Post Dragon*Con 2016 Breakdown

Dragon*Con.

Was.

AWESOME.

We met people who listen to our Podcast!  Both of our demos were completely booked!  We're getting some great feedback from our players, and cannot wait to digest everything they give us.  We even took pictures!  Matt's wife Linda made our awesome sign at the meet-up.

I was not able to attend, but I still contributed; Matt needed a two-page setting primer, which I was too happy to provide.  In fact, in celebration of our successful Dragon*Con, I'm sharing it with y'all.  If you want to get a taste of SubNet's setting, look no further than the link below.

Setting PDF

Please let us know what you think.  And if you're one of the people who played, or came to see us, please leave a comment!  We're energized and raring to go - Matt's conCrud aside.

Dragon*Con 2016 Demo

Ladies and Gentlemen, your attention please!

Dragon*Con is this weekend (technically, it's already started), and SubNet will be there!  In, like, an official capacity!  There will be two demo SubNet games, one on Friday, the other Sunday, and both are in the 1PM - 5PM time slot.  The Con charges a flat $3 fee for anyone to reserve a slot at the table, which you'll need to do if you want to play.  This will be our first public demo of the game rules.  We've been hard at work crafting an adventure for y'all to enjoy, and would love to get your feedback on the system and the setting.  If you're in town, drop in!

And if you just can't wait 'till Friday, then you can meet us in person tonight!  Scott and Matt (and maybe Nigel, but he didn't get time off like those two) will be at a Meet & Greet at the Hyatt Regency Atlanta this evening, Thursday, September 1st.  They'll be at the bar starting around 8PM, and will last well into the evening.

Can't wait to see you there!

Weekly Meeting 8/24/2016

Holy cow, is Nigel not slacking off?!  Another post about meetings?  Well, to be fair I could probably stand to make another Hand Canon post - that was fun to write, and I've been hankering to write more.  And I'm sure y'all would love a bit of variety in these.

Last night's meeting was spent in tri-brain mode, making sure the demo adventure for Dragon*Con we've got planned will knock your collective socks off!  It's got multiple paths!  It's got premade characters!  It's got teddy bears!  We're really looking forward to introducing it to the world :D

In semi-related news - and if you saw our Polyhedron post a few days ago this is a repeat - we'll be having a Meet & Greet at the Hyatt Regency Atlanta on Thursday, September 1st.  The gang, including myself, Matt, Scott, and a few other Polyhedron hosts, will be there starting around 8PM.  Thursday is the day before Dragon*Con truly kicks off, and we'll be preparing ourselves for a grueling 4-day long nerdgasm.

Okay, that sounded better in my head, but you get the idea!

We have two demo SubNet games during Dragon*Con.  One is on Friday, and the other is on Sunday.  Both are in the 1PM - 5PM time slot.  If you want to play, you'll have to reserve a spot at the gaming table and pay a small fee - we'd prefer to have this free, but the Con are the ones charging, not us.  Mercifully, it's only $3.

Weekly Meeting 8/18/2016

Holy crap, has it really been that long since we last updated this thing?!  How the time flies!  Our humblest apologies - we've been heads-down and hard at work.  Thanks to our superior charm, wit, and a harrowing dockside dust-up with a pack of scar-encrusted thugs, we've secured slots to demo SubNet at this year's Dragon*Con!  We're still hammering out the details, but we'll have two demos of the game - one on Saturday, the other on Sunday.  And if I'm wrong on those, I'm sure Matt will be messaging me shortly to provide a correction.

The last several meetings have revolved around funding.  HeadCanon Games has been a labor of love for we three over the last several years, and we're asymptotically approaching time for crowd funding.  Funny thing is, to get to a state that we feel comfortable presenting the product, we need some seed money.  We're exploring our options - mostly comparing various small business loan offerings from different banks - and each revenue avenue has its pros and cons.  We want to make sure that whatever option we go with is the best fit for HeadCanon and SubNet.

In more personal news, Scott and I have new jobs!  Schedules are being adjusted (we meet on Thursdays, now - I don't think we've told y'all that) and numbers are being crunched.  The amount of money you need to run a game dev studio that has no offices, equipment, or even employees is surprisingly non-zero, and our day jobs are an important part of our overall funding structure.

But, I'm sure this is boring you all.  The end result of these new jobs and the exploration into loan options is potentially huge.  With funds such as we can secure, we'll be able to pay artists and editors their fees, and actually have a lot more fun visual stuff for y'all to enjoy!  There's a list of artists we're eager to work with, but we don't want to approach them until we're sure we can pay them for their services.  In our dreams, though, we see shining digital cities, bright with false hope.  Stalwart warrior-philosophers clothed in fire, running and fighting and twisting the world just so, grasping a better future with a fingernail hold.

If you happen to be an artist, or know someone who's interested in work, please contact us!  Our list is hardly set in stone, and we're always eager to find new and interesting talent.  Our acquisition efforts for funding are picking up speed, and we anticipate having monies available before the end of the year - maybe as little as a month or two - and as such we'll be looking for artists soon.

Weekly Meeting 3/22/2016

We meet after a few missed meetings, due mainly to health.  A nasty stomach flu has made the rounds, but luckily we've all weathered the gastrointestinal storm.  We're meeting after giving ourselves some time to work under the kanban work system we brainstormed last meeting.  We talked about politics and video games - the best subjects!

Matt is focusing on his Rule cards, and will be working on Admin stuff soon.  He's also doing taxes for the business.  Yay!  Business!

I need to make flyers to go into stores, and have made some progress on the logos.

Scott has been doing a lot of thinking and brainstorming on his cards, and now finally has a clear runway for work now that his other writing obligations are complete.

We also have our first Patron!  Kaeli Chambers, you are awesome and we appreciate your delicious money!  Kaeli is late-night maven of the awesome CrankyCanuck Twitch stream, which you can find at https://www.twitch.tv/crankycanuck

Weekly Meeting 2/24/2016

Holy mole, we had a meeting two weeks in a row!  Yesterday we tried something a little different.  We made use of a system of task breakdown based loosely on the concept of "kanban".  We went over the bits and pieces we still need to create, revise, or expand in our document before we feel comfortable submitting it for copyright, and wrote each individual chunk of effort onto a note card.  We then split up the note cards among ourselves and will use them to track our work.

It's something used in the software development world, and it does wonders to chunk up tasks into manageable parts, so we figured we give it a try.  At the very least, it's helped get our juices flowing again!

Other than that, not much.  A little bird tells me that the next episode of our podcast will drop soon, and that it's gonna be awesome.  Stay tuned for it!

Weekly Meeting 2/16/2016

Heyo!  Nigel back, as the regular stenographer of our weekly meetings.  We have been having them... mostly... but they haven't been terribly exciting.  What has been exciting is our fantastic playtest AND our badass new podcast, which Matt has been dutifully posting to this and other websites.  And apps.  And whatever else kids these days do.  In my day you downloaded podcasts from someone's website directly and you liked it.

Anyway!  I have been busy doing graphic design stuff, which you've probably seen associated with our podcast.  More elements are on their way, which will transform our humble website into a slightly less humble, hopefully prettier, website.  With a strong branding narrative and dynamic design flexibility.

Our first order of business is to begin serious headway on our writing backlog.  We've got a lot of the game written already, but it's in a lot of different pieces.  But, much like the modern Prometheus, it will be both beautiful and awesome when we are finished with it.  No part of the product is in its final phases by any measure, but the skeleton is there.  We're sculpting and massaging, getting what we have to fit into the lean shape we're hoping to make.  Our design mantra isn't very original, but we feel is a good summary - 'keep it simple, stupid'.

Next week we're going to implement some good old fashioned Japanese business ingenuity, and use a kanban board.  I work in the software design business, and have found it a rich and fertile place for inspiration - not in terms of setting or mechanics, but in terms of organization.  Kanban, simply put, is a way of breaking down a large task into more manageable chunks, along with a mechanism to enable people to own those tasks and report on their status.  It uses notecards!  We'll take some pictures as a treat :)

Numbers keep on adding up

After the release of our second episode of Polyhedron, our subscriber numbers has climbed tremendously and I want to thank each and every one for helping make that happen.

Please, we really want to get this show out there and grow the fan base. If you have a friend who likes RPGs or you have a loved one that may want to know more about your weirdo hobby, tell them about Polyhedron and get them hooked. 

...but again, thank you so very much and the next episode will be out in two weeks.

The new phonebooks are here!

Hello there!  We have special news for you. We just released the second episode of "Polyhedron" just because we couldn't contain ourselves any longer. Normally, Polyhedron is a bi-weekly podcast but because we have received such great feedback about the first episode and we had the second episode ready to go that we just had to give it to the fans.  So hop over to the Polyhedron page and have a listen.

PS: Now from here on out we are going to our bi-weekly schedule. So episode 003 should come out on the 25th of February, mark your calender's (or just subscribe)

Stitching Things Together 2/10/2016

The good news keeps on coming. Polyhedron is now approved on Stitcher. Subscribe today!

Podcast Update 2/5/2016

It's Here! Our podcast is now live on iTunes. So rush out and become a subscriber today!

iTunes Link or if want a direct link, Go Here

Weekly Meeting 10/20/2015

Good evening, everyone!  We opened the meeting with a stirring acapella rendition of the main theme from Armageddon - you know the one.  The latest Star Wars trailer hit, and we're all terribly excited about that, too.

Tomorrow is the first game of Matt's playtest campaign.  Cross your fingers, everyone, so that it goes off without a hitch!

We kicked off actual work by looking over the Table of Contents - we're working on a revision to better organize our thoughts and whatever copyediting I need to do.  Not a terribly exciting post, I know, but we got some good work done tonight!

Weekly Meeting 10/13/2015

Scott and Matt won't shut up about Fractured.  But that's normal - it's a fun game!  They did some recording for the podcast, and some followup recording is scheduled for Thursday.  Break a leg, fellas!

Tonight was a little light.  Fractured was quite draining, but we're gearing up for some hardcore dev.  More boring paperwork, thoughts on revisions, and some more notes on playtest.  Matt's slowly assembling a list of players who'll help put the system through its paces.

I need to get off my brain's lazy duff and do some copyediting.  I know I said that last time, but it's still true!

Weekly Meeting 9/29/2015

Good evening, fans, friends and family!  Pardon our absence, but September is always a wacky month here in Georgia.  Dragon*Con came and went, which bites hard into free time.  We had a meeting since last time, but I was a lazy bum and didn't post the notes.  Sufficed to say, Dragon*Con was time well spent; Matt and Scott did a lot of recon and pimping for the game.

Tonight, we went over a feedback form the illustrious Michael Goodwin wrote for us.  Our first playtest is about to get off the ground, and this form will be one of the primary vectors we'll use to learn what people think about our little project.  We pride ourselves on our adaptability, and look forward to constructive feedback!

We also discussed art!  I'm in charge of contacting artists, and we've had some luck looking through Fiverr for potential artists.  I'll be reaching out to a few of the artists we feel will work well with our brand.  Brand?  Man, I sound so corporate!  

Our podcast has a name now - Polyhedron!  I have to make some art assets for it, so that'll be fun.  I also need to put some research into desktop publishing software - there's some promising open source options that will be very kind on the corporate bank account.

I also need to get off my lazy duff and work on the copyediting!  Hoping this weekend will give me some of the time I need.  Having a social life is fun, but there's stuff that's gotta be done!

Weekly Meeting 8/25/15

I have learned something.  A secret that fills me with joy.  Someone reads these posts!  Hi, Susan!  You're awesome!

We spent tonight's meeting working on our Patreon and Podcast ideas.  We brainstormed names, rewards levels, milestones, and other fun stuff.  Still haven't settled on everything yet, but that'll shake out sooner rather than later.  We've got some paperwork to do; all very adult, official crap that Matt will almost certainly take care of.  Matt is a DC fan, so I hope he doesn't mind when I compare him favorably to Superman.  He is awesome.

Not much else to say.  OH!

OH OH!

I REMEMBERED THE WHITEBOARD!  Matt has it now!  I didn't mess up this week!

Matt's planned a super-secret ultra-mega hush-hush event starting tomorrow.  I don't know how public it'll be once it gets off the ground, but it'll be sure to generate plenty of food for thought here at HCG HQ.  Let's just say it involves dice.  And people.  And a table.  And meeting regularly every week or so.

Spoilers he's running a SubNet campaign!  He plans on Tweeting during sessions, so stay tuned to the official Headcanon Games Twitter Feed!

Weekly Meeting 8/11/15

Guess who forgot the whiteboard again?  I know, I know.  I just need to write it on my hand.

Last night got philosophical, but before that we did some plugging away at planning.  Matt and Scott will be heading up Podcast development and recording, leaving my tender brain-meats free to work on the copyediting.  Scott's in the middle of a move, and as such he's got a lot on his plate right now - good luck, Scott!

I'm also tackling our business cards.  Matt made a sweet design on VistaPrint, and has graciously turned it over to me for final tuning.  If any of you Canonheads (I just made that up - is that lame?) want to see them, we'll be passing them out at Dragon*Con!

Weekly Meeting 8/2/15

We promise we've been meeting!  Nigel has just been SUPER SLACK about writing these things up!  Punish me!  I've been a naughty, naughty boy!

Ahem.

On the docket tonight is our podcast.  Matt (and his amazing wife Linda) have been working on some slick graphics and several programs I am mystified by to work on a video overlay of our podcast.  We recorded a prototype episode a few months ago, and it's been on the back-burner since then.  Matt's working on getting something put together.  The going idea is to have the audio podcast as a semi-weekly thing, but to include a video podcast as a reward tier for our crowdfunding.

Playtesting is going to start soon(ish) - we've got a few hurdles to jump through yet.  A few individuals, and groups, have expressed interest, but we're still taking applications.  If you are interested in participating in our next round of playtests, please use our Contact page to drop us a line!

And I keep forgetting the white board!

Weekly Meeting 6/30/15

Have we got a treat for you today, NetHeads!  Is that okay?  Can we call you that?  Headcanon Games is proud to announce that we've been working with Michael A. Goodwin (Nephilpal to all you net-dwellers) on the project.  Michael has agreed to work as a consulting editor on the project, and spent last night dispensing all manner of wisdom.  Seriously, he was a figurative font of wisdom.  It poured from him, like honey.  Dark honey, cultivated from the pollen of nightmare gardens and salted with bitter truths.

Ahem.  The meeting was awesome.

We discussed a ton of different things, including how to proceed with development and crowdfunding plans.  There's a potential overhaul to our Karma/Encounter system that may become a central part of the game.  Or, rather, will greatly reinforce some core concepts in a novel way.  We're excited, and may have more next week.

Until then, NetHeads (seriously, if you can think of a better name, let us know!), take care.  Watch the skies.  You never know when the black stars will appear.

Weekly Meeting 6/23/15

Oh, to be a fly upon the wall!  Real Talk: we geeked out about E3 a lot before the meeting began.

During the meeting proper we discussed our documentation, layout, additional art assets, and NDAs!  THRILLING.  We're gearing up for a big announcement that you, yes YOU, will be a part of, so stay tuned for updates.  We also discussed changing up our meeting days, so these updates my not always be on Tuesdays - we'll see how the next few weeks pan out.

But, for now, we continue to plot and scheme.  Moo hoo ha ha.

Weekly Meeting 6/9/15

We wound up not having a meeting due to Matt's AC being on the fritz.  We're a Georgia-based company, and for those of you not in the know this state is well-known for its hot, humid summers.  No word yet on whether it's been fixed, but if Scott and I haven't heard from Matt in the next day or so we'll send out a search party.

Our search for artists continue.  We're looking for environmental artists, specifically; someone who can put some visual flesh on SubNet's textual bones.  Vast city-scapes, over-the-top fantastic game-worlds, and of course the lion's share of the Quiet with its nature-reclaimed silence.  We're good with words, but we'd love some solid illustrations of our world.

If you're an artist, or know one, please drop us a line!  We're looking for a few good pieces, and are willing to pay.  Furthermore, once our crowdfunding gets underway, we'll be able to commission even more work for the finished book.

Until next week, friends, stick to the dark places.  There's often unpleasant things lurking there, but enlightenment - and war - are best served through unpleasant experiences.

--Nigel