Tag Archives: Update

Burden of Command Releasing Soon

Some fantastic news coming down the pipeline: Burden of Command – a genre-defying WW2 tactical RPG/leadership simulator/wargame which I spent much of the past decade as a writer on – is coming out on April 8th. It launches with a meticulously researched (I would know, I did quite a bit of it) release campaign following a (fictional) rifle company of the (very real) US 7th Infantry Regiment from the landings in North Africa through Sicily, Italy, France, and Germany, to the very end of the war.

I did a lot of writing for this game. There’s roughly 500k words of interactive fiction in that first campaign, and I’ve written probably anywhere from a third to half of those words. There’s a lot of work that I’m really proud of in there, and a lot of characters which I (and senior writer Allen Gies) tried to make as interesting, nuanced, and worth your time as possible. We worked with veterans, historians, combat psychologists and some really experienced scenario designers to try to create the closest thing we could to the experience of leading an infantry company on and off the battlefield with our limited budget and resources.

If you’re interested World War Two history or tactical RPGs or any of my writing, definitely consider picking this up on Steam, where it’ll be about $30 CAD (or whatever the equivalent to $20 USD will be) when it launches next month.

In the meantime, this month’s Soldier’s Guide to the Infinite Sea, and Adventurer’s Guide to the Fledgling Realms are both up – as are some initial notes on my next project in Creator’s Guide to Writing and Worldbuilding.


February Update

I’m back in the saddle this month, working on that main project I can’t talk about. What I probably can say is that it’ll probably be done primary writing work sometime in late summer – which means a release late in the year, assuming conditions are favourable.

In the meantime, this month’s Soldier’s Guide to the Infinite Sea, and Adventurer’s Guide to the Fledgling Realms are both up.

In addition, you may have noticed that this month’s Creator’s Guide to Writing and Worldbuilding is a bit different. Instead of focusing on a specific concept of narrative design or worldbuilding, the Patrons have voted to have me walk through the creation of a (relatively) small narrative game. This will be something I work on in my free time and something I’ll work on in the time I normally allot to Patreon content at the end of every month, so you don’t have to worry about it slowing down my normal writing pace. That being said, if I end up getting some gaps in my schedule (say, if I have a project in the publishing queue and therefore have a lighter workload for a month), I might pile in some more work on it.

Eventually, once this project takes shape, I’ll be uploading development demos and additional content for it onto my Patreon. If it really grows, then I might spin off a separate account for it. However, until then, you can support it – and all my other regular Patreon content, as always, through here.


January Update

First of all, Happy New Year. Last year I wrote about 700 000 words, of which 10% or so were for my Patreon articles. I’d like to say that I’m taking the month off to rest and recover after a year like that, but I’d be lying. Instead, I’m working on responding to feedback from closed playtesting for my yet-unannounced project, and working on some other stuff, which I can hopefully announce sooner rather than later.

There’s also some other stuff I’m planning on working on – just general housekeeping things like making a new portrait for myself (the one I have now is a decade old), just to take advantage of the extra time. I’ll be back to full-speed writing in February.

In the meantime, this month’s Soldier’s Guide to the Infinite Sea, Adventurer’s Guide to the Fledgling Realms and Creator’s Guide to Writing and Worldbuilding are all up, thanks to the support from my Patrons. If you wanna see more supplementary content like this, then feel free to support me here.


December Update

I will not lie, it’s been an interesting experience working on a project I can’t talk about for this long. Usually, by this point, I’d have some kind of public announcement, with a way to get open feedback, and I’d be able to talk – if not freely – then at least extensively about what I’m working on. Even Burden of Command was earlier along when it was openly announced.

That being said, what this does mean is that when it does get announced, release won’t be that much further off.

In the meantime, this month’s Soldier’s Guide to the Infinite Sea, Adventurer’s Guide to the Fledgling Realms and Creator’s Guide to Writing and Worldbuilding are all up, thanks to the support from my Patrons. If you wanna see more supplementary content like this, then feel free to support me here.


November Update

Another quick update this time. I’ve been real busy writing this month, and I think I’m getting closer to the point when I can announce this project – but I’m not quite there yet.

In the meantime, this month’s Soldier’s Guide to the Infinite Sea, Adventurer’s Guide to the Fledgling Realms and Creator’s Guide to Writing and Worldbuilding are all up now, thanks to the support from my Patreon. If you’d like to see more of my extended worldbuilding and commentary on writing and worldbuilding, then feel free to support me here.


Burden of Command has a Demo at Steam NextFest

Some exciting news today.

In anticipation of its full release in a few months, Burden of Command now has a demo out for Steam NextFest. The demo includes the tutorial, as well as two standalone scenarios (including one I did most of the writing work on), which should give you some idea of the innovative combat model the entire game is built around.

It’s quite a bit different from what most people are used to, and more importantly, it represents the actual combat of the Second World War a lot more authentically. Once you’ve gotten a hang of that, the two standalone scenarios will put your new skills to the test – and maybe give you a taste of some of the narrative elements, giving you the chance to make some hard decisions at the head of an American rifle company as it helps liberate Western Europe from the Nazis.

Check out the demo from the Steam store page here.

In the meantime, this month’s Soldier’s Guide to the Infinite Sea, Adventurer’s Guide to the Fledgling Realms and Creator’s Guide to Writing and Worldbuilding are all up now as well.


September Update

I’ve just finished another chapter of the project I can’t mention – well, I’m not sure I should call them chapters. I’ve been referring to them internally (and will probably title them) as “Acts”, probably because they fit into a five-act structure, and also because they’re all really, really big.

As in, the one I just finished was 120 000 words, which is longer than any single chapter I’ve ever written.

Don’t worry though, I’ve still had time to write this month’s Soldier’s Guide to the Infinite Sea, Adventurer’s Guide to the Fledgling Realms and Creator’s Guide to Writing and Worldbuilding. They’re all up now, thanks to the support from my Patreon. If you’d like to see more of my extended worldbuilding and commentary on writing and worldbuilding, then feel free to support me here.


August Update

Another update this month, but not a very eventful one. I’m still working on that project I can’t talk about. It’s probably got some of the biggest chapters I’ve ever written. The last one was well over 100 000 words, and I think this one’s going to be at least as long.

Needless to say, it’s taking up all my time right now.

Meanwhile this month’s Soldier’s Guide to the Infinite Sea, Adventurer’s Guide to the Fledgling Realms and Creator’s Guide to Writing and Worldbuilding are all up, so hopefully those will tide you over for a bit while I get things prepared for an announcement at some point in the (probably still distant) future.


July Update

It’s been an interesting past two weeks over here, in between the heat wave (I managed to get heat exhaustion last weekend), spraining my wrist, and a bunch of other stuff all happening at once. I’ve been pretty occupied.

But that doesn’t mean I’m not still writing. I’ve gotten in about 30k words already this month, and I’m probably going to write 30k more before the month’s out.

I might also have some interesting news to share about another (already announced) project pretty soon too.

In the meantime, this month’s Soldier’s Guide to the Infinite Sea, Adventurer’s Guide to the Fledgling Realms and Creator’s Guide to Writing and Worldbuilding all up, so take a look at those.


June Update

Quick update this month, I’m 300 000 words in, and I don’t really have the time to stop.

As usual, this month’s Soldier’s Guide to the Infinite Sea, Adventurer’s Guide to the Fledgling Realms and Creator’s Guide to Writing and Worldbuilding all up.

Now I’m off to do more writing.