With 2009 winding down its time to get set for 2010.  I’ve been planning out our release schedule for the larger projects under way and we are in for a busy year.  We’ll of course still be putting out PDF’s also as some projects work better in that format.  Chris Field has been very busy and has big plans for the coming year as well.

To that end I feel the need to put out the call for some freelancer help.  I need freelancers for the Mongoose Traveller system.  If you have a good grasp of the system (or are willing to learn it) then contact me at skortched.urf.studios@gmail.com and I’ll send some work your way.  I need someone who can actively develop rules and content from the concepts we provide.   We have over ten projects in various stages of development for the Traveller system, and they will take forever if I end up having to write them all myself.   We typically pay one cent per word, via PayPal within 30 days of acceptance.

During the big snowstorm here in D.C./VA I was able to get a few things done.  One of them was to finish the layout of the latest D7ACU: The S.L.A.M. Soldier and get it released.  Check it out over at OBS.  Very creative concept; that of an operator being able to have needed gear, weapons or even vehicles instantly teleported to him on demand.  S.L.A.M. stands for (Subspace Looped Armor Materialization).

In other news Chris Field had decided to make his massive (320 pages!) Otherverse America Campaign Setting available for FREE.  I changed the price and sent a customer email notification and the downloads have been fairly steady for the last 12 hours or so. Check it out:

I also started editing the as-yet-un-named indie horror flick I am working on as the um…editor.  What has suprised me is the amount of commonality between the tools I am already familiar with like Photoshop, InDesign and Illustrator and the ones I am not-so-familiar with; Premiere Pro and After Effects.  To be sure there are some very new concepts I am dealing with like time-lines and transitions, but I am really able to focus on learnign “the new stuff” instead of struggling with the common features that Adobe has done an excellent job of integrating across their creative suite.

Once again I failed to reach the fifty thousand word mark for NaNoWriMo.  I did top out at over twenty-six thousand words which ain’t bad.  There were a number of factors that contributed, and the biggest of which I “blame” on Chris Field.  (In a good way!)  He sent me the manuscripts for two large projects that will eventually see the light of day as full-blown print books for distribution.  There is a Ley Line Magic book as well as the compilation and expansion of the Fantasy Firearms line.  They both require some tweaking and editing, so a large part of my time has been spent in going through these scrips with my marker, making notes and corrections.  I want to do these up right, along with a few other projects so that when we start producing print books there are a few projects already in the pipe-line.

I have a few smaller projects that will see the light of day in December.   I don’t want to drop titles just yet, but look for a few releases this month to clear the decks for the new year.

I tried to get my hands on a Nook yesterday.  (The supposed release date.) It has been pushed back another week.  Still trying to get my hands on one in person to check it out.  I’m leaning towards the Nook over the Kindle right now, but want to do my due diligence before I spring for one.  I plan to explore the eBook market as a natural extension of what Skortched Urf’ Studios does in the future.  I think there is a much wider market to be reached than the RPG market, so I have always considered SUS an “Entertainment Company” rather than simply a RPG publisher. Part of our 2010 plans, to be sure.

In other news, I have also taken on a project as the editor of an independent horror film!  I’ve got half of it transferred from tape to digital, and will begin editing once I get the other half transferred over. I’m looking forward to getting my hands dirty with Premiere Pro and After Effects; part of my CS4 Suite.  I have been into movie making since I was a kid.  While I’ve never been in a position to do much with it (until now!) I have always loved movies and story telling.  I think I have the “crerative” part figured out, so now I am focusing on gaining the “technical” chops to make some things happen.  The director is an old hand at SFX work, with credits on a couple big-budget productions including the Wesly Snipes flick New Jack City.  This is his first foray into directing a feature, but the film is shot and now needs to be cut, scored, SFX’d and color corrected.  I’m happy to be a part of the project.  (Wait until you hear the title!  I don’t want to drop it just yet, wait until I put together a trailer for it.)