Thursday, January 31, 2008

[Devil’s Workshop] Sidetrek Adventure Weekly #1: Blood on the Waterfront Available

Get your copy here!

Supporting Retail Stores: Why should I?

As of late on many RPG retail business website like the G.I.N. (If you don't know that the G.I.N. is then most likely you are not a retailer) many stores owners in fear of the WOTC 4e glut have decided to carry only WOTC 4e material and no 3rd party (i.e anyone else) publishers of 4e. So with said by many retailers on the whole 4e question, I have to wonder....

Why should I support retailer stores if they are not looking to support my RPG business?

As a PDF publisher I was alway looked down by retail stores, since we were not "real publishers", but now that EVERYONE does PDF products there seems to be some "hostile" feeling by store owers on the 3rd party / indy game publisher. And now with 4e this seems to be the straw that broke the camel back for them.

But then I realized something. What do I care what happens to retail stores? I don't sell in retail stores. I sell direct to my customer. My customer don't hear about my game in retail stores, they hear about them online. People can purchase my products ANY TIME THEY WANT not only when the store is open and best of all people can purchase products from me any way they want (PDF or "dead tree"). So if I am not looking to support retail store, who would I support? Talk to you later...

Wednesday, January 30, 2008

A review of the new Rambo movie...

I was a Teenage Sperm Donor...

..Or at least that was on the cover of the GQ magazine with Josh Brolin on it when I went to the gym at 5 AM to work out. But I digress...

Well, we have completed the layout on Sidetrek Weekly Adventures #2 and #3. Now all we are doing is waiting for the covers. These will be done by the same artist (who shall remain nameless) who did the covers for Monsters of NeoExodus: Caliban, Harvester of Sorrow and Cerebral Assassin. You know, this guy! So when the covers are completed we will make them available for everyone to see. Talk to you later...

Tuesday, January 29, 2008

Imagine the Wire as an Adventure Path...

You know what would be my dream, if I could do The Wire as an adventure path for a D20/OGL fantasy setting. Now that would be a great adventure series that people would be talking about, FOREVER. I guess I have to start working on that with the Werecabbages. Talk to you later...

Monday, January 28, 2008

...and one more artist, make three!

I am in talks with another new artist I found on DeviantART. We are working out some of the finer points but I feel that we will meet somewhere in the middle on what we both want. I have seen his artwork for a while and I though it might go very well with the work I am currently doing. Well this is the third artist I have been in talks with in the last few weeks. Now that I have began working with the Werecabbages I really need good artists who can complement their written work. This should be a nice team up. Talk to you later...

Saturday, January 26, 2008

New artist first attempt

Another new artist that I happened to sign (Not this one. We are still working out the particulars) just sent over his first new sketches of a monster her is working for Monsters of NeoExodus. I didn't think these were scary enough. I told him on a scale of 1 to 10 of scary (10 being the scariest) this was about a 6. But it is a good start. Now we have to see where he goes from here. Talk to you later...

Thursday, January 24, 2008

Cloverfield...A video game movie?

I just saw Cloverfield on Tuseday. I have to admit, I liked it but as I kept watching it I got this feeling that I had seen something like this before. It was about an hour in to the film when I had an interesting event happen. The jerky movements of the camera caused me to have kinetosis, better known as motion sickness or more specificly simulation sickness, to act up. Now this normally only happens when I play video games like Quake. So it was very interesting that I got that watching Cloverfield, but at the same time the feel of the film was more like playing a video game. The monster of the movie was more like "background thing" while the story was really about the surviors of the inital and the resulting attacks. Watching the movie, it kind of felt like playing Half-Life, Resident Evil, or other games of that "genre". So many people are impressed by this film, I have to wonder how many of these people actually played these types of video games. Interesting...

But it is was cool to watch. I give it a thumbs up. Talk to you later...

Friday, January 18, 2008

Sidetrek Adventure Weekly #1 finished

Last week, I got the first of the Sidetrek Adventure Weekly adventures written by Louis Agresta with Greg Oppedisano. This adventures is called Blood on the Waterfront. This is a very cool adventure with a lot of fun for with a great set up that most will find enjoyable. I am not going to spoil it for you, but combat in the adventure is what many would consider extreme. Even better is the Sidetrek Adventure Weekly Rating system. I feel that once this is seen it will be copied by ALOT of RPG Publishers. Sidetrek Adventure Weekly #1: Blood on the Waterfront will be available for sale February 1, 2008 at both RPGNow and Paizo. Talk to you later..

Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Looks like I got another one...

Just finishing up final talks with my newest artist. He has done and is doing some work for White Wolf on thier Exalted line, so I think his style is going to fit in well for NeoExodus: A House Divided. Found him while looking at portfolios all this weekend at DeviantART. What do you think? Talk to you later...

Monday, January 14, 2008

Where I recruit artist: DeviantART

I look at a lot of websites when looking to recruit for new artist. But the best one I have ever seen or used is DeviantART. They have a large collection of artists of various styles and skill levels. On of my most recent artists, Anthony Cournoyer, has a regular updated portfolio there. Plus you can find artist like Omar Dugan, Udon Entertainment, Chris Stevens (of Paizo's Dragon and Dungeon / White Wolf's Exalted Fame) and Andrew Hou (of Paizo's Dragon and Dungeon Fame). So many RPG companies are looking for artists to work on their project, it amazes me that people don't recruit from there. Most people only seem to talk to artists who have been used by other companies. No one seems likes to take a chances. I took a chance and found my newest artist. Fortune favors the bold. Talk to you later...

Sunday, January 13, 2008

Saturday, January 12, 2008

Love Stargate Atlantis, Hate Stargate

I think Stargate: Atlantis is an incredibly enjoyable sci-fi show. I like JUST about everything with it, but the funny thing is, I CANNOT get into Stargate SG-1. For some reason the original show, Stargate SG-1, does not appeal to me, but Stargate: Atlantis is EXCELLENT. Now this is not the first time this has happened. I liked Star Trek: TNG, but I love Star Trek: DS9; I like Buffy, but I love Angel; I like Hercules, but I love Xena. I wonder what that is all about.

Oh yes, I got a chance to see another Canadian focus TV Show called jPod. I must say VERY INTERESTING! It is smart and funny and silly all at the same time. If you live in Canada or have bittorrent, take a second out and check it out.

Friday, January 11, 2008

Hardest part of my job....

The hardest part of my job as a PDF RPG Publisher is NOT finding writers (Hell there are a million of those), but finding artists. Artists are much harder to find than any thing else. The reason being that bad artists will want to work for you, though you really don't want them too. Good artists, who you want to work with are normally overburdened with work from other people. So when you find an artist, it is tough to keep them, because everyone in this business is "poaching" other people's artist. No one wants to spend the time looking for new artist.

I will normally look through 100 to 150 art portfolios until I find someone I like and think would work out. Now for each 10 of these artists I find I want to work with, 8 to 9 of them will flake out on a job and not deliever they work. So for you who are good at math, I need to look at roughly 1,000 to 1,500 portilos to get one good artist who works and delievers work on time. That is why I protect my artists so much from letting other people work with them. Well, I have 300 more portfolios to look at. Wish me luck. Talk to you later...

Thursday, January 10, 2008

New Canadian TV Show: The Border

Bittorrent strikes again! I just saw the first episode of this new Canadian TV Show, The Border. Another high quality show created and produced in Canada. While Canada has be the budget location used for the US Film and TV industry for years, Canada production companies look like they are "breaking out of their shells" and do more Canadian focus-"Amerized" type of shows. Regenesis is another great example of this. I hope on of the minor TV or cable network might pick this one up for mass American audience to see. Plus this show has a lit of cool ideas that could be converted to cool D20 Modern products. Here is one I got from the show already: Light sentitve explosives. The explosive detonates when a camera flash goes off. Imagine the effects of that during a TV press release. Talk to you later...

Wednesday, January 9, 2008

Announcing new product line, Sidetrek Adventure Weekly

Louis Porter Jr. Design, in association with Devil’s Workshop, is proud to announce its newest RPG gaming line, Sidetrek Adventure Weekly. Devil’s Workshop Line Editor, Greg Oppedisano; superstar RPG writer who has worked for such game companies as Paizo, Goodman Games and Oone Games; has been working on the creation and development of this new gaming line with his other members of the Werecabbages Publishing. The following best describes the rationale and purpose of Sidetrek Adventure Weekly:

Sidetrek Adventure Weekly can best be described as all the heart-pounding, adrenaline-pumping action your players can handle! Each Sidetrek Adventure Weekly episode throws characters into an action-packed encounter designed to electrify your game. Drop any Sidetrek Adventure Weekly directly into your adventure as a stand-alone combat. Or, if you dare, link the initial 12 Sidetrek Adventure Weekly serials into one pulse-racing, white-knuckle fantasy adventure path. Get ready to jump aboard Sidetrek Adventure Weekly!

The Sidetrek Adventure Weekly serials will be written by Werecabbages Publishing members Rob Manning, B. Matthew Conklin III, Adam Daigle, Greg Oppedisano, Greg Ragland, Ted Reed, Brendan Victorson, and various other members. Sidetrek Adventure Weekly will be available at exclusively at Paizo and RPGnow.com in the very near future.

Tuesday, January 8, 2008

Got sketches, waiting for final art....

Well here are some rough sketches the new artist is working on. While they are rough, you can see the actual physical for of the arcane "supercomputer" Kaga for the NeoExodus: A House Divided setting. While this image of Kaga is cool, I can't wait to you can see the full color version of the Avatar of Kaga. That is going to be HOT!!! Talk to you later...

Sunday, January 6, 2008

Blast from the past...

While searching for new artists I happened to find this. Now this is a little blast from the past because Barry Levine in the person who got Haven: City of Violence optioned to become a movie. Now we never got picked up as a movie or even a pilot, but I did learn me a lot about Hollywood and what goes on there. So, if you are free January 19 - 20 and happen to be in Singapore, you might wat to go and check him out and you might get someone interested in your ideas and project.

PS: Just one thing, make sure you lube yourself up enough so when they start screwing you over it doesn't hurt as much. Remember, blood can be a lubricant too. Understand what I am saying.

Talk to you later...

Thursday, January 3, 2008

Waiting on art...

Just waiting on some new art on a new project we have started working on. I think a lot of people when they see this one will be very happy. I just hate having to wait. Talk to you later...

Tuesday, January 1, 2008

State of LPJ Design: 2008

2007 was a great year for us. We returned to RPGNow stronger than ever, regaining our position in the 15 top sellers at the site. We released NeoExodus: A House Divided and it became a hit seller especially do to the NeoExodus: World of Exodus free campaign primer we put together helping to drive sales. We released nearly 140 products last year; that is roughly one new product every 2.5 days. We had our largest one day sale amount ever; well over 100 times our normal daily sales volume.

Well now that 2007 is gone, I guess now is the time to announce our plans for 2008, with a lot of radical changes to our business. So here it goes:

Less Smaller Projects, More Larger Project: LPJ Design has cornered the market on making small, beautiful looking, highly profitable PDFs. No one can beat us at that. But to bring LPJ Design to the next level of business, we have to do bigger things and with that we have decided to reduce the amount of small PDFs we create. We will still produce small PDFs for our Monsters of NeoExodus and Polymecha lines, but not as many. We have also decided to start making larger PDFs, starting at 32 pages in length and up from there, and release them on a regular month schedule across our gaming lines. We are starting with NeoExodus: A House Divided gaming line first with the upcoming releases of Enemies of NeoExodus: The Folding Circle, Lexicon Chronicles: Arcane Intelligence, Lexicon Chronicles: Lazarus Brand and Feats of NeoExodus. Our fans have been asking about this and we have listened to what they have said.

Alliances and Partnerships: In 2008, LPJ Design will be partnering with several different RPG and gaming publishers and manufactures to bring you the best quality games possible. We have already enlisted of the services of Greg Oppedisano; member of WereCabbage Publishing and writer for Paizo’s Dungeon Magazine and Goodman Games’ Dungeon Crawl Classics; was hired as Line Editor for Devil’s Workshop. We have also been in contact with WereCabbage Publishing spokesperson, Ed Healy and have been in discussions acquiring several writers including:
  • Louis Argesta: Writer for Goodman Games’ GM Gems and 0one Games’ The Great City
  • B. Matthew Conklin III: Writer of Paizo’s Dungeon Magazine and Silven Publishing’s Horrendous Habitats (http://www.werecabbages.com/members.php?id=8)
  • Tim Hitchcock: Writer for Paizo’s Gamemastery Modules and Wizards of the Coast’s Eberron Adventure: Eyes of Lich Queen
  • Rob Manning: Writer for Goodman Games’ Dungeon Crawl Classics and 12 to Midnight’s Marsh of the Wild Things
  • Ted Reed: Writer for Writer of Paizo’s Dungeon Magazine, Artist of Fantasy Flight Games’ Call of Cthulhu Collectible Card Game, Eldritch Expansion
We also are looking to speak with other members of WereCabbage Publishing including Wolfgang Baur, Tim & Eileen Connors, Stephen S. Greer, Nicolas Logue, Greg A. Vaughan, and various other of other projects we have planned. LPJ Design is commented to being you the best writers & artists on the market to make its products.

More Printed / POD Products: In 2007 we started back up with print / POD products. In 2008, we are looking to grow that even more. With our business relationship with Lulu.com and other POD printers, we are looking to get more of LPJ Design content from your computer screen into your actual hands. We have had a lot of success with PDFs that have become printed books like Prestige Class Creation Cookbook, and Race Creation Cookbook, 2008 we are looking to do a lot more product fro the print side. So get ready.

So if you never have tried anything form LPJ Design, now is your chance. If you have purchased our products and you liked what you have seen, well it only getting better now. Thanks to all the people that supported us up to now, and all the people that will be supporting us in the future.