Reviews, Awards, and Plans

Hey All,

It's been another busy couple months with lots going on in both the writing and game development fronts. With writing, I'm making good progress on the next novel and I'll try to put the first chapter up on this blog soon just so everyone can get a sense of what it will be about.

There's also been a few more reviews of Shadowcursed that have popped up on the web.

Here's one by the Movies & Manuscript blog:
http://www.moviesandmanuscripts.blogspot.com/2014/04/sometimes-you-just-have-to-root-for.html

Here's another by The New Podler Review
http://thenewpodlerreviews.blogspot.com/2014/05/shadowcursed-by-gelo-fleisher.html

On the game development front, the big news is that I just won the grand prize in Square-Enix's recent Thief level design contest. Here's the video I submitted of Requiem which turned into the winning entry (huge spoiler warning):

I'm really flabbergasted to have won, and want to thank everyone who voted during the contest. It's really appreciated :-). One of the prizes I got was a trip to the E3 gaming expo as well as a trip to visit the development team behind the recent Thief game at Eidos Montreal. I'll try to put up photos of both as they happen.

I've also been hard at work making a two-part sequel to Requiem. The first part is fully done, and the second part is well underway. Here's some screenshots from player AluminumHaste:

Finally, my brother and I are putting the finishing touches on an indie edutainment game which I'll hopefully be able to reveal here shortly. So, lots going on and hopefully lots more to come.

A Book Review and Status Update

So I was flipping through my emails this morning, and had to do a double-take. Big Al's Book Reviews, one of the larger indie book websites, has posted a review of Shadowcursed. Looks like they liked it too. Here's an excerpt:

This fantasy novella was a nice surprise. Mr. Fleisher has written an enthralling story full of descriptive prose that will pull you into the story so thoroughly you can practically smell the stench...The story that unfolds is an original and captivating rollercoaster ride that will leave the reader fully satisfied. I think this is an Indie author to watch for in the future.

You can check out the full review here. Definitely made my day.

Just a quick status update on my other projects. My computer game level "Requiem" is now done and will be released in the next day or so. So far the reviews from my beta testers have been very positive. You can read a little post I made on the Dark Mod forums about it here.

Requiem has been taking up most of my time for the last few months, and with that wrapping up, I'm starting to turn my attention to my next book, and another computer game project. I'll be writing up the treatment for the book (it will be a sci-fi mystery) this week. I'll also be sitting down with my brother to hammer out the details of what else needs to be done to finish up an edutainment game he and I have been working on. I'll be posting more info about both projects on this blog in the coming months.

Exciting times ahead!

Plugging away

Well, it's been about three months since my fantasy novella Shadowcursed has been released and so far the majority of feedback I've received has been really positive. I've also just had my first author interview, by Jill Marie at Little Hyuts, you can read it here.

Most of my recent time though has been been on getting my 3D level for the Dark Mod (tentatively titled 'Requiem') completed. It's turned into a very labor-intensive project, especially since I've never done anything like it before, but it's been really rewarding. One of the nice things about level design is that, unlike writing, it's a visual medium so you can take screenshots and share them before the whole thing is done. When you write a novel or short story you usually need to wait until you've got a completed draft before anyone gets a peek at it, and usually that'll be beta readers who will tear it apart. I think I still prefer writing overall, but it's definitely nice to get immediate feedback :-).

As I've completed sections of the level, I've been uploading screenshots to the Dark Mod forums and so far everyone seems to like what I've made. Here are a few of those shots. Apologies if they're dark, I haven't been able to find a way to adjust for that in the shots. In game it's much brighter:

A mentor whose helping me on the Requiem got inspired and wrote up a really flattering post here. Let's just hope the finished project lives up to the praise :-). I'm hoping to get the level done and into beta-testing within a month, or two at the latest so we should see shortly.

I've also started thinking more seriously about my next writing project. I've gotten the main plot down, and will start outlining as soon as Requiem is finished up. 

So, still plugging away, stay tuned for more. 

Babies, novellas, and video games

Wow, has it really been a year since my last post? Crazy how time flies. The lack of posting definitely hasn't been because of a lack of working, in fact this last year has been one of my more productive ones. I'll be getting back to posting more frequently (at least bi-monthly), but here's a recap of what I've been up to:

First off...I'm now a dad :-).

It's been a couple of months, and so far fatherhood is great. It definitely makes you think differently about writing too. I've always found myself drawn to grittier topics, but having my daughter around has made me warm a bit to more mellower plots and story ideas. Go figure.

I've also finished and e-published a novella. As of this blog it's available from Amazon and Barnes & Noble (still working on getting it up on Smashwords). My friend Jon really came through with an amazing cover too:

I'll be writing in a bit more detail about the novella in a future post.

I also have two computer game projects that are pretty far along now. One is an edutainment game that I'm making with my brother, and the other is a game level for the Doom 3 modification "The Dark Mod". Details on these will probably be for a future post too, but here are some pictures:

So, that's a summary of what I've been up to during this long silence. More details to come in future posts.