…I think one of my issues to address is that I don’t talk enough about what I’ve done, I am doing now or will be doing soon… I’m too busy actually doing it rather than talking about it.
So dear reader, I shall endeavour to tell you more about what’s been happening in the “Land of the Brewin”, which is quite-a-bloody-lot haha:
- Gamebook Adventures 8: Infinite Universe gets Freeplay 2012 Nomination for Best Writing in a Game:
This is news is actually a week old now, but it’s the biggest news of the moment for me. “Freeplay is Australia’s longest running independent games festival exploring the intersection of indie development, culture, arts and education.” (That’s the description from the Freeplay site). And each year they give awards to what is judged the best game in a variety of categories. Only three entrants are short-listed in each category, so out of 115 entries for the Freeplay awards (more than triple the previous year), it is a special honour to have my Infinite Universe gamebook nominated as one of them… (I think I’d be a shoe-in to win the award if it was “Most Writing in a Game” haha but unfortunately “Best” and “Most” are two quite different things).
- The Dark Horde October promotion for Fiction Frolic / All Hallow’s Read:
In order to boost the profile on my horror novel, The Dark Horde, I’m doing a lot of things over October, including the above promotion and many of which I am (somewhat frantically) organising now. In conjunction with hundreds of other blogs, there’ll be book giveaways, t-shirts, a book trailer, and hopefully a few blog articles about The Dark Horde, and some of the amazing reviews thus far. But before then there’s a few things to still get finalised, including distribution channels and newsletters, so stay tuned on that one.
- 2012 Windhammer Prize for Short Gamebook Fiction:
One thing I’ve gotten around to this year is to write an entry for the annual Windhammer competition, which as far as I’m aware is the world’s biggest gamebook competition. Competition is fierce with 22 awesome entries: more than double last year. Anyone can vote up to October 30, so check it out!
…My entry is entitled Trial of the Battle God which thus far I’ve found others have been unable to say without putting on a deep and dramatic voice, which I think is a good sign haha. Basically, in this gamebook you get to create your own fantasy warrior to compete in a death-match set in a sprawling dungeon with at least seven other opponents (and additionally up to another five human players). You start in a different place each time you compete and the gamebook keeps track of time as you and your opponents move around the dungeon, fighting monsters and each other, getting treasure, avoiding traps, etc. You also get a Battle God score depending on how well you did, with the Battle God high scores listed here.
…Sound good? Go ahead and download a copy from The Chronicles of Arborell website (home to the Windhammer Prize) using the link above… It’s free!
- Forthcoming Projects:
…There’s a few of these. Currently five (yeah that many I know) projects with Tin Man Games that I can’t say much about yet (except I can say that two of these projects are Gamebook Adventures titles in the Reman setting). Plus a full-length musical album that is the back-story to The Dark Horde, using narration and sung lyrics and set to music. Plus work on a smart-phone game that is currently on hold due to lack of time (funny that). Plus the development “day-job” which is the most important in the short term as it’s paying the bills haha.
So stay tuned readers, it gets a bit frantic from here (but in a good way!) -I’ll do my best to keep you updated and with a bit of time, actually get to telling you about the things I’ve already done and review some of the amazing impact that they’ve already had “out there” :D
Cheers,
Brewin’