Mr. Smoozles, the 400th strip!
I posted the 400th Mr. Smoozles comic strip over at the website. I’m pleased to have reached this milestone and look forward to the next 100 strips. I hope you enjoy reading them. 🙂
Scene from an unwritten film
INT. COMMISSIONER’S OFFICE – NIGHT Batman enters through the open window and stalks across the plush carpet. BATMAN I came as soon as I could, Commissioner. You said it was urgent. We follow Batman’s movement and he stops near a hefty looking Commissioner who has his back to us and Batman. He’s staring at a …
London Screenwriters’ Festival
Having never been to a dedicated screenwriting festival before, attending the LSWF was a pleasure in itself, particularly being in the presence of so many talented and friendly people. Because I’d been invited to speak as part of a panel on game writing, I felt doubly pleased to be there as I was able to …
On Projects and Progress…
I’ve been so focussed on my various projects that I’ve been neglecting my blog somewhat, so this is an attempt to rectify that to a degree. It’s been just over a month since I announced Star Sweet and Honey Heart and considering the relatively short time-span it seems to be going well with awareness growing …
William Nicholson – Serious Screenwriting
Last night at BAFTA, William Nicholson gave a talk. Unfortunately, I wasn’t there, but there is a summary of tweets about it here. Although it sounds like an excellent and useful talk in its own right, almost all of the tweet comments can be applied to gamewriting. So, “if you possibly can, be a writer/director, …
A new review of Special Enquiry Detail
Over at Gear Diary there’s a new review by Michael Anderson of Special Enquiry Detail: The Hand That Feeds for the iPad. At first I was worried that it was going to be a harsh review when the reviewer had a brief reminiscance about a game he played with his wife years ago, but he …
Steven Moffat got it wrong (spoilers)
Okay, the title is intentionally controversial as I thoroughly enjoyed last night’s episode of Doctor Who, but I can’t help feeling that the ending wasn’t the great cliffhanger Steven Moffat has been promising us. And for those who have ignored the spoiler warning, I really am going to mention stuff you may not have seen …
New Book Review
There is a new review of my book, Writing for Video Games over at the Gnome’s Lair site. For more details about the book, you can visit the dedicated page on my website.
Cartoon and Comic Schedule
I’ve decided that updating comic strips 7 days a week on top of everything else I’m doing at the moment is a little crazy. The simplest approach to cutting back is not to post any strips at the weekend, starting next weekend. This means that my cartoons and comics will be appearing Monday to Friday only.
Writing for Video Games now on Kindle
My book, Writing for Video Games, is now available as a Kindle download. If you’ve not yet had the chance to read it, now would be a great time to rectify that oversight. 🙂
Gamestory is its own form
Over at the Edge website is a piece about some comments from Danny Bilson, THQ’s executive VP of core games. As is often the case with things of this nature, there is criticism of storytelling in games but no suggestion of a “solution”. To say that cutscenes “are the “failure state” of game storytelling” is …
Platform 2011 event
I’ve been asked to speak at the Platform 2011 event in Hull on 27th March. There are a good range of speakers throughout the event, so it looks like it’s got something for most people’s interests. I’ve also said that I’ll occupy a table and chat to people who have questions as well as offer …