymous continue their excellent Mage: The Awakening chronicle:

Episode 112: Buffs & Bluffs The cabal make preparations for two meetings, one with “Heidi” a leader of the Mammon Ministry, and “Tilly” who has been making threats on behalf of Mammon. Then, of course, come the meetings themselves… https://youtu.be/-rh4zUVwu4I

Episode 113: The Mammon Treatise Discussions continue with Tilly and the cabal, a Lictor is called forth to try to make the deal official in the Consilium’s Lex Magica. https://youtu.be/_MqJP2gXQUQ

Systematic Understanding of Everything is a new Exalted Explainer Podcast by Exalted Dev Monica Speca and Exalted Writer Chazz Kellner that is breaking down Creation in 45 minute chunks in preparation for Exalted Essence.

Their most recent episode in on Creation and its history – https://anchor.fm/exaltcast/episodes/Trackless-Region-Navigation—What-is-Creation-eg2g9d

Get past episodes at http://www.exaltcast.com/

The Gamers Table is on board for a Promethean: The Created chronicle right here: https://anchor.fm/gamerstable/episodes/Polyabhorrent-Episode-4—Promethean-the-Created-Actual-Play-egeuvo/a-a2l9s6e Please give them your support!

Our very own Chris Allen runs a fantastic opening session of Werewolf: The Forsaken here and on Twitch: https://youtu.be/XTaTf7sxnLk Not too many eyeballs were lost!

They’re not alone with their Werewolf: The Forsaken actual play, as Dork Tales on Twitch is playing a chronicle of the same game! https://www.twitch.tv/dorktales

Our friends over at Near Dark Studios have just concluded their second season of V5 Chicago by Night, and you can find the entire playlist right here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLhENuwZpsO7HXSuQ26MvX5uP-xqbYAwGG

Apparently it’s a week for Werewolf: The Forsaken, as Paleo Games is running their chronicle of doomed Uratha over here on Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/paleo_gaming

Last one! Our good buddies at Vorpal Tales recently concluded their superb actual play of They Came from Beneath the Sea!, which you can find here on YouTube in full playlist form. Enjoy! https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL9fUj4KdqE4Ayzfw1vrDtFY81E0uaNT2K

Please check these out and let us know if you find or produce any actual plays of our games! We’d love to feature you!

Electronic Gaming!

As we find ways to enable our community to more easily play our games, the Onyx Dice Rolling App is live! Our dev team has been doing updates since we launched based on the excellent use-case comments by our community, and this thing is awesome! (Seriously, you need to roll 100 dice for Exalted? This app has you covered.)

We’re told that the App Dev is currently creating an updated version for the latest devices, so keep an eye open for those!

On Amazon and Barnes & Noble!

You can now read our fiction from the comfort and convenience of your Kindle (from Amazon) and Nook (from Barnes & Noble).

If you enjoy these or any other of our books, please help us by writing reviews on the site of the sales venue from which you bought it. Reviews really, really help us get folks interested in our amazing fiction!

Our selection includes these latest fiction books:

Our Sales Partners!

We’re working with Studio2 to get Pugmire and Monarchies of Mau out into stores, as well as to individuals through their online store. You can pick up the traditionally printed main book, the screen, and the official Pugmire dice through our friends there! https://studio2publishing.com/search?q=pugmire

We’ve added Prince’s Gambit to our Studio2 catalog: https://studio2publishing.com/products/prince-s-gambit-card-game

Now, we’ve added Changeling: The Lost Second Edition products to Studio2‘s store! See them here: https://studio2publishing.com/collections/all-products/changeling-the-lost

Scion 2e books and other products are available now at Studio2: https://studio2publishing.com/blogs/new-releases/scion-second-edition-book-one-origin-now-available-at-your-local-retailer-or-online

Looking for our Deluxe or Prestige Edition books? Try this link! http://www.indiepressrevolution.com/xcart/Onyx-Path-Publishing/

And you can order Pugmire, Monarchies of Mau, Cavaliers of Mars, and Changeling: The Lost 2e at the same link! And now Scion Origin and Scion Hero and Trinity Continuum Core and Trinity Continuum: Aeon are available to order!

As always, you can find Onyx Path’s titles at DriveThruRPG.com!

On Sale This Week!

This Wednesday, we uncage the Creature Collection for 5e Scarred Lands in PDF and PoD versions, both on DTRPG!

Conventions!

Though dates for physical conventions are subject to change due to the current COVID-19 outbreak, here’s what’s left of our current list of upcoming conventions (and really, we’re just waiting for this last one to be cancelled even though it’s Nov/Dec). Instead, keep an eye out here for more virtual conventions we’re going to be involved with:

PAX Unplugged: https://unplugged.paxsite.com/

Keep an eye out for our games being run at the online version of GenCon at the end of the month, as well as our What’s Up With the Onyx Path? panel currently slated for 1pm, Thursday July 30th!

https://www.gencon.com/online/

And now, the new project status updates!

Development Status from Eddy Webb! (Projects in bold have changed status since last week.):

First Draft (The first phase of a project that is about the work being done by writers, not dev prep.)

Exalted Essay Collection (Exalted)

Adversaries of the Righteous (Exalted 3rd Edition)

The Devoted Companion (Deviant: The Renegades)

Saints and Monsters (Scion 2nd Edition)

Trinity Continuum: Anima

M20 Technocracy Operative’s Dossier (Mage: The Ascension 20th Anniversary)

Squeaks In The Deep (Realms of Pugmire)

Prometheus Unbound (was Psi Orders) (Trinity Continuum: Aeon)

Redlines

Dragon-Blooded Novella #2 (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Hundred Devil’s Night Parade (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Novas Worldwide (Trinity Continuum: Aberrant)

Exalted Essence Edition (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Wild Hunt (Scion 2nd Edition)

CtL 2e Novella Collection: Hollow Courts (Changeling: The Lost 2e)

Second Draft

Many-Faced Strangers – Lunars Companion (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Contagion Chronicle Ready-Made Characters (Chronicles of Darkness)

Trinity Continuum: Adventure! core (Trinity Continuum: Adventure!)

Dead Man’s Rust (Scarred Lands)

The Clades Companion (Deviant: The Renegades)

V5 Forbidden Religions (Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition)

M20 Rich Bastard’s Guide To Magick (Mage: The Ascension 20th Anniversary)

V5 Children of the Blood (was The Faithful Undead) (Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition)

Dystopia Rising: Evolution Fiction Anthology (Dystopia Rising: Evolution)

Development

TC: Aberrant Reference Screen (Trinity Continuum: Aberrant)

Across the Eight Directions (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Contagion Chronicle: Global Outbreaks (Chronicles of Darkness)

Exigents (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Assassins (Trinity Continuum Core)

V5 Trails of Ash and Bone (Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition)

Kith and Kin (Changeling: The Lost 2e)

Mission Statements (Trinity Continuum: Aeon)

Manuscript Approval

Crucible of Legends (Exalted 3rd Edition)

M20 Victorian Mage (Mage: the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition)

Under Alien Skies (Trinity Continuum: Aeon)

Post-Approval Development

Editing

Lunars Novella (Rosenberg) (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Mummy: The Curse 2nd Edition core rulebook (Mummy: The Curse 2nd Edition)

Player’s Guide to the Contagion Chronicle (Chronicles of Darkness)

Contagion Chronicle Jumpstart (Chronicles of Darkness)

TC: Aberrant Jumpstart (Trinity Continuum: Aberrant)

Trinity Continuum Jumpstart (Trinity Continuum)

LARP Rules (Scion 2nd Edition)

Heirs to the Shogunate (Exalted 3rd Edition)

The Book of Lasting Death (Mummy: The Curse 2e)

They Came From Beyond the Grave! (They Came From!)

Scion: Dragon (Scion 2nd Edition)

Scion: Demigod (Scion 2nd Edition)

Dearly Bleak – Novella (Deviant: The Renegades)

N!ternational Wrestling Entertainment (Trinity Continuum: Aberrant)

Post-Editing Development

City of the Towered Tombs (Cavaliers of Mars)

W20 Shattered Dreams Gift Cards (Werewolf: The Apocalypse 20th)

Cults of the Blood Gods (Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition)

Hunter: The Vigil 2e core (Hunter: The Vigil 2nd Edition)

Trinity Continuum: Aberrant core (Trinity Continuum: Aberrant)

Deviant: The Renegades (Deviant: The Renegades)

Monsters of the Deep (They Came From Beneath the Sea!)

Legendlore core book (Legendlore)

Pirates of Pugmire KS-Added Adventure (Realms of Pugmire)

Tales of Aquatic Terror (They Came From Beneath the Sea!)

Terra Firma (Trinity Continuum: Aeon)

One Foot in the Grave Jumpstart (Geist: The Sin-Eaters 2e)

Masks of the Mythos (Scion 2nd Edition)

Indexing

Lunars: Fangs At The Gate (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Art Direction from Mike Chaney!

In Art Direction

Tales of Aquatic Terror – Off to LeBlanc.

WoD Ghost Hunters (KS) – KS prep also wrapped up.

Aberrant – AD’d. Meredith is helping with keeping track of all the artists.

Hunter: The Vigil 2e

Mummy 2

Deviant

Legendlore

Technocracy Reloaded (KS)

Cults of the Blood God – Rolling along.

Scion: Dragon (KS)

Masks of the Mythos (KS) – Getting the cover art going, interior pieces are coming in.

Scion: Demigod (KS) – KS art in progress.

They Came From Beyond the Grave! (KS) – Prepping KS assets.

TC: Adventure! (KS) – Shen Fei cover art finished by end of the month.

Geist: One Foot In the Grave – AD’d, art is rolling.

In Layout

Yugman’s Guide to Ghelspad

Vigil Watch

TC Aeon Terra Firma

V5 Let the Streets Run Red – continued working it.

Pugmire Adventure – small project, knocking the layout together.

Scion Titanomachy

Lunars Screen and Booklet

Contagion Chronicle Screen and Booklet

Proofing

Trinity Aeon Jumpstart – Errata input prep.

Lunars: Fangs at the Gate – Editing.

Contagion Chronicle – Errata input and press prep.

Cavaliers of Mars: City of the Towered Tombs

Magic Item Decks (Scarred Lands)

Yugman’s Guide Support Decks (Scarred Lands)

Dark Eras 2 Screen and booklet

Scion Companion – PoD proofs ordered.

At Press

TCFBTS Heroic Land Dwellers – PoD proof ordered.

TCFBTS Screen and Booklet – Files at press.

They Came from Beneath the Sea! – Press proofs signed off on, PoD proofs ordered.

Creature Collection 5e – PDF and PoD versions on sale on Wednesday.

Pirates of Pugmire – Files at press. PoD proofs ordered.

Pirates of Pugmire Screen – Files at press.

Pugmire Buried Bones – PoD proof ordered.

Changeling: The Lost 2nd Edition Dark Eras Compilation – Uploaded PoD file.

Today’s Reason to Celebrate!

Considered to be the day in 1882 that Johnny Ringo died, gunslinger, and model for many versions of this kind of gaming character: “A man like Ringo has got a great big hole, right in the middle of him. He can never kill enough, or steal enough, or inflict enough pain to ever fill it.” Of course, he was never a daisy.

[attract-mode-collective]

Not An April Fools Gag; That’s A Game Boy Advance With A GameCube Stick Affixed For Reals

What you're seeing is a modded GBA that I spotted on eBay. It's a real thing! Though it doesn't magically grant analogue control to all the digital input only games on the system, which is all of them for the record (sorry). Then again, it could be argued that the controls in WarioWare Twisted is technically analogue...

That aside aside, welcome to yet another recap of stuff posted over at the Attract Mode Twitter! Though this time it's gonna be a bit on the short side, relatively speaking; even I know covering two entire whole weeks has led to hard to handle Tumblr posts, so I'm going to try concentrating on just one week at a time/attempt weekly updates.

Let's see how well that goes...

Hey, it's SF2 IRL thanks to ARKit (via prostheticknowledge)...

At the time, when I first tweeted about it, there were only three left of Amanda Visell’s Player One Mario; no idea how many there are now...

When you can make a decision regarding lunch (via @Mechazawa)....

If you appreciate both the ease of slip-on sneakers and the taste of ghosts, then Games Glorious has something for you (via miki800.com)...

As a connoisseur of video games on the printed page, it is my goal to one day own a copy of Namco's newsletter that was distributed in game centers during the 80s & 90s, NG (via miki800)...

Remember that time Namco got someone from Yellow Magic Orchestra to hawk their wares (via namcomuseum)...

Both in print and on TV…

The YMO member in question, Haruomi Hosono, also did a Xevious remix album, which longtime readers of the blog will hopefully recall.

Sticking with Namco CMs, there’s a pair of longtime faves that I could have sworn I’ve already posted as well, yet cannot find. Though as noted, many times already, the search functionality here is broken.

So here’s a boy playing with his Famicom in the middle of the woods...

And here’s a girl playing with his Famicom in the middle of the woods...

Back to the subject of print, can’t seem to find any info on the Futabasha Fantasy Novel Series, which (I think) was a line of video game novelizations; this one appears to be written by the creator of Xevious himself (via shmups)...

The focus here is supposed to be the Lawson’s reward card with Kirby on it, but I am all about that Space Invaders whatever the heck it is (via miki800)...

Spent MANY hours at Japanese bookstores during my college years, flipping through Sega Saturn Magazine; seeing these VF Kids ads again makes me feel all warm & fuzzy (via thesegasource)...

This (what I believe to be a) farewell image of the face of the Saturn from the very first issue of Dreamcast Magazine, also gives me the feels (via oldgamemags)...

BTW, everyone knows the identity of Saturn's pitchman (Segata Sanshiro), but what about the Mega Drive's? (via yokosuka87)...

Back to the Saturn; I love how Sega want from Segata Sanshiro to Hidekazu Yukawa for the Dreamcast. This launch edition of the console, btw, was spotted at VideoGamesNewYork...

It's also where they Kira Kira Star Night DX for twice the asking price, as @gamespite)...

Speaking of music, to fully enjoy this animated gif of Eggman running…

… you need to have this song playing (via lunaticobscurity).

And to fully enjoy this image of Eggman on the sax…

... you need to have this song playing (via very-territorial-oak).

@ondoruragitan sez: "whoever designed that clown lady in ace attorney is probably the most horny artist to ever exist" (it's funny cuz it's true)...

So the big news these past few weeks, especially among video game folk my age, has been the end of the Toys R Us. Many have been sharing artifacts from the glory days, with my fave example being these old flyers, with the obvious highlight seeing all the original MSRP prices (via retrogamerblog)...

Oh, and don’t forget the gifs (via nintendroid)...

The following are more appropriate for my way, way overdue batch of game culture snapshots, but since we're on the subject of retail anyway; I recently stumbled across Nintendo's collab with Bloomingdale's that I had no idea even existed...

Took a bunch of pics, but unfortunately, due to the harsh lighting at the SoHo store, it was impossible to capture the women’s section, hence the abundance of men’s wear...

These women's sweatshirts are the best example of the line's overall design sensibilities, or lack thereof; it’s just a bunch of random Nintendo sprites on attire that is available at Bloomingdale's, period. That's all it aspires to be, nothing more...

... And that's a real shame, cuz aside from the quality of the clothing itself being high, some of the ho-hum looking designs could be really engaging with a few minor tweaks, like this b&w women's jacket with a very random assortment of b&w Super Mario World sprites...

In addition to clothing, you had accessories, like iPhone cases...

Plus sunglasses, which revealed Super Mario World playing on what appears to the naked eye to be a blank, white screen....

Speaking of Super Mario World, here's a hamster enjoying the game (via @kousuke_teppei)...

The lil guy also owns an original Famicom, and here we is playing Solomon's Key (thanks to @Topherocious for helping me to identify the game)...

Being that friend who is REALLY into video games means I'm asked a wide variety of questions from folks who are not, like why @beesmygod  is "freaking out" over a Sonic & Garfield two pack for the PC...

... I'll be honest, I don't really understand why either.

Here we have a mockup for an ad blocker that replaces banners with GBA screenshots, which I really want to see happen (via @tinycartridge)...

I also really want to see this happen too (via @truongasm)...

Back to Tiny Cart; that's where I found out that you no longer have to play emulated Tiger handheld games sans backgrounds...

Nothing beats a pic of a dimly lit arcade, especially when it's shot on ACTUAL film (via mendelpalace)...

As for this particular arcade show, @kappuru theorizes "it looks like cinestill film, or a filter designed to mimic it." (via parkerwoods)...

"WHO IS THIS NUN?! WHY DOES SHE LOOK SO SINISTER?" is a great KOF related question (via vice-s-assistant)...

And "BOWL BEFORE ME" is a great KOF related gag (via brondeef)...

"this is the best cosplay i’ve ever seen" is a a great costume play related observation made by lunaticobscurity...

"how to get away with playing super mario odyssey in class" is the caption given by retrogamerblog...

"Stardew Valley gave me 500 characters to use as my farm name, so I put down an entire 1-star amazon review for an Independence Day DVD" is the explanation given by @NoahHafford...

Hey, you never know, maybe one day a homebrew dev might make “Shinjuku-Nichome Gay District Serial Murders” a reality? (via mendelpalace)

When you’ve got one copy of Melee with two boxes, and one copy of Air Ride with zero boxes… just gotta improvise (via stellatuna)...

When you’ve got a killer Game Genie code but no paper to write it down on... and then you discover the code does something totally different (via theassortment)...

And when I asked what this 4koma featuring a Dreamcast VMU was all about, @JonahD was kind enough to explain: "VMUs are playing hide and seek, Black is seeking. One VMU thinks hiding in the controller would be good but it makes a bunch of noise and they’re found immediately" (via posthumanwanderings)...

Whereas I have yet to find out what all these Sonics are doing at a German airport (via sonicthehedgeblog)...

I normally don’t let the weather get to me, yet the constant cold weather in NYC over the past few weeks began taking its toll, to the point that I’m starting to resemble an upside down Super Famicom/European SNES (via sixteen-bit)...

I also really wish I could have checked out Sakura-Con, and not just cuz the weather is so much nicer in Seattle, but to pick up @alexisparade's Monster Factory zine...

I stared at gif illustrating the wacky perspective-related behavior of Super Mario 64’s trees for an entire day, no joke (via suppermariobroth)...

Here we have the rarely seen alternate angle of the internet famous "LAN party gamer duct-taped to the ceiling" photo (via reddit.com)...

Turning the clock back even further, here's yet another kind of party, one that doesn’t involve first person shooters but shoot ‘em ups; it’s the 1986 Hudson Caravan (via videogamesdensetsu)...

Recently, a modded NES Max controller showed up on Kotaku, in which the cycloid nub has been replaced with an analogue stick...

... Which actually appeared the day after I spotted that modded GBA at the very top of this page. I am also willing to admit the disappointment over my tweet not catching on as expected/hoped it would, hence why I'm sharing another pic...

At any rate, I was also reminded of my buddy Nick Santaniello's modded Jaguar controller, which allows for arcade perfect Tempest 2000 controls...

... Which in turned led to me republishing the post from which it hails from originally, my recap of Nick's Shmup Appreciation Night, for Medium (and also sharing additional pics on Twitter)...

BTW, for those wondering, based upon the last round of tweets; the kitchen isn’t just for playing old Mega Drive & PC Engine shmups… you can also play old Naomi fighting games (via internetflexin)...

Guess that's it for now? Sorry, but it finally feels like spring in NYC, and I feel the need to step away from the computer & enjoy weather! Just like Mega Man (via arcadequartermaster)...

[symbianosgames]

Thomas Brush is the sole creator of Pinstripe, a TKDESCRIPTION which launched on Steam April 24th. Thomas scored, illustrated, designed, and developed Pinstripe over the course of five years. Thomas is also the creator of award-winning Flash games Coma and Skinny.

I’m laying in bed writing this postmortem at 1:42 pm in the afternoon. The blinds are closed and my room is a gloomy gray. Ever since I launched Pinstripe, my game about Hell, I've experienced just about every stage of grief. And why has it been raining all week ever since launch?

Sorry to sound moody, but completing Pinstripe left me empty and completely out of energy, both physically and emotionally. This postmortem is coming at an overwhelmingly burned-out time in my very young career in the games industry. I would never, and could never, do this again — make a game completely alone over the course of 5 years. As I see the Steam sales slowly drip in, I’m still in a death spiral of strange highs and lows regarding the reason why I chose to make this game to begin with.

The start of Pinstripe felt different — a lot different:

[embedded content]

I was 5 years younger, passionately pounding away on my brand new MacBook purchased with cash earned from my glorious Flash game years. I was in the basement of Clemson University’s library in South Carolina, building a game that was going to shake the world. Thanks to the Indie Game documentary, I was positive I was going to be the next Edmund McMillen. I was going to be an indie legend.

That was the initial spark, and then it turned into an obsession for really no reason other than to make a great game. I wanted to make games full-time, and I would stop at nothing to do so. Three years later I would be married, a Clemson University graduate, and working in a cubicle as a graphic designer for tire and plumbing hardware companies. During lunch hours I would stuff my sandwich down fast, and eat pretzels while trying to finish my game. Little did I know it would take five full years (one of those years as full time work) to finish it. This was partly because I was so anxious to get work done, I wouldn't really think twice about what I was doing.

God help me. Looking back is tough.

My final burst of energy was spent on the Kickstarter campaign sent straight from Heaven. More on that later.

But in the midst of crossing the finish line, I'm instantly thinking: what was that all about?

1) Music

Pinstripe's soundtrack was the easiest thing to create, and I feel it is the most valuable element. It was super fun to write, didn't take too long, and fit the mood of the game. What more could I ask for?

[embedded content]

2) Unity

Unity was the first decision I made prior to development, and at the time it wasn’t a no-brainer like it is now (I'm willing to have an honest discussion if you disagree). Regardless of what software you choose, remember that revenue potential does not stop at Steam. Because of Unity, revenue can extend to pretty much any platform you’re willing to build for. Pinstripe has been through so much QA that fortunately a release on another platform is likely just a couple months away. Additionally, Unity was easy enough to learn, but I was also not-so-smart about how I was building things. Without getting into too much detail, most of the code and plugins used from two years of work was completely overhauled and rewritten. Some of the more recent plug-ins used in Pinstripe (Spine, InControl, Steamworks.NET) are super easy to use, and I’m not sure what I would have done without them. 

3) Constructive Criticism

The IGF judges of 2015 did not really like Pinstripe. I'm glad they told me — so much in the game was severely flawed. From flat characters to pointless, drab puzzles, within a day I learned through email feedback that Pinstripe was not ready for launch. Not at all. You know the feeling: you think you’re done with your game, and then suddenly realize you probably have another year or two before launch. It’s a sinking feeling like none other. It’s the worst. But I bit the bullet, printed out the comments, and slapped them on my office wall. I read them pretty much every day, and would pace my office explaining their solutions to George (my pup). I’m proud to say the game is 100x better because of this feedback.

4) Made With Unity mini documentary

In late 2015, this random film guy from Los Angeles emailed me one day and wrote “Hey do you want to be in a documentary about Unity?” That night I went crazy and drove to my parent’s house and told them “Your son is going to be in a documentary.” I felt like the coolest kid in South Carolina. This random guy was Ben Proudfoot, a super accomplished film producer who was hired by Unity to document various Unity projects. What I mean is, make indie devs look really, really cool. Ben and his crew flew to my house in the suburbs and we shot for a couple of days. I think the coolest moment was when the crew had millions of dollars worth of film equipment sprawled throughout my house, and they just acted like it was no big deal while I stood staring with my mouth open. When it was all said and done, it was awesome to see the final product plastered on the screens at the Game Awards, and ever since then, Pinstripe has had generally good press coverage, and my confidence level was boosted enough to keep going. Oh, and to my next point: Unity let me use the documentary to help build my Kickstarter campaign a couple months later.

[embedded content]

5) Kick-freaking-starter.

I love it! Pinstripe would have never been finished without it's Kickstarter campaign. It’s kind of odd to think about, but last year, when the Kickstarter finished I thought to myself, “100K. Do I really need 100K to finish this thing? I’m basically done with the game.” I was certainly wrong. In the game industry, and especially in the indie game field, it’s so easy to underestimate the amount of work and money involved in getting a project off the ground. That said, regardless of what I thought, it sure felt good leaving my desk job for good to pursue my dream career. It felt so good.

Here’s how it went down: I’m eating my lunch in private in the dark basement at the marketing agency I worked for for three-years (I was pretty depressed during these years), and I hit the launch button on Kickstarter. Within the hour, I think about 6 grand was raised. It was at that point that I knew I was out of there for good, and onward to starting my own full-time game studio. Eventually over 100K was raised, and it was a euphoria I wish I could experience again. I’m so grateful to my backers on Kickstarter, because I know without a shadow of a doubt I would have never released Pinstripe without them.

SPECIAL BONUS THING-THAT-WENT-RIGHT: My Wife

I don’t cry very often. But last night, I was listening to Such Great Heights by The Postal Service (my wife and I used to listen to this when we first met before even Coma was released in 2010), and I began to struggle to hold back tears. I didn’t want my wife to see me, so I ran outside under the night sky and began to weep. I feel stupid saying it, but knowing why I was crying doesn’t make me feel so bad: Kelsey stuck with me through the ups and downs of making Pinstripe, and I would have cracked and quit if she didn't believe in me. She eventually came outside and we just talked about how crazy the journey has been. Making games is mentally, emotionally, and physically exhausting. For most indie game devs, they are likely working day jobs and pursuing their dream of making games under gloomy lamp-light in cheap apartments. This often interferes with basically everything involved in a normal life: friends, family, partying, recreational stuff, etc. College for me consisted of thinking about Pinstripe in class and working on Pinstripe in my apartment or the library at night. Through it all, I had a dedicated cheer-leader shouting me to the finish line.

1) Media Coverage

I’m assuming I don’t have to go into the importance of getting noticed. I struggled to get coverage during the last two years of the development of Pinstripe, and launch day was no different. A  TIME article gave the game a 5/5 on the day it came out, but a good chunk of reviews for Pinstripe came a bit later than I expected. I can't quite say with confidence this effected the game's launch in any way, but it certainly concerned me. Everyone involved in the launch strategy hit the ground running months before launch, sending a bunch of Steam keys and trying to engage the Kickstarter community, but we honestly got hit with some bad luck. Outlast 2, Little Nightmares, and the Mario Kart 8 Deluxe all launched around that week. We tried so hard to find the perfect window, and that’s the week we landed on. Pretty frustrating, but I think a long-term strategy for any game is likely more effective anyway. I’m still crossing my fingers for a healthy shelf-life for Pinstripe.

2) Project Management

I wasn’t the most scheduled or organized person during the first years of Pinstripe’s development. I recall scrapping full scenes from the game without a thought, and rebuilding game-play mechanics from scratch because they were broken, rushed, and boring. I don’t recall creating a single story-board, I never wrote out the plot, and began coding puzzles before researching how to do it effectively. It’s a lot of fun saying “Pinstripe took 5 years” but what I haven’t really said is that most of that was wasteful, ignorant development. Fortunately, I feel I made it out of the messy production unscathed, because Pinstripe is generally bug free, healthy and well-received on the Steam store. But again, it took five years. Five years is too long, and it will likely take a fifth of that for my next game thanks to something called planning. I think the first concept I drew was two years in:

3) Money 

I’m still living on a reasonably thin salary, but I’m fortunate that the salary is generated by game-development. For three years, the money I was making was from a full time gig as a designer, so most of my time was not making Pinstripe. When I was making Pinstripe, I was tired and fighting to find motivation. What if you spent three year working out and you didn’t gain a single pound of muscle? Sometimes it felt like that. On top of that, I didn’t have a ton of great equipment, and illustrated Pinstripe’s scenes on a laptop screen. I can’t remember when this happened, but I recall a photo of me on my laptop working on Pinstripe posted by Unity, and someone mentioned the shot being faked because nobody makes games on a laptop. I think at that point I decided it was time to get a bigger monitor. Overall, having a tight budget basically limits your game's quality across the board. QA, localization, ratings, high quality graphics, great music, marketing, and a somewhat lengthy game all cost a great deal of money. I’m grateful some money eventually came when it did, because I desperately needed it.

4) Unity Script

Don’t use UnityScript to make your Unity game. Every time you save a UnityScript file, it takes an unholy amount of time to compile into Unity as opposed to a C# file, and the support for it is not great. The folder structure for Pinstripe is ridiculous and bizarre because of UnityScript. I have a folder called “Zippy Scripts”.

Yes, it’s called “Zippy Scripts". 

I needed a folder labeled with a Z so that it was at the bottom of my project hierarchy (for sanity), and I also needed a folder that was compiled fast and last. The explanation here is likely convoluted, but by year four I had so many UnityScript classes that the compile time was taking F-O-R-E-V-E-R. I ended up moving all my scripts into a folder that didn’t compile every time I hit “save”. The problem here was in order to reduce compile times I had to move my UnityScripts next to C# scripts in relation to their compilation, meaning any C# classes could not access the UnityScripts. At this point, I was desperate, and created “translation” classes. Ones that were in a folder that allowed for variables to be passed between classes written in different languages. I know, this makes no sense. But it worked. Metaphor: it's as if I placed the final card onto a house of cards and for some reason, the card itself stood up straight and didn’t fall over. At this point, I just said “I don’t know why it works but it works” and left it. So now the compile times are faster, but if I could do it again I’d use C#. Hands down. It’s just faster.

5) Advice

I’m not going to go into specifics, but plenty of advice was thrown from all directions about Pinstripe over the course of it's 5-year development. Some of this advice was taken because of fear, other times because it came from genuine friendships, and other times I took it because it was from “professionals”. I don’t quite know what the rule of thumb here is, but I’m formulating something. I think, for me, you should compare people’s advice with your gut feeling built from experience. In my case, I sometimes trusted people who had lots of “experience”, when in reality, I potentially had more. This sounds petty and I’m sorry if it does, but it’s certainly important for indies who lack confidence to understand.

I feel a sense of relief, a sadness, and a sudden spirit of adventure — I have no idea what lies ahead, but I have a feeling it’s going to be really fun. I can’t say right now what that whole experience was about. Lately, I've been wondering if it was just some silly teenage dream that manifested into an obsession. Who knows. Time will tell. As for future projects, I have this game idea in my head, and I can’t wait to get it out. I’m excited to start and tell no-one. The secret feeling of starting a project and it being only yours is very special. I guess that was really the fuel for Pinstripe: a feeling of making something awesome, with 100% of it coming straight from my heart, and no-one could tell me no.

[theonyxpath]

A comment in the comments section, of all things, basically asked why every time they look here lately there’s dogs all over the place. The art samples have dogs in them, the Kickstarter news is about the dog card game. Dogs, dogs, dogs!

Part of that is, of course, coincidence or a coming together of multiple projects for a line with three Kickstarters and a bunch of projects which came out of those KS Stretch Goals. And it helps that Eddy Webb is the kind of developer who pushes to get projects finished as close to estimate, and sometimes earlier, as possible.

So, woof, woof, woof go the dogs.

In a week or so, maybe it’ll seem like only WoD books are mentioned, or CofD, or Exalted. And so on. It’s all pretty much coincidence as to how books of a particular setting come out together, as we have projects from all of our “worlds” going at all times at different stages of creation, and a lot depends on which projects you’re waiting for.

This also applies to Kickstarter news when you don’t back Kickstarters, or Onyx Pathcast news when you don’t listen to podcasts, or convention info and our plans for FangCon 2019 when you can’t get to the convention.

So for this blog, I try to mix the things I mention and art I put up to give a bit of a taste of as many game worlds and activities we’re doing as I can so that I’m touching on something, I hope, that is relevant to YOU. But, if coincidence gives me mostly Exalted stuff that week, I’m mostly going to be relaying that, with a mix of other things if I have other things on my radar to share.

No Marketing department, no professional writer here – just your dear old Uncle Rich and whatever we’ve discussed during the Monday Meeting.

(Which reminds me, not only is last week’s Onyx Pathcast a great inside look at the way we conceive, create, and publish our projects, but this Friday yours truly is grilled by Dixie and Matthew for a very special episode. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry. You’ll learn secrets of the early days of White Wolf right into Onyx Path.)

    Wraith 20th Handbook of the Recently Deceased art by Michael Gaydos

  Which means, it’s time for some quick topic hits:

In a similar conversation to the one above, there was a poster that remarked how the first mention of Pugmire made him wonder just what Onyx Path was turning into. Then, he dug into the background of Pugmire and realized there was a lot more to it than a funny animal TTRPG.

My response must be that we aren’t turning into anything different than we’ve always been on track to be: a publisher who creates amazing and engaging worlds for folks to explore. And that the poster was dead-on right to identify that one of the threads that combine all of our projects is that there are depths built into our worlds that reward players who look into them.

Some of that is a heritage from old White Wolf we’ve been fortunate to bring to the fore, and use as models for what works and what doesn’t, and part of the depth is built in by our amazing creative teams who know they can do that kind of game and world building with us.

    Monarchies of Mau art by Pat McEvoy

    We’ve been having other great conversations on our Onyx Path Publishing Discussion Group on Facebook, which you might be able to get to through this link: https://www.facebook.com/groups/419273928504341/ I haven’t had a chance to join in to the discussions yet, but hope to very soon.

    Boggans art by Brian LeBlanc

    I haven’t been able to jump in because these last couple of months have been a combination of working up and with contracts for new projects and licenses, putting in pitches for projects, and getting Changing 20th, Prince’s Gambit, and soon, V20 Beckett’s Jyhad Diary Kickstarter rewards out to backers. It’s a bit of an endurance challenge, so I’m lucky to have maxed out Fortitude.

Plus, I’m trying to keep up the communication with backers for the Scarred Lands Kickstarter that the late Stewart Wieck had started for our two companies, while representatives for his company, Nocturnal Media, work to get the KS fulfilled and shipped. So, four KSs shipping around a month from each other.

The flip-side is…we’re getting out four KSs’ rewards to our backers!

    Nerma Fetch Quest Stretch Goal card.

    Finally, I think I might have mentioned this before, but one of my working methods when creating a new setting, or establishing an overall art “look” for a project, is to take what Allen Moore calls a “high altitude pass” and gather all sorts of reference material and sift through it without trying to force any sort of viewpoint over it.

For visuals, this is very often seeing what registers as “right”. What feels like the sort of feeling we want the setting to give players. Although we can pull huge amounts of story from an illustration (picture=1K words), very often a far more lasting impression comes from the viewer’s emotional reaction. I’ve been doing this pass for Aberrant for about 3 months now, and we’re getting to the decision point on creating an artist list, and actually further back for when I did the initial designs for all four Trinity Continuum main books.

Right now though, I’m reading through a collection of 1950’s EC Weird Science comics in preparation for establishing the art for They Came From Beneath the Sea!. Developer Matthew Dawkins and I already have a strong idea overall based on the films of the time and some TV, but in a lot of ways looking at illustration when thinking about kinds of illustrations is actually more directly what I need.

Not going to go too far into the history of EC right now, although I could and it is a fascinating tale of the rise and fall of a publisher, but suffice to say that their comics were a gigantic influence on both the comics that came after, and on the generation of creators who wrote science fiction in all media (including TTRPGs) for decades to come.

So I get to read comics collections as part of my job. It is tough. But it’s what ya gotta do in order to explore:

Many Worlds, One Path!

    BLURBS!

KICKSTARTER:

Fetch Quest, the adventure card game set in the Realms of Pugmire went live last Tuesday, May 22 and funded in under a day, and now we’re over 250% funded and have added a group of six cats from the Monarchies of Mau to the game as alternative adventurers via Stretch Goals!

This is definitely a game that needs to be spread by word of mouth, so please let your friends and family know about this game of good dogs (and cats!) out to fetch what Man has left behind!

      ELECTRONIC GAMING:

As we find ways to enable our community to more easily play our games, the Onyx Dice Rolling App is now live! Our dev team has been doing updates since we launched based on the excellent use-case comments by our community, and this thing is both rolling and rocking!

Here are the links for the Apple and Android versions:

http://theappstore.site/app/1296692067/onyx-dice

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.onyxpathpublishing.onyxdice&hl=en

Three different screenshots, above.

    ON AMAZON AND BARNES & NOBLE:

You can now read our fiction from the comfort and convenience of your Kindle (from Amazon) and Nook (from Barnes & Noble).

If you enjoy these or any other of our books, please help us by writing reviews on the site of the sales venue you bought it from. Reviews really, really help us with getting folks interested in our amazing fiction!

Our selection includes these fiction books:

Vampire: The Masquerade: The Endless Ages Anthology (Kindle, Nook)

Werewolf: The Apocalypse: Rites of Renown: When Will You Rage II (Kindle, Nook)

Mage: The Ascension: Truth Beyond Paradox (Kindle, Nook)

Chronicles of Darkness: The God-Machine Chronicle Anthology (Kindle, Nook)

Mummy: The Curse: Curse of the Blue Nile (Kindle, Nook)

Beast: The Primordial: The Primordial Feast Anthology (Kindle, Nook)

Vampire: The Masquerade: Of Predators and Prey: The Hunters Hunted II Anthology (Kindle, Nook)

Werewolf: The Apocalypse: The Poison Tree (Kindle, Nook)

Werewolf: The Apocalypse: Songs of the Sun and Moon: Tales of the Changing Breeds (Kindle, Nook)

Vampire: The Requiem: The Strix Chronicle Anthology (Kindle, Nook)

Werewolf: The Forsaken: The Idigam Chronicle Anthology (Kindle, Nook)

Mage: The Awakening: The Fallen World Chronicle Anthology (Kindle, Nook)

Vampire: The Masquerade: The Beast Within Anthology (Kindle, Nook)

Werewolf: The Apocalypse: W20 Cookbook (Kindle, Nook)

Exalted: Tales from the Age of Sorrows (Kindle, Nook)

Chronicles of Darkness: Tales of the Dark Eras (Kindle, Nook)

Promethean: The Created: The Firestorm Chronicle Anthology (Kindle, Nook)

Demon: The Descent: Demon: Interface (Kindle, Nook)

Scarred Lands: Death in the Walled Warren (Kindle, Nook)

V20 Dark Ages: Cainite Conspiracies (Kindle, Nook)

Chronicles of Darkness: Strangeness in the Proportion (Kindle, Nook)

Vampire: The Requiem: Silent Knife (Kindle, Nook)

Mummy: The Curse: Dawn of Heresies (Kindle, Nook)

      OUR SALES PARTNERS:

We’re working with Studio2 to get Pugmire out into stores, as well as to individuals through their online store. You can pick up the traditionally printed main book, the Screen, and the official Pugmire dice through our friends there!

https://studio2publishing.com/search?q=pugmire

    Looking for our Deluxe or Prestige Edition books? Try this link! http://www.indiepressrevolution.com/xcart/Onyx-Path-Publishing/

Here’s the link to the press release we put out about how Onyx Path is now selling through Indie Press Revolution: http://theonyxpath.com/press-release-onyx-path-limited-editions-now-available-through-indie-press-revolution/

And you can now order Pugmire: the book, the screen, and the dice! http://www.indiepressrevolution.com/xcart/manufacturers.php?manufacturerid=296

      DRIVETHRURPG.COM:

  This week, we’ll be releasing a cornucopia of merchandise and other items on Wednesday!

  This is our monthly release week for our ongoing series of PDF releases for Exalted 3rd Edition, and we have the Barrow Hound and Devilstone for Hundred Devil’s Night Parade www.drivethrurpg.com/product/242687, and Iron Siaka for Adversaries of the Righteous http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/242686 on DTRPG.com!

      CONVENTIONS!

Prep is also underway for Gen Con 2018 in the first week of August, which takes place in Indianapolis. In addition to our booth presence, be sure to check out the games and panels in the Gen Con Event Schedule.

From Fast Eddy Webb, we have these:

Eddy will be speaking at Broadleaf Writers Conference (September 22-23) in Decatur, GA. He’ll be there to talk about writing for interactive fiction, and hanging out with other writers who have far more illustrious careers. http://broadleafwriters.com/3rd-annual-broadleaf-writers-conference/3rd-annual-broadleaf-writers-conference-speakers/

Eddy will also be a featured guest at Save Against Fear (October 12-14) in Harrisburg, PA. He’ll be running some Pugmire games, be available for autographs, and will sometimes accept free drinks. http://www.thebodhanagroup.org/about-the-convention

If you are going and want to meet up, let us know!

    And now, the new project status updates!

DEVELOPMENT STATUS FROM FAST EDDY WEBB (projects in bold have changed status since last week):

First Draft (The first phase of a project that is about the work being done by writers, not dev prep)

M20 Book of the Fallen (Mage: the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition)

C20 Novel (Jackie Cassada) (Changeling: the Dreaming 20th Anniversary Edition)

M20 The Technocracy Reloaded (Mage: the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition)

M20 Victorian Mage (Mage: the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition)

CofD Dark Eras 2 (Chronicles of Darkness)

Aeon Aexpansion (Trinity Continuum: Aeon)

Trinity Continuum: Aberrant core (Trinity Continuum: Aberrant)

Lunars: Fangs at the Gate (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Tales of Excellent Cats (Monarchies of Mau)

Dog and Cat Ready Made Characters (Monarchies of Mau)

Adventures for Curious Cats (Monarchies of Mau)

Scion Companion: Mysteries of the World (Scion 2nd Edition)

  Redlines

Deviant: The Renegades (Deviant: The Renegades)

Spilled Blood (Vampire: The Requiem 2nd Edition)

Night Horrors: Shunned by the Moon (Werewolf: The Forsaken 2nd Edition)

In Media Res (Trinity Continuum: Core)

Wr20 Book of Oblivion (Wraith: The Oblivion 20th Anniversary Edition)

C20 Players’ Guide (Changeling: the Dreaming 20th Anniversary Edition)

  Second Draft

WoD Ghost Hunters (World of Darkness)

Tales of Good Dogs – Pugmire Fiction Anthology (Pugmire)

CofD Contagion Chronicle (Chronicles of Darkness)

  Development

Signs of Sorcery (Mage: the Awakening Second Edition)

Hunter: the Vigil 2e core (Hunter: the Vigil 2nd Edition)

Fetch Quest (Pugmire)

They Came From Beneath the Sea! Rulebook (TCFBtS!)

Dystopia Rising: Evolution (Dystopia Rising: Evolution)

  WW Manuscript Approval:

Guide to the Night (Vampire: The Requiem 2nd Edition)

  Editing:

Night Horrors: The Tormented (Promethean: The Created 2nd Edition)

  Post-Editing Development:

Scion: Hero (Scion 2nd Edition)

Trinity Continuum Core Rulebook (The Trinity Continuum)

Trinity Continuum: Aeon Rulebook (The Trinity Continuum)

Ex Novel 2 (Aaron Rosenberg) (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Exalted 3rd Novel by Matt Forbeck (Exalted 3rd Edition)

GtS Geist 2e core (Geist: the Sin-Eaters Second Edition)

M20 Gods and Monsters (Mage: the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition)

  Indexing:

Wraith 20

Cavaliers of Mars

    ART DIRECTION FROM MIRTHFUL MIKE:

In Art Direction

Ex3 Monthly Stuff

Scion Hero – Last art notes and contracts sent.

Trinity Continuum 

Geist 2e

The Realm

M20 Gods and Monsters

Ex3 Dragon Blooded – Wave 2 art in progress

Promethean Night Horrors: The Tormented – Sending out Artnotes and Contracts.

  Marketing Stuff

Storyteller System Brochure

Posters and Displays

Gen Con Cards

  In Layout

Wraith 20 Screen – I’ll pull this together this week.

Fetch Quest – Putting together the Mau Pioneer card previews.

EX3 Dragon Blooded – Firming up layout and tweaking some backgrounds.

  Proofing

Scion Origin – PDF almost ready for in-Onyx review.

Changeling: the Lost 2 – Meghan has the proof.

  At Press

V20 Beckett’s Jyhad Diary & Beckett Screen & V20 Dice – At fulfillment shipper, prepping for KS ship-out. Shipping addresses to be locked down on Wednesday.

Scarred Land PGs & Wise and the Wicked PF & 5e – Shipping from fulfillment shipper. PDF and PoD physical book versions on sale at DTRPG.

Prince’s Gambit – Shipping from fulfillment shipper.

Scion Dice – At fulfillment shipper.

Cavaliers of Mars – Errata input on Backer PDF, now to Indexing.

Boggans ��� PoD files uploading.

Monarchies of Mau – Errata gathering on Backer PDF.

Wr20 Guide for Newly Departed – Backer PDF should go out to backers this week.

  TODAY’S REASON TO CELEBRATE: In 1783 the Montgolfier brothers publicly demonstrate their montgolfière (hot air balloon). A year later in 1784, Élisabeth Thible becomes the first woman to fly in an untethered hot air balloon. Her flight covers four kilometres in 45 minutes, and reached 1,500 metres altitude (estimated). In the future, people of all genders are able to fly in balloons and zeppelins to work and to visit friends, at least if any pulp setting ever can be believed!

[theonyxpath]

So, we’re between Kickstarters now that the V5 Cults of the Blood Gods KS is over. And what a fantastic run that was! Over 500% funded and over 2500 backers that produced three additional V5 projects as Stretch Goals!

 Trail of Bone and Ashes – a collection of playable stories.

 Forbidden Faiths – expanded information and additional rules for cults.

 Faithful Undead – new SPCs and their cultish coteries, and LORESHEETS!

We were also able to fund TWO pay bonuses for the writers, whose text that we provided to backers really went a long way in ratcheting up everyone’s excitement. Which we feel really great about, as we do about all the fantastic commentary from backers.

All in all, it was just a delightful KS experience – a great way to start the new year.

Which brings us to the next Kickstarter we’re setting up right now, for Hunter: The Vigil 2nd Edition. (That’s the teaser graphic for the game up above.) After we set it up, we still need to get WW/Paradox‘s OK on the info presented, so we can’t really give a date yet.

If it isn’t obvious, this is a game set in the Chronicles of Darkness, and uses the CofD 2e rules set. (Not the Storypath System, though, which is Onyx Path‘s house system and not one we can freely mix in to WW-owned game lines).

Distant Worlds art by Seth Rutledge

One thing that came out of discussions during the Cults KS, and from meetings at MidWinter, is that as Onyx Path has evolved our business model during these past eight years, it’s not obvious why we do things as we do them.

A lot of stores that carry RPGs still aren’t aware that we are putting books into stores, and other than you fabulous folks who read this blog every week (You do read this blog every week, right? You should, most doctors I know recommend it), there are people out there in our community that also aren’t sure where and how to get our books.

KICKSTARTER

Let’s start with Kickstarter and how and why we use a crowd-funding platform. We use it primarily at this point to create a up-front buzz, and garner up-front funds, so that we can print more books than backers have pledged for, and then put those books into stores. KS helps us with getting a rough idea of the kind of interest there is out there for a project, and we can use that info in estimating (guessing) the number of books we need available for stores.

We’re certainly still learning how to estimate. Pugmire and Monarchies of Mau both went back second print runs as we ran out of copies for retailers. Not immediately, and it’s a great problem to have, but even so. We’re keeping a close eye on V5 Chicago By Night, because that has the potential to shift a lot of our thinking on these numbers for stores. Maybe not. We’ll see.

During a Kickstarter campaign, we like to use Stretch Goals to create added “support products” for the game. Usually smaller books that add to the main idea of the KS’d project. Sometimes different sort of projects, like anthologies, or working with other companies so they can create these extra projects. That way, folks don’t just KS a single book, they help us with launching a bunch of connected projects.

We advertise all over, I talk about each KS here in the weeks – usually just over four – that it runs, and we have demo and designer streams on ours and others’ Twitch channels leading up to and during the KS. Even so, some folks miss the KS, which brings us to:

BACKERKIT

Backerkit is one of a bunch of venues that sprang up to help KS creators after the Kickstarter campaign was over. I like BK and what services they offer, but other KS creators use other ones. The advantage to any of them, though, is that they provide us with more tools to get backer rewards out, and help backers and those who missed the KS, upgrade or even get the KS’d project.

Since we put up each KS’d project’s BackerKit page about a month after the KS is over, and until the KS shipping process starts at least six months later you can go there and up your pledge or “pre-order” the project, BK serves as an easy and accessible ramp towards our release. But before the release to backers, we have another stage to the project:

BACKER PDF

Once all the layout is done; text is laid into the format and illustrations and design elements are laid in, and any approvals are OK’d, then we send out links to backers so they can download the Backer PDF.

Now, this is not the final PDF. We still want our backer community involved, so we also provide a link to a sheet where interested backers can post any errata that they find. This is an important fine-tuning point in the process, so we truly appreciate everyone who takes the time to review and send us notes about the PDF.

It’s up to the dev(s) whether or not they deem any notes as things that need to be corrected, but obvious errors are usually obviously errors once someone points them out, so errata feedback has proven to improve our projects over and over again.

We use these corrected PDF files to create Final PDFs, that backers can update in their DTRPG Library, and to create the PoD printing and traditional printing files. If a book of our has been KS’d to get into stores, then it is traditionally printed and bound. That’s really the point of most of our KSs at this point: get them traditionally printed on big turn-y printing presses and bindery machines.

Why? Because traditional printing prints a “print run”, hundreds or thousands of books are printed and bound in one “run”. This is far more cost effective than Print On Demand (PoD), which prints a book and binds it after you order it. Then prints another one and binds that for the next order.

Then, once the books are done being made, they move into:

SHIPPING BACKER REWARDS

This is one of the toughest and most expensive phases of doing a Kickstarter, and one I can and have gone into great detail on in terms of the challenges KS shipping presents, but for the purposes of this post, it’s a stage that leads to:

GETTING BOOKS INTO RETAIL STORES

This is really the newest stage for us, and we continue to fine-tune our best practices. Simply put, our sales partners solicit orders from distributors and stores and then ship our books out to them. This happens after the KS Backer Reward shipments have been sent, but we don’t wait for every single shipping problem, like bad addresses or damaged shipments, to get resolved.

So, it’s usually the month after KS Backer Rewards ship. At the same time, we put the Final PDF and the PoD versions of the project live on DTRPG, for all those people in our community that can’t get to stores or prefer PDFs. And many stores do have online ordering of the traditionally printed versions, too.

This means that you can go to your Friendly Local Game Store, look for books we have KS’d on the shelves, and either pick them up there or ask your Retailer to order them for you. Please do, because they may not realize we have started to get projects into stores again.

Here’s that process in a line: KS => BackerKit => Backer PDFs errata => final files => Backer Rewards => On Sale in stores and PDF/PoDs at DTRPG.

Of course, we still create projects that we don’t KS and we don’t put into stores, so their process would be more this: Advance PDF on DTRPG => errata => final PDF and PoD at DTRPG.

Hope that all of the above helps folks find our projects out there in the gaming wilderness!

Dark Eras 2 art by Alex Sheikman

A FEW OTHER THINGS:

Still related to Kickstarters, though, we’re not done with them yet. We recently sent out the Backer PDFs for both Dark Eras 2 for Chronicles of Darkness, and They Came From Beneath the Sea! and reaction has been fantastic. Matthew, in particular, has been touched in his cold, dead, heart by the warm reception to the TCFBtS! Backer PDF as it has been his baby since he first pitched the idea to me several years ago.

In fact, we even saw Backers wearing They Came From Beneath the Sea! shirts at MidWinter just over a week ago.

At MidWinter, in case you missed it, we announced several new games I mentioned last week as well, including They Came From Beyond the Grave!, the next in the They Came From… series. This game will focus on the sort of 60s – 70s horror typified by Hammer Horror films, Roger Corman films, and the Dark Shadows TV show.

In fact, there is even a built-in, two time period, part of the game where you can also play in that pseudo Victorian or Edwardian era that those sorts of media loved to play around with. Flashbacks to an earlier life? Prologue for the 70s? Time travel? All possible with this.

We also announced Trinity Continuum: Assassins, a parallel setting for the Trinity Continuum core rulebook setting. This is really a great way to start to emphasize the strength of the Continuum concept in the Trinity Continuum. Sort of a dark mirror universe that can be separate from your core setting, or as connected as you want it to be. Stylish, deadly, and often amoral except for one thing – but expert killers nonetheless.

There was also an announcement for TC: Adventure!, which is the retooling of the original Pulp-genre game, although set about 10 years later in the 1930s. Most of my favorite pulp magazine adventures were set in that decade and into the 40s, so it made sense to me, plus, now players can find themselves with real opportunities to foil Nazis!

Although it was kind of lost amongst all the other hoopla, we are thrilled to be able to let Changeling: The Lost 2e fans know that we are also working on The Hedge for that gameline. As you might imagine, this book features an exploration of that most treacherous and terrifying barrier between our world and, well, a lot of really horrifying and/or beautiful things.

Finally, here’s a heads-up that the New Year brought a change and we have ended our Exalted 3rd monthly PDF releases so that we can create the remaining entries for both Hundred Devils Night Parade and Adversaries of the Righteous and get both those books finished and out on DTRPG in PDF and PoD versions.

Yugman’s Guide art by Bryan Syme

But fear not, true believer! We won’t let your craving for monthly PDF releases go unsatisfied! Instead we will be presenting sections of Yugman’s Guide to Ghelspad for Scarred Lands every other month, alternating with chapters of Vigil Watch. Two different ways to learn about the Scarred Lands setting.

So there you go! Hoping the info here was helpful as you travel with us on our Onyx Path. A sometimes confusing path as we grow, but it’s still:

Many Worlds, One Path!

BLURBS!

Kickstarter!

Next on Kickstarter, we are looking at Hunter: The Vigil 2nd Edition for Chronicles of Darkness!

Onyx Path Media!

This Friday’s Onyx Pathcast is a deep dive into the riotous They Came From Beneath the Sea!! Check it out direct on Podbean, or your favorite podcast venue! https://onyxpathcast.podbean.com/

A bumper schedule on Twitch this week with Vampire, Chronicles of Darkness, Scion, Pugmire, Aberrant, Scarred Lands, Changeling: The Lost, Hunter: The Vigil, Changeling: The Dreaming, Mage: The Awakening, and even more Scarred Lands and Vampire besides!

As ever, subscribe to our channel over on twitch.tv/theonyxpath

Our YouTube channel continues filling up with content, including the Onyx Path News! Do stay subscribed to youtube.com/user/theonyxpath to catch the news when it comes out live!

And here’s Occultists Anonymous‘ latest offerings:

Episode 74: A Lonely Road The cabal performs some investigative magics in The Town, preparing to leave out on the Golden Road. The Golden Road provides dangers quickly enough… https://youtu.be/ujWouzwjenk

Episode 75: Trials & Air Miles The Rookery Cabal continues down the Golden Road after confronting the Minotaur. Further barriers stand before them that challenge more than just their bodies. https://youtu.be/qSd_gymS8FA

The Primogen launched a video handling V5 Cults of the Blood Gods right here: https://youtu.be/2JMV_VJrjwQ Do give him a subscribe!

Red Moon Roleplaying continue their actual play of Changeling: The Lost, V5 Cults of the Blood Gods, and close their chronicle of V5 Chicago by Night on their YouTube channel, Spotify, their website redmoonroleplaying.com and everywhere else good podcasts might be found!

Please check any of these out and let us know if you find or produce any actual plays of our games!

Electronic Gaming!

As we find ways to enable our community to more easily play our games, the Onyx Dice Rolling App is live! Our dev team has been doing updates since we launched based on the excellent use-case comments by our community, and this thing is awesome! (Seriously, you need to roll 100 dice for Exalted? This app has you covered.)

On Amazon and Barnes & Noble!

You can now read our fiction from the comfort and convenience of your Kindle (from Amazon) and Nook (from Barnes & Noble).

If you enjoy these or any other of our books, please help us by writing reviews on the site of the sales venue from which you bought it. Reviews really, really help us get folks interested in our amazing fiction!

Our selection includes these latest fiction books:

Our Sales Partners!

We’re working with Studio2 to get Pugmire and Monarchies of Mau out into stores, as well as to individuals through their online store. You can pick up the traditionally printed main book, the screen, and the official Pugmire dice through our friends there! https://studio2publishing.com/search?q=pugmire

We’ve added Prince’s Gambit to our Studio2 catalog: https://studio2publishing.com/products/prince-s-gambit-card-game

Now, we’ve added Changeling: The Lost 2nd Edition products to Studio2‘s store! See them here: https://studio2publishing.com/collections/all-products/changeling-the-lost

Scarred Lands (Pathfinder) books are also on sale at Studio2, and they have the 5e version, supplements, and dice as well!: https://studio2publishing.com/collections/scarred-lands

Scion 2e books and other products are available now at Studio2: https://studio2publishing.com/blogs/new-releases/scion-second-edition-book-one-origin-now-available-at-your-local-retailer-or-online

Looking for our Deluxe or Prestige Edition books? Try this link! http://www.indiepressrevolution.com/xcart/Onyx-Path-Publishing/

And you can order Pugmire, Monarchies of Mau, Cavaliers of Mars, and Changeling: The Lost 2e at the same link! And NOW Scion Origin and Scion Hero AND Trinity Continuum Core and Trinity Continuum: Aeon are available to order!

As always, you can find Onyx Path’s titles at DriveThruRPG.com!

On Sale This Week!

This Wednesday, we will be releasing Trinity Continuum: Aeon symbols – all the Orders, Aeon, and the game logo – on shirts and other merchandise on our RedBubble store!

Conventions!

More conventions will be listed for 2020 in the weeks to come-

And now, the new project status updates!

DEVELOPMENT STATUS FROM EDDY WEBB (projects in bold have changed status since last week):

First Draft (The first phase of a project that is about the work being done by writers, not dev prep)

Exalted Essay Collection (Exalted)

N!ternational Wrestling Entertainment (Trinity Continuum: Aberrant)

Contagion Chronicle Ready-Made Characters (Chronicles of Darkness)

Trinity Continuum: Adventure! core (Trinity Continuum: Adventure!)

Duke Rollo fiction (Trinity Continuum: Aberrant)

TC: Aberrant Jumpstart (Trinity Continuum: Aberrant)

RUST (Working Title) (Scarred Lands)

Under Alien Suns (Trinity Continuum: Aeon)

Mission Statements (Trinity Continuum: Aeon)

Adversaries of the Righteous (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Hundred Devil’s Night Parade (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Novas Worldwide (Trinity Continuum: Aberrant)

Redlines

Kith and Kin (Changeling: The Lost 2e)

Dragon-Blooded Novella #2 (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Many-Faced Strangers – Lunars Companion (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Second Draft

M20 Victorian Mage (Mage: the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition)

Exigents (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Crucible of Legends (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Development

Heirs to the Shogunate (Exalted 3rd Edition)

TC: Aberrant Reference Screen (Trinity Continuum: Aberrant)

Monsters of the Deep (They Came From Beneath the Sea!)

Scion: Demigod (Scion 2nd Edition)

Tales of Aquatic Terror (They Came From Beneath the Sea!)

Across the Eight Directions (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Contagion Chronicle: Global Outbreaks (Chronicles of Darkness)

Contagion Chronicle Jumpstart (Chronicles of Darkness)

Manuscript Approval

Scion: Dragon (Scion 2nd Edition)

Masks of the Mythos (Scion 2nd Edition)

Trinity Continuum Jumpstart (Trinity Continuum Core)

Post-Approval Development

Scion LARP Rules (Scion)

Mummy: The Curse 2nd Edition core rulebook (Mummy: The Curse 2nd Edition)

Titanomachy (Scion 2nd Edition)

One Foot in the Grave Jumpstart (Geist: The Sin-Eaters 2e)

Player’s Guide to the Contagion Chronicle (Chronicles of Darkness)

Editing

Lunars: Fangs at the Gate (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Geist 2e Fiction Anthology (Geist: The Sin-Eaters 2nd Edition)

Dragon-Blooded Novella #1 (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Legendlore core book (Legendlore)

Mythical Denizens (Creatures of the World Bestiary) (Scion 2nd Edition)

Pirates of Pugmire KS-Added Adventure (Realms of Pugmire)

Yugman’s Guide to Ghelspad (Scarred Lands)

Trinity Continuum: Aberrant core (Trinity Continuum: Aberrant)

Terra Firma (Trinity Continuum: Aeon)

Deviant: The Renegades (Deviant: The Renegades)

Lunars Novella (Rosenberg) (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Buried Bones: Creating in the Realms of Pugmire (Realms of Pugmire)

Post-Editing Development

TC: Aeon Ready-Made Characters (Trinity Continuum: Aeon)

Night Horrors: Nameless and Accursed (Mage: the Awakening Second Edition)

City of the Towered Tombs (Cavaliers of Mars)

W20 Shattered Dreams Gift Cards (Werewolf: The Apocalypse 20th)

TC: Aeon Jumpstart (Trinity Continuum: Aeon)

Vigil Watch (Scarred Lands)

Scion Companion: Mysteries of the World (Scion 2nd Edition)

Cults of the Blood Gods (Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition)

Wraith20 Fiction Anthology (Wraith: The Oblivion 20th Anniversary Edition)

Hunter: The Vigil 2e core (Hunter: The Vigil 2nd Edition)

Let the Streets Run Red (Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition)

M20 The Technocracy Reloaded (Mage: the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition)

WoD Ghost Hunters (World of Darkness)

Indexing

ART DIRECTION FROM MIKE CHANEY!

In Art Direction

Trinity Continuum: Aberrant

Hunter: The Vigil 2e – All KS art is in.

Ex3 Lunars – Art is in.

TCfBtS!: Heroic Land Dwellers – LeBlanc working on finals.

Night Horrors: Nameless and Accursed – Finals should be in end of month, lining up layout artist.

Cults of the Blood God (KS)

Mummy 2

City of the Towered Tombs – Had to recontract this, moving along now.

Let the Streets Run Red

CtL Oak Ash and Thorn – Contracted.

Deviant

Vigil Watch – Contracted.

Legendlore (KS) – Starting to gather art needs for KS.

Technocracy Reloaded (KS) – Artwork for KS in progress.

Scion Companion – Working on art notes for that with Meredith.

TC: Aeon Terra Firma – Getting that rolling out.

In Layout

Trinity Continuum Aeon: Distant Worlds – Travis doing the layout on this.

Pirates of Pugmire – With Aileen.

Yugman’s Guide to Ghelspad

Scion Mythical Denizens – Headed to proofing.

Contagion Chronicle – Getting files together for Josh.

Proofing

Dark Eras 2 – Backer PDF out to backers, errata coning in.

Trinity Continuum Aeon Jumpstart

They Came from Beneath the Sea! – Backer PDF out to backers, errata coming in.

VtR Spilled Blood – Josh finishing.

Chicago Folio – Inputting corrections.

Wraith20 Anthology – At WW.

At Press

V5: Chicago – Shipping to backers.

Geist 2e (Geist: The Sin-Eaters 2nd Edition) – Shipping to fulfillment shippers.

Geist 2e Screen – Being printed.

DR:E – Shipping to fulfillment shippers.

DRE Screen – Being printed.

DR:E Threat Guide – Helnau’s Guide to Wasteland Beasties

Memento Mori – Awaiting errata for input.

Today’s Reason to Celebrate!

Here in the US, today is the holiday celebrating Martin Luther King, Jr.’s birthday! History has underscored that MLK, Jr. was a human being, flawed like all humankind, but nevertheless he was a person trying to make the world better. And he paid the ultimate price so often paid by those who dream of such things.

[symbianosgames]

Thomas Brush is the sole creator of Pinstripe, a TKDESCRIPTION which launched on Steam April 24th. Thomas scored, illustrated, designed, and developed Pinstripe over the course of five years. Thomas is also the creator of award-winning Flash games Coma and Skinny.

I’m laying in bed writing this postmortem at 1:42 pm in the afternoon. The blinds are closed and my room is a gloomy gray. Ever since I launched Pinstripe, my game about Hell, I've experienced just about every stage of grief. And why has it been raining all week ever since launch?

Sorry to sound moody, but completing Pinstripe left me empty and completely out of energy, both physically and emotionally. This postmortem is coming at an overwhelmingly burned-out time in my very young career in the games industry. I would never, and could never, do this again — make a game completely alone over the course of 5 years. As I see the Steam sales slowly drip in, I’m still in a death spiral of strange highs and lows regarding the reason why I chose to make this game to begin with.

The start of Pinstripe felt different — a lot different:

[embedded content]

I was 5 years younger, passionately pounding away on my brand new MacBook purchased with cash earned from my glorious Flash game years. I was in the basement of Clemson University’s library in South Carolina, building a game that was going to shake the world. Thanks to the Indie Game documentary, I was positive I was going to be the next Edmund McMillen. I was going to be an indie legend.

That was the initial spark, and then it turned into an obsession for really no reason other than to make a great game. I wanted to make games full-time, and I would stop at nothing to do so. Three years later I would be married, a Clemson University graduate, and working in a cubicle as a graphic designer for tire and plumbing hardware companies. During lunch hours I would stuff my sandwich down fast, and eat pretzels while trying to finish my game. Little did I know it would take five full years (one of those years as full time work) to finish it. This was partly because I was so anxious to get work done, I wouldn't really think twice about what I was doing.

God help me. Looking back is tough.

My final burst of energy was spent on the Kickstarter campaign sent straight from Heaven. More on that later.

But in the midst of crossing the finish line, I'm instantly thinking: what was that all about?

1) Music

Pinstripe's soundtrack was the easiest thing to create, and I feel it is the most valuable element. It was super fun to write, didn't take too long, and fit the mood of the game. What more could I ask for?

[embedded content]

2) Unity

Unity was the first decision I made prior to development, and at the time it wasn’t a no-brainer like it is now (I'm willing to have an honest discussion if you disagree). Regardless of what software you choose, remember that revenue potential does not stop at Steam. Because of Unity, revenue can extend to pretty much any platform you’re willing to build for. Pinstripe has been through so much QA that fortunately a release on another platform is likely just a couple months away. Additionally, Unity was easy enough to learn, but I was also not-so-smart about how I was building things. Without getting into too much detail, most of the code and plugins used from two years of work was completely overhauled and rewritten. Some of the more recent plug-ins used in Pinstripe (Spine, InControl, Steamworks.NET) are super easy to use, and I’m not sure what I would have done without them. 

3) Constructive Criticism

The IGF judges of 2015 did not really like Pinstripe. I'm glad they told me — so much in the game was severely flawed. From flat characters to pointless, drab puzzles, within a day I learned through email feedback that Pinstripe was not ready for launch. Not at all. You know the feeling: you think you’re done with your game, and then suddenly realize you probably have another year or two before launch. It’s a sinking feeling like none other. It’s the worst. But I bit the bullet, printed out the comments, and slapped them on my office wall. I read them pretty much every day, and would pace my office explaining their solutions to George (my pup). I’m proud to say the game is 100x better because of this feedback.

4) Made With Unity mini documentary

In late 2015, this random film guy from Los Angeles emailed me one day and wrote “Hey do you want to be in a documentary about Unity?” That night I went crazy and drove to my parent’s house and told them “Your son is going to be in a documentary.” I felt like the coolest kid in South Carolina. This random guy was Ben Proudfoot, a super accomplished film producer who was hired by Unity to document various Unity projects. What I mean is, make indie devs look really, really cool. Ben and his crew flew to my house in the suburbs and we shot for a couple of days. I think the coolest moment was when the crew had millions of dollars worth of film equipment sprawled throughout my house, and they just acted like it was no big deal while I stood staring with my mouth open. When it was all said and done, it was awesome to see the final product plastered on the screens at the Game Awards, and ever since then, Pinstripe has had generally good press coverage, and my confidence level was boosted enough to keep going. Oh, and to my next point: Unity let me use the documentary to help build my Kickstarter campaign a couple months later.

[embedded content]

5) Kick-freaking-starter.

I love it! Pinstripe would have never been finished without it's Kickstarter campaign. It’s kind of odd to think about, but last year, when the Kickstarter finished I thought to myself, “100K. Do I really need 100K to finish this thing? I’m basically done with the game.” I was certainly wrong. In the game industry, and especially in the indie game field, it’s so easy to underestimate the amount of work and money involved in getting a project off the ground. That said, regardless of what I thought, it sure felt good leaving my desk job for good to pursue my dream career. It felt so good.

Here’s how it went down: I’m eating my lunch in private in the dark basement at the marketing agency I worked for for three-years (I was pretty depressed during these years), and I hit the launch button on Kickstarter. Within the hour, I think about 6 grand was raised. It was at that point that I knew I was out of there for good, and onward to starting my own full-time game studio. Eventually over 100K was raised, and it was a euphoria I wish I could experience again. I’m so grateful to my backers on Kickstarter, because I know without a shadow of a doubt I would have never released Pinstripe without them.

SPECIAL BONUS THING-THAT-WENT-RIGHT: My Wife

I don’t cry very often. But last night, I was listening to Such Great Heights by The Postal Service (my wife and I used to listen to this when we first met before even Coma was released in 2010), and I began to struggle to hold back tears. I didn’t want my wife to see me, so I ran outside under the night sky and began to weep. I feel stupid saying it, but knowing why I was crying doesn’t make me feel so bad: Kelsey stuck with me through the ups and downs of making Pinstripe, and I would have cracked and quit if she didn't believe in me. She eventually came outside and we just talked about how crazy the journey has been. Making games is mentally, emotionally, and physically exhausting. For most indie game devs, they are likely working day jobs and pursuing their dream of making games under gloomy lamp-light in cheap apartments. This often interferes with basically everything involved in a normal life: friends, family, partying, recreational stuff, etc. College for me consisted of thinking about Pinstripe in class and working on Pinstripe in my apartment or the library at night. Through it all, I had a dedicated cheer-leader shouting me to the finish line.

1) Media Coverage

I’m assuming I don’t have to go into the importance of getting noticed. I struggled to get coverage during the last two years of the development of Pinstripe, and launch day was no different. A  TIME article gave the game a 5/5 on the day it came out, but a good chunk of reviews for Pinstripe came a bit later than I expected. I can't quite say with confidence this effected the game's launch in any way, but it certainly concerned me. Everyone involved in the launch strategy hit the ground running months before launch, sending a bunch of Steam keys and trying to engage the Kickstarter community, but we honestly got hit with some bad luck. Outlast 2, Little Nightmares, and the Mario Kart 8 Deluxe all launched around that week. We tried so hard to find the perfect window, and that’s the week we landed on. Pretty frustrating, but I think a long-term strategy for any game is likely more effective anyway. I’m still crossing my fingers for a healthy shelf-life for Pinstripe.

2) Project Management

I wasn’t the most scheduled or organized person during the first years of Pinstripe’s development. I recall scrapping full scenes from the game without a thought, and rebuilding game-play mechanics from scratch because they were broken, rushed, and boring. I don’t recall creating a single story-board, I never wrote out the plot, and began coding puzzles before researching how to do it effectively. It’s a lot of fun saying “Pinstripe took 5 years” but what I haven’t really said is that most of that was wasteful, ignorant development. Fortunately, I feel I made it out of the messy production unscathed, because Pinstripe is generally bug free, healthy and well-received on the Steam store. But again, it took five years. Five years is too long, and it will likely take a fifth of that for my next game thanks to something called planning. I think the first concept I drew was two years in:

3) Money 

I’m still living on a reasonably thin salary, but I’m fortunate that the salary is generated by game-development. For three years, the money I was making was from a full time gig as a designer, so most of my time was not making Pinstripe. When I was making Pinstripe, I was tired and fighting to find motivation. What if you spent three year working out and you didn’t gain a single pound of muscle? Sometimes it felt like that. On top of that, I didn’t have a ton of great equipment, and illustrated Pinstripe’s scenes on a laptop screen. I can’t remember when this happened, but I recall a photo of me on my laptop working on Pinstripe posted by Unity, and someone mentioned the shot being faked because nobody makes games on a laptop. I think at that point I decided it was time to get a bigger monitor. Overall, having a tight budget basically limits your game's quality across the board. QA, localization, ratings, high quality graphics, great music, marketing, and a somewhat lengthy game all cost a great deal of money. I’m grateful some money eventually came when it did, because I desperately needed it.

4) Unity Script

Don’t use UnityScript to make your Unity game. Every time you save a UnityScript file, it takes an unholy amount of time to compile into Unity as opposed to a C# file, and the support for it is not great. The folder structure for Pinstripe is ridiculous and bizarre because of UnityScript. I have a folder called “Zippy Scripts”.

Yes, it’s called “Zippy Scripts". 

I needed a folder labeled with a Z so that it was at the bottom of my project hierarchy (for sanity), and I also needed a folder that was compiled fast and last. The explanation here is likely convoluted, but by year four I had so many UnityScript classes that the compile time was taking F-O-R-E-V-E-R. I ended up moving all my scripts into a folder that didn’t compile every time I hit “save”. The problem here was in order to reduce compile times I had to move my UnityScripts next to C# scripts in relation to their compilation, meaning any C# classes could not access the UnityScripts. At this point, I was desperate, and created “translation” classes. Ones that were in a folder that allowed for variables to be passed between classes written in different languages. I know, this makes no sense. But it worked. Metaphor: it's as if I placed the final card onto a house of cards and for some reason, the card itself stood up straight and didn’t fall over. At this point, I just said “I don’t know why it works but it works” and left it. So now the compile times are faster, but if I could do it again I’d use C#. Hands down. It’s just faster.

5) Advice

I’m not going to go into specifics, but plenty of advice was thrown from all directions about Pinstripe over the course of it's 5-year development. Some of this advice was taken because of fear, other times because it came from genuine friendships, and other times I took it because it was from “professionals”. I don’t quite know what the rule of thumb here is, but I’m formulating something. I think, for me, you should compare people’s advice with your gut feeling built from experience. In my case, I sometimes trusted people who had lots of “experience”, when in reality, I potentially had more. This sounds petty and I’m sorry if it does, but it’s certainly important for indies who lack confidence to understand.

I feel a sense of relief, a sadness, and a sudden spirit of adventure — I have no idea what lies ahead, but I have a feeling it’s going to be really fun. I can’t say right now what that whole experience was about. Lately, I've been wondering if it was just some silly teenage dream that manifested into an obsession. Who knows. Time will tell. As for future projects, I have this game idea in my head, and I can’t wait to get it out. I’m excited to start and tell no-one. The secret feeling of starting a project and it being only yours is very special. I guess that was really the fuel for Pinstripe: a feeling of making something awesome, with 100% of it coming straight from my heart, and no-one could tell me no.

[symbianosgames]

One of the most memorable features of the recent PlayStation 4 title Horizon: Zero Dawn are the sophisticated robots, known as Machines, that wander the game world like a natural part of the landscape. They are clearly automatons, with all their inner workings plainly visible. But they also exhibit unmistakable animal-like behaviors and movements. These Machines are a key feature of the game's unique primordial futurist milieu.

How were these distinctive robot/creatures conceived of and designed? We talked with several devs from Guerrilla Games, the studio behind HZD, to see just what went into the making of the Machines.

At the start of the design process, the team queried local Holland universities, including the Delft University of Technology's robotics department, for assistance. (Among the insights gleaned -- far-robots would potentially be 3D printed.) One question the developers posed: Are there areas of nature that could be improved upon?

"Skeletons, they told us," says Jan Bart van Beek, studio art director. "Skeletons are kind of shit, because they're on the inside,  surrounded by very soft tissue. And it's a single point of failure -- if your leg breaks, you're pretty much dead as an animal."

Tallneck

Instead, the profs suggested the possibility of something more like exoskeletons to the team--think lobsters, not humans, and you've got the right idea.

"If you look at some of our robot designs, you can see the outside has sort of a metal framework, and there is soft tissue on the insides, which also creates a convenient soft spot for arrows to be pumped into, " Bart van Beek says.

"All these things came from the inspiration of the robotics engineer explaining to us how they would build a robotic T-Rex if they had to do that," he adds.

Thunderjaw

Originally, the machines weren't intended to have such animal-like movements. The team initially made the machines behave in a way that was more, well, mechanical. "It felt too much like a bug, like it wasn't moving the way it should be moving,” says Richard Oud, lead creature animator.

To bring the designs into the game -- instead of waiting for a perfected model -- the team would take unpolished models directly from ZBrush, slap a skeleton in, and bring it right in. Even if it was running at a slow FPS, it would give them some idea of the creature.

"You had to have big tough ones that were fast and deadly, and you also wanted ones that were easier at the beginning of the game," says Blake Politeski, machine designer. "And at the same time, we needed to find ways that these would fit in with the fiction of these sort of robots that are maintaining nature. They're part of nature, so it had to fit with that narrative as well."

Watchers

The modeling was in and of itself a colossal task. It took "man years" of work, and Bart van Beek believes that it took five modelers around eight months for the T-Rex-like Thunderjaw. And that was just on the modeling end: it was around 18 months from the initial sketch to get it working and enjoyable in-game.

Despite the work, the team had a "realization that if we would nail the Thunderjaw, we would sort of know how to make the game," Bart van Beek says.

And to dial in how these robotic animals should move, the team even pulled in Dr. Stuart Sumida, who has done anatomical consulting on myriad projects including films The Lion King, Dinosaur, Hercules, and Harry Potter, and Disney World's Countdown to Extinction and Expedition Everest rides. Oud also took a several month long course focused on animal and creature animation, as well.

Stormbird

Balancing the design of the animals with their in-game functions was another challenge, especially in terms of the visual complexity of the machines. 

"There was always a risk maybe that it would just overload everything, you'd end up with a Christmas tree problem, where you have all these kinds of blinking lights and different colors and you'd actually have no idea what's going on anymore," Bart van Beek says.

Animation and design worked together on this issue, so that all of the various machines' gameplay elements were kept intact, while also keeping it clear to the players what they were there for.

Weight was also a challenge. The bigger things are, the harder they fall, as they say. But it also tends to mean the slower they move. Dennis Zopfi, lead machine designer, mentioned this difficulty in the Behemoth in particular.

Behemoth 

"From [an] AI and animation point, it was very hard to get right ... you can't make the thing turn too fast, because then it loses its weight," Zopfi says. "But if it cannot turn fast enough then, because the player's very agile and athletic, so the players run by very fast and we had a lot of issues with making it look right but also making it responsive enough to deal with the player."

Conveying weight to the player was a combination of factors, including the sound, animation, particles, and how the camera shakes.

"There's lots of subtle little things maybe that can make a bunch of polygons colliding with a bunch of other polygons sort of look like a real thing," Bart van Beek says.

Guerrilla Games shared a series of images and videos with us that show the process of creating one particular type of Machine. Specifically it's the LongLeg, a flightless avian robot that's somewhat reminiscent of the extinct apex predator known as "terror birds."

1. Visual concept art of the LongLeg

2. Final model of the LongLeg

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3. Animation rig of the LongLeg

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4. Reference footage: a real flightless bird

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5a. Blocking (CTRLs)

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5b. Block (No CTRLs)

6. LongLeg animation network

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7. LongLeg final polish

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8. The end result: LongLeg in the game

Looking back at the team’s past work -- like the giant spider-like MAWLR in KillZone 3 – brings into perspective just how quickly gaming technology continues to improve.

"That was incredibly complex at the time," Politeski says. "And I remember thinking, 'Oh my God we can't do anything bigger than this.' And then I look back now and it's like, even our most basic robots overshadow that a lot. The amount that goes into each of these and how technically detailed they are and how complex they are is not really going to be seen by the players. But  to me, it's actually amazing how big and complex these things are, and how we somehow managed to get it all working together."