Games
The Stanley Parable: First 5 Minutes
Trying to put one of these out more frequently. The Stanley Parable is probably the best ‘first 5 minutes’ game imaginable, so it’s a little silly that it’s taken me this long to get round to it:
Filmmaking
HitFilm tutorial: Disrupted waveform
I made my first HitFilm tutorial for about 10 months! It was all based around an image I made for an article header over on the International Literature Showcase website. Hopefully I’ll find the time to do more stuff like Read more…
Productivity
Online serialisation – free webinar!
Last weekend I was part of the Publishing Day School at Writers’ Centre Norwich, speaking about online serialisation alongside an excitingly broad mix of traditional, digital and self publishers. Here’s a webinar version of the talk:
About eight years ago I went to Eastercon, my first science fiction convention. It was a great weekend full of fascinating panels, including the likes of Neil Gaiman, Cory Doctorow and China Mieville. As engrossing as the discussions were, there was a narcissistic room in the back of my brain which wanted to be up on the panel, rather than sitting in the audience.
Being part of the Publishing Day School, sitting on a panel alongside other writers, I achieved that goal. It was another critical step along the road of becoming a writer.
(more…)
Writing
On finishing The Witcher 3
In a gaming era defined by the need to be on-going and forever, whether that be through multiplayer, procedural generation, MMO persistence, an endless parade of hats or drip-feed DLC, it’s a relief to be given an out. The Witcher 3‘s second major expansion Blood & Wine is the developers saying “it’s ok. Go now. Our time here is over.”
Spoilers ensue. (more…)
Writing
I have fan art
Something pretty amazing happened last week. I was contacted by an artist through Wattpad, who happened to be a fan of A Day of Faces and had drawn their interpretation of the lead character, Kay.
Would I like to see it? Why, yes, please!
Check it out: (more…)
Writing
5 things Wattpad needs to do if it wants to be taken more seriously
I love Wattpad, because Wattpad turned me into a writer. I’d always claimed to want to be a writer, and had always been writing bits and pieces here and there, but I’d never published anything or even really finished a project. Writing had become something I did at work in my capacity as a copywriter, while my dreams of being a novelist flapped about in the winds of nostalgia.
A couple of years after publishing on Wattpad I had a novel called A Day of Faces, 116,000 reads, a Watty 2016 award and a lot more confidence. In April I’m talking about my experience as part of the Publishing Day School at Writers’ Centre Norwich. Wattpad even ended up on the International Literature Showcase last year.
But it ain’t perfect. In fact, there are gaping holes. It aspires to be YouTube for words, yet is failing to even replicate that platform’s basic features.I love Wattpad, so hopefully this insight will prove useful to the engineers over there… (more…)
Writing
On converting Wattpad readers into patrons (or not)
I started a Patreon last year, coinciding with starting work on the A Day of Faces audiobook, The Mechanical Crown and the How To Write Serialised Fiction guide. Given the success I’d had with A Day of Faces on Wattpad, I’d hoped it would have a steady start.
As of right now, I have one patron. He’s the best kind of patron: always has interesting feedback, frequently sends over suggestions for improvement, and is generally supportive. But he’s my lone Patreon supporter, which makes for a slightly awkward situation. (more…)
Writing
Designing The Mechanical Crown’s new cover
There’s a brand new cover for The Mechanical Crown which I unveiled last night. It looks like this: (more…)
Games
Applying some game design to Quasar
I’ve now been twice to Quasar, the laser tag venue in Norwich, and both times have felt like I’m missing something. While running around in the dark with lasers guarantees at least a minimum level of fun, there’s a handful of changes they could implement to make it much more satisfying as a game. Essentially, approaching it like you might design a computer game offers up some obvious areas for improvement.
I’ve no idea whether any of this applies to other laser tag places, or whether the Norwich version is the only one to be needing some of this refreshing, but here goes… (more…)