so a friend asked me to give them an afternoon crash course in mecha anime to prepare them for a mecha larp and I ... maybe got a little carried away
I have prepared a three and a half hour history seminar featuring episodes from six series and clips from a dozen more
We are all love
@blaseball
, a game where the
@LoversBlaseball
can win without scoring a single run because the Firefighters started out in the Shame Pit (carrying over a negative run from the previous game)
Forced an Oscar party full of adults to sit through the 17 minute movie my middle school friends and I made, then awarded myself an Oscar I built out of legos. Gave my best friend one too, for his Original Score for our movie.
What's a childhood anecdote that says a lot about you?
Mine is that when I was 8 my friends and I went door to door selling homemade keychains so we could buy Bibles for our bullies.
β¨ GAME WRITERS WANTED! β¨
Microfun (the Beijing-based studio I work for) is looking to hire a few freelance writers to work remotely with me on an upcoming mobile fantasy RPG! Diverse applicants actively encouraged! (And yes, this is a paid gig.)
#gamewriting
#gamedevjobs
Finished
@XiranJayZhao
's IRON WIDOW and it fully lives up to the hype. One of those books where you can just feel how much fun the author was having writing every scene. Mechas! Qi blasts! Chinese history! Chaotic bisexuals everywhere! What's not to love!?
My journey into the video game dadlands continues! Yesterday was my first day as Senior Narrative Designer at
@SonySantaMonica
, working with the team that made God of War! Pretty dang excited about this one, not gonna lie!
shoutout to all my amazing coworkers at Possibility Space. the coolest group of people I've ever gotten to work with and an incredible project that I'm very bummed no one will get to play. if anyone wants to hire a narrative designer, hit me up!
Life update: extremely excited to announce that in August I will be moving (back) to the Boston area to be a Senior Narrative Designer at
@molassesflood
! Very jazzed to get to work on a rad game with rad people in one of my favorite cities in the world!!
I'm leaving my job, so my (genuinely lovely) team needs a replacement me! Maybe that's you! Do you have experience making stories for big multiplayer games? Do you wanna do some cool Witcher stuff? Apply today!
I'm starting my second day so it's starting to feel real enough to say out loud--yesterday, I started my new job as the Lead Narrative Systems Designer at Possibility Space! Over the moon to get to make something weird and new with an all star team!
@MaggieAstor
@Nicole_Cliffe
My grandfather did the exact same thing with electrical engineering. Wound up running his own engineering and manufacturing company. Real fond of that piece of the family legacy.
@imranzomg
I mean, Metroid Dread had an initial version in the works all the way back circa 2005 () that was shelved because they couldn't get the EMMIs to work right on DS hardware, so... this is a very reasonable theory!
apologies to everyone asking where they can stream this, it is not going to be online anywhere because it is happening in my living room
(but I guess maybe at some point in the future I will figure out a way to do an online version of this??)
The hardest part is working on this thing for so long and not getting to share it with y'all. I took the first interview for this project 1004 days ago. A thousand days of thinking about our core challenges, crafting a world, helping others fill it with new, cool things. Gone.
What an amazing first GDC! Everything I could have asked for: brilliant talks, insightful and joyful conversations with old friends and new, long sunny afternoons in the park, and a few very chaotic shenanigans.
Welp. It happened. The game I've been creative lead on for two years got cancelled out from under me. I'm pretty heartbroken about it.
...and I'm also looking for my next role! Who wants to hire me for a full-time narrative design / game writing job? Hopefully YOU DO!
After two months in heavily quarantined Beijing, I've learned a few things about coping with isolation. Now that this is going very global, I thought I'd write up a few tips that I've learned from trial and error!
I was living in Beijing during the explosive rise of jubensha (2020-2021) and it was wild watching a design subculture speedrun the entire history of larp design philosophy from first principles. Alas never got to play any myself because of the language barrier!
We've released a new video on People Make Games, and there's not a shadow of a doubt in my mind that it's the biggest story in game design that no-one's talking about.
Jubensha is a brand-new kind of game coming out of China. We wanna tell you about it.
I'm Books, and I'm a
#visiblynonbinary
professional larp designer! I run space larps, wizard school larps, and larp summer camps for kids and teens!
I also do freelance custom larp design, and yes--I will design wedding and birthday larps for you!
Starfighter pilot AIR ZERMATT reporting for duty!
(I found this jumpsuit in a Polish thrift store and now this is my new sci fi larp character forever)
In yet another demonstration of my clear understanding of How Seasons Work, I have finally acquired a properly warm winter coat! Just in time for spring. Nailed it.
Hey, I'm moving to LA in January! I need a place to live and housemates so my Obligate Extrovert self doesn't die of loneliness! Do you know good nerds in need of a new roomie? Charming queers looking for a friend to house hunt with? I'd love to connect with them!
Rob is one of the most brilliant technical narrative designers I've ever gotten to work with, on top of being one of the kindest, most supportive and enthusiastic team members in the world. Whatever studio snatches him up will be incredibly lucky. Go hire him! Right now!!!
Yesterday I was laid off from Molasses Flood.
It's not as fun to update the bio this time.
I enjoyed the work I'd been doing until my last day and would love to keep doing that.
If anyone has any leads on a narrative and/or tech design position I'd be happy to take a look.
Oh hey I forgot to mention on twitter but uh for those who didn't see elsewhere: I got a new job! I'm moving to Beijing to go write video games for a Chinese game studio! I'm pretty psyched!
It's a Hanukkah miracle!! My
@LoversBlaseball
jacket from
@BlaseballCares
finally arrived!! The most on-brand clothing I have ever owned~
(Special thanks to
@longhairQ
for really going the extra mile to figure out how to get this thing shipped to China!)
BOOKS' NEXT CHAPTER: εθ§, BEIJINGβHALLΓ , STOCKHOLM!
The paperwork is signed and sealed, so I can officially say it: at the end of August, I'm leaving China to take an extremely exciting new job as a Narrative Designer at
@UbiMassive
in Stockholm!
FYI, I have the coolest dad on the planet. If you want to know why I am the way that I am, this (extremely delightful!) video of/about him will go a long way to explaining it. (And stay tuned for a cameo of baby Books at the end!)
.
@PeterSchwartz2
is a futurist who helped build the world we saw in The Minority Report. Now he shares his tips for how to better predict the future.
This video is part of The Progress Issue, a Big Think and
@Freethinkmedia
special collaboration.
PERSONAL ARCHAEOLOGY THREAD!
My parents are selling the house I grew up in, so I finally have to clean out my childhood bedroom. In this thread I will catalog all the weird and interesting stuff I find along the way. Join me on this adventure!
Sirius is a codename for the game developed by
@molassesflood
, set in The Witcher universe and created with support from CDPR. It will differ from our past productions, offering multiplayer gameplay on top of a single-player experience including a campaign with quests and a story
I have discovered that my Great-Great-Grandfather Solomon Lipinsky was a Freemason, an Odd Fellow, and a Knight of Pythias. And Knights of Pythias used to be given ceremonial swords.
Which means it is very possible that somewhere there is a Sword of Solomon for me to inherit.
My first haircut in Beijing! The barber admitted (through a translator app) that heβd never seen a foreignerβs hair up close before... but he didnβt do half bad!
followed the weird goth kid at my high school to larp summer camp β‘οΈ became a narrative designer and worldbuilder for some of the biggest fantasy franchises in video games
In case anyone somehow didn't know...
#IAmNonbinary
I've been out and loud about it for fifteen years now, since before I even had the word "nonbinary" in my vocabulary. My relationship to gender continues to evolve and shift, but never towards a binary.
(Oh hey, this is me! I'm the one running this playtest and sending videos to Kieron!)
(Spoilers: the game is VERY GOOD, y'all, and we're having a fantastic time!!)
And thatβs it. A very fond and bittersweet farewell to the house that was always home, no matter how far away my nomadic life took me. Iβll miss this garden, this view, and even miss all 37 steps up to the front door.
Thanks for everything, Poplar Street.
And so ends GDC! What a wonderful week, with a little bit of everything: great talks, old friends, new friends, two concerts, karaoke, dancing, connecting people, accidentally being a landmark, and a lot of touching grass. Leaving with a heart full of inspiration. Video games!!
Shoutout to my extremely cool dad for his new job stopping asteroids from hitting the earth, he is living his most sci-fi life and I am absolutely delighted
The easter eggs keep coming for Cyberpunk 2077, and this one is especially wholesome as it honors the dev team behind CD Projekt Red's first-person RPG.
chapo trap house and adam who ruins everything and chelsea manning are hanging out with hbomberguy live on twitch talking about the leftist praxis of the members of the donkey kong family to raise money for trans rights and this sure is 2019
okay I have been added to the very lively english-language Beijing D&D and larp groups, I have officially made the nerd connections I need, I am gonna be A-OK here
Also now available for hire is Andrew Plotkin, who was our team's narrative systems engineer, and is one of the all time great narrative innovators and masters of procedural narrative technology! Another incredible hire for any studio doing PCG narrative!
After four months of laying siege to the Swedish bureaucracy, I have FINALLY unlocked mobile bank ID and can access Swedish society! The medical system! The bank system! Paying bills! Accessing my work benefits! Getting my booster! I feel so powerful.
Happy third night of Hanukkah! ππ₯π₯π₯
Made a buttload of latkes, taught my friends to play dreidel (with a mix of imported Israeli gelt and surprise Chinese gelt from the local supermarket??), and showed them all the Rugrats Hanukkah episode. An excellent night. β¨
I have survived my first week of work at new job! My brain is so full of learnings about new project!!
New project is... ridiculously cool, oh dang. We are cooking up something real neat over here at Ubisoft Stockholm and I am very excited to be a part of it!
And continuing my day of errands, I have now had several of my hairs cut! I think this is the shortest itβs ever been! (Possibly TOO short, but itβs hair, itβll grow back)
when I left Beijing two years ago
my friend Ashton and I had just finished catching up on all of Fast & Furious in time for F9
we swore weβd meet again to watch the next one
LOOK WHO SHOWED UP TO KEEP THAT PROMISE, ALL THE WAY FROM BEIJING
NARRATIVE DESIGN JOB!
Come help create stories for casual mobile games at a very chill studio in Beijing! Nice people, relaxed office environment, great pay and benefits. Marginalized/underrepresented applicants strongly encouraged!
#gamedevjobs
#gamewriting
had a pretty profoundly wonderful time NPCing at a 10th century viking larp last week!! what a perfect and much-needed reminder of why I love larp organizing so much, it was such an honor and a joy to help bring stories to life. my heart is so full!