Matt Forbeck's Blog, page 49

Back from GCC Online

I spent most of this week in Austin, Texas, at GDC Online (which isn't really online much at all, despite the title). I'd never been to Austin before, but the city welcomed me in and treated me like an old friend: it fed me well and kept me up drinking and chatting all night.

I got in late Sunday morning and wandered around town until my room was ready. That evening, I met up with a bunch of folks from the IGDA Writers SIG, plus longtime tabletop industry friends Jesse Scoble (now with Kings Isle in Austin), Thomas Reid, and Scott Haring. (It's free to join the Writers SIG mailing list, by the way, and a great means of networking with other video game writers.) Afterward, I had dinner with the other speakers in for the Game Narrative Summit, followed by a pilgrimage to the Ginger Man.

GDCO is large enough to support several groups of people involved in video games, but the writers have been wise enough to establish the Ginger Man as the default hangout. Go wander off and have lunch and dinner where you like. Hit a few of the parties in the evenings. But wind up your night there, and you know you're among friends.

I didn't have any duties on Monday, so I hung out with Jesse Scoble and hit a number of the seminars, including watching Nolan Bushell (founder of Atari) give the keynote. One of the many highlights of the day was meeting many of the great people at Blizzard and attending their party later that evening.

The next day, I gave a talk called "Building a Transmedia Property." This sandwiched me in between Geoff Long and Aaron Linde, each of whom gave stellar presentations of their own on the subject, making for a Transmedia Tuesday Triple Threat. I had forgotten the dongle to connect my laptop to the AV system in the room, but I had copied it onto a USB stick in case of disaster. Aaron kindly let me transfer it to his computer for the talk.

The downside was that when the Keynote file opened up, it had lost my custom settings, which would have shown my notes I'd written to go along with the slides. That meant I had to wing it, using the slides as my only mnemonics. I think this worked better, as it kept me from consulting notes and forced me to talk directly to the audience the entire time. Many people complimented the speech, and no one walked out, so I count it as a win.

That night, I hit the WGA West mixer and the GDCO Speakers Party, then had an excellent dinner with many new friends before hoofing it to the Ginger Man once more. Wednesday was a bit more of the same, leading up to heading out for the airport that afternoon. At one point, we had thirty-some people lined up for an impromptu lunch, but we wound up MIRVing off into smaller groups. Mine included Thomas Reid, Sheri Graner Ray, Chris Clark (of Magnificent Egos fame), Brian BlankingOnTheLastName, and Ryan Dancey.

I'd list off all the wonderful people I met, but I'm sure I'd forget more than a few of them. I do want to shout out a special thanks to the Game Narrative Summit Advisory board, including Tom Abernathy and Lev Chapelsky and especially my old pal Richard Dansky, who encouraged me to submit a talk and come out in the first place.

 

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Next Week: GDC Online

Next week, I'm off to Austin, Texas, for the Game Developers Conference Online. (Which is not actually online, but is about things online, it seems, which is why I must haul myself down to Austin to it.) I'm giving a short speech called "Building a Transmedia Property," which is about how to build yourself a story/world that has the best potential to work in several different media. Heady stuff.

If you're going to be at the show, be sure to let me know. I've never been to Austin before, and I'm looking forward to a fun few days talking about stories and games!

Magic #1 Cover B

I just spotted one of the alternate covers for the first issue of the Magic: The Gathering comic I'm writing for IDW. This one's by the talented Eric Deschamps, and it depicts the hero of the tale — Dack Fayden — relieving a young lady of something valuable. Knowing him, it's probably magical too.

The book's scheduled to ship in December, and I can't wait for you to read it. I just wrapped up my first draft on issue #2, and I'm already looking ahead to the rest of the series.

Magic #1 Solicitation

Yesterday, IDW released its solicitations for its comics coming out in December. Among many other amazing things, this contained more details on the first issue of the Magic: The Gathering comic book I'm writing for them. While most solicitations are kept intentionally vague, it does reveal a few cool new bits about the book, including the names of the superstar artists working on variant covers: Eric Deschamps and Christopher Moeller.

IDW's really pulling out the stops to get some top artistic talent on the book, and I cannot wait to see their efforts. I'm proud to be in such excellent company, even if it means I'll have to work twice as hard to keep up!

Look for the full text of the solicitation after the break:

Magic: The Gathering #1

Matt Forbeck (w) • Martin Coccolo (a) • Aleksi Briclot (c)

Get ready, Magic: The Gathering fans, there's a new Planeswalker in town! In search of greater magical knowledge and on the hunt for the people who destroyed his town, Dack Fayden is the greatest thief in the Multiverse. When he gets his hands on his latest prize, though, he has no idea where it will lead him—or to who!

Retailers: See your order form for incentive information.

FC • 32 pages • $3.99

Variant covers:

Eric Deschamps variant cover!
Christopher Moeller variant cover!

Bullet points:

Includes an exclusive, playable alternate-art Magic: The Gathering card!
Ask your retailer how to get the rare Eric Deschamps variant cover!
Ask your retailer how to get the super-rare Christopher Moeller (JLA: League of One, Lucifer) cover!
Written by renowned author and game designer Matt Forbeck (The Lord of the Rings Roleplaying Game, Amortals, The Marvel Encyclopedia)!

Join Me at Gaming Hoopla

This weekend, I'm a guest of honor at Gaming Hoopla, a local gathering of tabletop gamers held in Janesville, Wisconsin. I should be there Saturday afternoon from noon to 4 PM at the least. If you're around, come on out and join me and fellow guests Tom Wham and Jim Ward at the event. I'm looking forward to chatting with friends and fans and maybe even sneaking in a game or three.

The First Board Game I Loved

Over at Kobold Quartlery, to celebrate the release of the Kobold Guide to Board Game Design, they've asked a number of the contributors, "What's the first board game you fell in love with?" I gave them an answer, and they posted it this week.

Hint: It's Dungeon, but hustle on over there to see why. While you're at it, check out the rest of the essays up so far, from Mike Selinker and Richard Levy.

Ann and Project 16:49

I'm proud to announce that today my wife Ann is in Madison, Wisconsin, to help accept the state superintendent's Friend of Education award on behalf of Project 16:49. Ann works as the homeless student liaison for the School District of Janesville, and she and Robin Stuht — her counterpart in Beloit — have been working tirelessly over the past couple years to set up a shelter for homeless teens in Rock County. Many homeless children can enter a shelter with their family, but a large number of homeless teens don't have that option. They're not yet old enough to enter a shelter for adults, so they have zero places to go.

To help raise awareness about this problem, filmmaker Rubin Burgos created a documentary about three local homeless teens. He called it Sixteen Forty-Nine after the numbers of hours and minutes a child has to wait between leaving the safe haven of a school in the afternoon and returning the next morning. Ann and Robin took up that banner, naming their effort Project 16:49, and they've been showing this moving film all around the area to help drum up support ever since.

This pays off in all sorts of ways, not just raising funds for the shelter itself but also motivating people to chip in as best they can. Earlier this month, for instance, the staff of the Mercy Health Mall teamed up to donate backpacks full of school and personal supplies for Janesville's homeless teens. (That's them in the photo. Ann's the one in the blue dress in the middle.)

Today, State Superintendent Tony Evers is recognizing Project 16:49′s efforts (along with eight others) in a ceremony at the state capitol, and Ann and Robin are there to accept the award. Read the official press release, and if you can manage it, visit the Project 16:49 website to see if there's something you can do to help.

I spend my days entertaining people, which I love, but my wife and her friends are out there on the front lines every day, working hard to help people in the worst need. I'm glad the state superintendent stood up to recognize and endorse all their hard work.

I Am the Gamerati Geek

My pal Ed Healy has spent the last several weeks wandering the country and visiting game stores, helping promote games. Along the way, he's filmed all sorts of people telling stories about games and what they mean to them. For a heartwarming example, check out blind game store owner Phil Glotfelty's account of meeting a customer who was deaf. Lester Smith and I met with Ed while he was at Noble Knight Games in Janesville, Wisconsin, a few weeks ago, and Ed recorded my story about how I first got involved with adventure games.

It may be coincidence that this was released during Speak Out With Your Geek Out, but I'm happy to take advantage of that and declare this my official geeky post for the week.

I Am the Gamerati Game

My pal Ed Healy has spent the last several weeks wandering the country and visiting game stores, helping promote games. Along the way, he's filmed all sorts of people telling stories about games and what they mean to them. For a heartwarming example, check out blind game store owner Phil Glotfelty's account of meeting a customer who was deaf. Lester Smith and I met with Ed while he was at Noble Knight Games in Janesville, Wisconsin, a few weeks ago, and Ed recorded my story about how I first got involved with adventure games.

It may be coincidence that this was released during Speak Out With Your Geek Out, but I'm happy to take advantage of that and declare this my official geeky post for the week.

Speaking of Geeks

This week is Speak Out With Your Geek Out, which was started by my friend Monica Valentinelli, with whom I sat on many panels at Geek.Kon this past Saturday. The whole idea is to publicly talk about your geeky hobbies in an effort to help remove any stigmas others might attach to them. As a professional geek, I like this idea. A lot.

To help promote it, I interviewed Monica for Wired.com's Geek Dad blog. Head on over there and learn all about it. And then, if you're a geek who's so inclined, join in.