From: Ground Zero Games <jon@g...>
Date: Wed, 25 Oct 2000 23:28:49 +0100
Subject: [OFFICIAL] Re: Whats Next
Hi all, Sorry for the slightly misleading header on this post - I'm not actually telling you what's next, or when, because as we all know promising a release date on anything in this industry is a sure-fire way of ensuring that it'll be delayed at least another six months..... ;-) What I DO want to do is take this opportunity to have a chat with you all, update you on what's been going on and let you know the state of play on various things. 2000 has not been the easiest or most productive year (cue violins.... <grin>) - since last November I've been running the whole of GZG single-handed again, as Dave (who had been working for me as a caster since '97) had to go and find a "proper" (ie: better-paid) job outside the industry, for various reasons including getting married, moving house etc.! Many of you will know that apart from the two years or so that Dave was involved, GZG has ALWAYS been a one-man outfit (me) - those of you who've seen the tradestand at shows in the UK may or may not realise that most of the 'staff' there are friends and volunteer helpers for the weekend rather than actual GZG employees. Now, back in '97 and earlier the company was still small enough that I could just about do it all single-handed, but now it isn't, and in order to keep things going through 2000 I've been having to concentrate on the day-to-day stuff, casting, mouldmaking, packing orders etc, leaving very little time for the creative side of rule writing, making new ships etc. That we've still managed to have a steady stream of new releases throughout the year is down to the fact that most of them have been figures, which I have sculpted by outside freelancers, rather than the starships, vehicles etc. which I do myself (when I get the time!). Now, the reason for telling you all this is partly to explain why there has been very little this year in the way of new FT stuff or resins (or books for that matter, though I did manage to get FB2 out against all the odds!), and also why the mail-order turnround has at times been slower and a bit more erratic than I'm happy with, but also as a lead-in to telling you that as of next Monday things should start to change for the better! I've finally found a suitable new member of staff - Paul Lewis is joining GZG as a full-time employee as of next week, making it back to a two-man business again! Paul is a long-time games enthusiast and rabid collector of all things game/SF related (I think his attic will develop its own event horizon soon....he has more Micromachine ST bugs stashed away up there than I want to think about (and no, he WON'T sell any of them)), and has spent the last sixteen years managing a bookshop in Ipswich, so he knows the retail trade well. He's been helping me out at the shows for most of this year, so many of the UK listers will probably know him by sight anyway, and he already knows his way around the stock and product range pretty well so the "induction period" should be fairly short. It'll naturally take a little while for Paul to get up to speed on everything and for his presence to be felt in all areas of operations, though in some things ther'll be an almost immediate improvement - the first thing we want to work on is improving the mailorder turnround time drastically, and it will also mean that there will be someone at the workshop manning the phone during normal weekday hours again, so it will be much easier for you to get through to place phone orders. Eventually, the intention is that Paul will be looking after a lot of the day-to-day running of production, packing and despatch, which should at last free up some of my time again to get back to designing and writing - I won't promise a flood of books in 2001, but there should at least be something to keep both the ground-pounders and the vacc-heads happy..... ;-) I can also get back to building starships at long last, so look forward to some fill-ins for the Islamic fleet along with a whole lot of all-new stuff! Who knows, I might even have a few spare hours to think about some 15mm vehicles...... <tempt, tempt...> On the rules front, as I explained there hasn't been a whole lot happening snce FB2, but there IS a bit of tinkering going on behind the scenes which I hope will accelerate very soon, I'll let you know more about that in due course.... A number of people (especially those who contributed stuff for it!) have naturally been asking about the scenario book that was planned for the end of last year; well, it HASN'T been canned, but the time I had planned to work on it with Alex (lined up as editor) pretty much co-incided with Dave leaving, and as a result it got shoved on a back burner until such time as I had the chance to deal with it - rest assured it WILL happen, as will all the other promised releases - FMA, BDS, FB3, FT3, DS3 etc etc - but at the moment I have no firm plans as to what order they'll be tackled in. I've been reading the recent list posts about this with interest, and I will say that (at least in intention, and without predjudice!) FMA is probably quite near the top of the list for what gets pulled out of the hat first...... Well, that's about it - thanks to you all for reading this ramble (if you've got this far.... <grin>), and thanks for all the support and input - it's the sales that keep us going financially, but it's often this list that keeps the enthusiasm and ideas alive! Here's to a good 2001 (the REAL new millennium) for all of us.....