http://www.idesofgaming.com

Several hundred years ago a military dictator was assassinated to preserve democracy. To commemorate this historic event, my friends at SAGA (the Southern Arizona Gamers Association) and I will be hosting a full day gaming event right here in Tucson.

You will find me running events, hosting the party and celebrating with new and old friends. You are all welcome to come visit me at this mini-convention. Free entrance for a full day gaming pass. Free parking to one of the hippest areas of Tucson. Free drinks AND a prize give away to make even the Caesars blush. I hope to see you at the High School Drama table at this very special anniversary of the Ides of Gaming!!

The Game Depot

If you’re in the Phoenix area, make sure to come out Saturday night and drop by the Game Depot for your fix of drama! Game Depot is a fantastic game store and has a tremendous reputation for being a really great store with incredible game selection — even those cool new designer games that everyone’s been talking about — like High School Drama!

I’ll be there from 7pm until they throw me out, playing HSD with the other gamers at the store and passing out HSD Button Men buttons to everyone that plays in a demo. You won’t have to take aggravated damage from the Arizona sun since it’ll be at night, so I hope to see you there!

http://www.conevents.com

Just packing up for the big Phoenix con. If you’re in the area, please make sure to come by one of the many HSD events that I’ll be running. Once I have a little more time, I’ll report back with convention updates. Be sure to check back in!!

www.kublacon.com

I love visiting the Bay Area. But this year, not only will I be able to 1) visit all my fantastic friends who live in San Francisco, Oakland and San Rafael, 2) dodge the Arizona sun in the summertime, but 3) Shifting Skies Games will be exhibiting at Kubla Con this year!

We’ll be running a High School Drama tournament called the HSD Showcase Showdown. That’s going to be a lot of fun! Also, the fantastic guys at Gamescape North will be helping us man the event and will be offering great prize support. I can’t thank Darren and Andre enough for all the support they’ve given us over our first year. Also, we’ll be giving away our exclusive, world premiere HSD Button Men buttons at Kubla Con. I’m very proud to able to present world-class designer James Ernest’s Button Men game line with the High School Drama cross-promotional! You can collect them all, but you have to be at Kubla Con! Also, get a sneak peak at the brand new game Shifting Skies is working on for next year’s release — get a chance to play test this sure to be knock-out success before it even hits the shelves!

For those of you who don’t know, Kubla Con is the largest gaming convention in California. Some people will argue the numbers, but I’m predicting that their attendance will only continue to grow. Why? Because of the massive draw that Shifting Skies brings to the table. See you there!

http://www.bordersstores.com/

The Borders Bookstore in Chandler, Arizona is hosting a Game Day on May 19th, starting at high noon and they’ve asked me to come up and do an in-store demonstration of High School Drama. Make sure you come out to visit if you’re in the area and say Hi. I’d love to see you there. Plus, you’ll get a chance to play your favorite games in a fun and family-friendly environment.

Also, this may be your first official chance at getting your hands on the HSD Button Men buttons before they’re released at Kubla Con. Of course, this will depend on my being able to get them produced by this time … but the chances are good. James Ernest and I are in the process of getting the license cleared for the Button Men line, so the buttons shouldn’t be too far behind. I’ll also have other fun games to play with. In fact, this could be your opportunity to see what I’m working for next year’s release. I can’t tell you what it is here, but it’s very exciting stuff … and you’re not going to want to miss your chance to get a glimpse of the hottest prototype out there before it hits the shelves a whole year in advance!!

Bring a friend and I’ll see you there!

http://www.toyfairny.com/about_toyfair.html

Very exciting news to report — HSD will be at the world’s premiere toy and hobby games trade show next month in New York City. That’s right, Toy Fair 2007!

This is not a rumor or wishful thinking, this is reality. A full two years ahead of my projected schedule of breaking into the mass market, High School Drama will be at the Big Show. If you have the honor of going to this year’s industry-moving event, please make sure to schedule a stop at booth # 6250 and see our marketing partners at PSI work their magic. We’ll be ready to take your orders, so please come prepared.

When I find out more details, I will post back up here. You’ll certainly want to check back here for further news on this very exciting topic!

http://www.strategicon.net/

Los Angeles has a huge gaming population and it’s major local conventions — Orc Con, Gamex and Gateway — are all held under the Strategicon umbrella. Strategicon has been going on for many years, but the glamour of the former days has been waning as of late and there has been lots of talk about the organizers selling the rights to new management. In fact, a friend of mine actually made an offer to take over the cons. I can’t speak about all the financial details, but it’s true that Strategicon is now under new management. One only has to look as far as their guest list to feel the reviatalization. Yes, it’s true: legendary game publisher Reiner Knizia will be the special guest of honor for Orc Con in February. (more…)

http://www.phoenixcomicon.com

Ohisashiburi da na!

It’s been a while since I’ve been to an Anime Convention and I’m really excited about going to Arizona’s own premiere con up in Mesa this coming weekend. Some of you may not know this, but in college I was actually the Treasurer for our Anime Club on-campus (Cal-Animage Beta Chapter for all you Otaku out there). Those were good days. So, I’m really excited about checking out what’s new out there in anime, rounding out my Ghost In the Shell collection and hopefully enjoying all the great costumes. I’ve always had a soft spot of the CosPlay girls and you can almost always catch me at the masquarade.

And yes, I’ll be running multiple tables of HSD at the con. HSD has always been very popular with the manga crowd because of both the strong art and the high school theme, so I hope to make a lot of new friends at the gaming table. Somehow I think there will be a LOT of drama fighting over who has the Manga Girl and the Anime Club in their cliques!

Happy New Year everybody!

It’s been a wild ride getting the company started and getting HSD self-published, but I wouldn’t trade it for the world. I just came back from the Bay Area where I ran some demos of HSD at Gamescape North in San Rafael. Gamescape is the leading seller of HSD, so I had to see them again them for all their support.

http://www.darkcon.org/

But if you missed me at Gamescape, you’ll have another shot at DarkCon 2007 this coming week. I should have an exhibitor table in the dealer room where you can purchase the games without shipping and get your fill on all the HSD swag you want. I’ll also be running several events throughout the convention — each day at 3pm. Of course everyone will want to see Jewel Staite (Kaylee from Firefly) and get her autograph since she was so nice to come to the convention this year. Interesting piece of trivia relating to Jewel and HSD … (more…)

It looks like we’ve made it through most of the holidays, and I hope you all had a great time spending it with your families and friends. I’m sure you got plenty of servings of your daily recommended dose of drama! in your life from the holidays. Now that everyone is properly stuffed, we can return our attention to gaming.
http://www.gamescapenorth.com/

For everyone in the Bay Area, I have the honor to announce that I’ll be taking over Gamescape North’s board game night this week. Gamescape North is located in San Rafael (northside of the bay) and they’ve got a great selection of games and the staff is really top notch all the way. I’ll be running a few tables of HSD Thursday night, so if you haven’t picked up your copy from Gamescape, now’s the time to do it. I’ll even sign your yearbooks (something that became popular at GenCon SoCal).
(more…)

Come join us at Espresso Art in Tucson, Arizona for the Halloween weekend release of High School Drama! The party will be held on Saturday, October 28th from 8pm until midnight. There will be music, HSD! costume party, and lots of other fun … and course your first opportunity to get your mits on a copy of the game as it releases. Please contact me for further details and so that I can dd you the guest list!

Hope you see you there!