(Original post)

When you release any kind of product, there is almost always uncertainty about how it will be received. Unless you can hop into your time machine and check out the day of your release, you really are never guaranteed that things will go smoothly.

This is why, for me, as the release date loom-eth, the Terror simply cannot be abated. It can be controlled, redirected, endured… but I’ve… I’ve seen… too much… The eyes, they–they haunt me…

/shudder

Anyway, if you’ve been following along, you’ve heard about all this crap before from me, and now Red Steel 2 is out, man! So? Now? How is it going??

[diplomatic answer]
Well, I still haven’t seen any actual sales numbers. Any conclusion at this point remains a speculative guess at best. Honestly, who knows?
[/diplomatic answer]

…

Actually, we have a LOT of feedback. The press embargo is good-and-over, and the fans in all territories (save Japan) have been playing it with unfettered abandon for a few days. The message boards have lit up, there are fan reviews appearing all over the place. Exciting! And, on the whole, people seem…

…well, they seem pretty damn enthusiastic.

In fact, there’s something that I think I am seeing bubbling up in the reviews & the fan responses that is an honest-to-golly “new thing”, at least to me as a developer. It’s something I want to try and point out to you – right here, in this little blog post.

It’s a little slippery, though, this thing – elusive. You might even call it “ephemeral”.

As in, it might not exist. My ego is a gigantic, looming thing, and it clouds my perspective in a horribly world-warping way – I might just be making it up to seem more important to myself. Or, what I’m noticing might just be too subtle to have any real relevance. You might well get through this post without actually seeing the thing I hope to point you at – either because I do a bad job of laying it out… or, uh, because it’s not there.

If that turns out to be the case, then my bad. But what the hell: let’s make a go at it anyway.

Let’s start here: if you clicked that Metacritic link back there, you know that (as of this writing) our average rating is hanging out at a solid 81%.[*]

I’ve released a few games in the past, and spent a good chunk of my life reading game reviews. My experience tells me that normally, in this types of case, you can expect a kind of “good job, buuuuuuuuut coulda been better” kind of response from the media.

Here’s the thing, though. Maybe it’s just me, and maybe it’s because I’ve spent so much of my life making mediocre movie games and reading pissed-off reviews about them… but…

…

Screw it. How about I just try to show you what I mean?

I’m gonna pull some quotes from a bunch of the major reviews we’ve seen so far for the game. And, I’m going to quote full sentences, so that I can fool you into thinking that I’m not manipulating you by being overly-selective. Ain’t I clever?

As you read these, keep in your head the idea that what I am used to hearing with an 81% is stuff like “an excellent example of this kind of game”, “good stuff”, and “a lot of fun”.

Nintendo World Report (90%):

“Plain and simple, this is one of the finest games to grace the Wii console.”

GamingNexus (A+):

“Are you a gamer? Do you own a Wii? Then you need Red Steel 2. In fact, this game is a reason to own a Wii all by itself.”

IGN (86%):

“There are still some issues, both in game balance as well as wishy-washy motion sensing control, but the awesome style and energetic gameplay are enough to make this one of the top titles on Wii.”

GameZone (8.5/10):

“While there are some lingering control issues and a linear feel, this is one of the best shooters you can find on the Wii.”

GameShark (A-):

“The sword fighting works well at first but it isn’t until you start unlocking the various special moves where the system really opens up into one of the most thrilling and visceral combat experiences on any console.”

Cubed3 (9/10):

“Ubisoft have created an amazing adventure.”

GamesRadar (90%):

“But that’s exactly why you should forget the first, as this completely overhauled sequel is easily the best FPS on Wii and a wonderfully shocking example of how damn good a Wii-exclusive shooter can be.”

GamesTrailers (86%):

“Red Steel 2 has it where it counts, with a deep combat system that continuously improves as the game progresses. It could do with more interesting tasks outside of battle, but it nails the swordplay like no game before it.”

GamerVision (8.5/10):

“It single handedly proves the Wii MotionPlus’s value for adventure games, while providing one of the best action experiences on the system.”

VideoGamer.com (80%):

“Despite its flaws, Red Steel 2 is one of the best action games on the Wii.”

VideoGamesDaily (8/10):

“Red Steel 2 is complex without being incoherent, innovative without being off-putting, and one of the finest brawlers we’ve played full stop.”

Game Informer (80%):

“Red Steel 2: Stellar Swordplay Overcomes A Few Dull Edges”

Even Eurogamer (who gave us a 70%) had lots of nice things to say, like:

“In the end, you’ll likely forgive Ubisoft’s game its shortcomings on the strength of its energy, obvious good will, and deep sense of craft.”

Do you hear it? I hope you do. I’m taking up your precious time with what amounts to intellectualized bragging, and I appreciate you hanging out with it for this long, but I really do have a point I want to make, personal, tiny, simple though it is.

Ready?

When we sat down to design this game, the core concept we began with was “hitting things is fun”. Now, that statement is true, in this weird, visceral way that not everyone understands… but that a lot of people do.

It was scary, hanging our hat on this bizarre idea: could you construct a video game that is basically a whack-’em-up? I’m going to put you in a room and let you beat the shit out of a bunch of virtual dummies. That’s it! That’s the whole concept!

We wanted to do a lot more, of course, but given the time frame and what we knew at the time…

We committed – committed ourselves to the belief that even just that, just whacking and stabbing and bashing your enemies, but for real this time – just that might be enough. And, on a more personal level, that the power of that experience might just make the whole damn endeavor worth our while.

There would need to be more, of course, a lot more, but if we could bring something really cool and new…

That “something” might justify the years of effort from over a hundred people, all the blood, sweat, tears, effort, tragedy, difficulty, pain, frustration… and all of that hope would hang on this bizarre idea represented in an image we found of two young boys whacking each other with branches in their backyard – an image that, for me , summed up the idea of the fantasy we were building.

My core belief, and, I think, the belief of many of the other folks in the company that got behind the project, was that yes, this would be enough. Yes, this could be satisfying. Yes, people wanted this, and yes, people had never experienced this kind of thing before.

But, it was a gamble. It always is.

Now, looking at the response, I see the enthusiasm, I see the heart-felt excitement, I see the fans writing long, passionate reviews in the comments sections of other sites, I see people talking about how much their arms hurt from playing for all this time… and, notably (for me anyway) absent are the detractors: absent are the criticisms of combat, absent are the folks who couldn’t figure it out, absent are the cries of general displeasure that comes from an accumulation of negatives with no redeeming value.

…

Hmmm. I seem to have no idea how to phrase my conclusion.

…

Honestly, though, I think it’s not even really for me to make a conclusion about this state of affairs. I wanted to show you guys something I thought was cool, something that is, for me, exciting, confusing, satisfying, and a little scary. From the inside, it’s beginning to look like the game is working, that the message has been received…

…and that some people really like it. Quite a lot, in some cases.

That is an amazing feeling.

[*] EDIT: Removed a paragraph about my perception of how good or bad the overall score is – seems that lots of folks got the impression I was actually complaining about the score, when in fact that was not my intention at all – I’m quite happy with the score, in fact.

If you dig the Swordsman from Red Steel 2, I’ve got a (image-heavy) treat for ya.

One of the projects that our illustrious in-team marketing peeps have worked on over the course of Red Steel 2 (thanks, Olivier!!!) has been getting a statuette of the Swordsman put together.

He’s about 18″ tall.

I think it goes without saying that I’m jumping-up-and-down ecstatic about this model. Even so, I think I’ll go ahead and say it anyway: I just about lost my shit when I first saw this guy “in the flesh”. I’ve had models and ‘maquettes’ made for games I’ve worked on before, but nothing even approaching this level of awesome.

Your mileage may vary – not everyone thinks that big resin dollies are the coolest thing in the world. Me, though? I’m in the “yes, please, and lost more of that” camp.

Thanks again, guys. Outstanding job.

The Game Developer’s Conference.

Lo, it is a time when all who follow the Way of the Developer, yea, unto, even from the very small to the very large, from the greenest n00b to the most wither’ed old geezer, makers from every stripe of the field (yea, the testers, the artists, lo, the programmers, the designers, forsooth, the audio folk, and even, dare we speak their name, they who know the lore of the darkest of evil… the producers) gathereth in a single location, and speak the words that have been spoken among our kind for nigh unto dozens of years:

“Dude! Great to see ya! So, like, where are you working now?”

I arrived last Tuesday (the… uh… the 9th of March). The show “proper” (there are pre-show tutorials and other “opening band”-style events in the days before) began in earnest Thursday (the 11th), and ran through Saturday (the 13th).

Here’s what a day at the GDC is like for yours truly:

• 6:00am
  Wake up. Because, see, I’m still adjusting to the 9-hour time difference. Experience gladness that I’m not waking up at 3 or 4am instead, like I was during the first few days.
• 6:03am
  Turn on laptop, and log on to the Internets. (I’m not an addict. I can quit any time.)
• 6:07am
  Pour the water into the weird “one-cup-at-a-time” style coffee makers they have in hotel rooms, unseal the “one-shot” pre-packaged coffee filter thing, put it in the little weird plastic tray, and hit “brew”. (I can quit any time. But I’m not going to.)
• 6:08am Realize that I forgot to charge my stupid cell phone again. Plug cell phone into charger.
• 6:09am – 8:00am
  Be consumed by the Web.
• 8:01am – 8:15am
  Extract self from the Web, shower, and assemble “conference gear”: comfortable shoulder bag with conference guide and lots of extra space (for books and swag), pocket full of business cards, cell phone, room key (crucial, that), camera, notebook with pen(cil), wallet. Everything else stays in the hotel. Walking all day with heavy stuff that I probably won’t need or use? Not a plan for success.
• 8:15am – 8:30am
  Breakfast in the hotel restaurant. Buffet-style – granola and yogurt, some fruit, and LOTS and LOTS of coffee. This only takes 15 minutes at the most. I am the fastest eater you will ever meet. Yes, even faster than that one friend of yours.
• 8:31am :
  Start walking to the Moscone Center. While walking, review the “GDC-at-a-Glance” brochure to make sure I know where in the hell I’m going for my 9:00am talk.
• 8:34am
  Smile at, and then try to ignore, the crazy dude on Fifth and Market who wants to explain to me that the most recent Robin Williams movie was actually all about him. (I am not making this up.)
• 8:45am
  Slip into the Starbucks next to the convention center, buy a big ol’ cup of coffee. This brings my consumption for the day up to about 2 pints.
• 8:50am
  Stroll into the Moscone Center.
• 8:51am – 9:10am
  Meet someone I used to work with, but haven’t seen in 12-24 months. Hoot, smile, shake hands and/or hug, chat, share personal details. Then run, because now we’re both late for our talks. Jog (with the cane) to the talk.
• 9:11am
  Tweet that I am entering the talk. Yes, on Twitter.
• 9:12am – 9:55am
  Sit in a lecture, feeling vaguely superior to the speaker when s/he says something I disagree with, and vaguely impressed when s/he says something I agree with. If they say something I haven’t ever considered before, feel both impressed at how clever the speaker is, and satisfied that I was smart enough to come to the show. (Sometimes, write down and/or tweet this little gems.)
• 10:00am
  Grab a cup of coffee from one of the buffet-style tables they have in the hall. Have my badge examined to be sure I am allowed this cup of coffee. I am.
• 10:05am – 10:15am
  Meet with Ubisoft PR dude somwhere bright and sunny. Give a quick on-camera interview on Red Steel 2. Be entertaining! Wii Motion Plus, first person swordfighting, new cell-shaded graphics, new world, new hero, best swordfighting game you’ll ever play, Wii exclusive, yes the other motion control systems are exciting. Done!
• 10:16am
  Wander over to the GDC bookstore, because there’s nothing really interesting going on at 10:30am.
• 10:30am…
  Still browsing game development books.
• 10:45am…
  Still browsing. What. Leave me alone.
• 10:55am…
  Buy a book. Grab a cup of coffee, then go sit down at a chair to wait for a friend to arrive at our previously arranged location.
• 11:03am
  Friend arrives! Conversational mayhem ensues. I tell the story of how Paris is (this has been done over 500 times now – I think I should get an Achievement for that). My friend shares their recent history as well.
• 11:35am
  Another friend (maybe more of an ex-colleague, but close enough) spots us, and joins us! More mayhem. I repeat an abbreviate version of the Paris story (still sans achievement).
• 11:45am
  Friend(s) become sick of me. Friend(s) make various goodbyes, and wander off.
• 11:47am
  Well, crap. I’ve got 45 minutes to kill before I meet my lunch date. Look down the escalator. At the bottom, the doors to the GDC Convention Floor are gleaming enticingly.

Now, beyond those portals, I know, lie riches and wonders beyond count. All our dreams are contained in that room.

The booths at the front are huge, glorious, imposing monoliths of technological wizardry.

On the right side of the chamber, rows and rows of hiring booths have sprung up: black plastic walls bearing the familiar names and logos we all have come to appreciate and/or distrust, through their products. Blizzard, Activision, Ubisoft, Naughty Dog, THQ, Lucasarts, Traveller’s Tales… all of them, big and small, all with desks ready to receive resumes, and often bearing mini-treasures: swag.

And, beyond, in the back of the hall, lay the mini-booths of the hopeful: the up-and-comers, the book publishers, the experimental-controller-developers, the representatives from countries who want you to open up a studio inside their boundaries…

And, lo, there, nestled between the food court and the Hall of Meeting Rooms, lies the open battefield of the Independent Game Festival: the greatest icon of game development hope ever constructed. We, the developers of the world, wander through the black plastic towers of the IGF every year, completing our annual pilgrimage, imagining, silently, that, were we also independent, that we, too, could demonstrate creative ingenuity and plucky resolve, like those we see gathered around us. We imagine, sometimes, that we might even win a prize, and be able to count ourselves among them: the independent developers.

The hall doors beckon. The guardians standing watch at the gate will yield to my badge, I know, for it says “MAIN CONVENTION”, and thus allows me to participate in the great GDC feeding frenzy: the Booth Crawl.

• 11:48am
  Still staring at the Convention Floor doors, begin to move, unconsciously, as if in a dream, towards the escalator that will convey me slowly down to them.
• 11:49am
  Enter the Convention Floor.
• 11:50pm – 12:27pm
  Crawl the booths. (What transpires there will remain forever between me and those I encountered. This is as it should be.)
• 12:28pm
  Stagger out of the Convention Floor, laden with the fruits of my adventures. No, you can’t have any: they are for my kids.
• 12:39pm – 1:55pm
  Lunch! Mmmmm, Chevy’s. Give apologies to colleagues, for I am late. Be slightly annoyed that they expected this. Have two or three Diet Cokes, and end with a cup of coffee.
• 2:00pm
  Arrive at second interesting talk of the day. Realize that the talk actually started at 1:30pm, and I have missed half of it already. How in the hell did this happen? Did everyone at lunch also not know the schedule?? Think about this, and realize that only 1 out of 10 of my friends and/or colleagues actually attend the talks at GDC. None of those were at lunch. Curse their names.
• 2:01pm – 2:30pm
  Attend second half of the talk. A friend is there! Sit next to friend. Be quiet, respectful, and sarcastic at the same time during the remainder of the talk. Tweet.
• 2:33pm
  Emerge from the talk, and nab a cup o’ joe from the tables.
• 2:35pm – 2:45pm
  Second interview time! Repeat _exact same script_, but in a new, fresh way. Be fun.
• 2:46pm – 2:55pm
  Browse books. What.
• 2:56pm
  Buy a book that I couldn’t quite get myself to justify buying earlier this morning. But, see, NOW it’s okay.
• 3:00pm – 4:00pm
  Skip the talk I was going to attend because I learned that another talk is better, and then on the way get totally shanghai’d by running into another friend who I haven’t seen in forever. Find a chair somewhere and sit and compare notes about our various companies. Realize that we can help each other out in our projects. Exchange business cards, email addresses, phone numbers, and make a date to complete this conversation in more detail tomorrow night after the show, okay? That work for you? Cool. Enter new date into calendar, say goodbye, watch them walk away, and realize that I have no clue what I’m doing next.
• 4:01pm
  Flip through the GDC-at-a-Glance brochure. Find nothing I want to attend. Damn.
• 4:02pm
  Grab a cup of coffee.
• 4:04pm
  Pass through the doors to the Convention Floor.
• 4:05pm – 5:30pm
  Crawl the booths. Gloriousness abounds. Both sadness and joy, hope and abandon, envy and respect, useful products and those that are clearly doomed… all this and more, spread out across a carpeted warehouse whose painted-white cement arches fairly drip with distilled possibility, the air is so thick with anticipation and promise. Witness wonders and horrors.
• 5:31pm
  Exit Moscone, and emerge into the twilight of downtown San Francisco. Wow, my feet are sore. Start walking to the hotel anyway. Window shop on the way there. Buy nothing, as I am already feeling guilty about over-spending at the bookstore.
• 5:45pm
  Return to my hotel.
• 5:46pm – 8:30pm
  Ignore any request to try and coax me to come out to a party, gathering, festival, drink, pub crawl, or other evening-themed activity. Instead, have dinner with one of the many folks who are gathered here who I would gladly leap at a chance to hire and/or work with again, if it were ever to arise. I have excellent taste in friends, and these evening conversations are the reward at the end of a challenging day. Have at least three Diet Cokes, and end with a coffee.
• 9:02pm
  Collapse into my hotel room. Peel off the gear, drop off any new-found treasure, don the jammies. I’m so tired. My feet are killing me, and my head is throbbing from over stimulation. What I need now is sleep.
• 9:03pm
  Log on to the Internet.
• 12:03am
  One bye one, desperately rip the long, gelatinous tendrils of cyber-interactivity from where they have attached themselves to my flesh, as if to feed on my very soul. Ignore the cries of the Beast as, denied its victim, it is forced to withdraw back into the screen. Stab my laptop power button in a final act of glorious defiance. YOU WILL NOT FEAST THIS NIGHT!
• 12:04am
  Stare at the screen. Look at the clock. Do the math. Six hours of sleep is what I will get, at best. Try not to hate self, but do not entirely succeed.
• 12:15am
  Sleep.

Rinse… and repeat.

It’s a hell of a good time, frankly.

Listen, as far as I can see, the land of the Red Steel 2 release (March 23rd!! 25th in Europe!! 26th in Australia!!) looks pretty okay. Reasonable. Encouraging. And that’s freaking me out a little bit.

Here’s why: it has happened before. I’ve learned over the course of my career that just because things look good right now, doesn’t necessarily mean that they will continue to.

Even so, the fact that said response is (so far) based on the opinions of hundreds of people who have actually played the game (many of them for over three hours) makes it easier to develop some faith. I figure if you can get three hours into the game, and you’re still enthusiastic, something’s working for you. And, really, for this game, the next few hours resemble the first few, except with more stuff, so if you liked _that_, ideally, you’ll like the rest.

However.

However, it’s still faith. It’s way, way to early to be able to relax. I’ve noticed, for example, that my typing has become more jackhammer-like over the past few weeks, a sure sign of tension.

I’ve mentioned this before. Like, fifteen times. That’s because it’s become the majority theme in my existence for the past several months, and until the game is fled and out there in the wild, rampaging around like a katana-wielding Tyrannosaur (yes!!), it’s going to be the majority theme. Sorry if it’s boring. I ease my conscience by reminding myself that if you’re reading this, it’s by choice. I sleep better that way. You have no one to blame but yourself.

Now, what I want to talk about here, today, is something about how the whole ‘release’ situation is made more complicated by the nature of the factors surrounding it.

See, normally, when you are releasing a new installment of an existing franchise, once the game is done, the team immediately begins planning and developing the next version. Generally, games are planned well in advance, and so you tend to know exactly what the next steps will be at the moment you hand the final disc over to manufacturing.

This case is a little bit different.

[ASIDE] In the press, my answer(s) to the question of “Will there be a Red Steel 3?” has been, shall we say, ‘re-emphasized’. While this is not necessarily a bad thing, it has lead to some misunderstandings. I’m gonna try to straighten out the issues a bit here, while we’re chatting. You’ve been warned. [/ASIDE]

Why is it different?

Let’s talk about the franchise a little bit. And I’m going to try to do this without violating my corporate responsibilities… which is always challenging. Let’s see how it goes.

As a franchise, Red Steel has a surprising amount of affection among gamers. There’s (very vocal) exceptions, but on the whole, people who played it were disappointed, but somehow that didn’t interfere with their hopes for the future. “It could have been better,” they seem to say, “and we’d really appreciate it if you would make it so.”

That’s 100% why we are here now, with a new installment. People wanted it.

Why wasn’t a sequel more of a sure thing? Well, let’s be honest with ourselves here: it’s not the hugest brand in the industry. The name recognition of Red Steel, while quite high among gamers who were early adopters of the Wii, isn’t quite what is referred to in the Intellectual Property biz as “universal”. Add to that the troubles with controls and other factors in the first game, and you get an overall mixed perception.

Still, though. People wanted another Red Steel, and they wanted it to be awesome.

Fast forward to NOW!

/fasts-forward

[ASIDE] Do you gol-darn kids even know what ‘fast forward’ means, for chrissake? Is that phrase even in common use any more? I’m starting to feel like a dinosaur for using it. It’s a reference to cassette tapes, people, and those haven’t been sold in stores since…

…uh, since before the Wii came out, that’s for sure. Woah. Anyway. Maybe “skips to the current track” would be more contemporary? No, that sucks. Listen, help me out here, if you can. [/ASIDE]

…

Dammit! Where was I??

…

RIGHT! Now. Now is when people are still wanting another Red Steel! And how does that relate to the overall topic of anxiety about the release, and the bizarre sub-topic I introduced about what I and the Red Steel team are doing at the moment??

EXCELLENT QUESTION!

Here’s how: we _believe_ this game will do well. It appears to be moving along a ‘positive trajectory’. See above about uncertainties about that, but here’s the thing: even in a perfect market (which we are not in) it’s very tough to be sure about anything. Very tough, indeed.

So, imagine yourself as a Ubisoft planning person. You’re smart (just trust me, they are), experienced (yes, also true), uncynical (I’m not making this up, I’ve actually met these people), and you really want the company to do well financially (duh) and make great games (listen, I’m serious – have you met them?? no?? well I have, and this is what they are like).

Okay, so you’re this planner, and you’ve got Red Steel, a much-beloved, much-troubled franchise, on _one platform_ (ouch), and the new game requires the Motion Plus attachment (always dangerous), the Wii market is going through these weird contractions and rumbly upheavals… everyone is panicking. And, the team wants to know if we should be going full-guns and dumping a whole new bunch of money into Red Steel 3. And, if you make the wrong call, everyone in the company loses, the stockholders get pissed off, and you get a bad review that year. Your annual raise will be smaller, so your kids’ braces are going to have to wait for another year.

What would you say?

I don’t know about you, but I’m thinking I’d say something like, “Hey, guys – what say we just hang out for a few weeks and see what happens? You know, just to make 100% sure that the market for this game even exists.”

And that would be the right call.

But you know what that means for the dev team? It means that the answer to the question of “so, what are you doing now?” is _really_ complicated to answer. And when people say “will there be a Red Steel 3?” you tend to hem and haw a little. My answer has come down to something like this: “We don’t know. Depends on what happens when this game ships.”

Now, what I’ve learned about that answer is that it is easy to hear it as “The Future Of Red Steel Franchise Depends On Red Steel 2 Success” (to mis-quote recent web headlines).

Let’s take a second, though, and look at that. Ironically, such a statement is, in fact, a tautology – it’s obviously, always, necessarily true. And, not just for Red Steel: it’s true for every product in existence in the markets of the world.

More: I’m going to go out on a limb and say that it’s even true for every product in the entire universe. Even Alpha Centaurian planners use this axiom: prior success often gives you an indication of future success, so plan accordingly.

But it’s not a binary operation. It never is. There are uncountable factors that go into a complex decision like pushing a game into a third iteration: sales, reviews, hardware, economy, other games, individual interest, whim, marketing, appeal… it goes on and on. And, frustratingly, there is just no sure way to know with anything like certainty which direction these market winds will blow.

So, we hire scads of weatherpeople. We hope. We plan. We invest in wind-detecting science. We measure.

And then, one day, we get in our boat, pack our goods for the journey, look to the heavens…

…raise our sails…

…and wait.

So, I wanted to sit down and blog on something other than Red Steel 2.

I failed, instantly. The release of this game has so completely taken over my life, it makes me begin wonder if there really ever was anything else, before this, the Great Red Tide.

The deluge of media, previews, comments, and just all-around stuff to me is beginning to resembled something that might be familiar to fans of a somewhat-more ancient form of mass-market entertainment: the opera. Following this line of thinking, this part is, perhaps, something akin to the Overture.

Rehearsal is over: it’s the big night. We (the Red Steel team) are sitting in the orchestra pit, sporting our best tuxedos (or gowns, in some cases). The audience is gathering, and we have finished with the intricate ritual of tuning our instruments. The lights start to dim, and, as is customary, before the curtain rises, we gently seduce you into the Show That Is To Follow with a piece written exclusively for the purpose: a musical “preview” (if you will) that highlights the core musical themes that will, later, as you are watching the actors cavort around on stage, grace your ears. It warms you to the tone, and gives you a head-start if you are new to the show.

Later, during the show, when you hear these cues, they might also serve to remind you that we warned you this would happen.

It’s about three weeks and counting until it’s all over and we get to find out what people really think about the game. Currently, all we know is what people would like to think. While this can have a tendency to inspire hope, it does not always accurately predict the final outcome.

…

Okay, now I’m going to drift off of Red Steel for a second, and go kinda random on you. Because, see, there’s a deep, personal irony at play here: all of the above madness is happening at a time when some of my compatriots in arms (best friends, in fact) are undergoing what might be called “the worst of times”. How to resolve the conflicting mental frisson produced by on the one hand seeing your labors being at-long-last revealed before the expectant audience, while at the same moment people you care deeply for are being subjected to unspeakable horrors?

That might be overstating it a bit.

(If that astonishes you, then this is clearly the first blog post from me you’ve read.)

Okay, so then, today, all that became even further complicated by other friends of mine becoming closely involved in new, confusing, potentially exciting yet dangerously strange events. The world stage of game development is re-shaping itself, and I know too many of the people involved to know which team to root for.

I have, in fact, no idea how to feel at all.

…

Thankfully, it ultimately doesn’t matter if I can or cannot sort through this or not in the time I have alotted. Because, in just a few minutes here, the overture will end, the curtain will go up, and the show will go on. Once that happens, it’s all down to instinct, the work you’ve already done, and your current companions.

I’m ready.

…it’s the wait that’s a killer.