Topic: Developer's Journal

[Xennex]

  I'm glad to hear that. I'd hate to think Xennex really should of listened to Gerrik on that. Gerrik is a Churgeon... Xennex is a Surgeon. LOL

[Defendi]

5/29/06

Okay.  It?s been a little while.  I?ve been busy, as you might imagine.  Let?s see if I can remember everything that?s happened.
   I turned in the entire document to the editor and over two and a half painful weeks he edited the whole thing.  Somehow that didn?t break his will to live completely.  Then there were the painful days of me inputting all the edits.  I?ve since handed off to the copy editor and I?m getting edits back daily.  The book is done.  It?s about 130 thousand words total (adventure and campaign setting).  That?s about the equivalent of a 400-page paperback novel, by way of comparison.
   Art is doing alright.  Brian Hailes has turned in a lot of art.  He has three interior pieces left to turn in (they are due Tuesday) and the cover.  From what he?s said, I?m expecting him to turn in the cover a little late.  Two or my other artists are running later than that.  One of them still thinks he?ll get me the stuff in time, but the other isn?t answering my e-mails.  I doubt I?ll ever see a piece from him.  However, he only has three pieces, so I think we can do without.  ICE likes to do about 10% art, I believe, meaning that if you have 100 pages of book there?s about ten pages of art sprinkled throughout.  I?ve been aiming at the same thing, but the e-publishing standard seems to be more like 1/16th than 1/10th.  I should have about 11-12 pages of good, solid interior illustrations.  Add to that about 10-15 pages of map art and the currently 220 page document will come in well over 1/16th.  As we build into future projects, we;ll have art sitting around for reuse as well.
   Oh, add another piece to that.  I found a great digital piece on Lucifer.  The artist doesn?t feel right about selling its use because she?s given it away a few times before, so she?s offered me use for free.  It?s really a good piece, so I?m happy to use it as an image of Bamon before the fall.
   Also on art, I?ve found this new artist who?s quite good.  She signs her work Callender and I?m very happy with it.  She?s much better than she seems to think she is and she draws to deadline.  She?s really saved me.
   So for the second product, I have more like 9-10 pages of art necessary (and maps can make up a lot of that).  I?ll probably shoot for the ful 9-10 pages though.  Both Brian and Callender have agreed to work on it and Callender has set no limits to the size of her art list.  I should really send her presents.  I might have another artist for it too, but I?ll get to that later.
   I?ve turned in the product to HERO Games.  They?ve approved the adventure but not the main book yet (I expect that will take a week or two at least).  I need to turn in the RM and HARP versions by about Thursday, I think.  That shouldn?t be a problem.
   I have to learn how to page make.  I have to get CC3 and do all the maps.  That?s going to take a lot of June.  Also in June I have to write the second product and all that entails.  I also need to do the play test for episode 5, but that?s can wait if everything else is too rough.  If I can get the second product written in June, everything in subsequent products should be much easier.  I?ll have the pagemaking down and all the master documents made.  There will be less maps and the like as well.
   Now, that doesn?t account for ALL my back-breaking work.  This week was Conduit, the biggest SF con in Utah.  I had a fairly light load of panels (I was scheduled for four, did five).  I had four hours of The Echoes of Heaven demos.  The rest of the time I hung out with Howard Tayler (www.schlockmercenary.com), Dan Willis (Dragonlance Author), Newton Ewel (Palladium and HERO artist), and Lee Modesitt (No introduction needed).  I also spent a good deal of time hanging out with Brandon Sanderson (If you haven?t read his book Elantris, you are only hurting yourself) and Sam Longoria (Ghostbusters, Terminator, the Abyss, Spaceballs, and 2010 among others--his IMDB credits give you no idea how much he?s actually done on these and other films).  We took Sam out to eat twice.  The man is as entertaining as a tank of nitrous oxide.  Sam and I have a bit of a history.  We were Guests of Honor together at a con a couple years back and we traded stories all night long at a wrap party afterward (to a rather large audience).  It?s one of my fondest con memories.
   Here?s my favorite thing that happened this con, though.  Not to downplay the rest, but this was completely unexpected.
   Howard and I had been hanging out and shilling Schlock Mercenary books (mostly Howard, I was the imposing one in the back) when Howard had a panel come up.  I decided to go with him.  The panel was ?Collaborating with Authors.?  When I walked in Helge, the coordinator of the writing panels, saw me and asked me to join the panel because he didn?t think the Sandman artist was going to make it in time.  So I?m sitting on the panel, talking sagely about art direction to give the other side of it, when I mention that I?m pretty much just telling them stuff that Jason Hawkins told me. All of a sudden the middle panelist says, ?I?ve worked with Jason.?  I blinked and said, ?With ICE, or on one of his solo projects??  ?ICE,? he says.  I crane my head around to see his name for the first time.  ?Kevin Wasden!? I shout.  ?You did my Blaster Law and Future Law covers!?  We kept coming back to that throughout the panel and I made sure that everyone in the room knew Blaster Law was the favorite cover I?ve ever had.
   Now let me explain a little bit of the industry and the psychology it creates (in my opinion).  You have authors and you have artists.  I?m sure (although I have no proof) that many one man band style companies have problems with art because the author is also the art director.  In any sane corporate structure the artists and the author never get to speak to one another.  It?s a recipe for destruction.  The art director has to be unbiased and that?s the hardest thing in the world for the author.  I THINK I?m pretty good (the fact that artists are agreeing to do a second project is a good sign) but there are still hitches.  Let me relate an example.
   I send out the art lists and the artists send me thumbnails and I reply with things like, ?Oh goodness, I forgot to tell you that the five prophets weren?t all Human.?  This step insures that if Illustration isn?t right, it?s not my fault (it?s not cool to reject a piece because you gave bad instructions).  So I get a thumbnail from Brian of this corridor that?s supposed to look like smooth stone that?s melted like wax and then reformed.  I get back the thumbnail and I realized that I never said it was smooth, unbroken rock.  In the thumbnail I have masonry that?s melted and reformed.  I wrote back with something like ?Great, but it?s not worked stone, go ahead and do the illustration with that in mind.?  I didn?t tell him it wasn?t MASONRY, and worked stone was too generic a term, so I get back basically the same thing, just with more irregularities than the original.  So the author kicks in and says this isn?t right, I can?t use this, it contradicts the description of the location.  I get frustrated and write him something like, ?No, I said it WASN?T worked stone.  I don?t know what to do about this.?  Then the art director in me barely managed to make me write, ?I?ll think about it and get back to you,? instead of rejecting the piece.  Now I?ve sent out an e-mail that?s going to make the artist feel like he?s failed me, when it?s my fault I wasn?t clear.  That?s not a nice way to treat people.  It took ten minutes for me to realize that I can absolutely use the art, I just can?t put it next to that description in the book.  It doesn?t mean the art is useless.  I?ll just find a page where it does work or move it do the other book where it can just look interesting and not lock onto a specific location or adventure.
   So that?s why it?s a good idea to keep artists and authors separate.  If I didn?t have this business at stake, I?d never be able to act even this reasonably.  Authors have put hundreds, maybe thousands of man hours into their work.  To have another creative person come in and start tinkering can be amazing, but it can also be a slow match in a powder magazine.
   So Kevin meeting an author for whom he did a cover has to be a rare event.  Let?s look at it from the artist?s point of view.  Kevin seems like a really good guy.  He takes his work seriously and he seems like the kind that really respects what he?s illustrating.  He?s putting MUCH less time into a project than the author.  He KNOWS that this is the author?s baby and he?s got the very sobering responsibility of representing that baby to the world.  They don?t see the writing first.  It?s his COVER that draws him in.  That?s an awesome responsibility.  I don?t know how many artists take it seriously, but I?d bet good money that Kevin does.
   So that?s the psychology I think worked behind our meeting.  The fact that he?s done my favorite cover made us instant friends.  I feel like I OWE him for doing me right and though we haven?t discussed it, I?m think appreciates someone noticing.  This isn?t the kind of gratitude he?s likely to get very often.
   As I said, I can?t say what?s going on in his mind, but I suspect that this was why he was so damn nice to me.  I really don?t deserve it.
   Anyway, he stopped by the Schlock Mercenary pit a couple times after that panel to say hi and to tell me that he?s willing to consider work with Final Redoubt.  No matter how many times I reminded him that he?s WAY too advanced in his career for us, he kept saying that he?d to talk about it anyway.  Last night I received an e-mail saying that he?s been to the site and wants to be involved.  He?s busy, so I won?t hit him up for a cover and strain that generosity, but I?ll give him some interior pieces and feel blessed that he feels so good about the product and the company.
   Anyway, that was my warm fuzzy for the con.
   The demos went great.  Everyone who played them became stoked before I even started the adventure.  I don?t think the actual DEMO part of the demo sold anyone.  It was all about the Ulcers.  One of the demos DID sell the group on Rolemaster though, so I?m glad I didn?t just stop when I had the sale. Still, next two cons I think I?m going to ask for a presentation on the setting.  The type where I stand in front of the group and just sell them on the product.
   Anyway.  Enough for this week.  I should be able to post more regularly now.

[Defendi]

OK.  This is weird.  I'd swear I posted this journal on the site.  Anyway, here's the missing journal.  Sorry it's out of order:

5/14/06

   Okay.  So I didn?t write a journal last week.  It was crazy.
   The final document, the setting and the adventure, without art, is 226 pages long (It probably took 40 hours to rewrite).  Way longer than the 32 page document and the 32 page adventure we promise for the same price.  So there?s a lot of value there.  But I had to rewrite it and that took forever.
   Let me tell you a bit about how we?re working.
   First I produce a draft copy of the master document.  This is a first draft and by the laws of first drafts it is terrible.  So then I have to take this big old steaming pile of document and I have to turn it into something legible.
   So I rewrite it as a second draft.  When I finish this I cook it with grammar and style checkers.  What?s left is a document that?s about as good as I can make it without setting it aside for many months and letting it simmer in the subconscious.  Frankly, we don?t have time for that.
   So I turn that in to my editor.  He reads it and copy edits and edits for style all at once.  Then he turns it back over to me.
   Now here?s the crucial point.  Scott is the Line Editor, but he had to pull out of the company for time reason.  I still give him his Line Editor credit because I bounce all ideas off him and shape them with his guidance, so nothing begins work without his permission.  Now I?m the publisher, but I?m also the writer, which means I can?t make these decisions by myself.  I?m not objective.  So Scott, the Line Editor, helps me shape every idea before I write it.
   But he doesn?t have time right now to read it all.  Not on deadline.  Not with his current work schedule.
   So at this point it comes down to the editor.  He?s the only other person that?s read every little bit of the document, not just play test stuff.  He?s also in one of the play tests, so he?s got the most comprehensive view of the piece.  So when he hands it back to me I ask the crucial question:
   ?Do we publish this??
   I don?t know what happens yet if he says ?no.?  Other than the fact we don?t publish it.
   I input his edits if he gives a thumbs up.  This is the Master Document.   I hand it off to my HERO guy, (the one who is better at powers and formatting that me) with all my HERO version notes.  So he can make it make sense.  Then I start work on the HARP version of the Document and the D20 myself.  All the system-specific stuff is marked with <<throughout.>>
   I hand the Master Document to my copy editor to go through.  It?s her job to make certain Josh caught as many typos as possible.  It?s also her job to make sure I didn?t make any new ones.  If we have enough time before deadline, I input these before building all the separate versions.  This is the Finished Document.  From here we build all the other versions and we hand those in for proofing, but now she only has to proof anything in <<>>.  She gives those back and we finalize all of that.  Then we send them to HERO and ICE for approval.  Hopefully all the art comes in about that time as well.
   So on this product we?re behind deadline.  Mainly because I was working off writing deadlines without considering production stuff.  I blame the government.
   So I gave the editor everything and I gave him a deadline schedule that?s certain to break him.  He finished the adventure this week and gave me three chapters into the setting book at Writer?s Group Thursday.  On the way there I asked the go/no go question and he gave me a ?yes.?  On the adventure of course.
   So Thursday Night I input all his edits and did about half of the HERO conversion.  Friday night I did the other half.  Saturday at the play test group (we aren?t play testing right now) the HERO guy and I talked about how to improve the process in the future and he looked over all my inputs, marking any typos he saw (mostly skewed columns).
   So tonight I put in all those notes (should take ten minutes) and I build a preliminary PDF and send it to HERO.  They are supposed to have 60 days, which will put us past the release date, but Steve said he?d try to get it through in time, so I?m hopeful.  The only fear is it hasn?t had its final copy edit.  He said if there are too many typos, he?ll have to reject on that.  We?re hoping we caught enough to make that not an issue.
   So now I need to start work on the second product and the HARP version.  D20 can wait a bit.  It doesn?t need to be approved.
   I won?t be out from under these deadlines for a long time.
   Oh, last night I did edits for a fiction piece I?m working on for a certain game publisher.  If that comes through, I hope to have a book deal soon.

[Defendi]

Quick Update:

With the exception of a tiny bit of copyediting, all the manuscripts are done for the first product.  I'm pagemaking now, but I have no idea how long that will take.  It goes faster with every page as I learn Indesign.  The first three pages took about ten hours, but I finished most of the teaser in the first doc of the adventure in about three hours.  I suspect on the second product I'll do the whole set of books in a week.

I've had two artists completely fail me.  I replaced one with Kevin Wasden.  I've written the other off.  I'm still waiting for three pieces I actually expect to get, plus the cover, which is done, but needs to be transfered to photo slide then converted to electronic format.  I'm told I get that on Friday.

The new version of CC3 has required me to comission one of the artists to make new symbols (they need to be pretty bitmaps to match the more dundjinni-like art).  She had her friends Wacom tablet stolen in the middle of the project.  I expect to get those symbols about Monday.  I need them for the maps.

My online store was broken.  I think it's fixed now.

If all goes well, I hope to release next week (a few days late, I'm sorry).  I'll keep you apprised.

[Defendi]

7/31/06

Been a little while again.  That whole getting-the-product-out and handling all the initial questions thing has taken up my time.  Now I?m back in full writing mode and I thought I?d start updating you again.
   This isn?t something you should admit as a publisher, but I promised I?d be honest.  There isn?t much money in writing games.  So our goals are oriented around feeding the family, and I have to tell you, that isn?t an exaggeration.  We?re coming up short every month by exactly the food budget.
   Now, this isn?t a sympathy play, I just wanted to put things into perspective, so that I can talk about how the game is doing without doing something tacky like talking about actual dollar amounts.  I wouldn?t even do this much, but I promised to talk about the stuff other publishers won?t.  Like food stamps.
   We have done well, for a new company.  Phenomenally well, in fact.  On our main website, in the first two weeks, we sold about 3/4 of my estimated first-week sales maximum.  I based this maximum on page views on the ICE website, so I?m happy with those figures.
   On RPGNow, the numbers are easier to judge.  They stick you on the Edge site when you start, and that is essentially Dante?s Marketing Hell.  No one goes to buy there as everyone starts on the main site.  The only hints that Edge exists is the link in the top right corner and the hot sellers from Edge list on the right side.  If you search for my product there, you GET NO HITS. There?s a Message of the Day feature, where you buy advertising, but it places the ad at the bottom of the main site.  I think that I average less than 1/3 of a percent of views to click-throughs from a message of the day.  Maybe a fifth of those add me to their wishlists.
   So things were pretty bleak the first few days on Edge.  I sold one HERO copy (I think from someone who found their way there from the HERO forums instead of my site.)  A handful of CC3 symbols.  I talked to a guy here at work and he gave me LOADS of marketing advice, none of which was useful, because he didn?t understand the industry, but I was able to get a gist out of him, and turn that into a marketing plan that would work.
   So I asked for volunteers on the opt-in list for people who?d be willing to comment on RPGNow.  I asked for honest comments and sent them over there.  I then submitted the setting for review among the RPGNow staff reviewers.
   Sales picked up as all the volunteers bought.  Then the comments came in and they were great, maybe too great.  I began hoping for a less-than-five-star review.  People take them more seriously.  But the sales to the volunteers were enough that I started popping up on the Hot Sellers lists (it isn?t that hard on the Edge site).  I started getting the click through from that which I hadn?t gotten from the Message of the Day.
   Anyway, pins and needles.  There is a formula they use to determine when you qualify for promotion to the main site and I used that as a marketing guide (well if this is worth 2 points and this worth 1, the first must be more important).  Around Thursday night I qualified for promotion (I don?t know if I will be, they only do it once per quarter, and I?m new, but I have the points).  Also Thursday that first Staff Review came in.  I couldn?t have asked for a more perfect review if I?d written it myself (in fact, I?m sure I couldn?t have done that well).  The things he criticized were perfect, the praise was lavish.  Sales picked up.
   I?ve been checking my other ratings.  By Friday night I was #1 rated Edge publisher by comments.  Also that night I hit #1 Edge vendor by number of sales (it helps to have 7 products or bundles).  Sunday morning I hit #1 Edge vendor by dollar amount.
   So things are moving.  D20 is outselling everything else, which is surprising for two weeks of sales, since my ready-made audience is in ICE.  You guys need to pick up the sales.  Remind me who my favorite customers are.
   So my goals for sales are as follows, in order:
   1) Completely pay for the house food budget for two months (the rough product cycle) off a single product.
   2) Get my self a couple hundred dollars a month on top of that for things like a weekly movie, an occasional dinner out, and gas (dear God I pay a lot in gas).  Maybe a book purchase (dare I dream).
   3) Hit the level where my artists are being paid at least e-publishing rate for art.
   4) Hit the level where my artists are being paid print publishing rates for art.
   5) Hit the level where I can make a print version of the book my first release (probably by the labor of the Chinese workforce).
   6) Make enough that I can quit my job and move to monthly product cycles.
   7) Get an office and some form of real fulfillment for shipping.
   The order of these might change.  For instance, 6 becomes much easier if I can secure this three-book novel deal I?ve been working on for a while (it seems a lock, but is taking forever).  At that point 6 fits in between 2 and 3.
   And all my sales figures go crazy when I start subsequent product sales, all of which have a lower price point.
   So there you go.  People don?t like to give their customers an idea of how rough the industry is, but I promised you?d see it all.  I can tell you that my d20 sales are right around half the yearly average for an e-product.  That gives you an idea of the industry.
   I have to go to WorldCon this year, so that?s going to sap resources and pagemaking time.  I might drop off the earth for a week.  Just so you know.  I?ll be trying to convince the editors of some writer friends of mine that they need to publish my comedy, because I am the funniest writer on earth.  It?s a hard sell.  I?m doing enough sales, though, that if one other check comes through, though, I?ve paid for the trip (yes, that does mean we don?t have a food budget, but that?s why God made white rice).  Maybe next year GenCon.
   So, now that I?ve shown you the trials and tribulations of my life, product.
   I?m working on product 2.  I?m still behind because of my failure to take into account the lead time I need for approval from HERO and ICE, but I?m going better than I feared.  I?ve finished the adventure The Festering Earth.  I?m working on the sourcebook now, The Last Free City.  The adventure is into editing.  The sourcebook will hopefully only take a week.
   Then it?s my plan to move straight into writing 3 while I do edits and conversions on 2 in my spare time.  If I can get 3 done before WorldCon and 2 out right around on schedule, I?ll finally be turning in product to HERO 60 days in advance.  Then I?ll bang out the production of 3, hopefully catching up on the two weeks late I was with 1 and when the dust settles for that, I?ll start playtesting 5 and then straight into finishing 3 and writing 4 (which has the bestiary, and will be one of the worst conversion projects, per page, of all time).  I just reread that, and it sounds like I wrote it on cocaine.
   Whew!  Now you know where things are.  If you haven?t bought to product, go buy it.  If you have bought, buy copies for all your friends.  I have cats to feed.

[Defendi]

8/14/06

   Okay.  Let?s talk about burn-out.
   There was a time, back in the day, when I hadn?t learned to say no to a project.  At this time I accepted the 1960s book for Spycraft, Stargate SG 1 RPG, The Shop book for Shadowforce Archer and Gamemaster?s Law for SM all at once (I think I?m missing and AEG in there as well).  I didn?t have to write all the text in any of the books, but I had one month, I think it was in May, where I ended up with 165,000 words of quota (a normal sized-paper back is 100,000 words, and you don?t need to stat those).  The AEG books came in first, and I think I did reasonably well with Stargate SG 1 (the stuff they didn?t like they?d asked for).  Some of my work on the 1960s book was good, some of it not so good (but that wasn?t really burn-out, I learned some hard lessons about world building in that book).  The Shop wasn?t great, I heard that it took more editing than normal to get it into shape.  GMs law was so badly written that ICE thought I?d had a nervous break down.  I took a second shot at it and they thought that was terrible too.  So now you know what happened.  The text is shaping up in the SM Quarterlies, but I?m having to edit it very heavily to get those pieces into shape.  I don?t blame them, I burned-out.
   I didn?t think it could happen to me.
   I?ve never had writer?s block (not seriously).  I?d never burned out before.  It was kind of a cold revelation that I could literally work myself into the ground.
   Don?t worry, this isn?t a build up to announcing a hiatus for The Echoes of Heaven.
   My goal was to get two products done, bam bam, then do the fifth play test.  At the rate I did the Ludremon appendix for the main book, that should have taken about two weeks for each product and by now I should be realizing that product three is way bigger than I expected and I?m going to miss deadline due to page count.  (That hasn?t happened.)
   After the main product released, I just couldn?t pull myself away from customer support and some updates as I got everything up and in  the stores.  When I did get to writing, I realized that I had almost nothing written for the adventure (it?s the only one that wasn?t at least half-done for the play test, as I didn?t want to write the descriptive text before I saw how the groups investigated the mystery).  So that was painful.  By the time I was done with that, I found myself averaging 2 pages a day instead of the 5-6 I needed to do.  I was burning out, and this time I saw it coming.
   So I?ve stopped kicking myself.  If the artists come through, I shouldn?t slip any farther.  The second product should release just about two months after the first.  I wanted to make up time I was late on the first one, but better that it come out at two months than I lose product three completely.  I?ve gotten some paper model stuff to print and build for miniature play.  When I ran Run Out the Guns! a week ago, I let myself get caught up in a four-hour collating session of all the character sheets.  Keep plodding away, don?t kill yourself.  The company needs you writing more than writing fast.  That?s my mantra right now.  (Actually, it?s more than one word, so I guess it?s a sutra.)
   So.  Now that you know all that, you?ll understand what I mean when I say that things are going well.  I finished the first half of The Last Free City sometime more than a week ago.  All weekend I couldn?t get time to edit it before sending it to the editor (it?s the writer?s version of cleaning before the maid gets there).  Work was hell.  I had a date on Monday.  Went to sleep right afterward.  Slept 14 hours or something (did I mention work was hell?)  Finally on Tuesday I think I turned it in to Josh.  That gave me no time to prewrite my fiction for writer?s group, which left me writing on Wednesday at work during the busiest day of the year (57,000 conventioneers hit Salt Lake on Tuesday and Wednesday).  I wrote a stunning 9 - 10 pages, then after work watched reality television until my mind stopped twitching and shut down.  (Buy more product and I won?t have to keep going to work).  Thursday I started writing again and now I?m plugging along, on page 32 or so (with no art, so 35 or so with art).  My GOAL is to finish it by Thursday, but if I don?t, hey no sweat.  Hang loose, dude.  Stress leads to burn-out, but no stress, no worries.  The only one who can cause me stress is me.  We don?t even have enough customers yet for a real customer support disaster (well, we probably do, but it would have to be a big one.)
   So how?s the book?  I think it?s my favorite thing I?ve ever written.  I was really worried it was going to suck, and the adventure is still going to be hit miss with some people (since it?s a murder mystery).  The main book though . . . I really felt like I hit my stride writing about Ludremon in product one.  I don?t feel like I?ve lost any of that, and the subject matter makes me emotional.  You know Stan Ridgeway?s song Camouflage, or the Ballad of the Green Berets?  Only two songs that choke me up every time I hear them and The Last Free City gives me room to indulge that.  You might have noticed that Aeld and Felric?s Redoubt have that whole heroic tradition thing, like the Norse and the old Anglo-Saxon stories.  Gives me a lot of room to write legends about men with too much heroism and duty to be contained in a single life.  Probably takes me back to my Grandfather, who didn?t sacrifice life or limb in WWII but certainly sacrificed his sanity (for a time at least) and perhaps his soul.
   So maybe the book?s just for me and everyone else will find it ho hum when they read it, but the poet that lives in every writer keeps insisting to me that this emotion and passion will come through.  And if it doesn?t, I think the complex interlocking city plots are kinda cool (or at least they are so far, I haven?t gotten to the court yet).
   So things are good.  Not breaking any speed records, but I think the text is sound.  We?ll see if I hit my writing goals this week.
   Until next time.

[Defendi]

This won't be a full big journal, but not enough has happened to warrant that.  Besides, I write those on my laptop. 

Bad News first.  Laptop still not fixed.  I hope it will be fixed tomorrow and then they ship it back.  Been waiting for a part for over a week, and they've been wrong before (obviously, they've had it a month) so I'm not holding my breath.  Hopefully, I'll have it by next week.

Good News.  I finished Product 2 (the writing part) about an hour ago.  I need to edit it (be done by tomorrow night) and send it into the editor for full treatment.  Looks like will get a release before too long, by the end of the month if license vetting goes fast.  I had a key person move away, but I'm hoping that won't effect anything.  We lost an artist, but someone else picked up her load and I''ve got almost the whole list in.  I like the cover.  Its an interesting mixed media piece (like the last one) but I like the way the medias mix better this time.

Ta ta for now.

[Defendi]

This morning I submitted the final section of product two for editing.  I also input edits into the Teaser of the adventure.  Then I got into a big confusion with myself over the name of the bad guy and that took an hour to research.

Also had a little hiccup with SM Datanet I have to fix.

They say my laptop is working.  It's on the way, but right now UPS estimates it won't be delivered until the 10th.  Still, better than nothing.

Just wanted to keep you posted.

[mocking bird]

They say my laptop is working.  It's on the way, but right now UPS estimates it won't be delivered until the 10th.  Still, better than nothing.

So did it work?  If I had a dime every time tech support said 'it works fine' and it didn't...

Getting ancy for pt. 2 & Feldric's Redoubt but if not for a while yet I have an excuse for procrastinating on my end.

[Defendi]

Yes, I plan on posting a journal tonight after I'm done with the RM Quarterly  (It's late).

[Defendi]

10/18/06

All right, time for an update.

I?m writing this from my laptop, sitting in my livingroom, watching a three-week old episode of CSI on Tivo.  Only one of those facts is important to the company, but it?s pretty important.  The laptop is up and running.  My production rate is back to it?s former glory.

Temperature?s a little hot, though.  I?m keeping and eye on that.  On the laptop, I mean.

As for product two, here?s the skinny:  It?s written and completely edited.  I have it in with the copy editor, it will go through four total passes, but that should go pretty quickly.  One of the passes is almost done, in fact.

Both the adventure and the sourcebook have been turned into ICE and HERO Games.  ICE has approved the adventure, which is the one with the questionable content (a serial killer).  Hero Might take a touch longer.

One of my artists flaked.  Another took up the slack.  He has three pics left to turn in.  The cover is ready.

So here?s my schedule, not accounting for approval time from ICE and HERO:

Tonight and Thursday: put together the HARP documents from my notes.  Turn those into ICE.

Friday and Saturday: same, but d20 and no approval.

Sunday and Monday: Maps (hopefully, but the city map will be pretty tough).

Tuesday: Start pagemaking.

That means that theoretically it could be ready to release in two weeks, allowing extra time for pagemaking and the like.  Don?t know about approval, though.  That could still be a hold up, but never fear.  Things are humming happily along.

So, here?s the plan.  I?m going to put out a question to many of you, about a week before release, asking for volunteers to buy the product on RPGNow.  You see we are on the main site now (we qualified in one week).  But on the main site, we have MAJOR competition (WotC and Monte Cook, for instance).  New releases often don?t stay on the front page there for more than four or five days.

So we need to hit it hard.  I?d like to get a nice big group of you to volunteer to get bundles there instead of my site.  If we get enough of them, we?ll pop all four products onto the hot sellers list.  If the main site is anything like the Edge site, that list is a self-fulfilling prophecy.  It?s about the second thing people see logging on, and it?s the one that doesn?t change every time you refresh.

If you can submit reviews too, we should take off pretty well.

With that issue secured, I?ll be happy to have the rest of you buy from my site (where I make more money).  But I don?t gain new customers on my site very often. Most of the company?s growth potential?s on sites like RPGNow.  We get our new customers there, then move them over to the company site.

Anyway, there?s the plan.  Those of you on the mailing list will get requests.  Anyone who wants to volunteer that unchecked the ?Add me to your e-mail list? box, PM me with your e-mail (or e-mail directly if you know my address.) I promise not to add you to the e-mail list.

[mocking bird]

Cool! 
Would you be waiting for all lines to be approved to release all at once or release as approved?  'A touch longer' in the gaming industry could be quite a while.

[Defendi]

We'd likely wait.

[Defendi]

But I'll tell you what.  If the situation arrises, I'll let you try to talk me into changing my mind. 

[Defendi]

11/8/06

Okay.  It?s been a little bit.  I hate writing dev journals when I think an approval is pending.  It feels like jinxing it.

Let me tell you how the approval process works.  I send in the edited manuscript to ICE and HERO and they read it.  My two licenses each have time limits.  ICE is 10 business days.  Hero is 60 days, period.  If either company doesn?t respond within the time frame, I?m allowed to consider the product approved.

I turned in the last of the ICE products about 14 business days ago.  They approved the first, but didn?t reply on the others (which I wasn?t worried about).  I sent a polite letter this weekend and I didn?t get a note back saying that they rejected them and the e-mail was lost, so at this point, I?m considering the ICE manuscripts approved.

I sent in the HERO products 21 days ago.  No response from them, even on the e-mail where I asked who to direct a check to (it?s time for their licensing cut).  From the posts on the front page of the HERO site, Steve just got a new computer and he has a lot on his plate.  I expect he?s swamped.  Off the top of my head, that puts the 60 days as over right around Dec 17.  So I think that?s the worst practical scenario for a release.  Technically, though, if they reject they get another 60 days for approval, so there in a really bad scenario, but I don?t see that as likely.  The only thing I can see them likely to reject on is a formatting error, and I would suspect they would have a quick turn around on those when I fix them.  They seem like good guys from all my previous contacts.

Meanwhile, I?m almost done with the product.  The Felric?s Redoubt map took forever.  I think there are about 14,000 buildings on it, which speaks pretty highly for the standard of living in Felric?s Redoubt.  It alone took more than a week.

I mostly finished the maps Thursday or Friday.  Since then I?ve done the master pagemake and I believe I have final pdfs for the RM version of both pieces and the HERO adventure.  I?ll do most of the HERO sourcebook portion after this, but I won?t say I?ll get it done tonight because often I have to export 6-10 times before I?m satisfied with the final product (I?ll keep seeing little errors I?m missing in the pagemaking itself).

Tomorrow is fiction day in my writing schedule, but I?ve chosen a project that seem likely to go quickly, so I should be able to do most of HARP tomorrow night.  That leaves d20 for Thursday and the weekend to clean everything up and build the files.  That means with approval (which I?m not counting on) I could go live around Monday.  Still, I?ve taken a zen attitude toward it all.

My plan right now is to finish that then start the playtest materials for Ep 5 right after so I can playtest that next Saturday (in a week and a half).  The group is bugging me about it.

After that, I?m going to write product 3 as quick as I can, so I can get it in to HERO for approval.  .  If I can do it quickly enough, it might get done before they approve 2, in which case I?ll make up a little time.

Anyway, I thought you all might like to know.  Oh, and from what I?ve seen with the Guild Adventurer release, my plan to send customers to RPGNow will work.  Those of you on the e-mail list will here about that when the time comes.

Ta ta for now.

[mocking bird]

I was going to add this morning that the Paranoia Game in the GA is quite intreguing.  While I don't play SM, I was thinking the concept would make an interesting Ulcer for a demon of madness/insanity.

[Defendi]

He is speaking of my Spacemaster Adventure in Guild Adventurer.  Yes, that would do well converting the storyline to Echoes, but to say more would be spoilers. 

[Defendi]

Wow.  Okay.  Given the EN World sale going on right now on RPGNow, maybe a delayed release is actually a blessing.    Go check out the Hot sellers list.  They own it all the down to Guild Adventurer (and below).

[Defendi]

November 20, 2006

   Time for an update.
   Except for Hero approval, the second product is all but ready.  Basically, all the PDFs are done, as is the read me file.  All that?s left is to do is to zip everything up, upload to all the relevant servers, and write the marketing copy.  Essentially, a day?s worth of work (assuming upload problems, 6 hours without).  So that?s almost completely to bed.
   I wrote the teaser and first act of the fifth adventure last week (or rather the play test notes, which is a sparser version).  I think it?s going to rock.  We started it Saturday but got started a little late due to a combination of dinner and pre-game character stuff.  We got halfway through the teaser, and this one is pretty combat heavy, so two fights with critical-resistant creatures was good progress.  In the past, we had another game running when I wasn?t play testing and so I felt guilty about going longer than four weeks.  Now we?re just playing whatever we feel like on most weeks, so a slow start doesn?t worry me anymore (and I?m not taking time off work like I did on the other playtests to give longer feedback sessions and the like.)
   So.  Play test.  Product.  What else?
   I put up a POD survey, but so far people don?t seem very interested in physical copies of the books, so I?m not going to stress about getting my POD ducks in a row (I can?t figure out how to do product 2 in POD anyway).  I figure we?re at a point now in development where most people are just downloading and reading the products, not playing them yet (people need to find time in their schedules, after all).  When people start running the adventures I expect the clamor will arise, and so now I?m just enjoying the idea that I might have one less worry on my plate.
   Speaking of stuff on my plate, I think I might take time off in December.  I expect to have product three written by the second or third week, so my thought is I should take my first break in . . . wow?a year and a half? . . .  play Neverwinter Nights 2.  Then go back to writing.  I HOPE I can.  If I have some sort of deadline trauma, it might not be an option.
   Talking of deadlines, I decided I hate breaking promises.  So I?ve decided to reset all my production schedules so that I?m delivering early instead of late.  Don?t worry, the books are coming out at the same times, I just won?t feel guilty about it.
   Essentially, I set the first release date as a writer, not as a publisher.  So when I went in afterwards and set up a spreadsheet to track all the little things that need to happen for a book to come out, I found out I was 150 days or so behind schedule on the second product.  Then we had the laptop problem and I realized that I was just winging it these days anyway, and that the year it would take me to catch up would kill me.
   So I reset all the production schedules so that they flowed seemlessly forward assuming that I start writing product 3 a week from today (which is when I intend to start writing product 3).  That puts me WAY ahead of schedule, and so I?m happy.  I don?t work any slower when I?m ahead of schedule, so I figured it doesn?t hurt anything, and if I slip a week here and there I won?t lose sleep over lying to the fans (I haven?t developed that thick, missed-production skin most publishers seem to have).  As a way of comparison, I expect product 2 to release on December 19th (the day after the HERO timer runs out, IIRC).  The actual set release date is now January 3 (so it should come out two weeks early or so).  I expect Product 3 to come out somewhere around feb 19 (two monts later).  The official projected release for that one is April 13th.  All of this is probably just my subtle way of slipping the schedule now, when my release is already delayed for approval, instead of during product 4.
   See, I?m pretty sure I can get product 3 out in SOMETHING like 2 months.  But product 4 scares me.  Product 4 is the Bestiary.  I might have to get every person I know who?s ever even played HERO working round the clock for 2 weeks just to do the HERO version.  I know less people who?ve played HARP.  For D20 I think I can get in the zone (I did a HUGE d20 monster piece once).  So even if I get everything going in a smooth two-month schedule for product 3, product 4 might just break me and everyone I?ve ever met. So, might as well get the schedule redone now, when you?re used to bad news.
   Product 5 might need prestige classes in the d20 version.  I?m fighting the urge SO hard.  That?s neither here nor there, I just feel like I?m in confession, so I?m mentioning all my sins.
   Anyway, for those who?d like a run down of the official and suspected release dates, along with brief descriptions, (no marketing speak) here they are:
   All titles after product 2 are tentative.  I?m still looking for new ways to say ?dirt? in a title.

Product 2.  Official Release Jan 3rd 2007.  Projected actual release Dec 19th 2006.
The Last Free City
The sourcebook on Felric?s Redoubt.  Looks like 79 pages.

The Festering Earth
An adventure IN Felric?s Redoubt.  52 pages or so.  It begins to let the characters see what the premise of the entire series might be.

Product 3.  Official release April 13th  2007.  Projected actual release Febuary 19th.
The Lost Kingdom of the Dwarves
Looks like the first 20 pages (after intro stuff) is just going to be all about dwarves.  What their culture is like.  Why they hit their hands with hammers on purpose.  What?s going on with the royal line of Uzar?g after a thousand years of exile.  After that we discuss Uzar?g itself and the orcs that live there.

On Corrupted Ground
Adventure in . . . you guessed it . . . Uzar?g.  Characters find out they definitely have a good idea what the series is about.  End of Act One of the overall story.

Product 4.  Official release Jun 15th 2007.  Projected actual release . . . hopefully sometime before Jun 15th.

Bestiary
We?ve got a lot of little things different because of the whole infernal/angelic-blood-mixing-with-mortals thing.  Here we take care of nephilim and Demons.  Since some systems have less than 6 primary elements, we probably fill in holes like putting a light elemental into HARP and d20 (if they?re missing, I?m only assuming they are.  I don?t RESEARCH my dev journals).  This is the big book of baddies.  Otherwise known as the book that finally kills me.

The Tainted Tears
All hell begins to break loose in this one.  The party begins a race beat the bad guy, now that they finally know his evil plan.  My editor calls this my hammock adventure.  It gets you from here to there.

Product 5: Official Release Date Aug 15th 2007.  Projected actual release: two months after my eyes stop bleeding from product 4.

In His Name
The big book of Churches.  Her we cover the Church, as well as all the other acceptable faiths (like the other savior-based beliefs and the Atavists.)  I suspect they?ll be no room for pagans and demon worshipers.  We?ll need to save them for a big book of evil churches.

The Last Hallowed Place (I ran out of words for ground, on Product 4, in fact, but I had another title for that one).
This is the act two twist of the campaign series.  The party finds out what this series is REALLY all about.

After this, I?m not making promises.  That doesn?t mean I?m not finishing the series, I?m just saying that the Sourcebooks are not written in stone from here on (the adventures have to be pretty firm, for plotting reasons).

Product 6.  Official Release date Oct 15th 2007.  Projected Actual Release two months after the last one.

The Land of Barbs and Blades
Write up of another permanent Ulcer.  This one should definitely happen.

The Day Before Apocalypse
The tone and drives of the adventures changed the last one.  How do the characters deal?

Product 7.  Official Release Date Dec 15th 2007.  Projected Actual Release two months after the last one.

Than the Sum of its Parts
Non-human cultures.  Basically the big book of other PC races.  This is one of those books on the chopping block if I suddenly realize there?s a book I HAVE to put into the release schedule.

The Man Behind the Mask
Things progress.  This is the last adventure in act two so there isn?t a lot to say from here on without major spoilers.

Product 8.  Official Release Date Feb 15th 2008.  Projected Actual Release two months after the last one.

To Master Dark Secrets
Books on magic and witch-hunters and the like.  This one probably needs to stay in the schedule due to the thematic links to the setting.

To Hold the Breech
Baaaaaadddddd things happening.

Product 9.  Official release April 15th 2008.  Projected Actual Release two months after the last one.

The Silent Guild
I think this will be a book on crime.  There?s no real thematic link to the adventure, but this is a good place for that as the characters are covering old ground, geographically.  This is the FIRST book to go if I have to drop a book.

To Stand Alone
Things get worse and worse.

Product 10.  Official Release June 15th 2008.  Projected Actual Release two months after the last one.

The Book of Prophecy
A placeholder title.  Right now I?ve slotted this as a book where I answer any questions I?ve had to leave hanging previously.  If there aren?t any, then I?ll find a new book for this slot.  This is far enough in the future that it?s still nebulous.  Another book that might go here is a guide to the planes for the setting, dealing with Heaven, Hell, and everything else.  That?s what I THINK will be there at this point, but I need the place-holder in case everyone deciding they need a nautical sourcebook or something.

O What a Hell Would Heaven Be
The final dramatic climax, both of the adventure and the teasers.  In fact, this one might be longer than usual, composed HALF of teaser plot as I bring the past and present to simultaneous close.  Think of it like a flashback-heavy episode of Lost (but where the writer actually knows what?s going on).

So that?s it.  This one went long and I have to finish the play test notes, so have a nice day.

[mocking bird]

Excellent news.

A few questions:

Will you be grouping they systems together or separating them out?  Or since the advanture takes place in Feldric's Redoubt would it and the sourcebook be grouped together?

Urzag....hmmmmm.....dragons too?

If you do go with presteige classes in part 5, would they equate to TP's in RM?  I am guessing on clerical orders in HARP?  If you are agonizing about that I am sure you are also trying real hard not to pick up CoM for the HARP versions.

Now if Something Wicked gets released sometime around product 4...

Product 5 name - Holy of Holies?