2024 is here

 

If you've been a reader of this blog in the past, you'll be aware that I've regularly got a few backburner projects. Over the years, these projects have included cartography, mutiple games, illustration series, physically creative endeavours. 

In the time since I started this blog, I've moved house several times...

• Riverwood (Start of blog ➡ October 2010)
• Buxton (October 2010 ➡ January 2019)
• Barham (January 2019 ➡ April 2019)
• Barham (April 2019 ➡ January 2019)
• Coleambally (January 2020 ➡ December 2020)
• Oxley Vale (December 2020 ➡ May 2021)
• West Tamworth (May 2021 ➡ July 2022)
• East Tamworth (July 2022 ➡ August 2023)
• South Tamworth (August 2023 ➡ Current)

The last move should the be last one for a while, if not the last one altogether, since my wife and I have bought the house we've moved into.

During this time I've worked a number of jobs and studied at various levels...

• Padstow TAFE College [Certificate 4 in Web Design] (Start of blog ➡ October 2010)
• [Shopfitter and Interior Designer] (April 2011 ➡ May 2011)
• Dan Murphy's [Spirit Champion] (November 2011 ➡ June 2016)
• Campbelltown TAFE College [Certificate 4 in Fine Arts] (February 2012 ➡ December 2012)
• University of Western Sydney [Bachelor of Arts (Social and Cultural Analysis/Linguistics/Indigenous Studies)] (January 2013 ➡ December 2015)
• University of Western Sydney [Master of Teaching (Visual Arts and Industrial Arts)] (January 2016 ➡ June 2018)
• Campbelltown TAFE College [Certificate 4 in Photography] (July 2018 ➡ December 2018)
• Barham High School [Woodwork/Metalwork Teaching and assorted casual coverage where needed] (January 2019 ➡ December 2019)
• Coleambally Central School [Generalist Teaching, including Visual Arts, Music and Science] (January 2020 ➡ December 2020)
• Peel High School [Industrial Arts Teaching, and a scattered range of other classes] (January 2021 ➡ Current)

Things seem to have settled at Peel High School, and I'm in no hurry to leave at the moment. 

In Septemer 2010, I launced the Vulpinoid Studios online store at RPGNow, which is now DriveThruRPG (Here's a link to the store). In this time I've earned a few thousand dollars, which has helped to pay for sustaining my hobby of RPG design. A couple of games have done reasonably well in this time, a many more have been flashes in the pan, or have just faded into obscurity. Some of the more notable titles from my back catalogue include...
 

• Games for Goblins [Released September 2010 - 1290 downloads, mostly free]
• FUBAR [Released June 2010 - 3000+ downloads, mostly free, but the supplements have made almost $500]
• The Law [Released August 2017 - , made just over $300 between it and it's supplements]
• Spider's Dance [Released March 2011 - almost 600 downloads, earning $160]
• A couple of fonts [Released at various times, earning about $700 between them]
• Shattered Heroes is curretly unavailable, but in the few week when it was available it had about 40 downloads and made just over $400. It was the closest I got to a popular seller, but had to be withdrawn from sale for reasons I will hopefully be allowed be discuss in a later post. 

I've got plently of products on the site, many of which have earned between $5 and $50, but I havent been doing it for the money. Otherwise I wouldn't have spent the last 10 years training to become a teacher.

I've published Tarot Decks and boardgames during this time too. Few of these have gained much traction, but the Goblin Tarot did make a few thousand dollars when I crowdfunded it's limited run.

I've also run a number of live-action roleplaying games during this time, and in the last couple of years have started a high school gaming club that seems to be going fairly succesfully.

 

One of last year's intended projects was a podcast, explaining the concepts of gaming and how to run good games based on years of experience and various games I've been a part of (whether succesful or otherwise). That leads back to the image at the head of the post.

I've got two episodes of the podcast ready to go, and I'm really hoping to get a few more underway before school heads back at the start of February. I've also got a few more game ideas almost ready to be published, but the details regarding the withdrawal of "Shattered Heroes" are basically keeping that on hold as well.

Not entirely sure what this year will hold, or what kind of posts I'll run a series on... but I'll try to get regular posts happening again.