Craft Keep VR up for Another Game of the Year Award
You might recall that Craft Keep VR, the virtual reality game I ended up writing for after EGX 2016, was up for a Game of the Year award at Login Vilnius a while back. Well, it’s happened again, and this time it’s through the TIGA Games Industry Awards!
This time around, Craft Keep VR is right alongside big names like Forza Horizon and Horizon: Zero Dawn. Even just in its own category – Game by a Small Studio – there’s Yooka-Laylee and The Flame in the Flood, both of which have quite a bit more clout behind them than “Small Studio” would suggest: the teams behind those include some of the people behind Banjo-Kazooie, Halo and BioShock.
I hesitate to ask people to vote in this because I’m aware fairly few will have the VR hardware necessary to actually play Craft Keep, but if you’re in a position to compare the games in the shortlist (maybe you got a go at EGX or EGX Rezzed), then here’s the page where you can vote for your favourite.
While I’m on the topic of games and games events, I figure I may as well also just list a few of mine coming up over the next few weeks. I approached a bunch of different places asking for a space to exhibit Girth Loinhammer’s Most Exponential Adventure, thinking that I might get lucky and have one of them say yes. I even had flyers printed in anticipation!
Spectacular Dungeon Lord artwork by Joe Wright.
In the end, all but one of them accepted my application. That one was EGX itself – the biggest games event in the UK – which would have been extremely cool but did very much feel like a long shot. Anyway, here are the places you’ll be able to come and try out Girth Loinhammer’s Most Exponential Adventure before it goes out through Aperture Editions in 2018:
- DIY Southampton: October 14th at Planet Sounds Rehearsal & Recording Studios, 14:00-20:00. I’ve got a book stall at this event, and I’ll also be doing a live reading of Exponential Adventure itself on the DIY Stage from 14:50-15:05. Maybe a round or two of Ultraviolent Unicorn Deathmatch as well if there’s time.
- Anything Funny? October 18th at The Point, Eastleigh, 19:30-22:00. This is a brand new comedy open mic, and I’m headlining for its second ever event! Come along for an evening of laughs capped off with a live reading of Exponential Adventure.
- Chandlers Ford Book Fair: October 28th at the Age Concern Hall, Chandlers Ford, 10:00-12:00. No reading at this one, but I will have a book stall and I plan to provide the complete text of Exponential Adventure on a netbook for people to explore.
- Indies Unplayed: October 29th at Secret Weapon, 25 West Ham Lane, London, 14:00-19:00. The first of the actual games events I’ve got organised. The complete Exponential Adventure will be there for you to explore at your leisure.
- AdventureX: November 11th-12th at Goldsmith’s University, London, 10:00-17:30. A narrative-focused games convention featuring two full days of Girth Loinhammer gaming. Or book-browsing. I’ve been working on this thing for two years now (remember back when I was planning to knock it out in a month?) and I’m still not 100% certain what it actually is. Still, AdventureX feels like a really good fit for it either way.
- Reading Comic Con: November 25th-26th, Rivermead Leisure Complex, Reading, 10:00-17:00. I’ll be set up in the Gaming Zone at this one. Not entirely sure what to expect, but I gather that their guests include actors from Harry Potter, Red Dwarf and The Walking Dead, so if you turn up and I’m not at my stall, that’ll be why!
Because some of this is coming up pretty soon, and the soon stuff at short notice (I only just heard back about Indies Unplayed at the weekend), my main focus at the moment is getting Girth Loinhammer’s Most Exponential Adventure finished in time for those first events. If you manage to get to one of the earlier ones, there’s a good chance you’ll be among the very first people in the entire world to explore the story with the full range of 512 alternate endings available to you!
If you can only make it to one of the later ones (London and Reading, basically), then your best chance of getting an early look at the whole thing is to put in a pledge for Ten Little Astronauts. I’ll be inviting supporters of the book to try it out just as soon as it’s done! I’m hoping the feedback I get from that and all these events will help me polish up the book/game – tweaking choices and strengthening storylines – before I send it off to Aperture Editions.
Damon L. Wakes 
Awesome news, well done! That’s a hell of a busy schedule, but definitely worth it to get all those eyes on your work!
This doesn’t even include the regular open mics I’ll be trying to get to! Though partly that’s because I’ll be trying a little less hard to get to those while there’s so much else going on…