I’m back from a whirlwind trip to NYC and its given me a whole bunch of energy – which it wild because I’m still exhausted from walking my hindquarters off. I was still in shock that I was back and actually showing my game in NEW YORK FREAKIN’ CITY when my plane touched down at LGA.

The sad part of being away for a decade is the number of differences from my last visit ( and a far different place when I arrived back in ’89!) – I missed the $20 busses that would go to Grand Central or Port Authority, but didn’t mind the newness of the Airport Shuttle vans that I was sharing with a bunch of other tourists. The changes to the streets making them more accessible to bikes was a welcome change, and the unmistakable tang of weed was everywhere.

After meeting up for dinner with an old friend from my newspaper days at John’s Pizzeria on Bleecker St. (a legendary classic) I checked into my shoebox at the UWS YMCA. A bed, a desk and that was it- shared bath down the hall. I eagerly hit the streets exploring the Lincoln Plaza area, which I rarely visited when I lived in the city. There seemed to be less open, and the effects covid had in shutting down a lot of businesses was glaring. I popped into a restaurant bar, toasted myself an ale for being back in the city and crashed out at the Y.

The main event was the next day, so after a really fun lunch catching up with my cousin (who pretty much moved into NYC as I was moving out!) I hopped on the R train out to Astoria. Queens definitely had the feel of the early 90’s East Village, and my stop at Steinway really gave off old 14th St. vibes. I found the museum, had a quick bit at a nearby pizzeria and checked out the Muppets exhibit before the launch.

The opening was fun, I enjoyed a couple of films by creators who are on the autism spectrum, with a very informative Q&A session, I was especially taken with the film, ‘Once More, Like Rain Man‘ – about a young actress on the spectrum, who is repeatedly told she wasn’t ‘autistic enough’ making a huge point about how autistics are perceived, versus who they actually are.

The rest of the night was a bit of a blur, seeing my game being curated at an honest-to-goodness museum really had an impact on me. It was the feeling that others have seen my work and felt it important enough to share with the world. And being in a city that I love and have a long and storied history with made it that much sweeter.

What also struck is that I was with people who felt as I do: people on the spectrum have important and meaningful messages that need to be told, and oftentimes, their disability either silences them – or puts them in a box that neurotypicals can feel safe around. And they need our help in getting their stories told.

The rest of my NYC trip was seeing friends, wandering the city with camera in hand, getting tons of reference photos for more of my city paintings and just drinking in my town. It was sad to see so many places I spent tons of time in closed, and gathering dust. I wish i could go back, have a drink with old friends and enjoy the heady younger days – but now I’m driven with a new purpose.

To come back and plaster this city with a ton of Booper swag.

So, in exactly ONE WEEK I will be back in my beloved NYC. My home for over 20 years, where I went to college, met the love of my life, fought hard, drank hard and met the most amazing people.

I was contacted out of the blue by the Museum of the Moving Image and they invited me to show my game at the 2025 Marvels of Media Festival in Astoria, Queens. My game is to be part of the Adventures of Nature and the Senses exhibition, which showcases the sensoria of people on the autism spectrum:

Being autistic creates an often-heightened sensory experience. Some of us sense what we see, hear, and touch in intense ways, leaving us to appreciate nature and all that exists within it through this lens. Using video art, experimental film, and virtual reality, the artists in this compilation are inspired by plants, rabbits, birds, jellyfish, clouds, water, and structures as they create animations and play with nonlinear forms of cinema. 

As soon as I told my wife, she immediately declared: ‘you’re going!’ and I hastily booked a flight out- adding an extra day so I can roam the streets with camera in hand and soak of the town very dear to my heart.

And get lots of reference photos for more paintings.

There’s a scene in ‘Who Framed Roger Rabbit’ when Eddie Valiant pulls out his Toon Town revolver case and the bullets inside remark how Eddie’s been absent for 5 years and ask where he’s been.

“Drunk.” he replies.

I just realized that I haven’t made an entry in months and while I can’t claim Eddie Valiant’s excuse; I haven’t exactly been in the best of places. Certainly the election threw me and when my wife was laid off from the job she just started 2 years ago – it put things in a dark place and once again, game dev ground to a halt.

And like December of ’23 – I had put off posting about my experiences showcasing my game at Cleveland Gaming Classic.

What was neat this time around was I had a couple of superfans who came back to play my demo multiple times, offered tons of suggestions, feedback and of course- loved collecting stickers each time they played.

One even went so far as to draw me a character he thought would be an excellent addition to the game:

Which, sadly, I have to file with the others I’ve gotten over the years – I just can’t risk having a lawsuit down the road of some irate parent thinking their child’s art is worthy of a lawsuit or digital copyright takedown notice.

What it DID inspire was the thought that when I launch a Kickstarter or GoFundMe project, one of the top tier perks for high end donations is to have the child of the donor submit a drawing for a character (or prop) to be included in the game. My novelization of Booper’s adventures includes a ton of wild and colorful (literally) characters and while my kiddo has provided plenty, the more I have to work with, the more expansive and inclusive my game can become.

Quick gallery of 2024 CGC:

I do love that I’ve won multiple awards for Sound – and I think its something I need to lean into more, not only using my kiddo’s vocalizations for both music cues and sound effects, but to upgrade my audio to some of the more professional platforms, like FMOD – which I see in just about every game, and – to be honest; I didn’t realize was free is revenue is less than 100K.

Terrific, something else I gotta learn.

The other big news was that I was featured in The Toledo Blade, in an article by Lillian King, who had found me and asked if I would be interested in being interviewed.

Seeing just how much I did over the past year – its given me reason to do more here. Which is good, because I’ll have some big news next week!

As I type this, its snowing outside- a condition known here in the Rut Belt (typo intended) as: The Grey.

Its a long, dreary season from the end of October up until April – sometimes as late as May. And even then, it may not get ‘nice’ until the end of May.

Which, as you can imagine, puts me in a lovely mood.

I need the sun. I need fresh air and puttering in my garden. I need it about as much as I need to be creative and work on my games. Sadly, the weather often conspires against my mood; and my schedule conspires against my creative time.

Ironically, this gloomy atmosphere is perfect for working on my big emotional scene, hopefully evocative of Disney films when our hero is all alone and having moments of doubt and despair. For this I needed a piece of music that my niece and nephew could play. Luckily I was just wandering around the back alleys of the internet and discovered Airgigs and within seconds discovered a composer who sounded exactly like I wanted.

After a few back and forth emails discussing the mood and feeling I was looking for, the composer said she’d get back to me with a first run.

Now, the idea has always been that, since this is a family project, I’d involve my niece & nephew, who are both accomplished musicians and very talented. My sister in law sent me a YouTube link of them performing ‘Castle on a Cloud’ from Les Mis – and I was thunderstruck with how it really hit the feeling I wanted from my commissioned composition. The tone, timber and evocative mood all fell into place and i sent the video along to the composer.

What she sent back was amazing.

It was a early Monday morning and I sat down with my coffee as the kids were playing videogames and I opened the attachment and gave it a listen.

I honestly wasn’t expecting to tear up that early in the morning. It was spot on. And, further punctuated by my youngest asking if that was his cousin singing.

And I can’t wait to put it in the game!

So, due to life being busier than a 1 legged dude at a butt kickin’ contest – I totally forgot to post about showing the game at Cleveland Gaming Classic 2023. Each year it keeps getting bigger and I LOVE that its right in my backyard. I met some amazing dev from Youngstown and was thrilled they won an award for their game ‘Secrets of Hope’  

I did meet with one of the organizers from GDEX, and they are going back to the video games only format they had when I started showing Booper. While the long haul to Columbus isn’t my favorite thing to do, hanging with my brother-in-law and seeing people from different parts of the state (and beyond) is always exciting.

Painting

Shortly thereafter, I came across a Twitter post asking if anyone wanted to do a family portrait; a yearly tradition for them. I threw a couple of pix in the post, thinking I’d never hear back. Surprisingly, the poor fellow got swamped with bots and apologetically followed up 2 weeks later giving me details of what he wanted. This was outside my style and really pushed me to try different things – I’d never really painted animals before!

I decided that the years residuals from selling art were enough to treat myself and my game to a little upgrade. I bought myself a Quest 3 and I hired a composer to try and get a sad song for an emotional part of Booper’s journey. I was taken aback by how many composers didn’t do lyrics. After a pretty lengthy search, I did find a woman who sounded like my niece, who I wanted to perform, and she had a composition on piano – which I wanted for my nephew to play.

Weeks later, on a somber Monday morning, I opened my email to see she had something for me. I sat there with coffee in hand and tears streaming down my face as I heard the sample – it was dead on perfect. My youngest, hearing me listen to it, asked if that was my niece singing – which further solidified my feeling this was exactly what I was looking for.

Steam VR Fest

And lastly, in the thick of all this – I got an invite to participate in the Steam VR Fest. Considering I hadn’t looked at, or much less touched, my Steam page in a long time; I felt it was the perfect moment to update, upgrade and enhance my presence on the world’s largest online video game hub.

In reworking my Steam page, I discovered a video of a playtest I never knew about:

I watched as they played my old demo – and was horrified that my earlier creation was making them nauseous! I did reach out, explaining the changes I had made and took a lot of what they had to say to heart.

So, next up? Adding a run mode to my game.