My voice people are struggling to get their voices recorded without my presence, but at least they have my advise when they have it. In other voice news, the enigmatic person who voices Dave, L. Rick, seems to have disappeared. I have found a co-worker who will be willing to fill in his shoes, and I think he will make an excellent replacement.

Also, I have started work on the conversion of the first five cartoons to Flash 4 format. This should quell all the problems of some cartoons playing and some not. I will also update them with a few things I would think are standard on most cartoons, like a true pre-loader, and a play button so one doesn't have to be totally glued to the screen waiting to load, and replay buttons at the end of the toons.

And in a first, I will make all six cartoons available in a downloadable format. I plan to have cartoon one ready within a week.

As usual,

Andrew "B.A." Babb

Now, I've been trying to figure out how to keep people more involved in the process and not be left in the dark about where the cartoons are in the process. Well, this time around, I am going to document the process on the Info page. A lot of people have asked me for a record of exactly how I do this, so I'm going to hack two orcs with one sword and have an ongoing how-to section. In the next few days you should see the first entry on scripting.

In other personal news, I have been working my butt off at my new job: TrafficStation! This website tracks traffic conditions of most major cities and lets you view if there's any congestion between you and work or whatever route you plan. I have worked there as an independent contractor, but as of this week, I will be an official employee, meaning that I can now afford to get sick (benefits) and enter the Wall Street Lotto (stock options). So far I've been having a good time. The people are great, and the environment is a little more laid back than you'd expect from a corporation. I've been working on developing a Flash version of the site that's set to debut soon.

More creatively, I've been collaborating with Graveyard Greg of The Gaming Outpost and the result is the Gaming Outpost comic, a weekly color comic drawn by me and written by Greg and me! Check it out!

Well, that's the news. Good night and have a pleasant tomorrow.

Andrew "B.A." Babb

Why, do you ask? Well, my job at Gallery of History, while steady enough, was not very fulfilling. I might be getting a job with my roommate's company or feeling around for a graphic/web design job somewhere around the area. I would love to be making money on my site, enough to not have to worry about job-hunting, but until then, I have bills to pay. :)

A word of warning: We may have to move sooner than expected so the site and my e-mail might be offline for a little while. We want to avoid this if possible (TheJoe is well aware of the presence this site has on the web) but I wanted to warn you in case you try here and get the 404 death screen.

None of this means that the site is permanently closing or being abandoned! I still have things I want to do with this site and all your supportive e-mails tell me that you want me to keep doing things on this site. And I shall, but I'll be doing them back in my home state of California. Thanks for the support and I will e-mail all of you that write me as to when the site is back up (if it even goes down..)

Andrew "B.A." Babb

So I look ahead. What is changing? Quite a few things. My friend and roommate (and the one who has gotten me the domain name and server space for this site) has accepted a quite lucrative job in Los Angeles and will be moving there by the end of February. Will this affect the site? No and yes. He has said he will still provide me with my place and my name. He's a good friend. I WILL have to find a new place to live (that might only be temporary, but that's another story) but thankfully I will have the time to find a place without rushing for once, and hopefully I will still be able to update with a minimum of interruption.
Someone else who will be moving is my friend Dana, the good man who voices Bob in the KoDT cartoons. He has told me that even when he moves, he still wishes to do Bob for me, plus he won't be moving until sometime in March, giving me ample time to get some scripts together and recorded before he moves and we try and figure out how he can record and send things to me online. :)

What are the challenges? Well, choosing from the wealth of KoDT material to translate to the digital screen, of course! I have heard from a lot of you on what you would like to see, two of the biggest requests being the gazebo strip and a Black Hands story.
Another challenge is being able to bring something fresh to the stories. I was blown away from your response to the first original, non-canon idea I posted in the cartoons (the foreign film bit at the end of cartoon four) and it has given me the courage to be even more creative with this great material.
Additionally, there are new worlds to build and conquer as well. The Retro strips are gaining more and more attention. Indeed, there is a new 2-page color strip posted today which will give a little more background into the world of Retro. And here for the first time, I'm pleased to announce yet another venture on this site:

In collaboration with John Kovalic, I will be creating animated cartoons based on another great RPG comic: DORK TOWER! Details will be announced as they warrant.

This, plus some other projects I am involved with, but can't announce just yet, will give me the challenge of using my time wisely to keep this site updated in a timely manner. I do plan to rise up to this particular challenge and meet it well.

Which brings me to the rewards, which are always the response I get. I am very fortunate to have some great encouragement and response from all who visit this site and write in. Part of the great tradition of RPGs and most games in general is the way it gets people to interact with each other. Geez, this is starting to sound real mushy, isn't it? But in any case that reward is something I hope to continue to find in the future. Hey that and the fact that I'm now at 40,000 hits on the site (it seems like only yesterday I was hoodyhoo-ing about reaching 30,000) has ecouraged my to keep going. As for any new rewards...hey we will have to wait and see....

Andrew "B.A." Babb