The Macguffin Files Carats And Cold Meat

Thomas Foolery is a man living in his own world, surrounded by fictional, televised tales, scripted worlds of crime and endless Hitchcock marathons. He's unfit, he smokes like a chimney and sees nothing wrong with his voluntary agoraphobia. He's living life on his own terms...and under the watchful eye of his therapist. Angie Earhardt is the only person Thomas truly trusts, even if there are ulterior motives to his dedication to therapy. When she tells him that there's more to life than selling online collectibles alone, Tom starts to open up. And when he sees a critical flaw in the rolling footage of a major crime breaking, he decides to take Angie's advice and journey out into the world and live out his fantasy...being at the center of an elaborate mystery. Adopting the alias...Matt MacGuffin and with his unending knowledge of fictional skills, he embarks on a dangerous journey into the real criminal underworld, where his life...and Angie's, will be pushed to their limits and hang in the balance. Matt and Angie learn quickly to trust no one, humidity sucks and you should never, ever vomit on a corpse. Will Matt survive in this world, where all of the players are cold and the cadavers are much, much colder? Find out in this darkly twisted, darkly comic crime novel!

Santa is in an institution. The good elves live on food rations in Old Town. The reindeer are mentally bent. The Herald Angels are powerless to bring corruption to the forefront in their newspaper. Can two humans save the North Pole and destroy the sinner's paradise that Jack Frost built? With melted snowmen on the take, a nutcracker-toy soldier army, ostracized elves and some reindeer bent on the North Pole's restoration, join the revolution to save Christmas. Reader discretion advised. This is a Christmas tale for adults. Bad language and sexual situations, not to mention the destruction of nearly every Christmas icon that we hold dear.

Re-issued for the 50th anniversary of the film of Chandler's novel 'The Big Sleep', this homage to film noir is a visionary journey across a landscape of darkened bungalows, decaying office blocks and sinister nightspots - an atmospheric tribute to both the writer and his city. Contains over 150 photographs and extracts from Chandler's classic detective fiction.

Game designers today are expected to have an arsenal of multi-disciplinary skills at their disposal in the fields of art and design, computer programming, psychology, economics, composition, education, mythology—and the list goes on. How do you distill a vast universe down to a few salient points? Players Making Decisions brings together the wide range of topics that are most often taught in modern game design courses and focuses on the core concepts that will be useful for students for years to come. A common theme to many of these concepts is the art and craft of creating games in which players are engaged by making meaningful decisions. It is the decision to move right or left, to pass versus shoot, or to develop one’s own strategy that makes the game enjoyable to the player. As a game designer, you are never entirely certain of who your audience will be, but you can enter their world and offer a state of focus and concentration on a task that is intrinsically rewarding. This detailed and easy-to-follow guide to game design is for both digital and analog game designers alike and some of its features include: A clear introduction to the discipline of game design, how game development teams work, and the game development process Full details on prototyping and playtesting, from paper prototypes to intellectual property protection issues A detailed discussion of cognitive biases and human decision making as it pertains to games Thorough coverage of key game elements, with practical discussions of game mechanics, dynamics, and aesthetics Practical coverage of using simulation tools to decode the magic of game balance A full section on the game design business, and how to create a sustainable lifestyle within it

Since its release in 2010, Ghost Light: An Introductory Handbook for Dramaturgy has become the international standard for dramaturgy training and practice. As the field of dramaturgy continues to shift and change, this new edition prepares theatre students and practitioners to create powerful, relevant performances of all types.

Reading Shakespeare in the Movies: Non-Adaptations and Their Meaning analyzes the unacknowledged, covert presence of Shakespearean themes, structures, characters, and symbolism in selected films. Writers and directors who forge an unconscious, unintentional connection to Shakespeare’s work create non-adaptations, cinema that is unexpectedly similar to certain Shakespeare plays while remaining independent as art. These films can illuminate core semantic issues in those plays in ways that direct adaptations cannot. Eric S. Mallin explores how Shakespeare illuminates these movies, analyzing the ways that The Godfather, Memento, Titanic, Birdman, and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre take on new life in dialogue with the famous playwright. In addition to challenging our ideas about adaptation, Mallin works to inspire new awareness of the meanings of Shakespearean stories in the contemporary world.