INTERFACE ZERO 3.0

July 2024 Update: Various subjects
about 2 years ago – Mon, Jul 01, 2024 at 10:03:08 AM

Hi everyone. I hope all is well with you. This will be a longish update, as I want to talk about a variety of things.

TLDR version:
I’m continuing to send books. My finances are impacting that.
I still haven’t decided about the rules in the Sci-fi Companion.

I’ve started various iterations on the graphic design of the MM catalog.

My stance on AI artwork is shifting to a certain degree.

I’ll also be releasing products that aren’t related to Interface Zero over the next year or so.

 The Player’s Guide

I’m continuing to send books when I can. I know many of you are frustrated. I wish I could send them faster, but that’s not possible right now. I really hate to say it, but since a number of you have asked recently, I can’t give refunds. I just don’t have the financial ability to do that. All I can do is work my way out of the hole I’m in, and that’s what I’ve been doing.

In the interest of full transparency, attached is a screenshot of the money I’ve made in the first 6 months of this year. If the image is too hard to read, the money I've made is 2,450.00
 

Sci-Fi Companion

 I haven’t seen the final PDF. The only version I have is V3, and I’m hoping to read through that in the next few days. When I come to a decision, I will let you know.

The Malmart Catalog

Work on the Malmart catalog is continuing. I have started another round of playtesting while I work on the graphic design, and thus far the feedback is great. As far as design goes, I am leaning towards a general website theme in the vein of Amazon.com, but that can get busy really fast.

 You can learn a lot about a given society by studying their spending habits. The types of food people eat, the cars they drive, the clothes they wear, the weapons they buy (to name a few examples) give you some idea of their priorities, socio-economic status, and to some extent, their personal politics. On a global/regional  level the types of things people buy can also indicate the general availability of a given product and­—in the case of weapons and technology—the restrictions governments impose on the general populace. Advertising also plays a massive role when it comes to influencing what a person buys and what they don’t buy. I’ve mentioned all of these things to give you an idea of what you’re going to see in this book in terms of content and presentation.

I’ve read many rpg supplements in the last 40+ years. When it comes to equipment sourcebooks and how they can be used to immerse the reader in the style and tone of a setting, I’ve never seen a better series of supplements than Cyberpunk 2020’s “Chrome Books” as well as The Street Samurai Catalog©, The Rigger Black Book© and similar titles by FASA (I think it’s owned by Catalyst Game Labs now?). I’m not ashamed to say that I’ve been heavily inspired by these books in terms of  their overall presentation.

Indeed, looking back at the time these books were published, it’s interesting to note that these books were almost prescient in terms of how the (brilliant) writers imagined a future world where people could write a review for a product online, or simply post a comment. We did this to some degree in previous Interface Zero products, but, as this is a catalog, you’ll find more commentary, but not always just random “fluff.” There’s a storyline hidden in the comments that serves as something of a prelude to future products, and even a plot-point campaign.

So that’s my goal for this book. The following example of art and page design was created in Blender, textured and rendered in Substance painter and then touched up in Photoshop. You’ll see a variety of images that are formatted like this, as I’m wanting to present the material as products people can purchase. I don’t want to bloat the page count, but I don’t want this book to read like a technical manual either.

AI generative Artwork

The last time I discussed AI generative artwork, I took a pretty heavy hand and flatly stated I wouldn’t do it. The problem with that is that in part, my decision was based on experiences I had with it years ago, not recently. I’ve been fairly ignorant about the technology and how it’s evolved since I last tried it. Not gonna lie, it was impressive…to a certain degree. Over the past couple of weeks I think I’ve generated a thousand images of various subjects and looked at what others have been doing, and I’ve learned a few things.

It often takes hundreds of iterations just to get an image that even remotely resembles the concept I have in mind. The styles can vary wildly depending on what prompts you use, and even then, using the same prompts doesn’t always generate the same image.

No image I have generated thus far can be used “right out of the box.”  Not a single one. To use an image, it would need serious work in a program like Photoshop, or Affinity Photo. The size (in DPI) would need to be much, much larger, especially if I want to print it. The image would require hours and hours to touch it up, remove artifacts and generally make it “clean.”  I simply don’t have time to do that.

All that said, there is one thing that makes AI generative art so damned useful. The images are GREAT for concept work. If I’m struggling to describe a piece of art I would like a human artist to make, I can simply go to the site and start generating some concept pieces that would help an artist better understand what I’m wanting.

 I haven’t tried it yet, but I believe I can use concept pieces to develop my own art that I create in Blender and Substance Painter. These images aren’t done on a 1:1 ratio. But what they do is help me get basic shapes in place and model various iterations. Details aren’t important so long as I can capture the style/shapes of the image. The same process can be used in photoshop. Blocking out shapes and slowly building up details by painting them until I have something that I’m happy with.

 So, the bottom line is, I won’t be using AI art in my books…at least not directly. Later this month I plan on uploading a process video which shows my workflow and how I use the “art”.

 Other Products

Eventually I’m going to start working on books I’ve wanted to create for a long time. The simple fact of the matter is that I need to create more products. I need to increase my revenue stream so I can pay bills and especially get all of your rewards delivered. Publishing one or two books per year won’t cut it. Interface Zero’s production won’t stop, but I have a lot of ideas, and I get pulled in a lot of directions.  Nothing I have planned is written yet; I have some basic outline, concepts and such in place. My focus is solely on Interface Zero, but I felt like I should at least let you know.

 Anyhow, that’s all I got for now. Thanks for your time.

5/11/2024 update: The Malmart Catalog VS the Scifi Companion
over 2 years ago – Sat, May 11, 2024 at 09:03:34 AM

Hi everyone, I hope you are all well.
  
So I've been looking through the latest alpha of the Scifi companion and WOW, this thing is effin sweet! Pinnacle Entertainment did so many cool things. I'm always impressed by their material, but in this case they've outdone themselves. 

I knew the book was going to have large impact on Interface Zero, especially with things like hacking and cyberware (those rules are outstanding, IMHO), but  I was especially surpised by what they've done with power armor, robots, vehicles, and walkers (Golemmechs in IZ), so much so that I want to put a hold on those creation rules.  

We had always planned to put them in the MM catalog, but now that I've seen the scifi companion, I am holding off on that aspect of the book because I don't want to release material which is similar. That raises a bunch of ethical issues, and I don't want to give anyone the impression that we are commiting plagiarism. More importantly, I don't want to put out any of these types of rules before the Scifi Companion is released.  From a professional standpoint, it's rude. That's not to say the book won't be published. 

We have worked very long and hard on this book, and there is plenty of material that doesn't step on Pinnacle's toes; material we are proud to release. The creation rules are also very good, but they're not going to be published until after the Scifi Companion gets released. That way, we can make informed decisions about the content.

Thanks for your time.

4/16/2024: The Ronin's Guide to the Sprawl vol 1: Street Cred is released
over 2 years ago – Tue, Apr 16, 2024 at 12:34:50 PM

Hi everyone, just popping in to let you know I've just released  the street cred supplement I've been mentioning in past updates. I'm sending out complimentary copies to you all via dtrpg, and I'll try to get it up on backerkit sometime today.

This is what the cover looks like:

As always thanks so much for your time.

03/28/2023 Update: Making headway
over 2 years ago – Thu, Mar 28, 2024 at 11:39:19 AM

Hi everyone,

This is a short update.  I’m continuing to send out books. I don’t have an estimate as to how long this is going to take, but I promise I am sending them. I know this has been a long, long road, but I’m fully committed to delivering these books.

 The GM’s Guide

I’m still working on the GM’s Guide, but it’s a painful process. At the end of 2022 I suffered two drive failures and lost almost all of my files for various Interface Zero products and have slowly been rebuilding them. The data was on an external SSD drive I was using as a backup. It failed, and my internal drive also failed, so I was basically screwed.

 Some of you might be wondering why I didn’t have them backed up in drop box or some other cloud service. The honest answer is that it was too expensive. Dropbox wanted around 600 dollars (annually) to back up my data (nearly 400gb worth), and I just couldn’t afford the expense. Once I sort the situation out, I will get the GM’s guide done, and go through the process of getting it ready for print, but I’m not precisely sure when that will get finished, as it’s a lot of work.

 In other news, I’m  trying to wrap the Malmart catalog, and I’m also coming close to publishing the first of a series of supplements I call “The Ronin’s Guide to the Sprawl.”  This series takes a look at various aspects of both Interface Zero, and cyberpunk  in general. The first supplement deals with Street Cred. It essentially re-works the existing rules in the Player's Guide, removing dice rolls in favor of a simple point-based system that focuses more on Role-play.

It's based on character actions during the course of a game session, rewarding or penalizing the characters depending on what they do. It's designed to help you further flesh out your character's motivations for doing what they do, giving them a loose "code" that they live by.

It's not complete, but the core rules are in place and ready for Feedback. They are available here

Finally, Here’s a preview of the cover for the Malmart catalog. I hope you like it.

2/15/2024 update: Progress Report
over 2 years ago – Thu, Feb 15, 2024 at 12:22:54 PM

Hi everyone. I hope all is well with you.

Just wanted to touch base and let you know what's up.  The past month has been frustrating. I've had computer issues and lost a lot of my core files, so it's been a pain to recover the data. I'm continuing to send out books. Please be patient. I'm gettign them ordered and sent out as fast as possible.

Right now I'm working on getting the Malmart Catalog laid out and ready for a final proof. The biggest slow down for this will be artwork. I strive to include great artwork in my products, but a gear book is complicated because there's so much content, and I can't do as many images as I would like, partly because of space, and also because good artwork is incredibly expensive. So I have to pick and choose what items get art and which ones don't. Since the book is being formatted similar to a catalog, I'll be augmenting various sections with "Ads" that Highlight specific items. I'll do as many of these as I can.

One thing you should be aware of. In this day and age, some publishers are choosing to include AI generated artwork in their books. I'm not one of them. I firmly believe in (when possible) supporting the various artists in the rpg community. AI generated artwork hurts the ability of these artists to support themselves and their families, and I will never contribute to that. I'd rather publish a book with no artwork than use AI art.

Lately I've been working with 3D programs such as Blender and Substance Painter to create my own artwork. I've been struggling to find the right balance with regards to style. I don't want the models/scenes and such looking too real.

Here's an example of an image that you'll see in the MM catalog. It was 3d modelled. I purchased the rights to use it, and the artist will be credited in the book.

His online handle is Rex Hsu, and you can find a link to his work on Artstation. Just click the image
 

I'm also considering augmenting the PDF with animations of certain items. For instance, I've done a rough animation of the above drone. I posted it on the GMG discord server if you wish to check it out. I'll add the animations I do as extra files, and people can use them to augment their games. Animations would also include GIFs that can be used in online platforms such as roll20.

Anyhow, I have a lot planned for 2024, the main goal is getting the Player's Guide sent to everyone, getting the GM's Guide revamped/printed/sent, and continuing to finish up the stretch goals. The next major book will be the Guide to the Solar System, and after that the World Book. I have the card deck, but I need to make a Tuck Box for it, which is proving difficult. Throughout the year I hope to put out smaller products to help boost my sales. Beyond that, I have soem other irons in  the fire that I'm not yet ready to share with you.

Anyhow, thanks for your time.