Pushing Through
March's Pugsteady Update!
Hey all! Remember how last month I was feeling pretty positive about things? Yeah, about that….
It’s a Process, Not a Problem
The past month has really been rough in a lot of ways. Obviously recent events in Ukraine and Texas have been on my mind, causing me to worry about my friends all over the world. Further, I was in a minor car accident, and I ended up having to take things easy for a few days while I recovered. On top of that, a lot of exciting and challenging things are on my plate right now, the kinds of things that require me to talk to lawyers. I’m not in trouble or anything, and I don’t have the fear of lawyers that many others have (thanks to working closely with CCP Legal for a number of years while navigating Onyx Path’s licenses), but it’s all stressful.
After a particularly bad day, I talked things over with my incredibly smart wife, and she pointed out that mental health is a process to internalize, not a problem to solve. It sounds simple when it’s phrased like that, but I definitely had been looking at a lot of challenges in my life as things I should defeat and never have to address again, instead of being able to have more good days than bad. I was looking at bad days as failures on my part.
Which maps really well to writing, honestly. No matter how well you plan or organize or whatever, you’re going to have days when you just write crap, or worse can’t manage to write at all. What I’m working to teach myself is that those days are opportunities to learn how to better proceed, rather than failures in which I need to punish myself. It’s growth mindset vs fixed mindset, and while I recognize the value of having a growth mindset, I still struggle to stop myself from switching to a fixed mindset when I’m stressed out. In the end, I just have to recognize that I’m still growing and changing, even as I approach the half-century mark.
News Roundup!
One thing that helps me break out of my fixed mindset is looking back on my recent successes, so let’s dive into that!
The first episode of Lunch and Crunch is now live on YouTube! This is the series where I chat with Danielle Lauzon over lunch and tea to talk about game design, using the Storypath System as a base. This episode is us figuring things out (like how audio works!), but it’s still a great foundation. Check it out!
Speaking of videos, my Extra Credits video on the state of the tabletop industry is now up! While I’ve written a number of scripts for EC over the years, this was the one where I did the most research, and was in many ways the hardest to write. But I’ve seen people sharing it all over, and I’ve gotten a lot of great comments on it, so I’m please that it’s out in the world (even if I’m sad that the topic is still relevant right now).
One of my favorite gamelines to write for is the They Came From…! series, and most recently They Came From Beyond the Grave! has been released! This is such a fun look at the campy-yet-gory era of 1970s cinema, and I had a blast working on it.
Plus, there will be a Kickstarter Double Feature for the next two They Came From….! games: They Came From [CLASSIFIED] (spy movies) and They Came From the Cyclops’s Cave! (fantasy films). I worked on [CLASSIFIED], but both games are great, so keep an eye on Kickstarter in the coming weeks!
Finally, Onyx Path recently announced that they’re one of the sponsors of the latest season of Mystery Science Theater 3000! So you’ll get to see some great tie-ins to They Came From Beneath the Sea! in the coming year ahead as part of their new streaming service, the Gizmoplex! I am incredibly hyped about this!
My Media
I recently found out that one of my favorite semi-obscure shows, Kamen Rider, has been getting some English releases! Four shows are available for streaming via Shout Factory TV, with a fifth as part of Amazon Prime, and at least two more as part of the Toku platform. Also, there’s been a Blu-Ray release of Kamen Rider Zero One! I’m so happy that this show is finally getting a release in English, so I quickly bought the Blu-Ray set and I’ve been watching Zero One for a few days now. Zero One is about a kid who inherits his grandfather’s company in a near future Japan which co-exists with humanoid robots known as Humagears, but there’s a robot revolution brewing in the background. It’s actually an okay companion to Trinity Continuum: Anima, now that I think about it….
I’ve also been reading 2000 AD lately, both the latest issues (I bought a year-long digital subscription to it and the Judge Dredd Megazine), as well as collections from the recent Masters of British Comics Humble Bundle. I’ve been a Judge Dredd fan for years, but discovering new-to-me series like M.A.C.H. 1 and, surprisingly, Roy of the Rovers has been a treat. I never expected to be emotionally invested in a comic about a soccer team, but here we are. It’s a fantastic deal, and I highly encourage you to check it out if you did non-superhero comics.
Well, that’s enough for today. Time to get back to work. See you next month!
