It’s amazing how busy things can get when you aren’t really writing anything. Sure, I’m still beating on that overdue X-Com article (end of week – promise), but there are things happening.

What exactly?

1) Well, I wrote a guest blog for Pocket Tactics, a site dedicated to strategy games for mobile and tablets. It’s a throwaway post, really, but it does emphasize that yes, I have an iPad now, so I have to fill it with things. I am actually genuinely astonished at how much time I spend poring over the game list in the Apple store.

2) Warlock: Master of the Arcane is an Evolve PR client, so I won’t say much more beyond I think that it is worth every cent of its 20 dollar price tag. There are some bits of the game I’d have liked to have seen explored a little more, but there is a very nice tactical element to the game and city expansion, being tied purely to population growth, is a delicate balancing of butter and guns – expanding cities have access to more fun units, after all. Check out the demo, at least.

3) I have a winner of a topic for my first video blog, and the script is mostly together. I am installing old games and capturing video from them and genuinely having a lot of fun doing it. What I am not having fun with is the lighting. I have a single webcam, mounted on the monitor, stuck in the corner of an apartment with a large window facing me. I have two studio lights which will help quite a bit, but lots of experimentation to do. Oh, and I have to cut the videos together.

The hard thing about a good game video blog is that when I, say, am talking about faction design, I need to have the right video to fit my words. I shouldn’t have a nuclear explosion or cut-scene clip at that point. So I need a script that flows naturally and then I need to play enough of the games for me to get the right moment captured. It’s not easy. I am lucky to have a brilliant and patient video advisor, but the bulk of the work falls on me. Video is a skill that I want to learn, and this should be an adventure.

4) My friend Dirk Knemeyer’s Kickstarter for Road to the Enlightenment more than doubled its goal, and I thank all of you that supported him. It’s a very cool game. In new Kickstarter news, Tom vs Bruce might rise again! I am supporting that because I know how hard collaborative writing is, though I hope this doesn’t mean Bruce and I can’t find time to write something again sometime.

5) E3 is next week, and I get less excited every year. But the great news is that I will get to hang out with my very cool boss Tom Ohle, my very old friend Bill Abner and his crew, and then I take off to Vegas for the weekend to hang with my pal Henry. Last time I went, it was pretty damned relaxing. This year, we are representing some nice new games – even one for the iPad.

More posts coming this week, including one tomorrow about a zombie strategy game that gets all my friends killed.