The next work in progress

I have submitted GameSpite Journal 11 to the printers for a proof copy. If all goes well, the book should be ready around April 15. Perhaps you, unlike me, will be receiving a tax return this year — well, golly! I have some suggestions for how you might invest it.

I have been playing around with a few different cover treatment ideas and eventually settled on this sort of retro-ish look. I was stumped for how best to express the theme of this issue and eventually decided, “Eh, the heck with it.” Better to have something simple and visually appealing than an on-point mess, I suppose. Plus, the books we’ve published over the past year have had such monochromatic covers. We needed a little boldness to spice things up, you know? I’m not sure if using modified official art is kosher, though; I just couldn’t seem to come up with any of my own that communicated quite as clearly as more familiar images. Decisions, decisions.

And what is that theme? The theme this time is “second chances.” That is, every author approached this book by going back and replaying a game or two that they dislike in order to give them another shot at winning their heart. I spent many hours with games that I’ve loudly criticized in the past and in doing so offended a fair few readers: Final Fantasy VII, Xenogears, and Metroid II. However, you will simply need to wait to learn whether I found new respect for these games or if I continue grinding my axe. I’m sure you are waiting on tenterhooks and with bated breath to learn. Yeah.

Anyway, some really good stuff in this book. I think you will enjoy reading it, in about a month.

11 thoughts on “The next work in progress”

  1. I could never write a book because I’d spend half of the time trying to design the cover. I’m no good at design, but I appreciate the heck out of something that is well-assembled– I always end up spending an inordinate amount of time getting the Powerpoints (ugh) to look halfway decent for school presentations, for example.

    Minimalism is the way to go, always. This looks good!

  2. Nice cover, and sounds like a fun theme. Though I would say that you kinda-sorta turned around on FFVII when it hit PSN; and maybe Xenosaga, that subject of the most scathing of Gamespite articles, would have been a better choice… but then again, you’re bound, as am I, to hate that game. It calls on us to hate it. Blame yourself or God, I tell it.

  3. Really nice idea for a book Jeremy. Ive been thinking for a while it’d be really interesting to get some ‘writerspite’ articles from you that delve into how you approach your writing, how you stay disciplined, where you like to write, how you deal with the editing and how you found your own unique ‘voice’ in print.

    Back when I got gamespite 2 It inspired me to have a go at writing, I hadn’t done any really scince school. So I tried writing some memories of childhood games, just as extended emails for friends to read – but man, it is harder then it looks. Not the content, I knew that wouldn’t amount to much given i’m no oracle with the spoken word, but just the process itself. It gave me a new found respect for authors and even more respect for ‘content writers’ like yourself who have to provide interesting, readable and fresh word count day upon day.

    I honestly don’t know how you do it – a website, a blog and books!

    Writerspite – Please think about it.

  5. “Maybe it just caught me at the wrong time.” “I never sold it back to the game store, so I must have seen something in it.” “So many people liked it.”

    Yep, looking forward to this one.

  6. Oh, what about Ultimate Ghosts N’ Goblins? If I’m not mistaken, there was a bit of an internet dust-up over that one!

  7. The fact that you aren’t receiving a tax return this year means one thing…that you filed your tax withholding CORRECTLY. You kept your money in your paycheck, unlike the people who are receiving returns who lent their money to the government interest-free for an entire year.

    And I’ll be purchasing this book to add to my growing GameSpite collection. The cover looks great and the theme sounds very interesting. So…did you replay Ultimate Ghosts ‘N Goblins? LOL

  9. Come to think of it, UGnG should share a spot next to Old Snake on the front cover…

    :P

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