The continuing--albeit disjointed--saga of the group I'm currently calling the "Fearless Five." To answer your questions: Yes, I do watch House. And yes, DeeAnn, I am still working on that outline for "Reunion." I'm working on it!
Against my own expectations, I appear to have won an actual writing competition:
Since this is probably the closest I'll ever come to actually getting this show produced, I am definitely going to attend the table read next month. I just sent off a character breakdown sheet for the director, which was yet another new and exciting thing for me. w00t!
And since this blog post is probably the closest I'll ever come to making an acceptance speech at an awards show, here's the long list of people who helped make this script even possible:
my parents, who indulged my comic-book habit all through my adolescence;
the NYTVF Comedy Script Contest, for which I wrote the crappy first draft;
Bryan and Raj, who gave me feedback on that crappy first draft;
Ken Levine's Sitcom Room workshop, which taught me almost everything I know about comedy writing;
Amber, Roberta, Sally, and Sarah from the Monti's Cafe writing group;
everyone at Viable ParadiseXII, who showed me how to drink give and accept critiques;
The Richter Scales, who let me get away with all manner of absurdity on stage for almost eight years;
all the other writers in the SIE competition, who rated my script and gave great notes; and
most of all, my wife DeeAnn, always.
In other good news, speaking of DeeAnn, she's just picked up a six-week consulting gig. It'll pay very well, but she'll be down in the Bay Area for at least the next couple of weeks.
That's okay. We always expected to travel: we selected our current housing situation because it's less than fifteen minutes from PDX airport. We always miss being away from our home and our cats, but we love seeing the rest of the world, too.
Also: we neglected to mention it in this show, but you can always find upcoming event info at PuzzleHuntCalendar.com. See what's happening in your area!
00:59 - "thuggish"
02:01 - WHO: inspired by Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog
03:12 - the secret origins of WHO's GC
04:12 - Jett's personal puzzle hunt history
05:58 - naming conventions
08:03 - application expectations
10:43 - designing the WHO application requirements and puzzles
15:56 - objective vs. subjective scoring
18:39 - what can players expect from the WHO Game?
22:45 - a further note on application videos
26:21 - The End
Trying something a little different here: inspired by last week's story, "Fearless," and driven by a compulsion to write superhero serials, I'm going to fill out that world by building a whole team of reluctant crime-fighters. You've already met Alex, the woman without fear; now meet Herman, the fastest man alive.*
This week, we have a round-table discussion with the organizers of DASH 3 PDX--Matt Cleinman, Ana Roeszler, and Vic Asteinza--plus one of the players, Emily Wax from team "House of Wax!"
(Apologies for the variable sound quality here; we were trying out a new microphone and recording setup.)
00:59 - "dashing"
01:11 - in which we mispronounce everyone's name
01:56 - the importance of knowing where the nearest bathroom is
04:31 - how Ana, Matt, and Vic got into DASH
07:51 - the Puzzled Pint connection
10:54 - as seen on Twitter
12:50 - Emily's team was a family affair
15:10 - creating the Rapunzel puzzle for DASH
16:47 - on tuning puzzle difficulties for a diverse audience
18:31 - how different was running DASH vs. running Puzzled Pints?
21:10 - "Would y'all do it again?"
27:15 - Anecdote Time!
30:58 - "I do NOT condone shooting skateboarders with paintball guns."
32:52 - the problem with condiments
36:23 - thoughts on advertising
37:24 - Achievement Unlocked: On Budget!
38:28 - Upcoming Events on PuzzleHuntCalendar.com
39:32 - The End
If this week's story seems familiar--perhaps even thematically identical to 2009's "I'll Sleep When I'm Dead"--it's probably because I tend to write the same characters over and over again--basically super-powered police officers.
Speaking of which, have we talked about Green Lantern yet? Hey, where are you going? Come back!
Team Snout ran our first weekend-long puzzle hunt a full decade ago, in May of 2001. This week, we have an extra-long chat with Sean Gugler about some of his contributions to that event and what we've learned (or not) since then.
00:59 - "homicidal"
01:13 - Special Guest: Sean Gugler!
03:06 - Yup, it's really been ten whole years since HLOTF
05:03 - In which we don't know how much we don't know
06:45 - Whence "only GC thinks that's funny?" Also, a bad red herring.
08:26 - Being GC changes your perspective as a player
13:45 - Sean's Rubik's Cube clue
23:30 - Dispatch recording: "McBain says don't fuck up"
25:40 - (our wedding invitations were featured on Fluxx Love Stories)
26:02 - Sean's 98 Degrees CD clue
31:15 - Food clues, esp. packing peanuts and cinnamon cookies
32:50 - Dispatch recording:synonym cookies
35:09 - Sean's contributions to the Simon Says clue
42:28 - Scouting and photographing Dennis the Menace Playground
45:19 - Dispatch recording: nobody likes the "double-U"
47:22 - Sean's current project: the Doctor When Game!
51:37 - Learning to let go of what teams won't care about
56:16 - Upcoming events info at PuzzleHuntCalendar.com
57:45 - The End
I'm actually lukewarm as far as the movie goes, but I was tickled that I could pretty easily corrupt Varna'ut (my go-to alien race name) into "Varmit." And I think an Old West where aliens exist alongside other exploited minority peoples is a much more interesting premise than yet another invasion/abduction scenario.
01:02 - the anvil question... answered!
01:53 - our WHO Game application experience
02:29 - DeeAnn enjoyed making our video the most
04:43 - applications are never more fun than The Game
07:03 - comparisons to Justice Unlimited
11:54 - can you make applications more immersive or interactive?
13:56 - DeeAnn imagines the ideal Game application
15:29 - comparisons to ARGs
18:24 - it's fun to play with other people
20:14 - using the application to set expectations for the event
22:22 - comparisons to Hogwarts owl deliveries
25:44 - what's a good euphemism for "rejected?"
28:19 - find upcoming events at PuzzleHuntCalendar.com
29:16 - The End
