One milestone down

24 July 10 | 15:37 | Posted by:

As of a short while ago, I now have all text for GameSpite Quarterly 5 placed on-page, and 90% laid out. Once I tidy things up, it's really just a matter of placing images (which, it has to be said, is way more time-consuming than it has any right to be). This issue will be the single longest Quarterly ever, the full 440 pages Blurb allows. That's a lot! Maybe too many, actually, since it's going to make the paperback version quite a bit more expensive than I ever intended -- a $20 book really blows my intended scheme of making these things available for $12-14. Granted, this issue is more than twice as thick as I ever expected a quarterly publication to be, but that's NES fandom for ya.

So, I put the question to you: Should I publish the paperback edition with the full contents of the hardcover and hope people don't flinch at the price, or do I trim everything that isn't a full article and knock five bucks off the price? Publishing two separate editions of the paperback version (one complete, one not) isn't a viable compromise; I learned from issue three that no one wants a so-called budget edition. Well, that's not quite true; one person bought the budget edition. Hi there, whoever you were. Thanks for making sure the time I took to trim down that edition to budget size wasn't a complete waste.

Big and pricey, or slim and affordable? This is the question I need answered. And now I commence adding images, which will probably wrap next weekend. I could probably get it done tomorrow, but I signed up for a press screening of Scott Pilgrim and will apparently be traveling to L.A. tomorrow. That's rad and all, but does somewhat complicate the magazine production process. This thing is slated for September 1 publication, though, so even with my last-minute travel plans we're still waaaay ahead of schedule. For once. It's kind of weird, but in a sexy way.

category: blog | forums | 25 comments | §

Ouch

17 July 10 | 23:28 | Posted by:

Today I worked on GSQ5 so much -- about 90 pages worth -- that I may have ruined my right hand. The nerve is burning and pinching. The only other time I've ever felt this kind of pain was when I was a kid and played too much Rad Racer. Weirdly, I laid out a Rad Racer page today. I'm gonna go ahead and leap to the logical conclusion here: Rad Racer is cursed. And I think maybe Nasir hates me.

category: blog | forums | ten comments | §

It really is Talking Time

03 July 10 | 19:13 | Posted by:

I do believe that my favorite thing about the beginning of a new month has steadily taken form over the past year: To with, the launch of a new series of projects in Talking Time's Let's Play forum that each turn of the calendar page brings with it. Although TT's completion rate isn't quite 100%, I think the crew here has a much better ratio of finished Let's Play threads than most similar venues. That is because Talking Time is quality people.

This month's new collection of entries is particularly significant, because it brings with it Nich's already incredibly promising Let's Play of Clash at Demonhead, which already has revealed many of the most important long-running insider references 'round these here parts. Also on tap is a roundtable presentation of Mega Man 2, and newcomerish Umbaglo delving into Konami's absolutely fascinating N64 brawler RPG Hybrid Heaven, which is one of those games I always liked in principle but found entirely too opaque to properly enjoy. So this should be a nice way to experience it.

As ever, I strongly encourage the clickage of the links above, because entertainment is guaranteed.

In other news, between marathon review sessions of Crackdown 2 (which I finally finished today) I've been hanging out with my brother, who is visiting San Francisco for a few days. This is the first time we've ever really had a chance to spend time together as adults, what with him having been flying with the Navy for the past decade or so, and it's been nice to really get to know one another.

Much of this has simply been him regaling me with hilarious stories from his time in the service. Take, for instance, the story of one of his former squad mates from his Pacific tour of duty, a man my brother describes as "the African-American Yogi Berra of naval aviation" for the guy's tendency to speak wisdom through a haze of malapropism. "When I hear anyone mention dim sum, all I can think about is my old squadmate," he tells me. "The first time he ate dim sum, he said, 'A black man must have named this.' I was like, 'What?' And he nodded and said, 'Yeah, some brother must have eaten this and said, Man, dim sum nasty eats.'" As someone who doesn't much care for dim sum, I find that this tale resonates powerfully within my soul.

Anyway, the main thing I've taken away from my brother's stories is that people in the military make for much more colorful anecdotes than people who write about videogames for a living. We're all a bunch of boring ol' stiffs.... the '90s staff of GameFan very obviously excepted, of course.

category: blog | forums | nine comments | §

So I made a shirt

29 June 10 | 11:40 | Posted by:

And then I photographed it... badly. Apparently the iOS 4 update has turned my iPhone 3GS's camera function into junk. That's heartwarming!



Anyway, so yeah. I wanted to see what sort of quality I could expect from Spreadshirt.com, since I've heard good things about it. It seems pretty nice, actually. I need to give it a few runs through the wash to see if it's less likely to dissolve upon contact with water than Cafe Press apparel, but I like the print quality and the shirt options.

Is this design something people would actually wear on their bodies? I am curious. I realize T-shirts are pretty passé, now that the Internet T-shirt craze has passed... but people do request GameSpite/ToastyFrog shirts occasionally, so consider this an official query. Yes? No? Any designs you would particularly want to see? Should I just punch myself in the face and save everyone the embarrassment? You tell me.

category: blog | forums | 40 comments | §

Mission accomplished (two out of three)

05 June 10 | 12:03 | Posted by:

The week is already at an end! So let's tally up how it went.



I fulfilled my mission to post five Kit-Kat Densetsu entries this week, even if the last one was slightly later than intended. I think I am allowed some leeway on that one, though, because I was too busy trying not to puke after eating yesterday's subject to be able to write about it. Seriously, yuck. That's one!



I've mailed off all the GameSpite subscriber books destined for U.S. addresses over the past couple of days, and those should be arriving as soon as... well, probably yesterday, for California folks. The international books are in a bag by my feet, addressed and ready to be mailed when I venture forth for lunch in a little while. It feels pretty good to have those taken care of, even if they're a bit late, too. I'm already planning ahead to this fall's book and have a few solid ideas in mind. So, that's two.



But alas, three is where it falls apart. I was hoping to have GameSpite Year One, Vol. 2 ready to go up for sale Monday morning, thus fulfilling my self-imposed mandate to have a new book ready the first week of every third month. But, I am still proofing the text and haven't yet begun making the corrections in the InDesign file, so it looks like it will be another week before that's ready. Which means it will probably be completely lost in the noise of E3. That's a shame, because I'm really happy with how this book has turned out. It's huge, dense, and interesting to look at. Well, at least the tiny handful of people who notice it will enjoy it.

And now, back to Peace Walker and literally undressing teenage girls with my eyes saving Latin America.

category: blog | forums | seven comments | §

Stuff, and things

31 May 10 | 16:07 | Posted by:

So, I've spent the past few hours sketching silly doodles in the GameSpite bonus books before stuffing them into envelopes. I'm hoping to have them in the mail within the next couple of days, so that's something we can all be excited about.



Perhaps less exciting for everyone who isn't me: I posted another installment of Kit-Kat Densetsu on BakeSpite and intend to post a new entry every day this week. I actually have enough different flavors to carry me pretty much to the end of June, to be honest, but I wouldn't want to burn through my material quite that quickly.

In summary: Blah, blah, blah.

category: blog | forums | four comments | §

A new wrinkle

27 May 10 | 23:13 | Posted by:

So, as of today, Apple now allows people to self-publish books on the iPad bookstore. (I can't bring myself to call them iBooks, though; in my old-school mind, an iBook is the low-budget version of a PowerBook... which no longer exists, I guess, so it's just needless pedantry.) Anyway, as someone who self-publishes, this development intrigues me! The iPad market is small enough that I'd be lucky to sell a dozen copies at the moment, but it's hard to imagine this particular media niche -- as filled by both iPad and the raft of looming competitors -- not becoming fairly important in the fairly near future. Thus it seems to be something I should jump on soon, doesn't it?

I don't suppose anyone knows how to go about procuring an ISBN number, or how to convert a PDF to ePub format?

category: blog | forums | 17 comments | §