Q&A: What Have I Been Working On Lately?

As a freelancer, I think one of the most common questions we get asked is “What have you been working on?”. As a freelancer, that is not always easy to answer. Many of our projects have an NDA (Non-Disclosure Agreement), so we cannot discuss them until we are released from the NDA or the game is officially announced/published. Then there is the lead time on games. Most of the game projects we work on have months, if not years, before they are published. Depends on how early you work on the project in its development process. As an editor, proofreader, and indexer, I am often toward the end of the development cycle, so my game projects are released not too long after my work is completed. But I have friends who are writers who can go years before the game is even announced, and then even longer before it is available to purchase. So a game we tell a friend about now may not be seen at a convention for a year or more, possibly even longer before it reaches store shelves. Keeping track of publisher release schedules adds complexity, as they do not all follow the same schedule, and each has their own way of announcing releases. Even funnier, and more frustrating, it is easy as a freelancer to lose track of projects you completed over a year ago to realize they are being released soon. I keep a spreadsheet, but even then things can slip out of mind until I check the list again. So, the answer to “What have I been working on lately?” comes with some uncertainty. For my fellow freelancers, how do you answer that question when asked?

With summer convention season upon us here in the US, here is my list of recent projects (worked on in the past year or so) I am relatively sure will be available at a convention, and possibly in stores this year. If you see some of these in the wilds, let me know where. Always fun to find your game projects in local game stores and on tables at conventions. If I hear of other new games I worked on that will be released this year, I will add them in the Comments below.