About

What is SCRATCH FACTORY?

Well, not necessarily the easiest question to answer. But the idea involves stuff like craftsmanship, scrabbling stuff together out of whatever's lying around, messiness, embracing imperfection, hand-made, full of personality and well, not too terribly serious.

Because that describes us pretty well, actually.

Who is SCRATCH FACTORY?

Pretty much just Corey. He works in software though he doesn't know much about computers, and lives in Toronto though he doesn't own a suit.

Kind of a mix of stuff here. When are you going to settle down?

Yeah, sorry about that. We're interested in lots of things and not particularly good at any of them. Hey, nobody forced you to read this.

Are you good at ANYTHING?

Having been involved in writing, editing and game design for more than twenty years, I've learned at least a few things.
  • Writing: produced plays and screenplays, published RPG work and magazine articles. Taught English for five years. Run a Technical Writing department professionally.
  • Editing: editor on several magazines, founder of Editorial Board at an office I used to work at. Very strong reviewing, proofreading and copyediting skills.
  • Game Design: been adapting and homebrewing game systems for twenty years, beginning with original D&D and including other game systems such as GURPS, Hero, Toon, Shadowrun, James Bond and a host of others. Strong skills in rules presentation and organization.
  • Project Management: whether in software development or film production, I've been instigating, shepherding, guiding and delivering projects successfully for many years now.

Uh-huh. And..?

It's weird the stuff that comes in handy somedays.
  • Literature: Special emphasis on Romantic poetry and Arthurian literature, and of course fantasy writing (particular favourites include Fritz Leiber, Steven Brust, Steven Erikson and Glenn Cook).
  • Design, Typography, Layout: Done layout and design for both web and print projects. Reasonably familiar with PageMaker, InDesign, Photoshop, Illustrator and so on.
  • Martial Arts: First-degree black belts in Kendo and Katori Shinto Ryu kobudo. Also studied Nakayama-kai KoAikido. That means I'm not much for actual self-defence, but I might surprise the heck out of a 16th-century samurai should I ever run into one. I've got my fingers crossed, cause wouldn't that be cool?
  • Software Development: Been running software development teams for going on six years now. Very experienced in all stages of the work, from architecture to code to testing to release.
  • Movies: Write and direct short films, and have a reasonably encyclopedical knowledge of cinema. Special areas of interest include action films from both Hollywood and Hong Kong, and stuff where people fight with swords.
  • Macintosh Computers: Me and the Mac go back right to 1986. Wouldn't use anything else at home, though nearly my entire working career has been on Windows. I've even done a little Konfabulator programming for Macintosh: