My Paternity Leave has begun, so nothing more from me until May. Enjoy the silence!

Just a quick note to say that I appear to have hurdled the final step of the bureaucracy required to complete my Doctorate… thus unlocking additional bureaucracy pertaining to storing my doctorate in the library system. It would be nice to feel some sense of achievement or triumph at becoming the first person to have a doctorate in the aesthetics of play but it is more akin to that frustrating boss that you finally take down hours after it ceased to be fun…

With a new baby approaching at the end of this month, I am about to go on Paternity leave. I will tie up the blogs when my leave begins, for now I am working hard on finishing up the script to Shadows: Heretic Kingdoms, and arranging the first voice recordings (more on this soon!). Here’s a few snippets to keep you going:

• I am giving a talk on games as art at a gallery in Edinburgh on Thursday 1st May. The details are not confirmed yet, I will promote it here once the ink has dried.
• Chaos Ethics is in production, and I expect to have galley proofs within a month – the PDF will then be available to reviewers, academics and bloggers.
• From May, I will be running the largest Game Design internship programme in the world (40 interns!) – sorry, there is no availability remaining for new applicants.
• My defection from Google Drive to Copy.com has been a success (see Defecting from Google Drive for the background and a referral link). I had to use their customer support the other day – they replied within 12 hours, two humans assisted me, the problem was solved within two days. Compare this to Google’s policy of ‘you can complain, but we won’t listen to you because we always know best’.
• My backlog of games now includes Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs and Dominique Pamplemousse in It's All Over Once The Fat Lady Sings!, both of which I’m looking forward to playing when I have time. If anyone has any time to give me, do let me know!

Something to say to me? Comments and blog-letters are always welcome!

Cross-posted from Only a Game.

Back from my media blackout, but not quite ready for blogging at ‘full steam’. I have some drafts of some interesting things for December, though, which hopefully will get finished soon, and I’m planning something new and experimental for the Gregorian New Year so watch this space!

Now my doctorate is cranked one more step towards completion (and I am now technically a ‘doctor’) the blogs shall return! Over the next few weeks, I’ll be exploring some interesting questions in the corners of game studies and game philosophy…

Disconnecting from the internet tomorrow to enjoy some time by the sea with my family. I’ll be back to blogging in July, and should have a good chunk of games stuff coming together in August.

Back soon!

Since I haven’t a new games post this week, don’t miss the exchanges with Dr. Jesper Juul in the comments for Fiction Denial. Some great points raised!

Alas, since I am only two thirds through the manuscript of Chaos Ethics, I'm not going to be able to commit to resuming blogging this month in the manner to which I have become accustomed - namely, writing short essays on various topics that interest me. Since I don't want to stop blogging, I'm going to try and return to a form of blogging closer to what I used to do in the early days - writing more stream-of-consciousness pieces, possibly even writing content on the day I post it (instead of scheduling in advance). Instead of building little sandcastles, I'm going to have to switch to skimming stones for a while. You're more than welcome to skim them with me!

Alas, that’s all I have time for since I’ve now started work on the manuscript for Chaos Ethics so the blogs will have to rest for a while. Enjoy your winter fun and games!

ihobo will return next month.

As usual, I'm taking a break from blogging in November but the nonsense will return next month! I hope by then to be in a position to report on Tale of Tale's intriguing current project, Bientôt l'été, offer some thoughts on Dyad (which Sony have so far blocked me from buying!) and perhaps have an interview to offer. But we'll have to see how much time I have when the dust settles.

Have fun everyone!

ihobo returns in December.