November 1, 2008

Hi Everyone.

First of, let me apologize for not updating lately: I have been busy with the real world job and buried in work.

I did a quick title page for Jess for her layout for Skirmisher Publishing's Cthulhu Live scenario, Sight Unseen. I tried something different: I painted over a sketch, and it seemed to have worked out great, so expect me to try that style more often in the future.

Age of Cthulhu for Goodman Games is almost done. Jess and I are in charge of the graphic design of the book, and if I do say so myself, it is going to look slick. But don't take my word for it.. check it out for yourselves when it hits the shelves in early December, just in time to be a good Christmas gift for your favorite Call of Cthulhu fan.

Also on my plate: Urban Fantasy Hero for Hero Games. Anyone who follows this blog (and, presumably, my art) knows that I love doing urban fantasy... especially urban fantasy with a horror feel. I think that is scheduled to come out mid-late December...I don't know: they rarely tell me these things; all I have to do is hit the deadlines as close as possible.

Also coming soon: My cover for Mongoose' Slayers Guide to Gamers: The Origins of the Specious, written by Grim Jim Desborough. Also, I have bookend covers coming out for Expeditious Retreat Press, for their Advanced Adventures line. Look for my art on The Seven Shrines of Nav'k-Qar sometime before the end of the year.

Let me see… some sci-fi stuff for Twin Blade Games (still in progress since my last blog), a logo for Grand Vizier Games in England, a game/book line for my friend Darrell Hardy.. sigh.. no rest for the weary.

Finally, when I find time, I am supposed to do a book cover for TheLe Games and write a hard SF/ Zombie game for him. Look for Shapeless, Earth: DOA, and hopefully a couple other writing projects for me in 2009: Stained is not dead, it is just in hibernation, as are Infernal Arena, Meet the Weirdleys, and the black humor game I am not ready to unveil quite yet.

Anyhow… that is all for me.. hopefully, will blog again in a couple of weeks!

September 15,2008

Hi everyone,

Please accept my apologies for slipping off the blog-wagon lately… I have been buried in work AND fighting a serious case of Creeping Crud.. you know the feeling… when you KNOW you have a ton of stuff to get done, but you just can’t find the energy? Yeah.. we got back from Gencon and one of those hit full-force. Not fun at all.

I have not been idle though….I finished up a series of thirteen truly demented illustrations for Goodman Games for that is the Godsend-for-frustrated-Gamemasters-book I mentioned in an earlier blog.

Other news:

Good Lord, where to start.. This looks to be a very busy Fall for me… I am doing work for Mongoose Publishing’s High Guard supplement for Traveller, for Atlas Games’ new Ars Magica book, Hedge Magic. As if those were not enough, I am doing a couple jobs for the good folks at Rogue Games (sorry, no details yet…), some fun sci-fi stuff for the guys at Twin Blade Games, another expansion on their popular Sen So line of combat games, and a funny book cover for Post-Mortem Studios. And it is only mid-September….

And given that a couple of those deadlines are coming up fast, I had better get back to work!

Not so good news: Shapeless is on hold until I can get some feedback from playtesters.. so anyone who wants to help, you know where to contact me! I have some awesome art from Joel Biske (FASA, White Wolf, Disney)for the book, so it is gonna look good, no matter what else!

I will try to keep this blog updated regularly! Expect more updated for the Haiiiii-Ya! Page soon as I can find time to write anything at all!

August 23,2008 - After Gencon Wrap-up!

A buttload of news for everyone!

First off, I have been hired by Goodman Games as a part-time layout person, which means I will not only be drawing stuff, I will be deciding where in the books they go... I can't talk about my first project yet, but it is a subject near and dear to my heart.

Jess is also working in the industry as Skirmisher Publishing's Online Manager/graphic designer. So when you see something new from them, you will know she probably had a hand in its creation.

I have more work coming from Mongoose Publishing, including stuff for Traveller. As some of you may know, I did a lot of work on Traveller: The New Era when I was on staff at GDW. I am looking forward to the chance to re-visit the Imperium.

It is also VERY likely I will start doing work for Chaosium for Call of Cthulhu. No details yet, but I have a good feeling about it. I may also have work coming from various other companies; we shall see!

Right now, I need to stop blogging for once (lol, considering how bad I was!) and get back to the artwork!

August 4, 2008

Yet another short update, cuz I am still buried in work!

The podcast with All Games Considered is up! Check it out at here.

There is also a long segment on me and Haiiiii-Ya! up at Fist Full of Comics. This is a website run by my old friends JJ "Working Man"Lanza and Victor (pronounced "Veek-Tor").

Jeez.. I am becoming a celebrity, it seems.

Jess and I will be at Gencon Friday through Sunday: if you see us, feel free to say hello. We don't bite, and if we do, we promise we have had our shots.

I will be working the Goodman Games booth from 1 pm to 4 pm on Friday: so if you are there and want an autographed copy of Haiiiii-Ya! or anything else (that I have done for Goodman Games...), stop on by. He is having a massive sale to clear out room for this 4th Edition stuff, so bring your plastic and stock up!

I will also be doing an artists signing at Twin Blade Games (booth number 1434) at 11 am Saturday and also at 3 pm. Swing by and check it out!

Other news:

Doing some art for a very cool Cthulhu-meets-The-Dark-Future Game, scheduled to be out later this year through Chaosium.

Going to be doing a really FUN job for Post-Mortem Studios that is going to let me indulge my fondness for Man from U.N.C.L.E. style hijunx and babes in hokey outfits.. lol.

Shapeless is still available for playtest groups to check it out. If anyone wants to get in on the fun, or is even just willing to give it a test-read and give me some feedback, email me at bkmcdevitt@yahoo.com and put "Shapeless Playtest" in the subject line. Some of the rules are a bit inventive and eccentric and I want to make sure they work before it actually goes up for sale... Joel Biskehs turned in some sketches for Shapeless, and the doodles are looking GOOD!

Infernal Arena is still coming along slowly, I have been batting around ideas for spells and names for the various Circles of Hell. anyone for Fast-Food Hell? How about the 12th Circle of Two-Beef-Patty Burgers, inhabited by the Evil Spirits of Onions and Pickle-Demons?

Stained, on the other hand, is on hold.. nothing new to report.. sorry!

On the artwork front: still cranking on stuff for Tabletop, Gamewick, and picked up the entire illo job for a REALLY cool product from Goodman.. any GM frustrated with all his players already owning Monster Manuals One-Through-Infinity will need topick this book up when it comes out, probabaly in mid-late October. I can't say anything more than that, but keep checking Goodman's website.. you will know which book I am talking about when you see it!

I am also writing another new game for Goodman, but I will keep that under wraps for the moment with only this to say: if you like your humor as warm and fuzzy as a glass of milk left on the kitchen counter for a few days, avoid this game like you would a glass of milk left on the kitchen counter for a few days!

Enough teasng and blathering..I got pirates and half-naked sprites, and spaceships and a heckuva lotta monsters to draw!

...back to work for me! Blog again soon!

July 26, 2008

Another short update, cuz I am still buried in work!

This past Wednesday, I did a podcast with All Games Considered, a gaming website. I will post when it is out: almost an hour of me rambling on about the industry. I hope I don't sound as senile in the podcast as I suspect I did...

Haiiiii-Ya! is officially out for sale.. the announcement is up on the front page at www.goodmangames.com!

Shapeless is still available for playtest groups to check it out. If anyone wants to get in on the fun, or is even just willing to give it a test-read and give me some feedback, e-mail me at bkmcdevitt@yahoo.com and put "Shapeless Playtest" in the subject line. Some of the rules are a bit inventive and eccentric and I want to make sure they work before it actually goes up for sale... i have comissioned Joel Biske, an old friend from FASA with mad credentials for artwork, to do some spot illos for it.. gonna cost a bit, but I know Joel's work is worth it! I have been knocking together some sketches and ads for it, and Jess is just cringing at some of the mages.. always a good sign.

Infernal Arena is still coming along slowly, I have been batting around ideas for spells and names for the various Circles of Hell. Anyone for Fast-Food Hell? How about the 12th Circle of Two-Beef-Patty Burgers, inhabited by the Evil Spirits of Onions and Pickle-Demons?

Stained, on the other hand, is on hold.. nothing new to report.. sorry!

On the artwork front: still cranking on stuff for Tabletop, Gamewick, and picked up the entire illo job for a REALLY cool product from Goodman.. any GM frustrated with all his players already owning Monster Manuals One-Through-Infinity will need topick this book up when it come s out, probabaly in mid-late October. I can't say anything more than that, but keep checking Goodman's website.. you will know which book I am talking about when you see it!

I am also possibly writing another new game for Goodman, but I will keep that under wraps for the moment with only this to say: if you like your humor as warm and fuzzy as a glass of milk left on the kitchen counter for a few days, avoid this game like you would a glass of milk left on the kitchen counter for a few days!

Enough teasng and blathering..I got pirates and half-naked sprites to draw!

...back to work for me! Blog again soon!

7/13/08

Just a short update, cuz I am buried in work!

Haiiiii-Ya! is officially out for sale.. the announcement is up on the front page at www.goodmangames.com!

Shapeless is out to some playtest groups to check it out. If anyone wants to get in on the fun, email me at bkmcdevitt@yahoo.com and put "Shapeless Playtest" in the subject line. Some of the rules are a bit inventive and eccentric and I want to make sure they work before it actually goes up for sale...

Infernal Arena is still coming along slowly, I have been batting around ideas for spells and names for the various Circles of Hell. anyone for Fast-Food Hell? How about the 12th Circle of Two-Beef-Patty Burgers, inhabited by the Evil Spirits of Onions and Pickle-Demons?

Stained, on the other hand, is on hold.. nothing new to report.. sorry!

On the artwork front: still cranking on stuff for Goodman Games, Tabeltop, and Gamewick. I also picked up a rush job for Hero Games for thier venerable Champions line. Champions has always been one of my favorite games and it inspired me to start designing my own games, so this feels like coming full circle.

Anyhow..back to work for me! Blog again soon!

7/5/08 Hi everyone..I am actually holding to my blog schedule...

So what is happening in my life? Let me take a look.. art for X-Crawl (interiors now, including a really "rad" faery Death Lord... lol)... some Sci Fi stuff for Tabletop Adventures (still trying to get to that!), somepirates stuff for Gamewick in New Jersey, and still trying to finish my mini-horror game Shapeless and get back to Stained.

Really not that much else going on... what can I say, my life outside of drawing monsters is pretty dull... lol. Had a really good fourth of July.

Check back in two weeks, when hopefully I have more exciting news. In the meantime, keep an eye out for Haiiiii-Ya! arriving in your local game store!

6/20/08 OMG! I am actually blogging twice in the same month!

It is amazing what can happen when you put your schedule on a calendar and then occasionally look at it to see what the heck you are supposed to be doing... lol.

So: a quick update:

Just had to crank through some stuff for Goodman Games... a mega-quickie job: I got the work order late Tuesday, and had to have them all in by this Friday (today). Lucky for me I don't sleep and have nothing but coffee and iced tea in my veins...lol. Sent the last final about 3 o'clock Friday morning... about a 48-hour turnaround for 5 illustrations.

I just finished a cover for Magique Productions, too, and will be starting on more DCC stuff for Goodman in a couple of weeks.

Not much else going on, but we are going to start having regular updates for the Haiiiii-Ya! page starting this weekend... so keep an eye out there for all sorts of goofiness.

See you in two weeks!

6/6/08 a long overdue update... lol..

Yish. How time flies. and I was promising to do better on the blogfront. Sorry.. the past several months have been eaten up by trying to finish Haiiiii-Ya!, work on Stained, a couple other possible games (including a VERY darkly humorous card game), trying to keep up on my freelance artwork, work a real-world job, and still have time to eat sleep, and spend at least some time having a family.

However: Haiiiii-Ya! is at the printers, and looks good, IMHO. Jess and I about killed ourselves learning Adobe InDesign and graphic-designing the book to death... all the while I was busily adding illustrations and new text to make it even funnier than it started at.

Stained is on hold, but I plan on starting to crank on it again as soon as possible... I have some new ideas for the haunted city of LaCroix that are begging to be written.

Freelance news:

2008 started off slow, but I have still kept myself fairly busy...

I have several pieces in the new Shadowrun book from Catalyst Games Lab, Ghost Cartels, as well as several in the new Ars Magica book from Atlas Games, Realms of Power: Magic.

I have also done covers for Twin Blade Games' Sen So series of board games, another for a new company, Barritaria Games, as well as one for Louis J. Porter Designs.. a REALLY big Dragon, which I hope to be able to show off soon.

I have also done some flag designs for a new company in England, Tylorva Games, which has a cool political dark-fantasy game coming out at the end of the year.

Finally, (almost) I am doing a lot of art for Adventures in Oz, a new RPG set in (as you can probably guess) the world of the Wizard of Oz, some sci-fi stuff for Tabletop Adventures (Derelict Starships), and new X-Crawl art for Goodman Games! Whew... and I was thinking 2008 was going to be slow!

I promise to try to blog with less than a 9 month gap next time!

Brad

9/9/07 a long overdue update... lol..

Dark Skull Studios. No blogging for the longest time mainly due to my scrambling to get New Gods of Mankind: New God's Handbook and Oddly Adorable done in time for Gencon. Fate's Guidebook should be out early October (we hit a few snags during production).

Freelance, Other! lol. Right now I am busy trying to do art for two separate Dungeon Crawl Classics for Goodman Games, the art for another game for him, and art for Jihad conspiracies 2 for Classic Battletech.

In other news: I have also started writing on a new game, but I am not ready to start talking about it too much until I have more; however, I do already have a publisher, two co-writers, an artist (besides myself), and a professional editor on board. Just let me say this to people who know my older writing work: it is somewhat in the same vein as NightLife, but much more adult and more horror-oriented. If you are scared of (oooh) bad words, you might want to give it a pass right now.

On the other hand, if you want to see what happens when you let ideas for a horror game gestate for fifteen years, then throw caution to ye olde wind and say "fvck it, I am gonna do this motherfvcker the RIGHT way!"...if you want to see THAT... stick around. I am on track with the writing to have it come out at least electronically in early April, 2008.

The second book is already in the planning stages.. heh heh heh... my co-writer is downright salivating to get to work on it, and we have barely gotten past the "necessary rules structure" part of the game.

(ignore this part of this blog...lol) I personally despise games that are all fluff and no crunch. Yes, you need the fluff writing to establish the mood.. can you really imagine Shadowrun without all the wonderful details about life in Seattle circa 2067, or Ravenloft without all the ghastly little bits about the various "realms" that make up the "Dimension of Dread?" Of course not.. those bits of fluff made all the difference.. rules, no matter how well written, only carry the reader so far.. but so does the fluff. These are GAMES, after all, and games need rules more concrete than "uhh, if that happens, figure out something."

No. I repeat, no! You need rules so that people know what can happen, what can't happen, and how things ARE going to happen. Call me old-school if you wish (hell, I started gaming in 1981), but I want some rules that are solid, as well as easy enough to learn that threy are not intrusive to the playing experience.

It does not help my staying in character if the die-rolls are hard enough to figure out that i have to stop playing to analyze the results.. so i am trying to keep the die-rolls that happen during play as simple as as possible: 1d20 and a (SMALL) handful of simple six-siders will be all you should need to play this game!

Ok, that is enough of that! I will now quietly get off my damned soapbox (I am going to spend enough time on the soapbox during the game, btw). and get my ass back to work!

See you in a few weeks, I hope!

4/1/07-Wow. How time flies when you are busier than the proverbial one-legged man at the butt-kicking contest.

Production on New Gods of Mankind is in full swing: I have almost 60 illustrations in from a variety of artists, a logo done, promotinal materials worked out, websites up, the whole shebang. If you have not yet done so, go to www.newgodsofmankind.com and check it out... my wife, Jess, designed it, and IMHO, I think she did an amazing job.. and so has everyone who has seen it.

In other news: I have finished my seventh job for Ars Magica, Houses of Hermes: Societates, for which i did House Tytalus, a House of Magi many of whom both suffer and draw power from being afflicted with leprosy. It was a chance to draw sowonderfully icky illos, and made for some very distrurbing reference-work. Have you ever had to go to the library and ask for pictures of people with leprosy? You get some WEIRD looks.

So what is up with me and Goodman Games, you may be wondering? As usual.. plenty! lol. If you have been to your FLGS lately, you will see I have been doing a lot of covers, many of which are now available. I have also done some art for Goodmans' module for freeRPGday, officially DCC 51.5. More details on this cool and innovative attempt to grow the hobby may be found at www.freerpgday.com. I am also doing work on two fairly top-secret projects for Goodman, and I hope I can spill the beans on them soon!

Well, that is all.. hope to be able to keep this up better, so expect another Blog in late April!

2/21/07- Ok, So I am blogging about icky stuff. Lol. To the point, i am deep into my art for the next book for Atlas Games' Ars Magica, Houses of Hermes: Societates. i am doing House Tytalus, a group of Mages many of whom suffer from leprosy. Lots of really unpleasant photo-reference searches... I never thought I would have to Google for pictures of leprosy.

Thank God i did not have to go to the local library for this one.. the librarians are used to me asking for help with weird stuff, but pictures of people with leprosy might have been a bit too much.

In other news, i just finished my art for Dark Quest Games Guiding Light: Seth, which is all about the Egyptian God of Evil and Chaos. I am hoping I can post those illustrations soon: the image of Seth is one of my better ones, in my opinion at least.

Let me see: Goodman Games stuff.. DCC 48... more good old retro DnD, this time with an annoying magical earring, some slippery, mobile shafts to try to jump from, and a 100 foot deep pit underneath said shafts.

I hope to have some more stuff for Goodman soon, now that my illness-related siesta is over. And lastly: I will be doing a couple covers for Expeditious Retreat Press, but right now, I have some rotting Magi to draw...lol.

12/22/06- Hi everyone, sorry for the long silence..I have been insanely busy with my real world job and my freelance career. In addition to that, I had to quit one job, just in time to get hired by another game company to act as thier Art Director. Yes, I am making an hourly wage within the gaming industry....

This week, I ahve been dealing with artists and signing up an art staff for the company. I have picked up some amazing talent, including an artist that used to work in TV animation in the 80s, as well as a handful of comic book artists (one of DC's top inkers of that period: he used to ink captain Atom, Firestorm, and he even can't remember what all else), in addition to some Magic Artists, and a super-hot artist from Argentine... when you see this guys work, you are going to be amazed.

Other than that, I have done some covers for Goodman Games, as well as some interiors for the DCC books, as well as working on stuff fr the new XCrawl book (set in a dungeon themed like an amusement park...lol), and just some other projects I have picked up here and there.

Most of the past month, I have to admit, has been slowed down due to a brutal cold that has had me so groggy that i could barely concentrate long enough to get to my real job, let alone my freelance. Biut I do seem to be gatting better, so now i have to try to get caught up on several projects.

Merry Christmas to all of you, and a Happy New Years (and a Happy Hannukah, too)!

9/30/06- Finally. We (wife and I) have been puttering along with dialup ever since we got online. To commemorate the new job, we talked to Verizon and got a good deal on DSL... OMG what a difference. Workwise, I can send files in about 1/5 the time.. a file that used to take 10 minutes is usually out the door in 2 mnutes or less. So I guess I cn't not blog because my connection is too slow...lol. So what am I working on.. I whipped through a rush job for Goodman Games this week.. finished a book cover in less than two days, which I did not think I was capable of doing. I am also doing some fun little drawings for a new company, Dark City Games. Today, I have t work on another cover fo Goodman. So hopefeully, you will see more of me next week. In the meantime, we are working at getting a Cafe Press store running.

9/19/06- Yish and double Yish. Where have the last two months gone? I have been so busy with art and two jobs that i do not remember sleeping much since August. As a matter of fac, I had to lose theone part time job so i had even a chance to keep up the freelance. As for the freelance..I am STILL working n House Davion.. thatis how messed up my schedule is, but in the meantime, I have finished a book cover for Goodman Games, two books for Atlas Games, and gotten hired as the Art Director for a new game company. So I was not underemployed long. I am also still working on the re-launch of Blood!, and i need to get back to the drawing board.. so TTFN, as I understand cyber-savvy people say.

7/15/06- Yish. Where has he last month gone? Well: Battletech, (Brush Wars) is done, and I am well into House Davion. I finished the two jobs for Goodman Games (can't talk more about them yet.. but they are both big), and I was informed the other day I will be getting a large chunk of the art for City and Guild, the next Ars Magica sourcebook.. expect that to hit the shelves probabaly Mid-late October.

I have also started doing art for Post-Mortem Studios' re-launch of Blood! I am really excite about this: I never got a chance to check out Blood back int he 90s when it was out originally, and now I am doing both art and the graphic design for the cover. Even better, the cover and some of the other interiors are going to be by Gavin Hargest, whom I consider one of the best new artists out there.(Check out his work in Dogtown RPG.. this guy's art is creepy enough to make ME want to take lessons off him! anyhow, I am off to my day job, so I will hopefully blog at you a bit more later in the month.

6/19/06- Well, the Werewolf illo is done and sent, I will see about posting it later. I am almost finished with Historical: Brush Wars for Battletech; according to FanPro, it should be out in time for Gencon, so keep an eye out for it. Also keep an eye out for House Davion for Battletech later on this year..I am scheduled to have three full page illustrations in it! I also have some exciting news concerning Goodman Games, but I will keep quiet on that for the moment! Right now, I have a cover to finish for Goodman, as wellas finishing off Battletech and starting two new jobs for Goodman, so I will see you in a few weeks!

5/29/06- Still doing pics of demons for Atlas... I may be on the verge of becoming a raging egomaniac. but I think the pieces I am turning in for Realms of Power: The Infernal are among my srongest. Wait til you see the Fury Demon and the illo of the guy that is possessed, and tell me what you think! other news: I am doing a cover for Dog Soul Publishing.. a book on gargoyles, I think I am also doing what I think will be a killer cover for Steve Miller's IDA Adventures. See if you can recognize the celebrity I turned into a werewolf for this one! It should be avaialble at www.RPGNOW.com later on this summer.)

5/15/06- So what else is new? lol I just got more work from Goodman Games, a cover for DCC 35, his monster-sized boxed set world for Dungeon Crawl Classics.. expect to see that as a Gencon release. Also for Gencon, look for my work in XCrawl: Necromerica . For those who have not seen XCrawl, it is a hoot. Imagine a world that combines the most over-the-top aspects of WWF and the wildest aspects of DnD... and in this case, throw in a dungeon decorated like Dracula's castle... lol.

5/6/06- Happy Cinqo De Mayo Plus One. Got some news you all might want to know. First off, we are getting settled in the new apartment, just in time to get hammered with work, Secondly, I have work coming out in the next Ars Magica book, Realms of Power: the Infernal, where, not surprisingly, I get to draw all sorts of fun demonic images. Expect that sometime this summer, probably an Origins release.

Secondly, anyone coming to Indianapolis for Gencon will be able to see me at FanPro's booth, where I will be doing autograph signings on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.. so bring by your old Battletech books and have me scribble in them. That's all for now....

4/19/06- Hi everyone and well, anyone who happens to read this.. lol. Just finished the art for
Dungeon Crawl Classics #29... which will be out from Goodman Games very soon... keep an eye out
for it.. it will be a hardback and feature both a ton of interiors from myself, as well as my back cover,
and a front cover by TSR artist Phil Roslof... anyone who remembers TSR in its heyday will remember Roslof, as well as the other artists Goodman Games has lured back to the fold: Erol Otus top name
only one of them. Also, coming up: work for Battlecorps, the website for Classic Battletech, more
Dungeon Crawl Classics, some work for the new company Delusions of Granduer Games, and..
well.. who knows after that?? Stay tuned, we will be updating again soon as we are settled into
our new apartment!

4/15/06-Welcome to my blog, where I will be talking about what I am doing with my life and my work.