I have been away for a while! Not actually away, most of the time, but away from working. I had a lovely winter break, thanks for asking. Except when my back exploded. I'm still recovering - in fact, I'm wearing an ice pack right now. But it can be dealt with while I enjoy the comforts of sitting around playing WoW and watching movies and getting presents. I also took a short trip to Texas for a family Christmas.
So, when the New Year happens, people make resolutions and such. I don't. But I do try to come out of the cocoon of slothful winterdom and emerge as a productive butterfly of functionality. A lot of times I'll set goals, but not this year. This year is more exploratory. I'm working on setting up a schedule to pursue many different creative venues. I even got a book on how to compose music! Who wouldn't want Loonyland 3 to be a musical?? I also got painting supplies for Christmas (I foolishly put on my list "Painting supplies (don't know what kind or anything, it's your job to make
me learn to paint!)"), so I need to do that. I was very inspired by seeing Gabe from Penny Arcade try out painting. Of course, he started out being an amazing artist. But it might be a fun thing to try.
Another venue that I'm always trying to dip back into is board games. Every Christmas it comes up again because I play some board games again (sometimes my own, though not this year) with people, and my gears start cranking on the possibilities of rulesets and how they intertwine. The limiting factor with these is of course manufacturing. Unlike a video game, you can't just put it out there yourself. You need someone with skills to produce a physical manifestation, and they want to make a lot at once, for a lot of money. A lot of games sitting around the house gathering dust...
So all that stuff should be fun and really expand the old cranium (not physically, one hopes). I also have a ton of post-holiday house cleanup to do, including making the office much better. I want to set it up as a really good, comfortable studio for all these pursuits, instead of a pile of junk with a computer sitting on top. One of the reasons I wanted a video camera was so I could shoot Making-Of videos! I better have a non-horrible office if I do that. I also need a tripod.
In the same-old, same-old vein, I'll be working on The Dumb Pack and Loonyland Tactics. Did I mention at some point that there are now Shrooms in Dumb Pack? They work as suggested on the forum - they are walking trampolines, and if you jump on them, they spew poison to either side, which hurts enemies (and you) other than Shrooms. You can also kill the Shrooms, but then how will you bounce? Making those was the closest I came to doing work during my break.
Now I need to make a newsletter! Something I have been dreading and postponing since the 1st. I forgot to do the interview, haven't done anything productive in the past month, and there's only one Winter Wackiness world. So don't expect it to be very interesting.
