Tuesday, October 15, 2013

Back into the AvP Universe/Cutter's Wars


Got an email from a guy who is ramping up a board game in Europe in the Aliens/Predator universe. He has gotten the rights from Fox, and would I be interested in writing a short story of 5000 words or so that would essentially open/introduce the game's rulebook?

Basically, the piece is backstory. When it ends, the game begins.

Sure. Why not? Been a while since I played there, but a short story, and he already had the plot and characters? Piece of cake.

I asked for a good, but not an outrageous word rate; he agreed to it, and I sat down and cranked. Lotta xenomorph acidic gore, facehuggers, and full-auto rock and roll ...

Took a couple days, and he only change they wanted was to dial the R-rated language down to PG-13. Took a global search and five minutes to fix that.

They still have to get it approved by Fox, but I wouldn't think that would be a problem.

I'll let you know if they get the game up and running, appropriate links and all like that.



2nd book in the series, due out December 24th, 2-12

And on the book front, the third and final Cutter's Wars novel is turned in and has found favor with my editor. Well, except for the title, and she was right about that, it needed to be changed.

When I outlined the series originally, I used The Dixie Conflict as the working title, since I wanted to have it take place on Earth and in the American South. As I went along, the setting became mostly Texas, around San Antonio, and while that is technically the South, the term "Dixie" didn't feel quite right. Anything below the Mason-Dixon line is legal, but somehow Texas and Florida don't resonate like Virginia-Georgia-Alabama-Mississippi-Louisiana. Ginjer suggested that we wanted something with more of a Tex-Mex flavor, and so that's what we are kicking around. So we will use "Tejano," in the title instead of "Dixie," i.e., The Tejano Conflict. 

Back to work on one of the several spec project I have going ...

8 comments:

jnabrown said...

Wonderful news!
I really enjoyed the first Cutter novel and I'm looking forward to the new ones!

Chester said...

I love the Christmas eve release date.. Provides my daughter a great gift for me that she knows I will enjoy, and guarantees a happy holiday season! (or at least time that I spend reading it.)

Jim said...

Cutters War- Good. I enjoyed the first of the series, will buy the second as well.

Will the short story be available without purchasing the game?

And what would the spec projects be?

Steve Perry said...

Jim --

Books:

Stemwinder, an urban fantasy; Churl, a Matador novel.

Steve Perry said...

Dunno about the short story availability.

Jim said...

They both sound good....
I'll take them!

Todd Erven said...

Fun! My wife works in a board game shop that specializes in European games. I'll definitely keep my eyes open for it.

AnnieB said...

More Matador? HURRAY!