news | Would you like some tea with that?

Tea-Powered Games website up!

The website for Tea-Powered Games is up and running. For now, you can read a bit more about us as a company, and maybe sign up to the mailing list if you’re interested.

I’ve been spending most of my time doing work-related writing (it’s exciting to be able to call it work now!), but I should go back to posting more regularly, now that things feel a bit more settled.

After getting a kind soul to read through the first draft of my NaNoWriMo 2013 story, I started doing the first wave of edits. It took me a few tries to realize that there were two issues I hadn’t thought of at first.

First, the tone and level of complexity. If you’ve read Over-Exposure you’ll know what I mean. I have to keep an eye out whenever I write something science-related, and this is no exception. I’m trying to lighten the tone and add more casual sections, higher on the personality and lower on the scientific analysis.

Second, the format. It mostly consists of conversation transcripts and notes, which works fine as a novella. But as I edit, I have to choose whether I simplify these to make them easier to read (I’ve been trying different transcribing methods to see which works best)… Or I go the other way. I add more types of ‘files’, embrace that ‘electronic lab notebook’ feel, and go digital. That way I can add photos, change the text color, and just generally play around with the presentation.
There are obvious downfalls to this method. Even if I have a novella version alongside the digital one, I probably wouldn’t want to sell it on Amazon, especially if it didn’t display well on a Kindle. The digital version would probably have to be free, so all the more reason not to charge for the novella version. That said, being part of Tea-Powered Games, I’m always aware that making something digital is an option, and while it might not be what I initially had in mind, it might be even more useful to me because of that, and will hopefully be a new experience for my readers.

Would you be interested in reading a digitally enhanced novella?

Introducing Tea-Powered Games

21 Aug

For the past few months, I’ve been keeping busy with a couple of different writing projects. I published A Sincere Attempt at Writing Tales of Moran in May, wrote a few short stories, and then stuck to flash fiction on a weekly basis. I would love to have more than 200 words per week for you, but at the moment I have two writing projects going on that are demanding more of my attention.

The first is a fantasy novel/la that I’ve been planning for the past two months or so. I’m still in the ‘iron out characters, setting and plot’ stage, so there’s still a lot of work to be done. All I can say at the moment is that the goal is a story (novel or novella depending on how long it ends up being) with multiple main characters, and a fantasy world that contains magic, but has many similarities to our present-day world – no medieval fantasy here. Although if you happen to be in the mood for some right now, feel free to go on a diversion and come back in a bit.

The second and most important reason is that Destina (from Turn Based Living) and I have formed our own games company, Tea-Powered Games (website to come in the near future). Yes, I had no small hand in choosing the name. And I am a bit obsessed with tea. Anyway, as a budding writer and game designer, we’re aiming for games with a strong link between narrative and mechanics, and aiming to have our first major game released within 18 months. Now that we have an artist and a programmer on board, we will be working on this full-time (or in my case, since I have an unrelated full-time job for another few months, I will spend every moment I’m not working or writing the novel/la on this).

Not that this is an excuse for not posting more on my blog, but hopefully the idea of a relatable fantasy story and a story heavy game (dialogue is the main mechanic!) will be something to look forward to. I might also try posting a few excerpts from the fantasy novel/la to tide you over, but with big disclaimers that everything is likely to change dramatically for the final version.

In the meantime, thanks for stopping by every now and again, and hope you enjoy your stay!