I've Got A Blue/White Certificate

Some news and notes concerning the TOP SECRET PROJECT I've been going on about.

-I've officially signed a contract with the company. I'm employed now, but I won't be earning money until we start making it.

-The domain name for what will become our official website is registered and waiting to be created, with both .com and .net addresses.

-My third largest contribution to the project, following story and character treatments, was devising summaries for ten episodes. I basically just think of the plot and which characters will play a major part of a particular episode. I figure these ten will comprise season one, and that it might be a good idea to have the pilot episode be a two parter. Part one: introduce the characters, part two: CONFLICT! I spent a good amount of time just pondering plots, and I initially came up with a lot more than ten. So I wrote all my ideas down, worked with them a bit, then separated them into a few season's worth. Each season will have a specific storyline to network them all together. They can all be enjoyed individually, but it'll be a much better experience for audiences to catch them in succession. And think of the convenience of picking up the season sets on DVD!

-Aside from the company president and myself, we also have an artist. He made a career as a conceptual designer, illustrator, and sculptor. Whether or not you've heard of his name, you'll surely know some of the stuff he's worked on. He's created props, models, toy molds, concept art, and more for television, theater, merchandise lines, and even museums. Not even for obscure clients either, he's worked for the big names on features everyone's heard of. But he's been tasked with the most difficult challenge of his career: taking my brainstorms and bringing them into the physical realm for all to see. I would love nothing more than to show off the artwork he created based on my descriptions, but that falls under the shush order we're all being held under. I just wanted to give an idea of the serious muscle involved here. Trust me, as soon as I'm given the green light, I'll finally be able to tell you what the hell I've been up to all this time. But don't expect the cover to be blown for many months, possibly not even until next year. We will probably wait until the show is picked up and put into production before I can talk in-depth about it.

-After showcasing our project to various large entertainment conglomerates, we are now waiting for them all to mull over the idea and hopefully decide to sign us on. I've seen the Power Point presentation that was used to sell the idea to company executives, and it contains a condensed version of the story, character art by our artist along with my descriptions, and a list of the unique gadgets I designed specifically for the show. It's excellent, and accounts I've heard from these people have been positive.

-Neatest of all, I am now a member of Writers Guild of America, West. Check out the certificate I got, with confidential information blacked out, of course.

These things are hard to come by, so I'll explain the requirements one has to fulfill. You have to gain a certain amount of "units" in order to qualify for membership, while are doled out based on the level of work you have contributed to in the entertainment writing field. I earned all 24 necessary units in one shot, since I created a "bible", or a long-term story projection, for a television series. Then there's the registration fee of $2,500, which was handled by my boss. So between my first paycheck and paying for the registration, this guy has invested a lot of faith and cash in me to help make his product a success.

-As if I didn't have enough confidence that things will work out, check out what I found inside of a fortune cookie.


The Chinese cookie vendors are very wise people. As a bonus, here is what was featured on the reverse side of the fortune.


The Epitaph is educational. Just don't go stealing my lucky numbers.

And that's just the way it is.

Big Loss, Major Gain

The video game project I talked about getting hired for earlier has been canceled.

Instead, I'm now assigned to work on the TV show that grew from it. And I'll also be working for the company itself rather than the spin-off product. Pretty heavy stuff coming from nowhere and landing somewhere. The story and characters I created for the game will now be the focal point of the show's concept, although somewhat modified. So whether or not this show is a success, or if it even gets picked up for production, really rides on my shoulders. But I'm quite fortunate that my employer is business savvy and knows the proper way to build and promote his brand. Plus there's probably other talented folks under his umbrella that will ensure this plan pulls through.

As usual, I'm under a "gag order" so to speak, as it pertains to publicly discussing information about the project, but just to keep the world updated as to the going-ons in my life, I'll remain as vague as possible on the details of my work.

I can't claim that everything I wrote was originated by me. The president gave me a list of criteria that he wanted me to meet. After all, he is the one who came up with the whole project. He gave me the blueprint, hired me as the foreman, and I constructed the building to his specifications. How's that for an analogy?

Here's the short, but busy, list of concepts I have submitted.
Story- Where the protagonists and antagonists came from, the nature of their conflict, and where they'll be taking it.
Heroes and Villains- Eight pure hearts and sinister souls apiece will be butting heads. The heroes were relatively easy to create, as I thought up all eight in one night. The villains, however, were much tougher. We started out with four, adding more as the weeks progressed. Three of those were from my own mind. Naming them was the hardest task of all. No John Does in this bunch.
Accessories- A list of twenty-six (for now) "wonderful toys" the heroes will have at their disposal.

The president of the company will soon be meeting with some pretty high-profile companies to see who wants to take this project on. Phew. Basically, an unproven writer was hired to craft a salable television show. How often does that happen? Think of all the script writers in Hollywood slipping their scripts underneath the bathroom stall occupied by producers in hopes of being discovered. If the second major literary work in my career strikes gold, then 2008 and beyond will be a very big for James Gannon.

I've got all the confidence in the world that I'll make it.

And that's just the way it is.

Game Character Development

Gamers creating their own characters in games is nothing new. Capcom would sponsor contests in video game magazines that allowed readers to design and submit new Robot Masters for the MegaMan series. Wrestling games allow players to build their own dream athlete, customizing everything from their physical appearance to their repertoire of holds. Can't forget about Will Wright's runaway success called The Sims, allowing you to create tiny replicas of yourself and your friends and control every aspect of their digital lives. And most recently, Nintendo DS (Wii version forthcoming) played host to Drawn To Life, an innovative game where players take on the role of "The Creator" and use their styluses to draw not only their game character, but weapons and platforms as well. Before a few weeks ago, the preceding examples were some of the many outlets I had in making my own video game characters. With all that in mind, try to imagine being granted the position of creating game characters that will be built into the game itself for the whole world to enjoy.

I've already discussed being drafted to work on a still-under-wraps video game, and that my first assignment was to write a story that would help sell people on the idea of running with it. With that taken care of, and thankfully well received, I was asked to develop characters for the game that would be marketable. I had to make eight of them, down from the original number of twenty. You see, twenty was the first number thrown around because it was understood that the only difference each character would have is a certain ability the player could utilize to help them beat the game. But then it was decided to give the characters character. And it would be far easier to develop eight rather than that number plus twelve. Which means less bodies for you guys to keep tabs on.

One of the major guidelines for creating this cast was that we wanted them to have different ethnicities and nationalities so that everyone would be able to identify with at least one. Then there was our first idea of giving them their own unique abilities for gameplay reasons. I took five days to create those eight major characters. As I said before, these are not going to be throw-aways who will only be seen in one game. We're talking the possibility of merchandising here. There are profits that could be riding on my shoulders. So after creating them, I sat with them awhile to see if I was comfortable with presenting them as the figureheads of this project. I really felt they would be worthy, so I submitted them to the game's mastermind for approval, and he accepted them.

Here's the list of traits I used to construct the characters.
Name- Important for more reasons than to just keep us from referring to everyone as "that guy". A good name will help you remember the character more, plus it adds a degree of likability. For example, do you think Sonic the Hedgehog would have become a video game icon if he were called Zippy instead? He could have been put into the same great games, but there's just something more appealing about "Sonic" than "Zippy". Anyway, since this project called for a cast with different ethnicities and nationalities, I found a site that had listings of names from cultures all over the world. This helped me in finding names unique to each world region.
Ethnicity/Nationality- All ethnic groups are represented, and I chose the most diverse nationalities as the foundation of the character personas. If I left out yours, I apologize.
Expertise- These characters will have to do more than stand around and blink, they got to get out there and give you an enjoyable game experience with their talents! Each one is special and you will have to capitalize on each individual's strengths to get you through the game.
Description- This explains what each character is all about, such as their role and their personality. Some of their attitudes are even based on what their major skill is. I even figured how they may get along with each other, creating strong friendships and shaky ties.
Outfit- We're looking to keep this game from receiving the much feared Adults Only (AO) rating, so we have to put clothes on them. I made them some threads that would match up well with the three previous traits I discussed.
Hair- I chose varying hair styles to top our characters off with; no one shares the same type of mop. Hmmm... I guess I was wrong. I failed to create at least one character for an oft-neglected group of our society to identify with: bald people.

I even went as far as sketching how the main characters would look and based the outfit and hair descriptions off what I came up with. That's probably a major reason why I continue to draw to this very day instead of sticking completely to the writing process. It just helps me relate to the character more if I can give them form.

I've already birthed quite a large cast of characters for my own stories, so creating a brand new roster was a lot easier than I thought it would be. And consider the fact that I was making them for someone else's approval. A daunting task to be sure but I think I nailed it. So now that I've got the story and game characters down, what's next?

Writer, Cartoonist... Game Designer?

I've written a full novel, with dozens more in development. I've written a few comic strips with about a hundred more in reserve. But I never would have dreamed that my first paid writing gig would be in interactive media.

A little bit more than a week ago, I received an e-mail from a man I've never met before, but a man I knew plenty. Without giving away too much info, I'll just say he is the promoter of a product that I'm a fan of. I posted quite a few detailed comments about his product on a web site petaining to it, thinking nothing more of it than just showing my support. But the promoter himself read what I wrote regarding his product and decided to contact me. The e-mail he sent asked me nothing more than to call him, supplying both his land line and cell numbers.

So I called the guy up and he told me that he liked the stuff I wrote, thinking I had a good mind for his product. He revealed to me that he was planning on creating a video game based on it, and thought I would be a good choice to take some core ideas he had for it and expand it into a story he could use to sell the game idea to game developers and publishers. I was quite taken aback at being given this opportunity, especially since I'm an unproven commodity in the writing world. Still, what an opportunity it was, so I accepted his proposal. I took an afternoon to flex my creative muscle, and I had to because this was the first time I wrote a story based on someone else's ideas. After crafting five pages of story, beefing up the existing ideas with some of my own, I submitted it to the promoter. It was only my first effort and I am fortunate that he liked what he saw, saying he would show it to some associates. Hopefully my work will go a long way in helping to gain approval for the project.

In the end, the promoter told me that he would like to keep me on the project when it goes forward, on a creative level. He's also cutting me a check for the story treatment. I don't know how much, but it blows my mind that I'm finally getting paid for doing something I love instead of from some spirit-draining 9-5. And it only too me an afternoon to do it. I always figured that, somewhere in my writing career, that I would end up aiding in the development of video games based on my own intellectual properties. I just never dreamed it would take place this soon, and for someone else's I.P., the owner of which liked my writing enough to take a gamble on me.

A little bit more into this promoter's future plans for his product: as of now, it's only seen within a limited area, but aside from this game, there's also plans for a reality TV show, possibly shown on Spike, E!, MTV, or one of several other channels. The show could go a long way in promoting the game when it's ready, and the publishing company being tossed around as accepting rights is Electronic Arts, the largest producer of video game software. The promoter told me there's a good chance I could make a lot of money from this when all is said and done.

And just when I thought I couldn't get rich doin' this shit.

And that's just the way it is.