Silk Nominated for Two Awards
Dear friends,
It gives me great pleasure to report that our game Silk has picked up two nominations in this year's TIGA Games Industry Awards, one for Best Role Playing Game and one for Heritage in Games.
As you surely know at this point, this game is our homage to classic square-based exploration videogames of the 1980s, and my personal tribute to the late Mike Singleton, whose game The Lords of Midnight was a classic of the 8-bit era that doesn't receive the praise or recognition it deserves. In paying tribute to Mike's work, and creating an entirely new style of play riffing off his 'landscaping' visual rendering system (which is reproduced - in a slightly modified form - in Silk), this game was expressly intended to be a contribution to the great heritage left to us by the British Bedroom Coders, and to be nominated for a award that recognises what we were trying to do here is a genuine honour.
Mind you, I think it's a safe bet we won't take home any prizes... but as fellow nominee Jon Ingold of Inkle said to me "nominations ARE a win". I couldn't agree more.
Game Writing - Boss Stage Cleared
My subeditor Neil and I have now completed the proof revisions for Game Writing: Narrative Skills for Videogames (second edition) - it was not easy! But we got there. The book is now inching closer towards publication, which will happen early next year. I hope to be able to share the cover with you in the next newsletter!
Farewell Sean!
Very pleased to announce that our current producer, Sean Delaney, has accepted a job in Liverpool that is a huge step up from wrangling the eternal carnage here at ihobo. Sean has been our producer for the last two years, under very difficult circumstances, and it's wonderful that he has been able to take his experience working for us and take it further. We have already filled the vacant chair, and our new producer should be being dropped into the deep end very shortly... My thanks to Sean for everything he's done for us, and all the best for the future.
Social Media Break
I take two social media breaks every year, one in the Spring and one in the Autumn. This year, I'm taking a longer break for the Autumn and starting earlier, and I already feel all the better for it. I'll be back on blogs, Discord, and probably Twitter too (no promises!) in December.
Until next time,
Chris.