There is no way Neverending Nights would have ever been made had it not been for Bioware – the company who produced the amazing game. Not only did Bioware give us an incredible game with Neverending Nights, they also developed a toolset that allowed users to create their own content. With this toolset you could create towns, quests, specific weather conditions, wilderness, NPCs (Non Player Characters), weapons – the toolset was virtually limitless with what it could do.

It was through this toolset within the game, that we were able to successfully create Neverending Nights.

Bioware has continued to make an assortment of amazing games – The list includes: Mass Effect, Mass Effect 2, Mass Effect 3, (They even announced releasing the Mass Effect Trilogy if you missed it the first time around), Dragon Age: Origins (which I feel is superior to…), Dragon Age 2, as well as the recently free to play Star Wars: The Old Republic.

Because of Neverwinter Nights (and a lot of determination on my behalf to get us recognized), we appeared in PC GAMER UK. Then got interviewed by Jay from Bioware on the Bioware site. Then we got nominated for an award for the 2005 Machinima Film Festival (we didn’t win; but the experience in New York was so absolutely incredible that night). We then got the attention of Atari, who contracted us through Obsidian to work on promo video/machinima pieces for Neverwinter Nights 2, which was an amazing experience. We got to go up to Obsidian’s office and sit with them, and see how the game worked, got Alpha/Beta copies of the game to make the pieces. The entire experience that has been Neverending Nights has been so incredible. It became bigger, did more than I ever hoped or thought it would. You can read about that on our ‘ABOUT’ page on the Neverending Nights website.

As for Bioware, here’s a list of games I also enjoyed from them:

Neverwinter Nights

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GAME INFORMATION

• Release Date: Jul 18, 2002
• Platform(s):
  • Linux
  • Mac
  • PC
• Genre(s):
  • Role-Playing
• Players: 1 w/ 64 online multiplayer
• Links:
  • Support

Choose your adventure, or create your own world.

Neverwinter Nights (NWN) is a computer game set in a huge medieval fantasy world of Dungeons and Dragons. This role-playing game (RPG) puts you at the center of an epic tale of faith, war, and betrayal.

As a player, you are able to choose what skills and abilities you will develop as you voyage though the complex and dangerous fantasy world of Forgotten Realms. Be a deadly and dangerous Rogue moving through the shadows using stealth and secrecy, be a scholarly Wizard and wield powerful magic against your enemies, be a hulking Barbarian whose lust for battle is matched only by his terrible rage, be an armor-clad Paladin who protects the innocent and vanquishes his foes, be a crusading Cleric who heals the sick and defends the helpless… be all this and more.

Neverwinter Nights allows you to create your own worlds. This revolutionary game will come with all the tools needed to construct your own unique lands of adventure. The Neverwinter Nights Aurora Toolset allows even novice users to construct everything from a quiet, misty forest or a dripping cavern of foul evil, to a king’s court. All the monsters, items, set pieces and settings are there for world builders to use. But do not stop there; construct traps, encounters, custom monsters and magic items to make your adventure unique.

But the Neverwinter experience is not just for one person- adventure with all your friends. Neverwinter Nights can be played online with up to 64 friends, all sharing in the adventure. You can organize and run your own adventures through the role of the Dungeon Master and control all the monsters, creatures and characters your friends meet as they journey on their quest. A powerful piece of software that is included with Neverwinter Nights, the DM Client, allows nearly unlimited control for running your own adventures for your friends.

Star Wars™: Knights of the Old Republic™

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GAME INFORMATION

• Release Date: Jul 15, 2003
• Platform(s):
  • Mac
  • PC
  • Xbox
• Genre(s):
  • Action
  • Role-Playing
• Players: 1
• Links:
  • Support

Choose Your Path

Engage in this saga set in the Golden Age of the Republic – over 4,000 years before the first Star Wars film, when both Jedi and Sith number in the thousands. With the Galaxy reeling from a recent conflict with the Dark Lords, the ongoing battle between the Jedi and the Sith rages on. Your actions determine the outcome of this colossal galactic war – and your destiny as a Jedi.

Jade Empire

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GAME INFORMATION

• Release Date: Apr 12, 2005
• Platform(s):
  • PC
  • Xbox
  • Xbox 360
• Genre(s):
  • Action
  • Role-Playing
• Players: 1
• Links:
  • Support

Your struggle is timeless. Your enemy is immortal.

Step into the role of an aspiring martial arts master and follow the path of the Open Palm or Closed Fist. In this multi-award-winning action-RPG, your choices and actions will determine the fate of an empire. Will you prevent the destruction of this beautiful land or crush it beneath your heel? Are you a warrior who uses strength and fighting mastery to bring peace, or will your power bring pain and ruin?

In my previous post, I thanked Greg Johnson of Toejam and Earl fame – and thanked Charles and Tammy Stevens for introducing me to Toejam and Earl. There’s no way I could make it through this month without thanking both Chuck and Tammy for everything they’ve for me.

I met Chuck in the 4th grade. I had long hair and apparently looked fairly girly, because when the teacher first brought me to the class to introduce me, Chuck had said that he thought the class got another girl. (I can neither deny, nor confirm this, but I am pretty sure my mother dressed me in like my sister’s hand me down jeans! Talk about embarrassing!) So needless to say, he was shocked when I was introduced to the class and I was actually a guy!

Well, the charming personality that I have, I had done something to clash with a fellow class mate (I can’t even remember what it was). Said class mate wanted to throw down after class, and I don’t remember how or why it happened – but Chuck ended up stepping in on my behalf. Needless say, Chuck laid the smack down on said person – which sealed Chuck’s and I’s friendship. Ironically, this wouldn’t be the only time this would happen. In the 8th grade, once again, my charming personality apparently rubbed another person wrong who insisted on fighting me – only to have Chuck, once again, step in and beat the snot out of them. (And people say I have a great personality? Really? Then why did everyone seem to hate me in my youth!)

Granted, I had a pretty rambunctious attitude in my youth and probably deserved to have my rump handed to me at some point.

At any rate, Chuck was like a brother to me. We were staying the night at each others house, either reading comics, talking about Heavy Metal, or “air band” jamming out with crutches and clothes hangers (as our flying V electric guitars)! Ah, youth, thou art so blissful.

Chuck was the reason I initially got into my comics when he gave me Uncanny X-Men #121 and Avengers #159. (So now Amiee knows who to blame for my massive addiction, and Southern California Comics knows who to thank). The world of comics opened wide to me, as I became enamored with these colorful heroes who strive to do right in the world.

In return, I would drag Chuck into all kinds of trouble and adventures. Most of those said adventurers happened “Behind Mervyns” (which in hindsight, sounds much dirtier than it really should). It’s just there was an outside mall, where there was a Mervyns (are those even around anyone? The kids of today will be like, “What the heck is a Mervyns?”) – and there was a large forested area. Already infatuated with The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings, going back into the woods sparked my imagination of adventuring through Mirkwood. We used to ride our bikes out there and wander into the woods and just do utterly stupid things, letting our imagination tell us there were orcs and goblins and such back there. We also used to ride our bikes up the Silver Strand and back, for no other reason than to go to the beach for a little bit and ride back. I remember also riding to Plaza Bonita from our place. Which, these days, being in the shape we’re in, I am not sure we’d even make it out of our neighborhood.

Chuck was the first one out of the Wallgroup (Chuck, Myself, Eddie, Shawn, and Mike) to get a car. I remember when he got the car – our bicycles became utterly obsolete. “What? Ride our bikes to Plaza Bonita? Why do that? Let’s drive!” Chuck was also the first person out of our group to own a computer (if you don’t count Shawn’s father who had a pretty tight computer network – you know, for back in the day!) I remember playing the text based adventure game on his computer (where the “disk drive” was an actual cassette drive!) I remember breaking the code and running a list command and seeing how it was made; and then teaching myself how to do it and creating my own little text games through BASIC.

In High School, Chuck met and began dating Tammy. How Tammy ever tolerated me – or any of us, come to think of it – is clearly beyond me. I won’t even go into detail about the poor things Tammy had to endure at our hands – but if anything, she certainly loved Chuck to tolerate his friends and still stay with him, rather than running away (which any sane woman would have done – of course, her lack of sanity was clearly a good indication that she was a good fit for Chuck and the group as a whole; since back then we were very much like a wolf pack). You didn’t just date the person you were dating; you dated all of us. (Of course, I don’t mean that in the dirty, sexual type meaning – what I meant was, that we were always pretty close to one another, and tended to do everything together. Well not everything – listen, you know what I mean!)

When my father passed away, I ended up moving to Tennessee for two years, to live in the same complex as my sister did, because I couldn’t afford life in San Diego. It was there that I met Amiee, and we eventually moved back to San Diego. It had been Tammy and Chuck, who with open arms, welcomed us into their place, until Amiee and I could get on our own two feet and get a place of our own. (“Hey, is that smoke coming out of the monitor?” So many good memories while we were living with them!) I remember the four of us playing Sierra’s “Phantasmagoria” together. We were glued to the computer.

These days, it’s tradition that Aim and I go to Palm Springs during the summer with the Stevens, to just get away together and have a good time. It’s a tradition I look forward to, because with them – they have known me for so long. I have no need of wearing a mask or acting a certain way or being afraid of offending them with something. They know me, and love me, down to the core of my being.

They had two wonderful children; Sammy and Matt. Sammy, to me is very much like my own daughter. There are no words to ever describe how much I love her and how much she means to me. She was the real first kid I had around me that I knew from infant and onward. I am, admittedly, very protective of Sammy. I have repeatedly told Chuck and Tammy when we go out, that if anything happens to her – they have no fear of Chuck, because they won’t survive me if I get to them first. Sammy is beyond beautiful. She’s intelligent. She’s funny. She’s everything that is wonderful about Chuck and Tammy combined into a single person. And then there’s Matt, who I feel like is like my own son. He’s a gamer, has a love of swords, and loves comics. Granted, somehow he got misguided and doesn’t like American Comics (like Avengers, X-Men, Nightwing, Batgirl, etc) – but he digs those anime comics. I keep hoping to one day correct his view on this. And when it comes to games one of my favorite things to do is challenge him in the various Wii Sports games (especially the archery one)!

This is probably one of the longest thanks I have done, because of the amount of love and memories I have with Chuck and Tammy, and their two now grown kids. I feel so very fortunate to feel like I am a part of their family, as they are very much a part of mine. My heart is richer for the love they give me. My life is richer for the friendship they give. And my soul is richer for the strength they have given me, whether they knew it or not – by always being there, even if I didn’t ask for it.

Charles appeared in Episode 58: VisionQuest.

Matt appeared in Episode 60: But I’m A Lover, Not A Fighter.

Tammy and Sammy appear in Episode 61: Reunited And It Feels So Good (Wait, Didn’t We Use That Title Last Season?)

To say that Larry Elmore’s art didn’t help inspire not only Neverending Nights, but helped define fantasy itself – would be like saying that the sun isn’t a hot place at night! (Think about that one for a moment…) Now Larry Elmore has an amazing (and I think a VERY gracious) Kickstarter fund that gives everyone great access to some of Larry Elmore’s art! The Kickstarter was funded probably before he hit “Publish” on the Kickstarter page – so he’s added an AMAZING amount of Stretch Goals (to surpass that original limit)! You should check out the Larry Elmore Kickstarter! It’s an amazing chance to own some very unique art (along with the book he’s already offering!) from Larry Elmore himself.

Your Fantasy Begins here!

I want to make available, through this project, the largest, most comprehensive collection of the very best of my art spanning my full 40 year career.  Many of the images I will include in this tome are being re-mastered using the latest digital technology from original film, for unprecedented quality, and several pieces have never before been published or rarely seen.  Interspersed among the images I will also offer you glimpses into my studio and creative process, including sketches and preliminaries, as well as share with you my autobiography, my artistic journey, and my stories.  I will start from my earliest childhood drawings, and together we will journey through my challenges breaking into the industry and frustrations with commercial art, through my years working in games and on novel covers and ultimately to my latest personal works.

This hardback book will be 9″ x 12″ and encompass 300+ pages.  Depending on your pledge amount you can own this book as a standard coffee-table hardback edition, or a deluxe leather-bound cover edition, as well as other bonuses, such as special prints, original hand-drawn sketches, or even the original painting used for the cover itself!  Most importantly, you are helping me realize my dream of bringing this volume to you, my fans.  Thank you in advance for your pledge!

This kickstarter project is going unbelievably well and I am overwhelmed. I want to do more stretch goals, and believe me we have been wracking our brains. But I had an idea; I have a lot of paintings and many of them have never left my studio, the originals have never been seen, and hardly anyone has had an opportunity to purchase one. I feel that they are too much trouble to take to conventions and also more likely get damaged. In the old days every painting made a trip to the publisher in New York and after it was published they would send the painting back. When it returned I would usually put the painting on a shelf in my studio or in a flat file. Now days I drive my paintings to Nashville for a professional scan and when I get back put them either on a shelf or in a flat file. So why not put some of these paintings up for sale because so many fans of my art are following this project and everyone would have an equal chance at purchasing an original painting. I have selected 12 paintings to sell; we will keep three available for purchase at all times until they are all sold or this kickstarter project is over. We are still trying to come up with new stretch goals and want to sincerely thank everyone for the fantastic support of this project!!!

WANT TO SEE LARGER VERSIONS….
Raistlin & Christina 1994: http://larryelmore.com/raistlinc
Might & Magic 8:  http://larryelmore.com/mightmagic
Star Frontiers Module: http://larryelmore.com/starfro

The more we raise with this campaign, the better we can make this art book. We are still negotiating with our printers to get the best price on additional pages and extras, but your support will make them all possible. Once the Kickstarter program is over, the Hardback book will sale for $80.

NOTE TO MY NON-US FANS: My good friend BROM just got done with his Kickstarter and raised 230k on his book. I knew I was going to have to keep adding stretch goals. I started out with a break even cost for my NON-US FANS, because I quickly realized that I would be giving away 5 or 6 other products with it. So, in reality, whatever product one gets in stretch goals is the EXTRA vale for my NON-US FANS!

Here is the curent retail value of our current stretch goals…

Stretch Goal 1: 48 Additional Pages If there is enough interest in this project, I would like to expand the book to 304 pages. This will give me more room to add more obscure paintings, more preliminary works and other black and white artwork. If pledges exceed thirty thousand, all contributors will receive a 304 page book rather than only 256 pages. COMPLETED

Stretch Goal 2: 8″x10″ D&D Original Box Set Covers  As a special thank you to my fans, should funding exceed fifty thousand dollars, I will include three 8″ x 10″ print of one of my most remembered painting series–the Basic Dungeons & Dragons Red Dragon box cover, the Expert Dungeons & Dragons Blue box cover, and the Companions Dungeon & Dragons Green box– in every contributor’s package.

Stretch Goal 3: B&W Sketch Book  As an added bonus for achieving the one Seventy-five thousand dollar mark, I am going to bind together a soft cover black & white sketchbook that will include copies of all the original drawings I will be doing as inserts for this project and a few extra no one has ever seen. Everyone who has contributed from the Fan Package on up will receive a copy of this book in their package. I am so very grateful to you all for making my 40 year compendium a reality!

Stretch Goal 4: 8″x10″ Original Dragonlance Covers  Once we hit one hundred thousand, I will include three limited edition 8″ x 10″ prints of the three original Dragonlance Book covers — Dragons of Autumn Twilight, Dragons of Winter Night, Dragons of Spring Dawning — in every contributor’s package.

Stretch Goal 5: Motorcycle Ride & Studio Tour As an added bonus for achieving the one hundred twenty-five thousand dollar mark, I plan to have a studio tour and motorcycle ride in my hometown of Leitchfield Kentucky. I will send each you a ticket to bring one guest sometime during the summer of 2013. You will have a chance to walk through my studio and time to talk with me. Later in the afternoon everyone with a motorcycle is welcome to take a long ride with me through the foothills of Kentucky. If you do not have a motorcycle, you are still welcome to come and enjoy the studio tour. (Contributors would be responsible for their own travel arrangements, overnight stay, gas, etc.)

Keep Checking Back… MORE Stretch Goals to come!

As this campaign develops, keep checking back for previews of art, new and interesting promotions, stretch goals, and news about the art book. And thanks again for supporting The Complete Elmore Art Book!

Risks and challenges Learn about accountability on Kickstarter

Challenges:
The greatest challenge I am facing with this project is the re-mastering and color-correcting of all my older works from the film the images are preserved on. Don’t get me wrong, the quality of color will be phenominal and as close to the originals as I can get, but there is a LOT of work to do “cleaning up” the fuzzies, speckles and other gremlins that creep in during the scanning process. Still, I am excited to have the technology to reproduce these old favorites in a clearer, crisper way than ever before.

Schedule:
This book will ship to Kickstarter supporters in August 2013.

Shipping:
All pledge amounts include USPS Media Mail shipping within the U.S. Shipping for international orders will receive an additional $48.00 fee. International orders ship by USPS Priority Mail. Taxes and fees vary by country. Please be aware international orders may be required to pay a duty tax by your local postal station.

For more artwork by Larry Elmore log on to http://larryelmore.com/

In my previous day of thankfulness, I had mentioned Al Lowe, who worked at Sierra Online and developed and wrote games like Leisure Suit Larry, Torin’s Passage, Freddy Pharkas, among others! Well, today I am going to hand out another note of thankfulness to a game designer who helped shape (or perhaps funkafy) my strange sense of humor. Today I am thankful for Greg Johnson. Off hand, most people would probably not immediately recognize his name – because he never put his name out there really as someone who worked on one of the greatest, funnest games, ever.

Though the game did not get nearly as much attention as I think it should have, Toejam and Earl on the original SEGA was incredibly fun! Ages ago, back when Geocities was still around (who remembers them?) I had made a tiny fan website for the series. When Geocities went away, I moved it to my personal site, where it still sits. I even made a Toejam and Earl Facebook page. (Me? Obsessed? Whatever gave you that idea?)

Anyway – the game, Toejam and Earl was introduced to me by my Chuck and Tammy Stevens (who I have literally known since like the beginning of time). I remember countless hours of playing Toejam and Earl on the SEGA with them. I would actually spend an entire night over there, over and over again, laughing so hard – whether it was hilarious sound bytes found in the game (“Boogey! Boogey! Boogey!”), or just the general game play – Toejam and Earl provided endless amounts of entertainment. While, I felt the second one had less of an impact (the side scrolling took away from the splitting up and exploring, and also took away from falling off the world type situation with rocket skates!) – it was still an entertaining game. And when they announced Toejam and Earl III exclusively for the XBOX – it became the sole reason I originally purchased the XBOX.

To this day, I still own a functioning SEGA with Toejam Earl 1 and 2, as well as purchasing both games on the Wii’s store, through the emulator. I have yet to purchase them on Steam (you can get Toejam and Earl 1 here and Toejam and Earl 2 here).

I got in contact with Greg, through the Toejam and Earl website and told him about the little fan page I had done; as well as the Facebook page I had created (which he joined). I bounced emails with Greg, every so often – and when it came time to wrap up Neverending Nights in Season 3 – I thought, “How awesome would it be to have Greg lend a voice?”

So when I asked Greg, he agreed to do it – but said he could get me in touch with “real” voice actors – and I had explained that this wasn’t trying to find amazing voice talent for Neverending Nights – it was me, wanting to include people who made a difference in my life – in the series, as a way of saying thank you. He had asked me how he wanted to do the voice – and I told him to do what he wanted. To have fun with it. Give the character any kind of spin he wanted.

What he delivered only cemented his awesomeness. He did the voice as Lamont, from Toejam and Earl III. It was such an amazing addition.

Greg appeared in Episode 56: Funkafied.

So I have no idea how I forgot – on the 11/17 thanks to Sara, that I failed to mention she was the actual creator of our infamous saying of, “That Kicks Rocks.” Me, her and Paul were going somewhere, and talking about something, when Sara exclaimed, “That Kicks Rocks!” She had, in her apparent excitement of whatever it was we were talking about, meant to say “That Rocks” and “That Kicks Ass” – and came out with, “That Kicks Rocks.” That became a saying between the three of us for quite some time, as we kept laughing about it.

So naturally, when I had the chance, I wrote it into the series.

The entire series has all kinds of references to people in my life, as well as movies, video games, books. Even our company name of FNBH comes from my former boss (and still good friend, Suzi Carr). One night, she had asked Paul and I if we wanted to go drinking with her (we all worked together at one time), and we declined, and she said, “Oh, that’s right. It’s Friday. Isn’t this one of your Friday Night Blood Hunt things?” (She meant, “Is this the night you play Dungeons & Dragons?”) So when it came time to name the company, we named it FNBH (Short for Friday Night Blood Hunt).

For me, Neverending Nights, wasn’t just about me wanting to write a story. It was very much a way for me to include people and various references (whether books, games, or movies) that have impacted my life in various ways. It was a way for me to write a story, and pour my heart and love into it – and include all these things from people, movies, and games that changed me, shaped me, and helped me become who I am. Neverending Nights was my way of saying thank you for all you have done.

So if I have not said it – thank YOU, all of you – whether you’ve changed my life, watched the series, or accidentally stumbled across this site and now wondering what you’ve gotten yourself into.