Game Designer's Journal, Episode 36: It aint over 'till...

Well I got good news and I got bad news. Which do you want first? The bad news? All right, then.

The Bad News

There's a healthy chance that Orkworld will not be at Gen-Con.

Why? Remember when I told you it wasn't done until the Printer Lady sang? She ain't singing. In fact, she's still in her dressing room warming up.

I got a call on Monday morning from the printers. Seems some images I sent them were corrupt, so I had to send them new images. I overnighted them that day. Another twenty bucks. And we're one day behind schedule.

I get a call on Teusday morning. I didn't send them the right images.

"That's impossible. I sent what you asked for."

"I'm sorry, Mr. Wick, but these won't do."

I overnight another zip disk with the images. Another twenty bucks and another day behind schedule.

On Wednesday I get a call. "We don't have the fonts," they say.

"Yes you do. I sent you copies of the fonts."

"No, Mr. Wick. Those are the screen fonts. We need the printer fonts."

"Those are the copies of the fonts I have."

"We need the printer fonts, Mr. Wick. Otherwise the book won't output to film."

The fonts are small enough to e-mail, but I still lose another day.

Thursday morning I get a phone call.

The Wife is starting to lose her patience.

This time, images from the cover are missing.

This time, I go to my "Collect for Output" folder and see if those images are really missing, or I'm just dealing with incompetence.

I get back on the phone. "The images are there. You're just not looking."

"I'm sorry, Mr. Wick, but we can't find them."

"Look in the third zip disk. They should be there."

"I looked in all the zip disks, Mr. Wick. They're not there."

You think you've seen me lose my temper on line?

Bullshit. When fifteen thousand dollars is on the line, as well as the possibility of selling 300 copies of Orkworld at Gen-Con (for a total profit of $6,600 - minus Eric's take 'cause it's his booth - which would go a long way to help pay off the print run which is going about as well as nude swimming in the shark tank, thank you very much), that's when I lose my temper.

I'm on a modem. It takes forty minutes (at least) to send each picture (there's four of them), and that's if I don't get interrupted by AT&T trying to sell me phone service, my mom calling about (insert subject that mom's talk about here), or any other pain-in-the-ass I just don't need right now because I made a promise that Orkworld would be at Gen-Con and it looks like we ain't gonna make it.

So I send off the pictures. One by one. Up 'till 3:00 AM. And did I mention I have my first really important meeting with the people who hired me to write stories on Friday?

Speaking of Friday&

7:32 AM.

The phone rings.

"Mr. Wick? We have another problem."

What could it be now? What could it possibly be now?

"The pagination is off. You're book is three hundred and six pages, not three hundred and four."

Oh God.

"I don't know what to do about it."

Of course, you don't. And right now, neither do I.

"What is the exact problem?"

"Well, Chapter Two ends on page 115. Chapter Three begins on page 114."

I'm still trying to wake up while I'm listening to this. "We have to drop two pages," I tell her.

"That won't work," she tells me.

"Yes it will. Let me run downstairs and I'll look at the problem from my end."

I do that. I see the problem. For some reason, text has flowed over an extra page. We don't have two extra pages, we have three.

"All right. Here's what we do. See that three word line?"

"'In a nutshell?'" she asks.

"Yeah. That one. Bring it up and make it a part of the preceeding sentence."

"All right."

"That kills one extra page. Now listen carefully. Go to the Utilities menu. See 'Section?' Good. Open that up. Change the starting page to 116. Now, close Chapter Two. Next, go to Chapter Three. Go back to Section. Yes, in the Utilities menu. Now, change the starting page again. Do that with every chapter that follows Chapter Two."

Long pause.

"All right. That's done. But we still have two extra pages."

"I know." I wince. This is gonna be painful. "Go to the end of the Appendix."

"I see. There's a large graphic. 'Strength. Cunning&'"

"That's the character sheet. Just before the character sheet is a two page Afterward."

"Yes, I see it."

I take a deep breath.

My first published RPG was Legend of the Five Rings. The Afterword I wrote for that included a dedication to my then-fiancee. For some reason or another, that page was replaced by page 116: the spell list. I don't know why it happened. All I know is the dedication to Jennifer Mahr - the woman who put up with all the 3:00 AM nights, all the lost weekends, all the smelly, stinky John working his ass off to make the best book he could - got cut.

Now, I have to cut the Afterward in Orkworld.

It thanks Chris and Jennifer, Thomas, The Wife, Rich McHugh, Eric Rowe, and has a big, fat ad for www.orkworld.com.

I take another deep breath.

"Cut it," I tell her.

"Both pages?" she asks.

"Yeah," I say through gritted teeth. "Both pages."

She does. I feel it from across a thousand miles. Right down to the bone.

"All right. That should do it."

"Yeah. That did it all right."

I say my pleasantries and hang up the phone. It's then I realize I'll have to change the Table of Contents. At least I'll have material for next week.

To their credit, she's been up at 5:00 AM every morning trying to get my book ready. At least half of the mistakes were my own.

But it doesn't help any. It doesn't help me swollow the fact that I could make up for at least half my print cost at Gen-Con. It doesn't help me swallow the fact that I made a promise, and people expect the book.

If it's one day late, I miss a day of sales.

If it's two days late, I miss two days of sales.

If it's three days late, I miss the entire show.

We're a week late.

Say a prayer. It might help, and it sure as hell couldn't hurt.

And now, for some good news&

The Good News

There's a review of Orkworld up at www.TastesLikePhoenix.com, written by Chris Helper. Yes, Chris was one of the people who helped edit Orkworld, but don't take that into account& he's already done that for you.

It's not entirely flattering. It's not entirely positive.

But it's well-written, respectful, honest and (most importantly) entertaining. It's also (even more important than 'most important') useful. When you're done reading what Chris is written, you'll understand how to use the book. That's a nice little lemon twist that I just can't complain about.

Even if he should have mentioned all of that when he was editing.

So, kudos to Chris, and thanks, too.

We're not out of the woods just yet, folks. Only when we're at Gen-Con with three hundred and four ("Six, sir!") page books, ready for you to buy will we be happy. Until then, we're just stressed out.

This is the worst part of it. Your book is entirely out of your hands. Nothing you can do but wait&

& and wait&