I had an experience today at the grocery store (taking a break waiting on the final bugs clining to the Lazarus code base to get squashed and flicked off — download got delayed, but it’s ready now, go get it) in some contract with that of a colleague.

I was out of beer, so I picked up a six-pack of Fat Tire, because I was feeling snooty and briefly possessed of money. The register clerk was a chatty older black lady whom I confided that I wanted to try freezing the cheap store-brand yogurt cups to see if they made decent frozen yogurt desserts. Maybe it was that, or because she was hurried, or that I decided to buy a more expensive brand, that she waved all my stuff through and didn’t card me.

Maybe it’s that I have acne and wear goofy kid clothes. Maybe it’s that I’m turning 30 next Thursday and am still in denial about it. But I thought it odd.

Oh well. At least no one made me fee like a criminal. And Lazarus is finally ready, this time for real.

Intarwub release imminent. Click above so you know what to F5.

Poof.

IGDA Writers Quarterly, GDC edition, PDF format, laid out by me. Hundreds of out-of-work game developers and wannabes could well have picked it up with a load of other handouts and dumped it in a corner at home, and considerably fewer could have been short on rolling papers and found it especially useful.

My first work in letter-sized paper.

Raph Koster’s contract ran out at SOE, and he said goodbye. He’s apparently coming back to Austin to start a new studio (and who isn’t?) Rumors still circulate that the new Bioware studio in Austin is going to acquire the Star Wars Galaxies license. (God, I hope not, even though all signs suggest it will happen.)

John Smedley is thinking his time is best spent on damage control, though he continues to have a fairly retarded idea about what that means. No, you can’t just say “no” 30 different ways and expect people to respond well to it.

I had a great two days off. My parents came to visit and left me lots of cookies, then took me to Austin and paid for everything. We don’t get to do this very often, and besides spring break, my birthday’s in two weeks. Sigh. Went to Antone’s and saw two performers I’d never heard of before: Hayes Carll and Pamela Ryder. The former was recording a live album; the latter hadn’t played before.

And as much as I still want to move to Austin and get a job there, I’m being tapped for a promotion at the newspaper and might be there a while longer. More sigh. But things could definitely be worse for a lot of people. Including myself.

Lazarus 1.20 final is on track for next weekend release. Stay tuned.

So says Tibby. Bugs fixed, quests enabled, combat mechanics tweaked, DS difficulty slider integrated and functional. Tester feedback on interim versions has been positive, and it should be ready by the end of the month now.

For CGW subscribers, check out the Letters page for the upcoming (April #261) issue. A reader complains that he doesn’t like “Diablo-style gameplay” in his RPGs and wonders “Will BioWare save us?” The editor agrees with the sentiment, and plugs Lazarus, with Web address and all. “That ought to keep you happy for a while.” Nice.

The latest Tilting at Windmills column by comics retailer Brian Hibbs is fairly instructive, if a bit simplistic, on the subject of product promotion and marketing. It’s about comic books, and while the distribution methods are roughly opposite from that of video games (one or two big publishers and one monopolistic distributor and almost nothing but independent retail, versus many monied publishers and distribution channels and an increasingly smaller llist of retail chains with few willing to put up with the overhead of running an indie video game shop anymore,) but I’d encourage the read anyway. A lot of the stuff Hibbs criticizes comic book makers and publishers for not doing, game makers aren’t doing either. And they should, because their titles would sell better.

There’s also the reports by Evan Van Zelfden of recent Austin events I didn’t attend, all related to the SXSW spinoff ScreenBurn. His Harvey Smith egofest is here, and the sweaty-looking co-ed panel talking about sexual content in video games (photos included) is here.

Also, it seems that yet another studio in Austin has a big-name publisher backing them. Vigil Games is now ownzored by THQ, according to the release. I guess I shouldn’t be critical given how Austin’s only just seems to be coming out of its downturn in big-deal studio action (and especially after flying off the handle last night when I read the news and immediately assuming it was a hoax,) but it bothers me. I’ll try not to let it.

My Gama debut, hopefully the start of some good things. I was limited by words, so people who were there no doubt recall some things that were said that aren’t covered here, but I think I did my job well enough.

And Gordon Walton and Rich Vogel are going to be in charge, and they’re making a MMO, says Gamasutra. This had been rumored for months, almost for the whole time since Vogel left SOE Austin. Call it a combination of “wouldn’t it be cool if” and semi-informed nattering about the Austin game scene.

That’s about as good an arrangement as I could imagine, but my imagination’s pretty limited.

Some Italians ought to check the latest issue of Italian magazine Giochi Computer. Tiberius posted details. Five out of five stars, and the 1.1 version (current, but buggy and awkward considering how close the 1.2 version is to release, but if it’s really that good, I guess people ought to have it) is on the DVD that came with the issue. I’m guessing Dungeon Siege isn’t included.

So European media continues to eat this up, and I obviously need to get busy working the old Lazarus graphic and link (among all my other links,) into this site. When I have time …