Magic the Gathering: You Are What You Eat

Posted by Rampant Coyote on July 10, 2018

My eldest daughter, Rowan, is competing in Magic: The Gathering tournaments with her husband. Just local, low-key tournaments, mind you, but still… I feel like the geek gene has been passed down. My wife and I were playing MTG when it was the brand-new geek obsession. We had black-border alpha cards. We have cards from […]

Filed Under: Geek Life, Retro - Comments: 2 Comments to Read

BattleTech Arrives for PCs

Posted by Rampant Coyote on April 24, 2018

When I was a kid back in the 1980s, on any given Saturday I could hit my friendly local gaming store — the kind with an area where players could run miniatures battles or run D&D games — and I would inevitably see half the tables dominated by BattleTech games. I was fascinated, but I […]

Filed Under: Game Announcements, Geek Life - Comments: 3 Comments to Read

Lessons I Learned from the Mouse This Week…

Posted by Rampant Coyote on April 6, 2018

I just got back from a family trip to Happy Mouse City in Florida. Here are some things I learned from the Mouse (although I don’t think he deliberately meant to teach me many of these): There are two kinds of people who stand in line. There are the kinds that keep the gaps small […]

Filed Under: Geek Life - Comments: Comments are off for this article

The SpaceX Falcon Heavy Launch

Posted by Rampant Coyote on February 7, 2018

Apparently, I’m just as much a sucker for awesome PR stunts as anybody else. I wasn’t paying too much attention beforehand to the Falcon Heavy launch by SpaceX. But I caught the tail end of the launch itself, and… wow. Just wow. The Apollo-era launch pad. “Don’t Panic.” David Bowie. A sports car in orbit… […]

Filed Under: Geek Life - Comments: 3 Comments to Read

Recovery: Continued

Posted by Rampant Coyote on January 17, 2018

I’m somewhat amused by how I’ve gone from thinking “Hey, I’m feeling much better than I expected a day after surgery” to, “Hey, it’s been almost two weeks since the surgery! Why am I not fully recovered yet?” It’s annoying because while it was not that major of a surgery (these days…), it’s kind of […]

Filed Under: Books, Geek Life - Comments: 2 Comments to Read

Goodbye 2017, and Happy New Year!

Posted by Rampant Coyote on January 1, 2018

Last night we said goodbye to 2017 by watching the Rifftrax of Sharknado (which was hysterical), and playing the Pathfinder: Rise of the Runelords boardgame. We won about 8 minutes before midnight on the second-to-last turn before we would have lost. So… yay! Online, people are talking about how horrible 2017 was. For me… there […]

Filed Under: Geek Life - Comments: Comments are off for this article

Well, we’re doomed… VR-based advertising proves tremendously effective

Posted by Rampant Coyote on December 13, 2017

Unsurprisingly, emotional response to VR-based advertising was tremendously more powerful than other media. And of course, Unity sees this as a positive because they are an easy tool for creating Virtual Reality-based advertising. As Agatha Bochenek, the writer of this article at the Unity Blog, puts it, “I think of VR ads kind of like […]

Filed Under: Geek Life, Virtual Reality - Comments: Comments are off for this article

Virtual Unreality

Posted by Rampant Coyote on November 16, 2017

It’s 1:15 in the morning. We’ve been at this for over 16 hours straight. Less than five hours before all this equipment has to get packed up to get loaded on the 9 AM truck bound for the conference center for the trade show. Each of us is praying that this time we won’t find […]

Filed Under: Geek Life, Virtual Reality - Comments: Comments are off for this article

Keeping my head above water, Fall 2017 edition

Posted by Rampant Coyote on November 14, 2017

A trade show *AND* a customer deadline on the immediate horizon, and we’re behind schedule on both. NaNoWriMo Technology needing immediate repairs Doctor’s Appointments It’s been a week. It’s going to continue to be a week. My apologies. Wish I could talk more. I will, at some point. Maybe Thursday or Friday. Y’all be good […]

Filed Under: Geek Life - Comments: Read the First Comment

Quick Take: Extinct

Posted by Rampant Coyote on October 27, 2017

My family has thoroughly enjoyed Extinct, a streaming TV show available from BYUTV.org (the makers of Studio C, Granite Flats, etc.) or at Extinct.tv. It’s a post-apocalyptic science fiction show with a really unusual premise. The human race has been wiped out by an alien invasion. But a portion of the population, at the last […]

Filed Under: Geek Life, Impressions - Comments: Comments are off for this article

Watch the Giant Robot Duel

Posted by Rampant Coyote on October 18, 2017

My wife laughed at me as I giggled and geeked out over this thing. What can I say? I’ve been a fan of mecha fighting games and anime for a long time. Seeing one for real… even knowing full well the limitations of reality… was awesome. If you missed it, you can catch the long-awaited battle […]

Filed Under: Geek Life - Comments: Read the First Comment

The Real-Life Giant Mecha Battle… TONIGHT

Posted by Rampant Coyote on October 17, 2017

The duel between the two piloted giant robot companies was more than a year overdue. But finally, in an abandoned steel mill in Japan, the battle was joined. Unfortunately, citing safety concerns, they couldn’t do it in front of a large, live audience. When mechas are shooting projectiles capable of doing damage to several tons […]

Filed Under: Events, Geek Life - Comments: Comments are off for this article

Salt Lake Comic Con 2017 – Thoughts

Posted by Rampant Coyote on September 26, 2017

Another year’s Salt Lake Comic Con came to a close, and I still haven’t become rich and famous and become a special invited guest. Go figure! 🙂 But I did manage to have a pretty good time. My legs will forgive me eventually. Our booth was a little crowded with authors, and we still haven’t quite […]

Filed Under: Events, Geek Life - Comments: Read the First Comment

Easing Back into the Game

Posted by Rampant Coyote on September 11, 2017

The last year has been a little bit … nuts. Some of it was nuts in a good way.  The day job, however, took its toll. I’m no stranger to crunch, or (sadly) extended crunch. It came with the territory as a full-time game developer, and pretty much every programming job I’ve ever worked has […]

Filed Under: Game Development, Geek Life, Rampant Games, Writing - Comments: 3 Comments to Read

Wanted: Professional Gamers. $50k Minimum Salary, Plus Bonuses, Health & Retirement Benefits…

Posted by Rampant Coyote on July 28, 2017

The Far Side cartoon from the 1980s was intended as a joke. It started coming true only a decade later, as professional “E-Sports” and competitive network gaming started taking hold. While “professional gamer” isn’t necessarily a growing career field (neither is “game developer” these days, it seems…), it has definitely taken an interesting turn right […]

Filed Under: Biz, Geek Life - Comments: 3 Comments to Read

The Inherent Superiority of Text-Based Walkthroughs

Posted by Rampant Coyote on July 6, 2017

I’m stuck in a game. Let’s say it’s an RPG. A big ol’ 50 hour RPG. I’m stuck because I don’t know what I need to do to activate a major quest about halfway through. Drat. In the old days, what would I do? I’d find a text walkthrough. I’d do a search. I find […]

Filed Under: Geek Life - Comments: 5 Comments to Read



« previous top