J. Martin

May 15, 2022

What Year Is This?

I surfaced last Friday for my first free day since late March, all the weekends included, after brutal lecture blocks at two universities, bachelor exams, and tons of other stuff I wasn’t able to put off. I celebrated the occasion by chasing a substantial burrito with tortilla chips and a bottle of Corona beer—my first alcoholic beverage in two months! From there, I commenced enjoying the weekend. I’m still at it.

Now, for the exciting news I mentioned last Sunday: my proposal passed the review process and the publishing committee, and I signed a book contract with CRC-Press/Taylor & Francis Group! I’ll be able to share more details soon. I’m so happy about it!

Then, there’s my creative project. Last week I wrote about The Second Rule of Space Combat on my Voidpunk blog, the third post overall about the Voidpunk pen-&-paper RPG I’m working on. I wasn’t able to push it forward for several months, but still—if all goes well, I’ll have the rule system and the manuscript ready around this time next year. And then? Well, while I still buy physical pen-&-paper games from time to time, those are usually very special editions; I don’t think it makes sense to produce a print edition for such a brand new game (or IP). Thus, an electronic version will do. I’m still in the process of switching from Adobe InDesign to Affinity Publisher, which isn’t trivial, but I should be able to manage. What remains to be seen then, next year, is how much money I’ll have at my disposal for the artwork. I don’t need a lot of it—you’re supposed to play the game, after all, in your mind—but the quality I’m aiming at has its price, as it should be. Which, in turn, depends in part on whether I have found an agent and a publisher by then for my novels. (As I wrote elsewhere, a more energetic agent volley’s in the making.) Finally, there’s the proof-of-concept prototype I want to create for a Voidpunk indie game around 2024. I already did some preliminary conceptual work, and I might share some of it in future posts at my Voidpunk blog. So stay tuned!

Other things I put online last week was a linked-list item on Valve’s Antitrust Case Over Steam at just drafts; a new album on Flickr with photos from the Technikmuseum Berlin (lots of Zuse stuff, if that’s up your alley); one re-edit at Glass from Zhenguo Si in Pingyao, China; and some Instagram posts at betweendrafts and voidpunkverse.

Game recommendations, hopefully, will resume next week. For the Sunday funnies, three brief links: this very relatable plant; this adorable bunny cartoon, and exhausted Big Bird at DnD Sesame Street. Enjoy!

J.