Update Time Again 08/02/2006

[PGoodman13]

Not much news to report, since the small staff left at Decipher are busy getting ready for GenCon at the moment. Since I'm not going, I thought I'd share what news I have.

The PG Enterprise Update is done, save for a little bit of tweaking on the intro (which I'll get done tonight). It'll go out to the development team after the tweaking gets done, and then it'll be submitted for layout and approval. No clues on when that will be accomplished.

I've also been working on the (much smaller, so far) Narrator's Guide Enterprise Update, though no one's seen it yet. I had all the material set out, so it seemed like a good idea at the time. I won't be finishing it or showing it to the team until after I do the NG errata. I'd like to do that concurrently with editing the PDF of the NG, so I'm at Decipher's mercy on that piece of scheduling. More news as I get it.

I've got a raft-load of questions and ideas sitting in email boxes at the other end, but until I get those answered I won't have any real news for you. As always, though, once I get answers I'll pass them on.

[7 of 11]

Awesome! Look forward to any juicy info you have to share! Kudoes!

[D.S.McBride]

A question that does come to mind is the comment regarding "the small staff left at Decipher". If I remember correctly, this time last year Decipher was going through a serious meltdown that Warren Holland - predictably enough - was denying left, right and center ("The Titanic is not sinking! I swear! Someone just had a few too many and they think the deck's tilting! That's all! Get to the lifeboats, just as a precaution, though...").

Did the staff get laid off in record numbers, or is this merely a consequence of summer vacation time? I wouldn't want to make predictions one way or the other, but if they've got only a skeleton crew left on board as a result of financial insolvency, that could have serious repercussions for the release of the half-dozen works remaining in the queue. On the one hand, they could have so few people left that they can't even take the time to send it to Drive-Thru, let alone get the layout and artwork done; on the other, it could be an incentive to clear out the hard-drives for whatever profit that can be had before the machines are sold to Radio Shack...

[PGoodman13]

I'm not of the opinion that they had an overly large staff to begin with, though it was certainly larger than some game companies out there. Some (like Kieran Yanner) left to pursue freelance opportunities, but I have not heard of any layoffs or anything like that. I just believe that the staff was never too very large to begin with.

Basically, I don't know anything. My stating it in such a fashion was supposition on my part to begin with, based on what I believe their staffing levels were. Since I don't actually know what those levels were, I could be wrong. In any event, with Gen Con being next week, everybody there is working on getting ready for the con (I believe; I haven't heard any reports of Decipher not attending Gen Con this year). Last I heard, they were working on getting cards sorted and ready to get out the door for one of the new sets.

[The Tatterdemalion King]

It's not surprising that their focusing on their card division, given their returns there.

Would it help any if I offered my services?

[D.S.McBride]

Patrick: Thank you for the clarification. Regardless of what current staffing levels might be, the only concern I (and a number of others, I would expect) have is whether there's going to be any movement from Decipher regarding the remaining works.

Once again, thank you for continuing to raise the flag for us here. Hoping that we can see something positive coming out of the GenCon situation.

[PGoodman13]

Patrick: Thank you for the clarification. Regardless of what current staffing levels might be, the only concern I (and a number of others, I would expect) have is whether there's going to be any movement from Decipher regarding the remaining works.

Believe me, I share that concern. So far Scott's been straight with me about what's going on, and until such time as he's not I'll continue to deal with him. If you see a message from me that says, "I quit," then it's time to bail.

[PGoodman13]

Would it help any if I offered my services?

It might not hurt; PM me with your email and stuff and I'll put you in touch with the powers-that-be.