Cris Game

Back when I was an undergrad in college, I came across an absolutely incredible fantasy novel called Bridge of Birds by Barry Hughart.  Winner of the World Fantasy Award for Best Novel, it's set in ancient China and is actually one of the very few books that I have ever read twice. According to rumor, when Hollywood came calling to option the film rights, one of the producers purportedly made a comment along the lines of, "Does it have to have all these Chinese people in it?" No joke - for a novel set in Ancient China! (Although the producer did allegedly add, "Maybe we could set it in America.") True or not, the statements attributed to the producer reflect a common attitude in Hollywood regarding films - namely, that movies generally stick to a particular formula. For instance, think of how many cop movies you've seen where, early on, the protagonist gets called on the carpet by his superior, declared a loose cannon, and so on? That's the formula at ...

Oculus Mines of Agnirok Cart Ride This week we have a special treat for all you Oculus folks out there! Just sit down, relax, strap on that Oculus Rift and a nice pair of headphones - and be transported into a special sneak peak of The Mines of Agnirok! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jx_6D22jWEw GDC Play Booth 310 If any of you will be attending GDC this year, feel free to come by Booth PL310 in the GDC Play area to test out XING on either Oculus or on the PC. We'll be right next to the Business and Career Centers Wednesday March 19th-Friday March 21st. We'd love to hear from you guys and see your faces! Also, we have a few surprises in store for the people who come to our booth ;) On another note, check out this cool banner that I made, which ended up being too large of a file size to use ><

At this juncture, almost everyone who's interested in self-publishing knows about BookBub. They're generally acknowledged as the the 800-pound gorilla of book advertising (especially among indies), and getting an ad with them is as close as you can get to guaranteed sales.  Needless to say, everyone wants a BookBub promotion, so it's probably surprising that I resisted the urge to submit a book to them until very recently. To be perfectly honest, "resisted" is probably the wrong word.  Truth be told, from everything I'd heard, BookBub was a powerful tool if you could get accepted (everyone agrees that they're very selective), and I was looking to get the most bang for my buck.  Thus, rather than try to get an ad with them as soon as humanly possible, I waited until I released the third book in my Kid Sensation series and then tried to get an ad.  Apparently the stars were aligned just right, because I was approved for an ad for Sensation , the first Kid Se...

This past week we were invited to the Oculus VR office for a meeting regarding XING: The Land Beyond! They were wonderful hosts, and we got to play a little show and tell. Immediately when walking into the meeting room we noticed a sandbox with shovels and buckets just outside a glass door from the room - this was how we knew we were in good hands :) James trying out Crystal Cove John on video call while I walk around XING for the first time in HD! Long story short, XING looked fantastic on the HD Oculus Prototype! Our meeting was with Aaron Davies, and he seemed very impressed with what we brought to demo. Also, Crystal Cove was a beautiful experience! So many degrees of freedom! We are very excited to be working with such an amazing and fun-loving company! Being fortunate enough to get a glimpse of the future of VR, I can't wait to see XING on the next prototype!