Van dropped off the full script for the Automata Kickstarter a couple weeks ago, and when I was downstairs with him a little while ago carving through the first rewrite, I thought, "I should put all the big stuff into one post for people who might be interested. So yes! Here you go:

Removing Peter Dinklage and using Nolan North going forward in Destiny is something I can't readily find an analogue for. It's the sort of thing hundreds of developers would do, if they could; a do-over. What I say in the strip is true, though: I will miss the original in a weird way. The structure of Destiny means that you go back through content all the time, and its success is in creating a kind of mantra out of its gameplay. When Gabe and I are in a mission, we say the lines along with him, or we respond to him like it's a conversation - it's Rocky Horror Picture Show in space, with guns.

I have a card in the new Hearthstone expansion The Grand Tournament, and it just got announced today. Check out the Master Jouster!

Applications for the Penny Arcade Scholarship are now open! Each year Penny Arcade recognizes one student with great potential to impact the game industry in some capacity with a $10,000 academic scholarship. Applicants come from many walks of life and disciplines, but they share the same passion for games and the games community. There are a few requirements:

Dabe did it up, I handled some Clocktalk for the arm, and you can see it on the official Kickstarter page. It's pretty fuckin' rad. Only six days left to go on this thing!

I think I already talked about it, but then, I've been talking to you here for the better part of twenty years; I've already mentioned a lot of things. Having been to Australia a couple times, the time difference seems bad but in practice it's so fucking bad that it only ends up being a couple hours. Scotland is not like that. It just puts you in exactly the wrong part of Pacific Standard Time and now you're fucked.

Dabe has delivered a new shirt design that I find hits a bit too close to home.

I have three pieces of PAX related news to share with you.

Nightlight is wrapped up now and for those who have no idea what’s going on, I posted a breakdown in the forum.

Grace, Part Six can be found here.

For some reason I have a bunch of writer friends. In fact now that I think about it, I probably know more writers than I do visual artists. I like writers because they always get very excited when they see drawings based on their stories. Taking the ideas they have in their heads and turning them into pictures is like a magic trick to many writers. Maybe that's why I like them so much. When I hang out with writers I'm the best artist in the room!

If you live in Australia then it is already tomorrow but that's just your today so don't freak out. That means you're "Tomorrow" (Friday, July 31) is the last day to snag badges at the Early Bird Rate. So you should do that!

Grace, Part Five can be found here.

Our Automata Kickstarter is just about funded and we have just posted a new update over on the site. We've added another pin design as an optional ADD-ON. Here's the design:

This Friday is the last day to get the early bird discount on your PAX Aus tickets. Three day badges are 100% sold out now but you can still pick up individual day badges. I've flown to Australia twice now and I have to say, 20 hours in the air is not my favorite thing in the world. With that said, I absolutely love Melbourne. If you have any tips for making the flight more humane I'd love to hear them. Right now I pass the time by alternating between trying unsuccessfully to sleep and watching movies I didn't want to watch when they were in theaters.

I’m back from almost two weeks of vacation and I feel great. we spent a few days camping here in Washington and then drove over to Idaho and spent another week at a lake cabin in Coeur D’Alene. I drew the first three Nightlight strips before I left but left the fourth for when I got home. I was struggling with the fourth comic because I wasn’t sure what I wanted the monsters in this world to look like. I knew I wanted them to come in all shapes and sizes but I was looking for some theme to tie them all together. When I left for my vacation I had no clue what that theme would be.