When I was a kid, my parents sent me and my sister away to sleep away camp for a few years, to a place in Westchester County New York called "Camp Hemlock." As a bookish, indoor kid with an overactive imagination, under-active coordination, and the kind of sardonic world-weariness only achievable by a thirteen-year-old, it was a challenging experience for me. The quote in the subtitle was one of many attempts to stave off nature with the power of irony and cynicism — not to mention Real Genius references.
Many decades later, its easy to look back on those summers--even their misery--with nostalgia. It's also easy to pilfer those memories for bits to put into new projects. Which his why I was ecstatic to be invited to help write the newest game from Hunt A Killer: Camp Calamity.
When the staff of Camp Ashburne find a counselor’s charred remains in the embers of last night’s bonfire, the authorities are quick to rule it as an unfortunate accident. But when another counselor discovers evidence that suggests otherwise, she needs your help to uncover the identity of the camp killer.
If you’ve never played a Hunt A Killer game, they are a ton of fun. You get a box in the mail with the evidence behind a murder, and a request for your help in solving it. You sift through the evidence, look for clues, solve puzzles, and uncover the culprit. Most of their games are episodic, with mysteries spanning several installments, and often you get a new box each month with more clues.
“Camp Calamity” is what they call a “premium” experience, which means you get the entire story in a single package. In this case, the package comes in the form of a box recovered from the victim, Bradley Brooks.
Inside you’ll find a bunch of evidence recovered from the camp that will introduce you to the other counselors, the camp owner, the legend of the evil spirit that may or may not be haunting the area, and some of the less-than-savory activities that went down over the summer session.
This game was so much fun to work on, and yes, I was able to incorporate a whole bunch of personal Easter eggs into the proceedings, like on this camp map with some “helpful” annotations from the campers.
If you want to see more, here’s a non-spoilery unboxing video.
Camp Calamity is on sale now. If you get yourself a copy, let me know how you like it.
Delta
We had a nice few of weeks of getting out and seeing friends and going to places all carefree and maskless. But then the Delta Variant said, "wait a moment" and now we're inching our way back into hunkering. Perhaps the secret to convincing more people to get vaxxed is empanadas:
Ted
It's Ted Lasso time again. The first season was a surprise hit that nobody expected, and so far the second season if holding up under all the increased expectations.
There's a moment from an episode of The West Wing: a flashback to when Bartlet is first running for President, and Josh comes to see him speak to a very small room. Nobody's really paying much attention and nobody expects much from this event. Josh is looking at a newspaper and only half-listening. And then Bartlet says something unexpected:
We recently did a rewatch of the season one of Ted Lasso, and I remembered how my first time watching it featured something similar. Like many, the logline did not immediately draw me in, but after so much good word of mouth I decided to give it a shot. The first few scenes of the pilot were cute, but nothing unexpected. I may have been looking at my phone. But then, this joke:
I looked up from my phone, and I leaned in.
Judging from the eleventy million Emmy nominations, I was not the only one.
Penny
There's been a ton of Lasso press lately, including this fun Variety piece Hannah Waddingham and Juno Temple that features a cameo from Todd Stashwick, which set me down a rabbit hole.
A million years ago, back when the internet was young and all creatives were required at some point to be involved with a parody of The Blair Witch Project, I helped to produce a short film called The Penny Marshall Project, in which three aging filmmakers––Penny Marshall, Francis Coppola, and Akira Kurosawa--go into the woods to rediscover their independent spirit.
The short was directed by the great comic book writer Greg Pak, and Todd played Coppola. We shot it in the woods behind by parents then-home in Nyack, New York.
Back in these days, I still had hair and it was pretty long. I also had a long black trench coat. So there's an outtake somewhere with the characters reacting to a scary noise somewhere in the woods and they turn to see me playing Kevin Smith, banging a stick against a tree, spotting the camera and running away. Probably a good thing it was cut out.
Mickey
TV writer/producer Mickey Fisher has a newsletter where he shares some of his process, and recently he talked about an idea that I'm totally going to steal and use myself -- using conventions from theatrical plays and musicals to clarify the stakes of the main character.
Mikey
I unabashedly love the 1995 movie Hackers. It's just so much fun, breezy, full of little turns of phrase that have worked its way into my lexicon over the years, and an incredible soundtrack. So I immediately hit play on the Movies With Mikey retrospective:
Robin(s)
Robin Sloan's always intriguing newsletters brought me this little tidbit:
"This long, memoiristic essay…is wonderful, in large part because I recognize none of it. It’s about a complex, rich response to a particular musician; and this was not me; not ever. The essay describes a matrix of feelings that I find basically alien… but/and, that’s the miracle, of course: it does so in a way that makes it possible for me to receive and appreciate them, at least a little bit."
This was enough to get me to click on the link for said essay by Johanna Hedva, and how delighted was I to discover the subject was Nine Inch Nails guitarist Robin Finck. This is a deep dive, and a fascinating unpacking of the difference between the image of a create person, the person themselves, and whether or not one actually has any bearing on the other.
Misc.
Another banger from the always incisive Heather Havrilesky.
A lovely reminiscence from Shawn Taylor about how his grandfather got him into Star Trek: My Grandfather Was My Dealer
I’m getting the popup that says I’m reaching the length limit for this newsletter, so until next time, stay safe, get vaxxed, wear your mask, and watch more Danish television.