I have been sooooo sick.
Quite seriously, I have been about as sick as a person can be without requiring hospital admission. This year's 'flu virus came and hit me with the sick-stick hard and repeatedly and brought along its best mate...
2019-12-11 11:35:41 +0000 UTC View PostWith the first two stories out, which narrative would you like to hear from next? Back to Colyn Gryre and the Martians? Do you want to know what happens next to Don Carter on Earth? Or perhaps you'd like to see more of the enigma...
2019-12-08 11:00:02 +0000 UTC View PostDon Carter made his way through the dense undergrowth with the patient care of a lifelong hunter - a proper one, who relied on his skills to survive, he reflected, not your rich-boygirl tourist hunters looking to impress their friends with t...
2019-12-08 09:01:00 +0000 UTC View PostThere's no limit to how many heroes you take in a game of Zero Dark, but I tend to find that 3-5 is the sweet spot. Beyond that, and you'll find that some heroes just don't do much because it turns out you don't need their particula...
2019-12-07 09:01:00 +0000 UTC View PostI'm delighted to have commissioned talented digital artist, David Sondered, to paint our front cover illustration.
David has a terrific CV in the gaming world and I've been a follower of and collaborator with him on other projects for over a...
2019-12-02 11:23:52 +0000 UTC View PostThe winner of the first Monthly Mini Draw is...
STEFAN GREEN
Stefan wins a miniature of his choice costing no more than $10 and suitable for Zero Dark (I leave plenty of leeway in terms of what counts as "suit...
2019-12-01 18:28:05 +0000 UTC View Post
I've popped this video onto YouTube, forpublic consumption. Future videos will be on Vimeo to begin with, for patrons only to see.
Suffice to say that I am no video-making expert. This is pretty basic and it still took me most of...
2019-11-30 15:23:19 +0000 UTC View PostWe all love a good heist movie, don't we? My favourite bit is the early chapter - usually done as a montage or series of short, choppy scenes with a unifying musical track - when the Boss puts his team together. Whether it's Ocean'...
2019-11-30 10:18:40 +0000 UTC View Post'What do you think they're going to do with her?'
Colyn turned away from the window. He had seen Lison coming up behind him, reflected in the thick duraglaze of the observation room's exterior wall. She was already dress...
2019-11-22 09:00:01 +0000 UTC View PostI feel like patrons backing at $5 and above really deserve something a bit more than the warm glow of satisfaction. So I'm going to start a monthly raffle.
Patrons backing at $5 and above will be automatically included in the raffle, s...
2019-11-21 21:00:02 +0000 UTC View PostAs part of developing a consistent setting for Zero Dark, built upon the foundations of Horizon Wars, I've decided to start writing some regular fiction. I'll try to keep it in manageable chunks of 3-4000 words, and expect ...
2019-11-21 15:35:09 +0000 UTC View PostIt's like Christmas came early or something! But you all need to thank new patron, Stefan.
Stefan helped me with playtesting and proofreading an earlier version of the rules, so he already has a version not dissimilar to the one you al...
2019-11-19 20:39:26 +0000 UTC View PostHi, folks! Quick update on the latest version of the beta:
So, I have a lovely thing called cubital tunnel syndrome (or carpal nerve entrapment). This means that spending long at the laptop is very painful (especially given that my day-jo...
Martians are practical-minded survivors, mildly paranoid and obsessive about always having the right piece of equipment. Unfortunately, the higher gravity on Earth means they have had to scale back the amount of equipment they can carry compared t...
2019-11-08 09:01:00 +0000 UTC View PostI'm just putting the final touches to the current beta document. You should be able to get your hands on it in the next couple of weeks.
Initially, it won't be very printer friendly, because I want to show you the proposed page formatt...
2019-11-04 21:01:00 +0000 UTC View Post
The planetary factions are highly diverse, so there's no restrictions on what mini represents what faction, but I thought you might like a preview of the briefing sketches in doing for an artist.
This first one represents Venus.
Venu...
So, guys, I've got Mars, Venus and the Terran Survivors as broad factions for the game who will all, in due course, get their own special rules as well as suggestions for miniatures that can represent them well. Each of these is diverse in t...
2019-10-30 12:00:03 +0000 UTC View PostOne of my plans for Zero Dark that should be realized, because it's broadly "affordable", is a custom Control Deck. Of course, to play, you only need any normal deck of 54 playing cards (and it's important to me that this should remain the c...
2019-10-29 17:40:34 +0000 UTC View PostOver the Horizon is basically done, just as soon as I can persuade Wargame Vault's artificial intelligence to accept my manuscript (there's a thing with the bleed margin that I just can't seem to sort out, but I'm working on it).
Th...
2019-10-28 14:59:54 +0000 UTC View PostI'll be a bit quiet here for a couple of weeks. This is because I'm working on getting Over the Horizon laid out in InDesign for release ASAP, and I've just secured a deal to be the UK distributor for Strato Minis so I'm a little busy. ...
2019-10-15 20:07:55 +0000 UTC View PostOnce the rules are finalized by the end of December, I'll begin working on the supplements to expand on the core rules and bring new options and ideas to the game. These will be exclusively available to patrons until I have enough material t...
2019-10-14 15:01:01 +0000 UTC View PostAt the request of one of my awesome patrons, I put together a two-page example of play. I have to warn you that, as the game's designer, what I do on the tabletop doesn't always reflect what it says in the version of the rules you may have i...
2019-10-10 14:50:08 +0000 UTC View PostAs promised, here's the business card template to print your own business-card-sized team rosters and share them with your friends.
I also have a design made for Horizon Wars, so let me know if you'd like to get hold of it.
2019-10-09 10:42:21 +0000 UTC View Post
A thing I've tried to do with every game I've ever written is to make it so you can fit your "army list" on the back of a business card. It's not just a funky marketing tool that encourages people to actually keep your business cards and use...
2019-10-09 10:40:26 +0000 UTC View PostThere's no denying that Zero Dark is a tricky game to get your head around at first glance. So I put together this basic aide memoire.
Longer term, I plan to release a bespoke card deck for the game, with not only the standard 54-card ...
2019-10-09 08:00:00 +0000 UTC View PostSo, here we go: the latest beta of Zero Dark, a game that's been in development in one form or another since... well, since about 2010, I think, but it's been a serious project in its own right for the last two years. Earlier beta versions a...
2019-10-07 08:54:22 +0000 UTC View PostMy Patreon page - which previously had all the life-signs of a month-old corpse - has lurched into action now that I have a business model that actually makes sense.
With Zero Dark just a few months away from release, I'm fine-tunin...
2019-10-07 08:40:04 +0000 UTC View PostThank you so much for the support this month!
2015-12-31 00:00:00 +0000 UTC View PostThank you so much for the support this month!
2015-12-01 07:59:00 +0000 UTC View PostThank you so much for the support this month!
2015-11-01 06:59:00 +0000 UTC View Post