Morality Bytes
November's Pugsteady Update!
Hey all! It’s November, which means it’s time to start getting ready for the holidays. But before that happens, let’s talk about this month’s Pugsteady News!
The Holiday Hustle
November and December are awkward times in the life of a freelancer. The holidays are coming, and as a freelancer you have two tactics: either take less work because you need to carve out time to rest and enjoy the holiday, or take more work because you’ll have less opportunities to get work while everyone else is resting and enjoying the holidays. I err on the side of taking time off, but sometimes that’s not easy to do.
If I’m lucky and I’m planning a project, I can build in time. I try not to have deadlines fall during a holiday (although sometimes that doesn’t work out), and I aim to build in extra time under the assumption that most folks will need it. But sometimes that’s not possible. I’ve had projects that needed to be turned around quickly to hit a specific holiday date, or I have so much work that I need the holiday just to catch up.
Both states can cause trepidation to a freelancer. For some, it can be hard to just not work, because if you’re not working, you’re not making money. (I can and have argued against that mentality, but it’s hard to shake.) For others, knowing that you can’t relax because you have so much work to do can be stressful. So be kind to your friendly neighborhood freelancer this holiday season!
News Roundup!
Speaking of working hard, I’ve got some things to talk about this month!
My latest video with Extra Credits is up! This time I talk about designing fictional morality systems for games. It’s my twelfth video with EC, and I’m looking forward to continuing to work with them into the new year!
The Trinity Continuum: Anima crowdfunding campaign is coming soon! To promote it, I wrote and did some audio design for a few videos. The first is already up, promoting the completely safe and lovely city of Cascade. Keep an eye on the Onyx Path YouTube channel or theonyxpath.com every Thursday for more!
Also, I was invited by the lovely folks at the Polyhedron Podcast to do an Anima Actual Play. It’s a nine-part series, showing how the game works using a playtest draft of the rules. The first episode is up: You can find more at the Onyx Path YouTube channel or the Polyhedron Podcast.
The crew at Dege Time are a group of gamers who also talk about the therapeutic benefits of tabletop gaming. They did a ten-episode series using Pugmire! I’m always excited to see people using my game in therapeutic settings. You can watch the whole series right now on YouTube!
My Media
This month I’m really into audiobooks. I’ve been catching up on the Warlock Holmes series, which is a take on Sherlock Holmes where Holmes is dumb, but also a dark magician, while Watson is the actual brains of the outfit. The GraphicAudio version is really great, an excellent way to experience the series.
In video games, I ripped through Kathy Rain in a couple of days, but it was a lot of fun. It reminded me of the Gabriel Knight series, right down to being set in the 1990s and featuring a motorcycle-riding protagonist. But it does a lot of new things as well, and it’s well worth a playthrough (even though it’s a bit on the short side).
And with that, I’m off to do some research for my next project. See everyone in December!
