James Cavin Writes

  Has anyone else experienced the master class in narrative design that is Fireball Island: the Curse of Vul-Kar?   This is what excellence looks like. I know it's not a videogame, but the lessons are all perfect. For those of you who aren't familiar with the glory that is Fireball Island, it's a fantabulous little lost world pulp adventure boardgame wherein plucky explorers land on a volcano island and run around like crazy trying to collect treasure and not get smacked by fireballs (orange marbles) spat from the wrathful mouth of the local volcano deity (the titular Vul-Kaar, who rules over his vacuum-molded plastic land with a perpetual scowl of enraged constipation). There's even a little cardboard chopper to evacuate your much-abused pawns at the end of the game (and yes, the winner is contractually obligated to make helicopter noises as they fly off into the sunset.) As I like to repeat ad nauseam to my videogame clients, THEME HAPPENS ON EVERY SCREE...

AND I DID IT WITHOUT COFFEE. …And with nothing to help me but an English degree! (It turns out that numbers are just like letters except they don't mean anything! Although, to be fair, you can sometimes spell out bad words if you hold your calculator upside down so that the 5s become Ss.) Anyways, that's just the kind of mental alacrity you can expect when James Cavin is on the job. That's right, you thought that this was a completely job-unrelated tangent, but secretly it's just a demonstration of my incredible versatility! Pow! Shazam! Self-promotion sneak attack! I do narrative design work and copywriting! (And cooking and light automotive repair, in case you need to sear some tuna steaks and/or replace the ignition switch on a 1999 Honda CRV.) Give me money, and I'll give you words! (or tuna.) Excelsior! – James