Fully Ramblomatic - the blog of Yahtzee Croshaw View RSS

Will Leave This Trilogy Where It Is 4 Apr 2024 4:20 PM (last year)

 I'm very bloody excited to announce the release of my latest novel, the third and final book in the Jacques McKeown trilogy, Will Leave The Galaxy For Good!

The Wind of Change 9 Nov 2023 6:56 PM (last year)

Right, well, since I feel there's been some renewed interest in me and my work lately - that's what happens when you dramatically quit your video series of 16 years to go independent with your recently fired editor - I thought it was well past time I updated this site. So, in no particular order: 

Existentially Challenged is now out! 9 Dec 2021 10:48 AM (3 years ago)

 

Quick update 16 Nov 2020 3:45 PM (4 years ago)

Will Update This Blog For Likes 20 Sep 2019 5:37 PM (5 years ago)

Whoops, it's way past time I updated the site with my new book.

Will Destroy The Galaxy For Cash is coming out on Audible.com on September 26th 2019, but it's available to preorder whenevs. As with Differently Morphous, it's an Audible Original, so there's only an audiobook version now and there'll be a print and ebook version later. At some point. Don't want to commit to a date right now but it has to be six months at the very least.

WDtGfC is a first for me, because it's a direct sequel to my third book, Will Save The Galaxy For Food. All my books up til now have been one-off stories (although I'm fixing to write future books in the Differently Morphous continuity as well). For a long time I was leary about sequels and serials, because I remember going to sci-fi and fantasy bookshops as a kid and only finding Books 2 and 4 of the Breakwind Chronicles or whatever, but eventually I accepted that this is much less of an issue in this age of binging on digital media. Besides, saving myself the trouble of coming up with new characters was nice.

So, click the cover art above and buy Will Destroy The Galaxy For Cash for another instalment in the life of the out-of-work space hero currently named Dashford Pierce, as a new set of complications turn his life upside down, although his life was already turned upside down when quantum tunneling was invented, so if anything this could put his life the right way up.

By the way, are you following Yahtzee's Dev Diary on the Escapist? For reasons too complicated to go into here, I've pledged to exercise my indie game dev muscles by developing 12 games in 12 months. At time of writing game 5 of 12 is soon to be released for free download and I'm still basically sane for now, but we've seven months to go and anything could happen. You might as well check it out 'cos it's the main reason I haven't started on any new books lately.

Differently Morphous now available in silence 31 Mar 2019 11:56 AM (6 years ago)

At long last, my latest novel, Differently Morphous, the super hilarious contemporary political supernatural mystery satire type thing, will be available in non-audiobook print and ebook style as of April 16th this year. Which I had better state is 2019, 'cos I probably won't update this blog for another decade or so. Check your preferred book retailers or click the fancy cover art below:

Differently Morphous is the name of a book I wrote 6 Mar 2018 7:58 AM (7 years ago)

Well, for all those naysayers who say I only update this site when I have a new book out, I say, how perceptive of you. It's called Differently Morphous and it's available RIGHT NOW on Audible.com.

Yes indeed, as an Audible Original, the audiobook version of Differently Morphous is coming out first, with a print edition planned for further down the line (six months, probably). It's a good deal for me since there are people who routinely demand an audio version before the announcement of a new book has so much as passed me lips. Here's the blurb.

Happy Valentines Here's A New Book 14 Feb 2017 11:45 AM (8 years ago)

Will Save The Galaxy For Food is now out!

My latest book, published by Dark Horse Books, has been released as of February 14th 2017! It's an exciting sci-fi adventure about all the usual exciting sci-fi things: obsolescence, redundancy, hopelessness and despair. It's also a comedy! Ha ha. Here are all the ways you can get it:

The print version! Stick it next to print versions of my previous books and marvel at how much bigger it is and how much it's fucked up the layout of your shelf.

The ebook version! The flashy technologically advanced version for cool skateboarding modern youths and people who care a bit too much about their shelf layout.

The audiobook version! Since it's out on Valentine's Day, what better way to inspire some sizzling erotic bedroom adventures than by listening to my voice for ten hours straight?

Or just pop on down to your local real life book retailer and see if they've got it in. This ain't no small time publication, I mean, they don't let any old tat into the Amazon Best Books of the Month (Sci-fi and Fantasy). Preen preen.

Will Update This Website For Food 24 Aug 2016 12:50 PM (8 years ago)

Blimey, it's been a while, hasn't it. But there's actual news to report! My third novel has been announced by Dark Horse Books! And it's called Will Save The Galaxy For Food.

Puzzle Time 31 Dec 2015 12:20 AM (9 years ago)

So I uploaded a Drown Out video to my Youtube channel, actually one we recorded ages ago that I've been sitting on for no particular reason, but then I thought, since it's New Year, why don't we do what my old middle school used to do, and bring in games?

So here's the deal: the video's unlisted and you need the link to view it. To determine the link, complete the puzzle below. Most of the clues are references to Let's Drown Out videos, or to games that Gabriel and I have done in our various LDOs, LPs and Ego Reviews. Don't spoil it! Let everyone else have the same amount of fun!

Chrimbo Dancing 22 Dec 2015 10:22 AM (9 years ago)

You know what makes a great gift idea for people you don't know particularly well or can't bear to be around in person? Steam games! And with the Steam holiday sale now on, there's no better time to reward the introverted urban hermit in your life. Might I humbly suggest getting them The Consuming Shadow, which is 50% off until the end of the sale. That's right, just $4.99 USD. The lucky recipient will think of you every time they fight off the urge to shoot themselves in the throat.

Consuming Shadow Steam Release 17 Nov 2015 1:27 AM (9 years ago)

Shadow Re-Boxing 4 Aug 2015 2:57 PM (9 years ago)

Only a couple more days left to get the Consuming Shadow special bundle for the reduced price! In the meantime, we've released an updated version of the game that fixes a couple of major issues that have been reported by users. Thanks to everyone who took the time to let us know about them.

Fixes for version 1.1:

 - Fixed game not deleting save files for some users. This was a rare one that might have been related to players using older or non-English language versions of Windows, in which the game was happy to write save files but not delete them, so whenever you tried to start a new game it'd load the end of the previous one. The game has been reprogrammed to overwrite saves rather than delete them, which should fix the issue.
 - Fixed the crash caused by the 'northdoor' variable in dungeons. A lot of people have reported this one, it was caused by a specific random sanity effect trying to activate in a dungeon entrance. All fixed now.
 - Fixed town jobs disappearing when a subsequent text message is ignored
 - Fixed a rare crash on the encounter screen caused by 'rewitem' variable
 - Fixed an error in which equipment quests would show the item being owned when it isn't
 - Fixed saving hostages not being acknowledged in the end text of some dungeons
 - Fixed being able to interrupt the final ritual by interacting with the rune cluster
 - Fixed some typos

Please re-download the game from Humble Store to ensure you have the best possible experience with Consuming Shadow. The version on Mac App store will be updated soon as well.

Just to answer a couple of frequently asked questions, yes, we will be giving out Steam keys to anyone who buys the Humble Store version, when/if we get cleared by Steam Greenlight. And yes, we will be adding Steam achievements at that stage.

On that note, thanks to everyone who's been supporting the game on Steam Greenlight. And it's also been heartening to see the player-created support and resources appear quite unbidden by us, some of which I thought I'd boost a little here, since it's nice to have places to exchange knowledge.

The GoG wishlist page
Thanks to anubisgod6 for creating an entry for us on the GoG wishlist. If you'd like to see the game available on GoG, you know what to do.

The Consuming Shadow subreddit

The Consuming Shadow wiki
Could use a bit of fleshing out, this one

Shadow Boxing 28 Jul 2015 6:36 PM (9 years ago)

Special offer! If you buy from Humble Store before August 7th, you can get the special bundle edition of the game, that comes with copies of my two ebooks (Mogworld and Jam) thrown in, for the same price as the solo edition - $9.99. After August 7th, the bundle will go up to 16.99, so better take advantage quick like.

Have some widgets!

Mac users! Don't think you're being left out! The Mac version of The Consuming Shadow is also available now on the Mac App Store!

Time Consuming 25 Jun 2015 3:58 PM (9 years ago)

Alright, I suppose the phrase 'a few weeks' in my last post might have been a bit overoptimistic, but the good news is Hatfall is now through most of the complicated testing and porting stage and should be ready very soon. But that's not all! By weird coincidence rather a lot of my ongoing projects seem to be approaching their launch windows at more or less the same time. For example, there's also this:

Yes, The Consuming Shadow is finally coming to fruition. It's come quite a ways since the alpha: multiple playable characters to unlock, more monsters, more missions, controller support, a whole slew of design changes. It's my very first attempt at turning my solo game projects into a commercial release rather than a freeware one and should be coming to a digital distribution system near you soon.

And there's a third project of mine that will be launching soon. I won't give too much away now, let's just say that it starts with 'N' and ends with 'ew weekly video series'.

To Catch A Hat 27 Feb 2015 12:33 PM (10 years ago)

So in my last entry I hinted at a little game design project I've been working on for the last couple of months (since around last Christmas, I think, 'cos I remember using my week off to prototype it up properly). And now the Escapist have announced it, so I can confirm that it's this. HATFALL, a game for browsers and tablets based on Zero Punctuation.

When the opportunity to make a ZP game came up, I blew it off at first. I couldn't immediately see how it could be done. But then, out of nowhere, an idea started to grow. ZP is based on a fast pace, minimalist style, and a stream-of-consciousness barrage of nonsense, and so the game should correspondingly be built around a fast, minimalist core gameplay, which I could then use as a platform for as much silliness as I could come up with. And then I realised that I'd thought about it too much and I had no choice but to make it. After all, ZP is my own personal stream of consciousness, I couldn't trust anyone else to recreate the same spirit.

It's going to be free to play and out sooner rather than later, so watch this space (and this one) for the next couple of weeks.

The Various Updates Update 12 Dec 2014 5:30 PM (10 years ago)

Alright, sit up straight, stop eating that pie. Here comes the minimum necessary effort required to be able to call this a 'biannually updated blog'. Although I do actually have some stuff to report: most notably that I am as of very recently being represented by the Ethan Ellenberg Literary Agency, I've got a new book in the works, we're going to be pushing forward on that in the new year and it's all jolly exciting.

Secondly, we're coming up on a whole year of weekly Let's Drown Out videos, which seems as good a time as any to announce that the series is going on hiatus for a bit. I think there's a feeling between Gabriel and I that we were repeating ourselves, so we'll be back probably in a couple of weeks either with a retooled format or maybe one of those prerecorded adventure game playthroughs we used to do. Either way, no need to panic or start crying because your free entertainment went away just yet.

Also, Consuming Shadow. Still working on it. I had to do a bit of overhauling after some testing, so it's a good thing I'm not the kind of person who commits to release dates. Actually development's on hold for a bit while I work on a smaller game design opportunity that came up and which I should be able to be less enigmatic about sooner rather than later. See, when it comes to game development, I'm a grower, not a shower. I'm like a cougar in the long grass in that when I'm quiet and out of sight then that's when you need to be wary that I might suddenly POUNCE at any time and sink my big fangs into your soft, tasty neck.

Yes, it's been a time of bountiful opportunities lately. Also also, Zero Punctuation continues to run weekly on the Escapist, as does my follow-up column, Extra Punctuation. But I always think it's a bit silly to plug those on this blog since this blog gets considerably less views than the Escapist does. Still, if you need a reminder, I do tend to plug the videos on my Twitter most weeks; it's @YahtzeeCroshaw in case you didn't know.

Right, I think that's everything, go back to your pie.

Some Things To Consume 9 Mar 2014 8:41 PM (11 years ago)

Believe it or not Gabriel and I have actually managed to keep Let's Drown Out going on a weekly basis ever since it started. Probably because it basically just entails us hanging out and playing a game, which we would probably do if we weren't recording it. I haven't been posting them here every week because then updates would lose their precious rarity, so here's a link to the playlist with them all on.

In other news, The Consuming Shadow. I'm still hard at work at the eventual full version (in between being hard at work at all my other jobs). All the feedback from the free release has been very helpful and I'm still tweaking away. I thought I'd take the opportunity to remind you it still exists and fill you in on some new features I've got in there now.

Firstly, music. The big news is that Mark J. Hadley, of Parsec Productions and Slender: The 8 Pages fame, has very kindly created some ambient audio and music for the game, and I'm personally very happy with how much it's added to the atmosphere. At this point you can't do much more than take my word for that, but I'm going to put a trailer and gameplay video together at some point, and you'll get a listen of the sort of mood his work has added then.

Secondly: Revamped levelling/upgrade system! (click images for big)

Instead of levelling-up providing dry 'upgrade tokens', each level grants you a new birth star. At the start of each run-through, you place this iteration of the character's birth stars in the night sky, granting upgrades based on their proximity to certain constellations. I just thought it was a more fun way of bringing it across.

Thirdly: day-night cycle!

Instead of all-pervading darkness throughout the clock, there's a cold light of day that gradually fades down and up as night comes and goes.


You can see here that whether you do a dungeon in the day or night makes a difference to the visibility.

Fourthly: Unlockable documents!


I thought about what kind of things motivate me, personally, to shoot for 100 percent, and one of them was ancilliary world-building fiction. So I wrote a story expanding on the game's background and you find pages from it in dungeons. Also, each monster now has a bestiary profile, which is gradually decrypted a little more each time you encounter one. Collect 'em all!

The other thing I find works for me is new unlockable gameplay modes. Taking another cue from FTL, I'm thinking in terms of alternative player characters with different gameplay styles (and slightly different constellations in their star maps) that are unlocked as you complete specific tasks. One additional character is in already, I'm shooting for getting at least 2 more in there. Also it might be fun to have some kind of 'tower mode' where you just go through dungeons back-to-back that get increasingly hard. Shouldn't be difficult to implement.

Besides that, the gameplay's been tweaked, as well as animations and controls to make movement less clunky across the board, and there're new monsters, bosses, random events while driving, dungeon goals, dungeon appearances, and the all-important final boss fight. I'm not being feature-creepy here, most of this is done already. New playable characters are the only really big job left, besides testing.

I'm just wondering what to do after it's all done, in terms of distribution. I am resolved to try to sell it for money somewhere, because I've come to realise that if you work on something creative and give it away for free, you're not just devaluing yourself, but the work of everyone else trying to make a living as a creative (thanks @forexposure_txt).

I thought about doing a Steam Greenlight page, but I don't know. I feel like I'd need another wide-range beta test of the full version, first. But I don't want to put the whole thing out for free again. I thought about going with Desura, using their tools to see if I can get a closed beta going, but I don't know how well that works. Ah well - these bridges to be crossed merely glimmer on the horizon still.

Raving and drowning 15 Dec 2013 5:27 PM (11 years ago)

So let's take a break from those Consuming Shadow updates to talk about a couple of videos I put up on Youtube lately. It's a new vaguely Let's Play-related thing I've been doing with Gabriel that we call Let's Drown Out. We did a video on Quake 2 first and then we did one on Blue Stinger. Here they are.

The idea was, there's a lot of LPs where a couple of guys pretend to be LPing a game when actually the game's just kind of there, and they're not discussing it but mainly wittering on about whatever comes to mind instead. Why do that, we wondered, when we could do precisely the same thing as that but be completely up-front about it. So we play a really boring game, with no intention of actually finishing the thing, and then when we can't think of anything to say about it, we pick from a list of newsworthy podcast topics to discuss instead. Is it an LP or a podcast? It's neither. It's Let's Drown Out. Enjoy it before we got bored of the concept.

Yet Another Consuming Shadow Update 3 Dec 2013 11:36 AM (11 years ago)

One more version of the Consuming Shadow beta to fix the last few major issues. Not that I want to give the impression of being fussy or anything. I've uploaded it as a .zip this time because the installer was a bit crap (the uninstall had a tendency to delete everything in the same directory) Download it from the usual page, and here's the list of changes for 1.0.0.2:

Bug fixes:

- Fixed an error that crashed the game if you tried to get equipment when all equipment has been acquired
- Fixed that darn 'spawning trapped inside a wall' bug
- Fixed flying insect monsters getting stuck outside the room
- Fixed loot items dropped by monsters ending up outside the room
- Fixed an error wherein the Ministry kept sending the same gameplay tip over and over
- Fixed the thing where arriving in a town with an injured passenger prevents quest events from occurring
- Fixed lockpicking icon not appearing on east/west doors when player has zero picks

Gameplay changes:

 - Tweaks to safe town jobs:
    - Job payment is now partially based on distance to town
    - Jobs screen now shows distance and vague direction to town
    - New job: Single monster fights (similar to combat encounters on the road)
    - You must now complete dungeon jobs before you can receive payment
- Texts and encounters that interrupt car journeys now resume journey automatically when resolved (except when a new quest begins or your position is changed)
- Lockpicking now shows percentage chance of success
- You no longer lose sanity for fleeing from hunter enemies (because you're supposed to)
- Rooms with unrecovered loot now show up yellow on the minimap
- Added couple more tutorial messages to clarify new controls
- Enemies now only start making noise when they're close enough
- When possessing multiple special injuries, hospitals will now treat severe bleeding FIRST
- 'Shoot yourself' trap now only appears when sanity falls below 75%
- Removed wall runes from endgame dungeon; they had a tendency to flat out give away the invading god's rune
- Raised pitch on sounds made by the smaller puker to differentiate it from the bigger, stronger puker
- A few tweaks to monster behaviour 

Save files and score data from old versions won't carry over to this one, I'm afraid: had to change some file names and shit.

Also, a number of users who were playing it under Windows 8.1 reported a weird graphical problem where everything looked completely messed up with art assets where they shouldn't be all over the place. I took this up with the Game Maker people, and they assured me that this was a known error that has now been fixed in the latest version, and now I've compiled the game in a fully updated version of GM, it should be fixed.

I swear this will be the last beta release, 'cos I'm going to concentrate on the full version now, with more events, dungeon types, characters, alternate text, etc. Actually, you know what occurred to me after I released it, like the mother in Home Alone sitting bolt upright on the plane and screaming 'KEVIN'? Final boss fight. That was literally what I did, sat bolt upright and screamed 'FINAL BOSS FIGHT!'. Seems a shame you don't actually have to face off the Ancient after you cast the banishment ritual. So I'm gonna rustle something up in that sort of direction for starters.

Thanks again to everyone for the feedback and bug reports. I haven't been able to reply to your emails because there's just too many, but I read every single one and made use of the data, so rest assured you all made a difference to this lonely Englishman and his silly hobbies.

Thy Shadow Updated 27 Nov 2013 11:45 AM (11 years ago)

Thanks to all the feedback that has come in on The Consuming Shadow so far. A couple of large issues came to light, so I've uploaded a 1.0.0.1 version that takes care of them. I won't make a habit of putting out new versions regularly; like I said, I plan to put out a much fuller version further down the line. This is only to handle some big issues that may spoil the enjoyment of the beta and get in the way of assessing the game as a whole.

You can download version 1.0.0.1 from the same page as before. Here's a complete list of changes:

New features:

- Added the much-requested keyboard controls

Originally I only had mouse-controlled movement 'cos I like the idea of a single-button game. It's nice to have a hand free to drink with, and the possibility of a future tablet version has crossed my mind. But on reflection I didn't see any reason not to also have the option of keyboard controls if a keyboard is available.

So you can now use WASD or cursor keys to walk, holding down SHIFT to run, and the number keys 1-3 can be used to switch ammunition types. You can also press ESC to either flee the dungeon or to quit out of the Magic menu without casting a spell, which was another annoyance.

- You can now pistol-whip by right-clicking, as well as by left-clicking within melee range and left-clicking anywhere with an empty gun

Game-breaking bug fixes:

- Fixed the game crashing when you try to attack the Tall Man

Silly me: the damage checking script was trying to check the Tall Man's health variable, when the Tall Man doesn't have a health variable because he can't die. Incidentally, gameplay tip: stay the fuck away from the Tall Man.

- Fixed the ladder disappearing in the endgame dungeon

Minor bug fixes:

- Clicking to dispel a message while your mouse is still over the bottom-centre button no longer presses the button again.
- The Pentagram Necklace is no longer overpowered

Instead of eliminating sanity loss from spellcasting, now it only halves it, so you can't just cast Mass Death and Restoration infinitely. (The effect stacks if you also have the Rosary equipped)

- Fixed inscribed runes sometimes hanging around outside the casting menu
- The Fat Man no longer respawns infinitely during hunter escapes
- Fixed being able to cast magic infinitely while under the effects of drugs

See, what happened here was that there's the raw Sanity stat and there's the Trip stat, which is the amount of sanity the drugs have added. Previously, casting magic only reduced the raw Sanity, but now if there's no raw Sanity left it takes away from Trip instead.

Cosmetic changes and other tweaks:

- Hunters now fade in when appearing in a new room, rather than popping into existence at the door

That's about it. Please download and install the newer version if you intend to keep playing and testing - save files and score data from the previous version should still work. I learned my lesson not to use Game Maker's built-in save function after Poacher.

Thy Shadow Consumed 25 Nov 2013 11:51 AM (11 years ago)

I did threaten that I might be working on another game, and here it is. May I introduce you to The Consuming Shadow (Beta).

The idea came to me almost exactly a year ago, during my Christmas break from ZP. I'd been playing a lot of FTL: Faster Than Light at the time, which is a game I quite enjoy. I like the sense of being a small thing up against massive odds, having to prepare yourself with the constant threat of your pursuer hanging over you. It occurred to me that that sort of gameplay would fit a Lovecraftian setting very well, and thus were the seeds planted for Consuming Shadow. I've been working on it pretty solidly since then.


You have 72 hours to travel from town to town, resolving randomly-generated dungeons in cursed towns and restocking supplies in safe ones, beset by random events and encounters all the way. Ultimately, you must find information on the Banishment Ritual, a sequence of four runes that must be incanted at a specific location to stop an evil ancient god from re-entering the world and slaughtering humanity.

But there's also a puzzle aspect. One of the four runes of the ritual will be the rune of the god you mean to banish. There are three gods exerting influence upon the world, but only one of those is attempting to invade. If you piece together the ritual but banish the wrong god, then you have failed at the final hurdle. You also need to gather enough clues as to the gods' identities to be able to make, at the very least, an educated guess.


In the grand tradition of Roguelikes, if you die, then everything will be lost: ammo, equipment, information, everything. You must go back to square one with everything re-randomized: the dungeons, the ritual, the invading god, and all the facts relating to the gods. However, with each death you are awarded XP based on how much progress you made, and each level you attain adds an upgrade you can apply at the start of each life. The game is intended to be obscure and challenging at first; you're not expected to pass it on your first attempt, but to use each life to learn a bit more about how things work and how to handle the minions of the shadow.

Finally, bear in mind that Consuming Shadow is very much a beta, and I'm looking to get feedback on it that can be applied to future, bigger versions. A full version would certainly have a wider range of random dungeons, monsters and events; as it stands it's probably going to repeat itself a fair bit. Other features I have in mind for a full version include collectible world-building documents, monster profiles, and different unlockable playable characters with different gameplay styles. Suggestions welcome.

With all that in mind, here's the page with the download link. Let me know how y'all go with it. Bonus points if you record yourself playing for Youtube, 'cos that's as good as a focus test.

That Most Talkative Jam 11 Nov 2013 4:27 PM (11 years ago)

So you may have noticed I've done a bit of rearranging on the front page. Steer your eyeballs portside and you'll note there's a new link for the Jam audiobook. Basically that was the announcement. Hey! The audiobook version of my second novel, Jam, is now available from iTunes and Audible.com! A lot of people were asking about it and we got it out just in time for the holidays. It's my classic tale of an alternative apocalypse, fully unabridged and read by my good friend myself, published by Open Book Audio just like Mogworld was. Click the big image below if you consider the sidebar button beneath you.

Also, here's a link to the Amazon page in case you're not interested in the audio version but were suddenly reminded that you need to pick up a Kindle or physical copy of Jam, and who could blame you.

I might as well also use this post to mention that I may have another announcement soon. I'm working on another game with Game Maker, and am thinking of putting out a beta version sooner rather than later to get some feedback, then using that feedback to make a larger, final version to try putting out for actual money. Ho yes, now that I'm a fully grown up and mature professional creative I'm starting to realise that perhaps I should endeavour to find some compensation for time frittered away on solo game projects. Watch this space.

Splash back 4 Nov 2013 2:26 AM (11 years ago)

Hello! I'm still alive! Here's a video Gabriel and I did in which we play Flashback very badly.

That's A Panelling 19 Sep 2013 5:45 PM (11 years ago)

Ahoy there, occasional readers. As some of you may know, the Escapist Expo is coming up again (October 4-6th in Durham, NC just like last time) and I'm going to be flying all the way out there again for it. But I'm not going to be there just to sit in a tree cupping myself, ho no, I've got panels to do.

There's a full list of scheduled panels now been put up here, which you should definitely check out in full 'cos there's a lot of neat stuff I'm going to miss 'cos I have to go be sparkling somewhere else, but since this is my blog that you're still psychotically checking regularly for updates that never seem to come, here's a list of just the ones I'm on. Hope to see y'all there.


The Escapist Q&A
You get to ask all of the Escapist contributors whatever you want. This Q&A session will start with a few introductions, but then we’ll jump right into handing the mic over to you to ask your heart’s desire. Why doesn’t Yahtzee wear his hat anymore? What does Jim think about sandwiches? Does Lisa Foiles wear boxers or briefs? Now’s your chance to ask! (We will be having three sessions of this Q&A over the weekend so don’t worry if you miss one.)

Participants:
Yahtzee Croshaw
Bob Chipman
Gavin Dunne
Dan Epstein
Chris Pranger
Lisa Foiles
Mark J Kline
Graham Stark
Paul Saunders
Jim Sterling
Greg Tito

Location: 
Fletcher Hall at the Carolina Theatre

Date:
Fri, Oct 4, 2013 3:00 PM
Sat, Oct 5, 2013 3:00 PM
Sun, Oct 6, 2013 3:00 PM


How to Create an Online Cult, er, Following
The internet is a fickle mistress, but when plied with social media and shameless plugs, she can bring great success. The internet celebrities discuss how they’ve expanded the reach of their empire through the use of self-promotion. Or how it all kind of just happened by an enormous stroke of luck.

Participants:
Graham Stark
Paul Saunders
Yahtzee Croshaw
Joshua Ovenshire
Greg Tito

Location:
Fletcher Hall at the Carolina Theatre

Date:
Fri, Oct 4, 2013 10:30 AM


The Hour of Love 2 – The Revenge
Say something positive about quick time events. Go! Last year we asked the audience to come up with short, one phrase topics, and present them to Jim Sterling and Yahtzee, forcing them to express anything good about the subject. Dr. Mark would then judge the two notorious curmudgeons to see if they were able to be as loving as possible. We’re bringing back the format for this Expo, so please bring your dastardly trap-topics. Please, no one mention Aliens: Colonial Marines.

Participants: 
 Yahtzee Croshaw
Mark J Kline
Jim Sterling
Greg Tito

Location:
Fletcher Hall at the Carolina Theatre

Date:
Fri, Oct 4, 2013 4:30 PM


The Big Picture Quiz Show with MovieBob & Friends
MovieBob will test the knowledge of his fellow Escapists with a one-of-a-kind quiz show! We've picked the contestants, Bob is holding the questions - most culled directly from the over 150 episodes of “The Big Picture”... but YOU get to help decide which category the questions will come from! Movies, Comics, TV, Games, the power is in your hands. PLUS! If none of our esteemed contestants can answer a question, a lucky audience member might get a chance to try and maybe win a fabulous prize!

Participants:
Yahtzee Croshaw
Lisa Foiles
Chris Pranger
Graham Stark
Bob Chipman

Location:
Fletcher Hall at the Carolina Theatre

Date:
Sat, Oct 5, 2013 12:00 PM


No Right Answer – The Escapists DebateThere’s nothing quite like demanding people to state their opinion on meaningless pop-culture items. Ben “Yahtzee” Croshaw, Bob “Movie Bob” Chipman, Graham Stark, Chris Pranger, and Dan Epstein join forces for what could possibly be the greatest series of debates since the dawn of time. We’ll start out using fan suggestions to debate in the style of the wildly popular “Who Would Win?” episodes of No Right Answer. Then the main event; A feature debate where panelists split into teams, and tag in when they have a killer point to make. If you’ve ever wanted to see Yahtzee and Movie Bob get into a shouting match, you’re welcome to attend and watch the magic unfold.

Participants:
Bob Chipman
Yahtzee Croshaw
Graham Stark
Dan Epstein
Chris Pranger

Location: 
Fletcher Hall at the Carolina Theatre

Date:
Sat, Oct 5, 2013 4:30 PM


The Most Wonderful Games We’ve Never MadeGame designers talk about the best game ideas they had that never got made, for one reason or another. Or the game they've always wanted to make, but never did. Or, the game they heard about someone else making that never surfaced. There will be a lot secrets divulged, skeletons dug up, and bad ideas left to dry.

Participants:
Yahtzee Croshaw
Richard Dansky
Randy Greenback
Jonathan Bolding

Location:
DCC Meeting Rooms 3-4

Date:
Sun, Oct 6, 2013 10:30 AM


Game of the Year
2013 may not be over yet, but that doesn’t mean we can’t start talking about our favorite game of the year. What title should hold the honor? Is it a shooter? An RPG? Or should we surprise everyone and give it to Madden? The panel will discuss what they think about the games they’ve played this year and nominate their early pick for Game of the Year.

Participants:
Yahtzee Croshaw
Jim Sterling
Gavin Dunne
David Moss
Andrea Rene

Location:
Fletcher Hall at the Carolina Theatre

Date:
Sun, Oct 6, 2013 12:00 PM


Your Game Idea is Bollocks/Brilliant – Pitch It Anyway
You think you got a great idea for a video game? Come to the panel and pitch it to our illustrious panel of game developers and critics, and we’ll tell you whether you are a crazy son of a bitch or a game design genius. There’s no middle ground - it’s either bollocks or brilliant. You have 30 seconds to explain your game idea, so make it count!

Participants:
Yahtzee Croshaw
Jim Sterling
Chris Hazard
David Moss
Greg Tito

Location: 
Fletcher Hall at the Carolina Theatre

Date: 
Sun, Oct 6, 2013 4:30 PM