Uncategorized – Page 31 – The Designer Monologues

November 7, 2009

Rough Beasts Starting To Slouch….

Mostly posting this as a reminder that I want to write up my own thoughts on this topic at some point soon.

Lots of rumblings recently — Teh Fyooture is a’ comin’. Given the things I’ve got cooking backstage, I’m finding all of this very, very interesting.

First up: Announcements made by White Wolf at the International Camarilla Conference about where their business is headed, coupled with more definitive statements from Ryan Dancey in an interview with Gamasutra. Long story short — WW is transitioning. Tabletop RPGs are a “legacy business”, they’re going to gradually move towards ePublishing, in whatever format.

Second: Very insightful thoughts from former Adamant freelancer Malcolm Sheppard about what it all means for the future of the business — the coming post-tabletop games, the idea of traditional RPGs as “IP Prototyping” (the real gem concept of the entire article). Well worth reading.

All of this dovetails really well with the data I’ve been collecting, which is bubbling in my head, making steps towards coming together in a primordial soup of a new business model for Adamant (and perhaps other traditional hobby game companies).

I have to admit some degree of hesitancy in aggregating everything and presenting it in one grand thesis statement. It almost seems like all of the various ingredients I’ve been looking at are there for all to see, but nobody has combined them specifically with the idea of applying the separate elements to the game industry IP-presentation model. The nagging worry (born of egotism, I know), is that I’ll assemble the post, present my concept, and then get beaten to market by folks who say “Hey! That’s a great idea!”, and rush to launch, either on the back of a better budget, a larger staff, or just half-assing it.

In other words, the selfish side of me wants to keep the inspiration to myself, and just LAUNCH.

November 6, 2009April 19, 2010

Friday Music

Hey there, Kats n’ Kittens — another weekly mixtape of ‘teh intarwebs’ for ya:

First, one of the tracks that featured in Emilie Autumn’s show this week — a remix she had featured on the soundtrack to Saw IV, which I will now forever associate with fire-hoop dancing: Emilie Autumn – “Dead Is The New Alive (Manipulator Mix)”

Here’s a bit of a rare gem — an unreleased track from Muse, taken from (I believe) their sessions from The Resistance. The Internet is a wondrous thing, neh? Muse – “Soaked (unreleased).”

Love this — a roots-music/folk/alterna-pop act called The Wailin’ Jennies do a brilliant cover of an Emylou Harris classic. Even better, this is a live recording, giving a clear picture of just how good they are: The Wailin’ Jennies – “Deeper Well.”

Pomplamoose have a new cover song out on YouTube — their version of MJ’s “Beat It.” After you’ve done watching, click here to download the mp3, which the band has made available via mediafire: Pomplamoose – “Beat It.”

Here’s a bit of the new hotness in the South African electro scene. It’s been growing on me the more I listen to it. Popskarr – “Tonight.”

The local “alternative” station does a show at lunchtime called “The 90s at Noon”, and this week, during one of my rare forays into radio listenership, I heard them play “Angry Johnny” by Poe. Whereas I loved that song, you still hear it from time to time — but you almost never hear her other single from the same album, which I loved even more: Poe – “Trigger Happy Jack (Radio Edit)”

Watching the news this morning — seeing the stories from Fort Hood, pictures of the lunatics that the GOP brought to Capitol Hill for yet another anti-Obama protest, and stories about the wars we’re still in nearly a decade on… I needed to hear this song. I think it’s worth spreading around. Elvis Costello & The Attractions – “What’s So Funny ‘Bout Peace, Love and Understanding.”

Listening to Costello from that period always leads me to think of this track from Marshall Crenshaw from around the same time, who was very much of the same ilk, and whom I was convinced would be equally big. Marshall Crenshaw – “Someday, Someway.”

There you go. If a link gives you trouble, try copy-and-paste — some of these are pulled from flash players and sometimes they don’t like hotlinking, but a C&P usually gets around that.

Enjoy, and I’ll see you for more next week.

November 5, 2009

Emilie Autumn

Went to the Emilie Autumn show at the Granada Theater here in Lawrence last night, accompanied by the_themiscyran and, as a last-minute addition, Dotta Numba 2.

Great show — As a fan of her music, I knew what I was going to hear, but I didn’t expect what I was going to see. Ms. Autumn and her 4 “Bloody Crumpets” (Captain Maggot, Naughty Veronica, Aprella the Murderess and the Blessed Contessa) put on a full-blown steampunk cabaret, with improv, aerial acrobatics, fire dancing, costume changes, ribbon dancing… and tea.

There are already a couple of Youtube clips from last night’s show:

First up, my favorite instrumental, “Unlaced” (a piece for synth, harpsichord, electric violin… and, of course, canes and stilt-walking):

(Trust me – the video says the song is “Manic Depression”, but it’s “Unlaced.”)

and the remix song that she’s got on the soundtrack to “Saw IV”, “Dead Is The New Alive (Manipulator Mix)”, which features some fire-eating from The Contessa and some brilliant fire-hoop dancing from Captain Maggot: