A Long Road

Before I dive into the meat of this post let me go through the news. The kids and Rachel are well. Alec is still staying at his grandparents and we miss him. For days and days and days now we've not gotten to play D&D for one reason or another. I'm hoping we get to next week. Either way, Summer vacation is right around the corner so we should get to play then one way or the other. Today is Mother's day (I'm writing this on Sunday) and although I won't post this until Monday I want to wish all you Mother's a very happy Mother's day! My last bit of local news (before I dive into work news) is that I've shaved my beard off. “What beard?” some of you may ask. Well, my poor, thin, I-tried-to-grow-a-beard-for-my-wife-beard beard. She saw the beards on Duck Dynasty and decided I should try to grow one. So I did. For months. Yesterday she decided it was time for the beard to go. As soon as I'm done here I plan to shave. Of course, I had Abby take a picture for posterity:


I happen to have a number of pictures this week in spite of myself. First we have a few of the kids in general:


Then there a number of the tea party that Rachel took the girls to Saturday:


Here's one of Caleb asleep with a chicken nugget in his mouth (courtesy of Ben):


And here are a couple from the play Dad was in:


The play was great! It was a production of Annie and everyone did well. Dad did a great job!!

Now that I've taken care of that I can move on to the title of this post. Some of you may be wondering exactly what “long road” I'm referencing. Well, this morning I'm talking about video game development. I started working on Worlds of Magic (then titled Empires of Sorcery) two years ago as of March. That means by the time the game comes out (probably in time for Christmas sales) I'll have been working on it for almost three years. And as soon as it's released I'll probably be starting work on our first expansion.

Don't get me wrong, I don't mind. I like it, really. In fact, I enjoy it a great deal. What I don't enjoy, however, is waiting on payday. For more than two years I've been working on WoM and what I've made out of it so far has been a little more than I needed to cover what I spent when I first started. That's not exactly what I'd normally make during a two year period, lol.

Of course, there is the “flip side”. And it's a pretty big “flip” as it were. You see, I'm not just working on Worlds of Magic, I own it. That is to say I'm the owner of the “intellectual property” as it's called. That means I can authorize and produce any number of expansions for the game and as much “download-able content” as I want. I can also develop Worlds of Magic 2 when the time comes. On top of that, when payday finally does come I should get a pretty good sized check. I'll get my two (or three) years pay all in one chunk and then some. In fact, “and a whole lot more” might be a better way to put that :)

Another consideration is that this entire process has “legitimized” me as a game developer. I'm planning to do another Kickstarter next year for another game project I have in mind. (In fact, I've already started tinkering with it a bit in my spare time.) I have two successful Kickstarter campaigns under my belt and by the time I do the next one I should have made a fairly awesome video game. I've got a lot of contacts I didn't have when I started with Empires of Sorcery two years ago. Those contacts should be a great help when it comes to “getting the word out” when I start my next campaign. All things considered I expect it to be a success.

One other consideration is that all this is helping get my name out there. That could be a real help to me when it comes to my publishing career. I like making games and I want to keep doing it, but I like writing as well. I still hope to be a published author one day. Anyways, I'm beginning to stray from my “long road” point....

What has put this “load road” feeling on me is news I got yesterday. It turns out the publisher that is looking at us wants to push things back about three months. I'm not sure what Les is going to do about it (this one is his decision), but I really have a “not another three months...” feeling. I can't help it. according to my original time table WoM was supposed to be finished by January. Now, the issues that pushed the time table back couldn't be helped, but that doesn't improve my situation a great deal. I am almost broke. I'm getting our bills paid, but just barely. I was really hoping that we were going to get a deal signed with a publisher before the end of the month. My plan was to ask for an advance if there was enough money. Well, now there isn't enough money and I just have to keep on doing my best to make ends meet. This is probably the worst financial situation we've been in since Rachel and I got married. Still, we're not going hungry and I think I should be able to pay everything until December. By then the game should be out and everything should be good.

Still, it really has been a long road. I'm hoping and praying I make enough on this game to make all the future roads seem shorter, lol. Either way, that's enough for now. I need to go shave and we have a good bit planned for Mother's day. So, once again, goodnight from South Carolina!