So, what's going on inside Gnome's Lair?

I know that posting hasn't been as frequent as you cuddly reader have come to expect and that you might -quite justifiably- feel robbed of your daily gnomic dose. Well, you are right, I'm sorry, but as even gnomes have to eventually eat, sometimes my blogging time is severely limited, though -to my defense- both the twitter and the facebook page of Gnome's Lair remain as active as ever. So, on to what I have been up to, shall we?

• Well, on the blogging front, I'm currently working on a pretty huge three-part feature on AGD Interactive, that will cover all of their most excellent adventure remakes, their future plans, their unreleased projects, Himalaya Studios and more than a few peeks behind the creative scenes. Problem is I already have a ton of info (thank you so much AGDI!), which I have to transform into something readable and that apparently does take some time. Also I wouldn't want them three parts of the feature appearing farther than a few days from each other. Obviously more gaming and game related writing is also happening behind the scenes, while a variety of other blogs are also maintained.

• Then, there's always that Wikileaks Stories game I've been constantly redesigning for the past few months. Good news is I've settled on a final desing and started actually crafting the thing; bad news is there's a lot of work to be done and my lack of Inform experience isn't really helping. Still, I'm rather optimistic on this one, though, truth be said, basing something on a true story can be quite challenging and things will necessarily progress slowly. As for that ancient mystery gaming project of mine, it might have been left unattended for a while, but I'm still doing minor adjustments to it.

• What's more those are not the only game design projects I'm involved with. I have also started working with a rather small indie developer and am currently coming up with game ideas, stories, themes, design documents and even prototypes. It might be incredibly fun mind, but it's time consuming as hell too.

• On the more personal/professional side of things, I'm also swamped with work for the publishing house a friend and I have started (the first book will be out in less than a month), while preparing a paper for a conference in Istanbul, working on a ridiculously underpaid but very interesting research project, planning another, preparing some stuff for a couple of scientific journals, and joyfully engaging in the fierce political battles inside Greece. Hooray!