You can get my new novel, Za’nar: Impossibility, from my new website VoidSaga.com! Check out to video below to learn everything you need to know about the novel in 3 minutes, and then get it on Amazon, iTunes, Kobo, Barnes and Nobles or IN PAPERBACK from Heromart.com! I’m extremely excited to finally be sharing this story with you! With that said, Projection On Paper isn’t going anywhere. Though I’ve been busy and updates here have slowed, I’d like to ensure that content continues to be posted here, including poems, short stories, blog posts and more. In the future, VoidSaga.com will serve as the hub for all of my novels, and also have a blog/news feed there. Projection On Paper will continue to be a part of who I am as a writer, and serve as the same mix of creative writing, photography and random thoughts that it’s always been.

If you’ve been a fan of the things I’ve shared here in the past or present (or of me on King of the Nerds, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube or Twitch!), I’d like to thank you. This isn’t the end of Projection On Paper (and to prove it, I just posted a new poem), but having this space to share things with the world was a major confidence booster for me, as was the relative popularity of the site from it’s very inception. Even it it’s earliest days, I recorded ~100 different people a day who stayed on the site and clicked around and into posts. Today, those numbers are much higher. Thank you so much for your support.

Despite my passion for and connections with Artix Entertainment (I’ve been a character in two of their MMO games now!) I’ll try to be as unbiased as possible–although I have to say that Battle Gems on the Apple App Market and Google Play Store is one of the best puzzle games that’s been made in a long time. I’m going to take things category by category and break this thing down! If you don’t know what Battle Gems is at all, I’m about to tell you, but here’s a link to their official website. You can download it for free on the Android Store or Apple App Market right now. The game uses an “energy” structure to limit battles per a time limit, with a $10 one time upgrade available for unlimited energy.

Gameplay (10/10):
The basic gameplay is similar to other Match 3 styled things you may have seen, with the core distinction that this one has considerably more depth. The first thing to note is that while this is classified as a puzzle game, it ends up as more of a turned-based game than anything else. On your turn, you draw a line through as few as three matching gems to have your hero launch a spell, use potions to fight or aid themselves, attack with their weapon or tell their pet to fight for them. After your move, your opponent immediately retaliates, and the game continues with it your turn once more. Enemies will not attack until you do. This is a good thing. While I’m the type who loves a game that challenges me to move extremely quickly, I don’t mind one where things can slow down and allow thought to be involved.

Swipe-to-Slay

When you clear blocks, they disappear and everything drops down a level, with new blocks spawning from above. You won’t know what those new blocks are, but there’s still room for planning ahead or setting up better combos with what you can see. It’s also a great strategy to save blocks of potions to restore your health when it gets low.

However, combat brings with it a certain level of randomness. You’ll learn many special skills and abilities as you play, but you have relatively limited control over what you’ll actually use when you line up blocks. It’ll come from the category of blocks broken of course (Pet, Potion, Magic and Attack) but will pick a skill at relative random. Certain abilities, such as those that restore health, will always be prioritized when your health is low–but it’s trickier to do things like, say, start off by applying a poison damage over time effect, find that your enemy is hitting too strong and reduce it’s attack, then buff your own attack and go in for the kill. I think one thing the game would benefit from would be if you could choose to disable certain skills and spells from being used in combat. Continue reading →

A Projection On Paper Short Story / Shakespeare Adaptation

The CEO of King Enterprises, Henry, had been discussing the ongoing crisis all day from his office. There was a knock at the door. “Gentlemen, if you will, wait outside for a moment,” Henry said. “I need to have a private conversation with our would-be air.” The men shuffled out, and Hal entered. Henry waited to speak again until the door closed and his employees were out of earshot.  “Sit down, Hal.” Hal sat. “I swear, I don’t know what sin I committed to deserve you, but clearly God means to punish me with the course of your life. You chase after gluttonous pleasure and are lewd and do such despicable things with those friends of yours. They’re thieves and thugs and now they are calling themselves equals with someone born of upper-class like you?”

Hal shrugged. “Well, I admit I’ve done some of the things you say in the past, but not all of that or now. Every great man gets into the National Inquirer. Look, if I can convince you that I’m not guilty of the things people are gossiping about me then at least forgive me for the things I did do in the past.”

“God’s the one you should be asking for forgiveness. You act nothing like your ancestors. Your behavior cost you your job here and I had to give it to your brother! In the eyes of the other employees here you’ve become a laughing stock. There was hope for you—a lot of hope, the promise that you showed with your business know-how could do a lot for you—but now it’s past and all anyone can see is your downfall. Just look at me. If I’d been so public and hung out with the common folk like you the news media would have stayed on Richard’s side. I’d never have gotten the company from him. Instead, when I did give an interview or appear in public, people wanted to hear about it and see me. I stayed just loud enough to be heard, and soon I had the spotlight without any bad press. But Richard, he sought out the same kinds of crowds that you’re spending time with now–the lower class. So he became so common place that it was like seeing the sun rise or a cuckoo in June. He was heard but no one listened. He lost his status by affiliating with them. And that’s what is going to happen to you, Hal, unless you clean up your act.”

His father’s lecture resonated with him. “I promise I’ll start behaving more like myself.”

“There is, of course, the reason I called you here. Percy’s new business chain could drive us into the red so he can buy us out.” Henry shook his head. “Honestly, I feel like he deserves this business more than you do. Just look at him. He’s managed to build a bit of an empire and employ countless men. He’s no older than you, and he already has so many people under his command. He doesn’t even have the benefit of your class. But why am I praising him? Hal, I swear, I’d half expect you to let him buy us out if you had any power here just to prove what a thug you are.”

“I’d do nothing of the sort. Look, I’ll beat him out for you. And when I do, you’ll be able to be proud of me. It’ll be the day when we buy him out with my command over the company. You know I have the skills to do it. He’ll have to fork over every last cent that he owns. And if God allows me to do all this then I hope my debts are repaid to you for my bad behavior.”

Henry scratched his chin. “A hundred thousand employees will be laid off by the time you’re done with them, I know this. I’ll give you significant control over the business. I trust your judgment to get us back in the black and take Percy down.”

Continue reading →