Zombie Nirvana Games

Hey all! We’re pretty well settled in here at the new place, so I thought I’d hop back on to let you know what I’ve got in store for the next few months.

FCAP

First, I’ve come to a decision about the Fantasy Cartography book. (Don’t worry, it’s not bad!) I finally realized that I really enjoy doing the podcast and I really don’t enjoy working on a full-length tutorial book. Rather than abandon the book altogether, though, I’m going to do something that a lot of you suggested right from the outset of the podcast: I’m going to do the FCAP “book” as a video series instead.

Here’s why:

1. As I pointed out, I really enjoy doing the podcast a lot more than writing the same thing.
2. After doing both, I think video is a better format for showing off Photoshop techniques than print all around.
3. It’s going to be a heck of a lot cheaper! For the same cost to print one copy of a full-color book (because, frankly, I don’t think it would work in b&w), before I’d even see a dime of profit, I can offer a DVD chock full of videos, map templates, custom brushes, and example files AND get a healthy payout to boot.

One thing the DVD will NOT be is a compilation of the podcasts. The will contain the same material you’ve seen so far in the podcasts, re-recorded in a much higher resolution and (particularly when compared to the earlier episodes) with better sound.

So what does that mean for the podcast? The FCAP podcast will continue, though they’ll probably be shorter for awhile!

Two Books & A Blog

Meanwhile, I’m also going to be working on a couple of new M&M Superlink books, A Dirty Dozen and New Troy: City Under Siege. The former is a villain collection, and since it’s relatively short I hope to have out within a couple of months. The latter is a city setting book that I’ve been dying to do for a long time now, and will take awhile to complete, I’m sure!

As part of the work on these two new books, I’ve started a design blog over at Blogger, Butch’s Zombie Brains. It’s going to be pretty specific to those two books, and much “bloggier” than I like to make ZombieNirvana.com, hence the new page. Keeping the design blog will not only allow me to put up a lot of previews and get feedback from the fans, but will also keep me motivated and honest about how the work is progressing!

Starting next week, I’ll be working on the Superlink stuff and updating the blog on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, and working on the FCAP videos Tuesdays and Thursdays for as long as my voice holds out!

So that’s the skinny! Sorry to any of you who were looking forward to a print copy of FCAP, but at least with the DVD you’ll be getting more of what you’ve already come to enjoy!

Hey Zombie fans! We’ve successfully made the move down to lovely Carrollton, Texas! Although we still don’t have our own DSL at the moment, I’ve got some on-and-off access til then. I can’t guarantee speedy responses to emails and comments for another week or so, at least, though, but I’ll try to pop on whenever I’m able!

After many delays and a lot of headaches, my family and I are finally moving this weekend. I’m not sure how long it’ll take us to get our internet access ready to go once we’ve moved, so responses to comments and emails may be sporadic or non-existent for a week or two! I’ll let you all know when we’re settled back in, but until then, thanks for your patience!

One way or another, I’ll start posting new episodes of Fantasy Cartography with Adobe Photoshop once again next month. They’ll likely come on a bi-weekly schedule for a while, as we’ll be settling into our new home, but I’ve decided that it’s about time to get back on track.

So now is the time for you to put in requests for things you’d like to see in the coming year. I promise to do a whole series on mountain-making when the show starts up again, and I’ve had several folks ask about how to do Mappa Harnica and Forgotten Realms style maps. But if you have any other requests, now is the time to get them in!

Thanks to all of you for your patience while I’ve been off the air. Even though I haven’t been putting out new episodes, I’ve still gotten some great reviews over on iTunes (all 5 star ratings so far!), the subscriber base on iTunes and YouTube has continued to grow (well over 15,000 views between the two of them… not bad for a video series that doesn’t feature girls in bikinis or injury to the groin), and I still continue to get wonderful, supportive emails and comments.

Thanks so much! You fans have made it a great year for me, and I’m looking forward to what the new year will bring.

Merry Christmas, and happy holidays!

You might have noticed that the site has been down for a bit. My hosting service migrated all their sites to a new datacenter. Long story short, the move didn’t go exactly as planned, but it looks like things are back up and running again. The new datacenter has better servers and a bigger pipeline, too, so you should notice that the site is even faster than before now.

You’ve probably also noticed that there hasn’t been much going on lately. Well, once again, long story short: my wife has had a great job opportunity open up… in another state. So we’ve got a big move coming up shortly, and my time has been taken up with packing and filling out reams of paperwork. Hopefully things will calm down shortly! If I get some time this week, I’ll try to sit down and record and episode or two of the podcast, but I can’t make any promises. Sorry about that folks!

Update: The hosting service is still having a bit of trouble so the site will probably be up and down for another day or so.

Final Update: It looks like everything is, after 4 days, finally up and running with the new host. If for some reason you’re interested in learning more about what we’ve been going through these last few days, there was an article posted yesterday over at the Register about it.  It’s been trying, to say the least.