Category Archives: shock:

Shock:Retroactive Bundle with Human Contact

August 25, 2010 – 5:28 pm

I don’t know why it didn’t occur to me to do this before: if you own Shock:, send an email to humancontactbundle@glyphpress.com and I’ll send you freed PDFs of the two Human Contact preview editions, both the January one I made for Dreamation and the March one I made for PAX East!
Human Contact is inspired [...]

By joshua | Also posted in Human Contact, community | Comments (0)

The Jank Casters get Shock:ed

August 3, 2010 – 9:42 pm

The Jank Cast crew played Shock: and really dug it. Their game was Human Cloning vs. Aging and Reproduction. It got good and gnarly.
After Granther torturing Granther torturing Granther, I kinda needed a shower.
—Todd
Brilliant scene there, guys. I’m glad you enjoyed it.

By joshua | Also posted in community, playing games | Comments (0)

Automaton

July 29, 2010 – 12:09 pm

Penny Arcade just started a really neat Automaton story. As before, it’s largely about Carl, an automaton living in 1927 America, with the Issue of racial segregation. It’s got a lot of shout-outs to Caves of Steel, which is a good move, but says a lot more about the ugliness of humanity than Asimov could [...]

By joshua | Also posted in art, science/fiction | Comments (2)

Self-Folding Origami

July 1, 2010 – 2:20 am

A little more Academic technology from the real world. If you were to put a 1200 dpi reflective/transmissive display on each of those planes, then increase the resolution to the point of imperceptibility, then pack it full of sensors and computation, you’d get their smart Paper.

By joshua | Also posted in Human Contact, art, science/fiction | Comments (1)

Geek Nights Love Shock:

June 30, 2010 – 10:11 am

At Recess two weekends back, I had a chance to play Shock: with Terry Romero, Max Kushner, and Scott and Rym of Geek Nights. They just did a review and man, they totally get the game. Scott ordered it yesterday and I think they’ll have a really good time with it. Also, they seem to [...]

By joshua | Also posted in community, publishing | Comments (7)

Science Fiction Language

June 7, 2010 – 11:46 am

Over at io9, there’s an article about languages in science fiction, using as an example how much ours has changed since Shakespeare’s time. It’s neat, and timely, as I’m working on the language section of Shock:Human Contact next. If I do another Preview Edition, it’ll be about language and war.
I’m also drawing on The Language [...]

By joshua | Also posted in Human Contact, game design, science/fiction | Comments (4)

Shock: Hardcopies Now Shipping

June 3, 2010 – 4:02 pm

Shock: is finally back in print, in stock, and shipping. Annnd… as of this moment, I’m down to 73 of my print run of 100. I expect another 8 or so to go out the door to retailers this week. Get your copy soon! I obviously have a hard time printing the damn things!
If you [...]

By joshua | Also posted in publishing | Comments (6)

Shock: on Wikipedia

April 4, 2010 – 1:02 pm

I came across a mention of Shock: on Wikipedia today. I can’t remember if I put it there. But there was no page for Shock: and I was wondering if you’d help me with that. I started a stub that doesn’t meet minimum requirements, so the page will disappear in a week if no one [...]

By joshua | Also posted in publishing | Comments (0)

Academic Materials

March 31, 2010 – 12:54 pm

(Video is loud but sound is unnecessary)
In Human Contact, the Academics have these subtle and powerful materials that they use for all sorts of stuff — materials that change volume, texture, or color, for instance.
I’m not really making that stuff up. I’m just extrapolating.

By joshua | Also posted in Human Contact, art | Comments (0)

Contrition

March 31, 2010 – 11:22 am

If you’ve ordered Shock: in the last month or so, you’re probably wondering where the hell your copy is. The answer is, something went wrong in inventory and 17 copies of Shock: unwrote themselves from history. This is likely related in part to the mysterious “sideways printing” matter, but that can’t account for all of [...]

By joshua | Also posted in publishing | Comments (0)