Spent a great day at PAX here in Seattle. Amazing to see such a turnout. I first went to PAX when it was in a hotel on the eastside — we did an early Pirates of the Burning Sea event there — and their growth has been astounding.
Author: John Scott Tynes
I should probably tell you about my new job. If only Microsoft would put out a press release and save me the trouble!
Microsoft Launches More Expansive Imagine Cup 2013
Eleventh year features new categories and bigger cash prizes to inspire more young developers and entrepreneurs around the globe.
This looks like great fun. I’m glad to see a kid superhero suitable for all ages.
Flaming Carrot, my favorite comic book ever, has a Kickstarter underway. For fifteen bucks you can get the complete run of the series as an ebook. This is a dada masterpiece and one of the few good things to come out of the 1980s. I wore Flaming Carrot t-shirts proudly, registered at GenCon at the age of seventeen as “Franklin Carreaux,” and made my own Flaming Carrot action figure as a college freshman out of an old Mego Mister Fantastic doll plus a carrot head I made myself out of Sculpy. The comic is funny as hell, amazingly creative, totally weird, and just brilliant. You got fifteen bucks? Get this.
I just have to point out that Reaper’s Bones Kickstarter is now up to more than 150 gaming miniatures for $100. As they hit stretch goals they keep tossing more figures into the $100 bucket and it’s just nuts. If you’re any kind of tabletop gamer, this is the mother lode.
Kickstarter really is my crack these days. I’ve backed two dozen projects and I find the whole thing fascinating. If you want to follow my Kickstarter activity and get a ping whenever I back a project, feel free to do so here:
John Scott Tynes — Kickstarter
A demon gave you superpowers and it demands EVIL. Maybe a little over-the-top, thwartable villainy will keep it under control. Maybe.
I have no need for gaming miniatures these days but even my heart starts racing when I look at the $100 package from Reaper Miniatures’ Kickstarter. They’re using Kickstarter to finance a slew of new molds for plastic miniatures. Molds for plastic have always been way more expensive to produce than molds for metal, which is why few minis companies can justify making plastic figures. But with this Kickstarter, Reaper is getting to make a ton of molds — and once those are made, the figures are way cheaper than metal to produce.
All of which is to say: for $100, you’ll get dozens — I think almost a hundred — kickass gaming miniatures via Reaper’s Kickstarter.
They’ve raised more than a million dollars this way. All the plastic molds they’re financing can transform their whole business. This is a great use for Kickstarter and an incredible bargain for gamers.
And it all ends in just a few days.
Took Spelunky for XBLA for a spin. I can see why it got attention on PC and I see both the nostalgia and the innovations. But a procedurally generated platformer means you aren’t playing against the level, you’re playing against the system that made the level. It’s not the same thing and for me it broke the fourth wall way too quickly.
Chaosium is doing a Kickstarter for a new edition of their Horror on the Orient Express campaign for Call of Cthulhu. I wasn’t a big fan of the campaign but it was quite a memorable production and I’m glad to see it making a triumphant return.
Horror on the Orient Express: A Chaosium Publication
A re-imagining of the iconic Horror on the Orient Express, originally released by Chaosium in 1991.
Dan Harms’ Cthulhu Mythos Encyclopedia is out now in a new ebook edition from Arc Dream. I’ll never forget seeing Dan get gunned down by a cultist during a panel at NecronomiCon years ago. My role in the event was to cry out in horror, “My God! They killed Dan Harms!”
The Cthulhu Mythos Encyclopedia Now Available as eBook
That’s right! Arc Dream has acquired the electronic rights for The Cthulhu Mythos Encyclopedia, and they’ve just released the eBook in time for GenCon! You can pick it up for the Kindl…