I’ve been here a month but am just now getting around to updating my site.
On May 7th 2018, I started my new gig as Creative Director at Funcom, Inc, makers of the exceptional supernatural horror MMO Secret World Legends and the new brutal survival game Conan Exiles set in the world of Robert E. Howard’s renowned barbarian.
I’m super excited for this change—it’s been great already—and I can’t wait to share what we’re working on.
Y’know, as much as it hurt at the time, maybe that failed Kickstarter was a blessing as my life has gotten very busy.
I wanted everybody to know that today starts my final week with the wonderfully mad, creative folks at Deep Silver Volition. I am sad to leave them but it is time. After Friday, I hit the road and arrive in my new home on Sunday—and start a brand-new awesome gig that Monday!
I’m also hitting the last four months until my BIG NON-FICTION BOOK DEADLINE. I hope folks dig it. It’s not a topic I get to geek out about often so I’m excited to share it.
I’ll follow up with details once I can but I’m stoked for this new chapter (and new book!) and can’t wait to share them with you.
Wow. This is a huge one for me.
I’ve worked in video games for over a decade and on multiple projects (some of which even shipped!) but I’ve never put so much heart, soul, sweat, and tears into a game as I have into Agents of Mayhem.
Four years of my life. I can’t properly convey just how much of myself is in this game, how much making it pushed me to my limits, put me in the fire with some of the best and brightest people I’ve ever known.
Today is an incredibly emotional day. Every game release is a minor miracle. And I have no idea how Agents of Mayhem will sell or how it will review. But I know what the team at Volition faced and overcame to put this latest game together and out the door and I am so proud to be among them.
To all those who contributed, in house and through outsourcing: We made a good game. It’s fun and funny and personal and hits the tones we were aiming for. Be proud. Be happy. This thing of ours? It’s really really good stuff.
Thank you. And congratulations.
So it’s been a year, huh?
Man, what craziness the past twelve months have brought.
I won’t be getting too much into it right now but I’m facing down a full left hip replacement next Thursday and about a month of recovery so my blogging time should shoot right up!
Until then, please enjoy these videos for Agents of Mayhem, out for PC, PS4, and Xbox One on August 15th (NA) and August 18th (EU).
For more videos, check out the official Deep Silver Volition YouTube Channel and the official Agents of Mayhem website.
I am super-stoked to announce that I will be heading to Los Angeles on Monday to spend the week at E3!
This will be my first time at the show and I am honored to be there representing Agents of Mayhem.
If you’re in the LA area next week—especially if you’re at the show—hit me up via email!
More Agents of Mayhem news!
I had the pleasure of sitting down with IGN’s Vince Ingenito to discuss the story behind the recently released AOM announce trailer! Check it out:
I am so incredibly excited and relieved to finally be able to talk about what I’ve been doing at work!
For those who have been wondering, I am Lead Writer on Deep Silver Volition‘s upcoming Agents of Mayhem! Check out IGN.com for the announcement—and watch the trailer below!
I recently sat down to play through the very first game I ever worked on, Prey, here at my current job at Deep Silver Volition. Check out my wonderful first-person skills in the below video.
Also, I wrote the manual.
I’m a (local) TV star! My coworker Lorcan Murphy and I sat down with local news show Current to discuss having fun at the workplace, which is something we at Volition know quite a bit about.
Another year has ended (and I’ll write about that soon) and another one has started. All comments about arbitrary date changes aside, the beginning of a new year is as good a time as any other for reflection and declaration.
I’m not one for resolutions—no slight against them—but I am one for goals and dreams. It’s no secret that I love my day job. Writing video games is amazing and Volition is an aces place to work. I love coming into the office every day so much that I’ve become horrible at taking breaks from it. But, as do most creatives, I have ambitions beyond a single outlet. I want to create all the things—and I continue to strive to do so.
Over on Twitter, I posted the following:
Goals for 2015: Sell a novel, write a comic, continue to be a better husband, father, and friend.
— Jason L Blair (@jasonlblair) January 2, 2015
Then, a little later, I added this:
Pie-in-the-Sky Dreams for 2015: Turn @LittleFears and/or @StreetsofBedlam into a TV series.
— Jason L Blair (@jasonlblair) January 2, 2015
Now, for the top tweet, those aren’t all crazy ideas. I’ve finished three novels in my life so far and though none have connected enough to move forward to publication, I’ve learned something with each. I am currently working with an artist on doing our own comic series and we’ll see what grows from that. And I endeavor every day to be a better human being in all relations, especially my familial ones.
But that second tweet, well, that’s a bit harder.
Some folks think because I write for a living (in video games no less!) that I have some sort of power and pull when it comes to getting Big Ideas made. Maybe, inside the confines of a Volition meeting room, there’s some truth to that (though video games are all about collaboration and any “win” I have is balanced by the wins of other people) but not-so in the bigger world.
Truth is, hardly anybody knows who I am. This isn’t a cry for pity or validation; it’s simple fact. My co-workers do, for the most part, and both my tabletop and digital games have fans (who are amazing!) but on the big creative scale, where the movers and shakers do their moving and shaking, I’m just another guy with ambition. Sure, maybe some credits too, but not so many big ones that they have to take notice.
I’m trying for that by making the things I can make and meeting the people I can meet but I’m not there yet. I’m not someone who enters a room and draws attention (outside of usually being the tallest person in the room). So, I’m just another anonymous person emailing a plea for connection and fives minutes of their time. When one of my emails hits an inbox, it’s shoved into the same Will-Get-To-Later-Maybe-Or-Maybe-Not pile as the emails of anyone else who doesn’t have some real clout behind their name.
And it doesn’t help that, frankly, the creative fields are tight, crowded areas. There are SO MANY people vying for the same thing that those who swim in the big pond can’t spend their time combing through all those emails looking for brilliance without a good reason. That good reason being name recognition or a referral from a friend or something that shines a light. I can only imagine being in the position the heads of studios are in when it comes to sorting through the in-flood of Folks Who Want Work.
I followed up the above tweets with the following two:
Still holding on to the dream of writing for @archiecomics (Josie reboot!) and @Marvel (Cloak and Dagger!). #dreams #comics #writing
— Jason L Blair (@jasonlblair) January 2, 2015
Please also add Zatanna to the list of comics I want to write, alongside Josie + the Pussycats and Cloak and Dagger. Thanks.
— Jason L Blair (@jasonlblair) January 2, 2015
I wrote a comic, oh, about eight years ago (as I’ve talked about before) and I would love to get back in the field. And I’m doing that small comics project I mentioned earlier but there are some really cool established characters I’d love to take a crack at. I spent a good month putting together ideas for a Josie + the Pussycats reboot that I’d love to work on. Same for Cloak and Dagger. Zatanna’s one of my favorite characters of all time and telling one of her tales would be oh-woah-amazing. I would give blood to work on any of these titles. (And Power Pack too, as my friend Doug Snook reminded me.)
But so would a lot of people. Including folks working in comics right now. So, it’s a long shot. A really long shot. A Hail Mary pass into gale force winds. But it’s a goal. And it’s a dream. And I’m a big believer in having goals and working toward dreams. Once upon a time, working in video games was a long shot for me too.
I see myself as a creative who lives somewhere in the middle of this whole artsy mess. I write for a living but, I hope, I’m not at the top of my potential just yet. I’m just a writer trying to make it. I have my ups and downs, my successes and setbacks, but, mostly, I’m a guy with ambition. A guy who’s trying to do more and be more.
Maybe 2015 will give life to some of these dreams. Time will tell. But I’ll still be here working, no matter what the Fates have in store.
