The time, where does it go...?
My intention to post more regularly has yet to come to full fruition and all because I seem to have so little time. I've been so busy chasing up leads and contacts that so many people have been good enough to pass onto me, as well as updating my website, that I've had little time for anything else.

I managed to get some new business cards printed, which look rather impressive, even if I do say so myself. They took ages to get right, so that's a large chunk of this week gone right there.

I went to an open interview day that Sony were conducting in York. The two guys that came over were very friendly and approachable, but they were from the Liverpool studio where they mainly do racing games. While I do enjoy racing games, I don't think my writing and design skills would be called upon very much. I was told that they'd pass my details onto the other studios, though, particularly for freelance consideration.

I've got another interview next week, so I hope I have more luck this time as it turns out that I didn't get the job I went for last week. Ah well...

Crescent and Claw - collected strips



At last my collection of comic strips is ready to be purchased. I've refrained from making too much of a preparatory song and dance about it ahead of time because I know how hype can work against a product if it goes the slightest bit wrong. But enough of that, if you've wanted to read my strips in glorious printed form, now is your chance to do so and to help out a struggling writer and artist (me, I mean). Please click on the link below to get to the purchasing details.

Buy the book, Crescent and Claw!

Although the UK link hasn't been fully sorted, those of you wishing to purchase the book from the US link can do so already.

Another report
Spong have a report on the Revolution downsizing, here.

I'm more than a little touched - thanks
There is a thread on the JA+ forums, here, that talks about the redundancies at Revolution. A number of the posters specifically wished me well and for that I can honestly say that I'm very grateful and quite touched by the kind sentiments. Thank you, all.

There's also a thread over at the Adventure Gamers forums, here. Again, it means a lot that you guys show concern for my future. Thanks.

Please bear a thought, also, for the others who have lost out. A great team of people who cared very passionately about the work they did. the breaking up of that team is going to be the biggest loss to the industry.

Here are some of the details...
The news is that Revolution has downsized to such a point that I (and many others) have been made redundant. The reason I've been very cagey is that we were asked to keep quiet about it, yet I've just discovered that it's been common knowledge since Thursday of last week. So I guess I'm now at liberty to talk about my own situation.

What this means is that I'm now in the position of having to look for another job. With more than eleven years in development I hope that this will not be too arduous a task, particularly as I have such a wide variety of skills and experience. To cover all of my options I am also actively looking for freelance design and writing work.

In spite of the fact that I've loved my time at Revolution, I see this unfortunate incident as an exciting time in which I'll be able to stretch my creativity to new heights and develop rewarding working relationships with a whole host of new people. I will have the opportunity to work on genres of games I could only have dreamed about before and utilise all the knowledge and experience from Revolution in different and challenging ways. If there's one thing I love, it's the opportunity to keep pushing at the boundaries of my creativity and establish new boundaries to be pushed at next time. And the next...

As I explained in the last post, the comic strips are going to take a hit for a time until everything shakes out, but for the moment I have such a wealth of material I need to filter through in order to pick out the best examples with which to sell myself. The site will also be undergoing a substantial change.

I went for my first interview on Friday with a company that has a pretty long pedigree of games in a variety of genres. They are a very professional-looking outfit and the guy who interviewed me couldn't have been friendlier and made me feel very at ease with the whole thing. I'll be hearing something from them later this week.

Wish me luck in my endeavours and I'll keep you posted on any developments.

Edit: Read Revolution MD's comments.

Big changes...
Although I'm not going into all that's been happening in my life this past week, suffice to say that it's been a pretty momentous one and not something that I can approach lightly. I know I haven't been posting very much for a while, but once I do explain the situation you will fully understand and appreciate my reticence.

The Blog will likely be undergoing serious changes. In tone if nothing else. I will also endeavour to be a bit more in-depth in my approach to what I write. I've been more than a little flippant in my approach and my writing style to do you readers the justice you deserve when you've taken the time to come here.

I shall likely be reducing the number of comic strips I produce for the immediate future. Again, the reason will become apparent eventually.

The main part of my site will be undergoing some design and structural changes and I'll be testing out the results online, so if you stumble across anything that isn't working it's probably because of the maintenance and additions I'll be making.

After the gloomy evasiveness above, at least I have one bright note on which to end - a collection of my comic strips is about to be published. I have no idea of the quality of the book as I've yet to see a copy myself, but I have hopes that it's going to be a thing of beauty. The book's called Crescent and Claw, 116 B&W pages with a full colour cover. I shall be posting more details and instructions on how to order the book within the next couple of days.