https://oddconley.com/ Recent content on odd Conley Hugo en-us Thu, 12 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://oddconley.com/about/ Thu, 12 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://oddconley.com/about/ <p>odd Conley is a writer and video game developer based just outside Seattle, Washington.</p> <p>Games have been the through-line of their life since their grandfather handed them an Atari controller. That early obsession eventually became a fifteen-year career across four studios, including senior leadership on Magic: Arena at Wizards of the Coast. The work was technically and creatively interesting.</p> <p>That career had hard parts too. Burnout. Exploitative conditions. A slow accumulation of stress that eventually became PTSD and depression. Those experiences turned out to be as formative as the good ones. odd came to care deeply about the people inside creative industries, not just the work they produce. They spent years focused on building sustainable team cultures, mentoring others, and fighting the crunch culture that grinds people down. Those values show up in their fiction whether they intend them to or not.</p> https://oddconley.com/newsletter/ Thu, 12 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://oddconley.com/newsletter/ <p>No algorithms. No middlemen. Just updates delivered directly to you.</p> <p>Expect occasional posts on writing, weird fiction, and the process of getting a book made. When the Kickstarter campaign launches, subscribers hear about it first.</p> <p>That&rsquo;s it. No schedule, no filler, no nonsense. Easy unsubscribe in each newsletter, and no selling your address/data.</p> <p><a href="https://buttondown.com/oddconley">Subscribe on Buttondown</a></p> https://oddconley.com/book/ Thu, 12 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://oddconley.com/book/ <p>Somewhere, somewhen, there is an arcade. It is larger on the inside than it has any right to be. A group of strangers find themselves unable to leave. The arcade has rules that no one fully understands. Attention appears to have weight. Faith has a way of leaving marks.</p> <p><em>The Play Never Ends: An Arcadeia Arcanum Novel</em> is a weird fiction novel about belief. About leadership and what it costs. About the communities we build and what participating in them does to us.</p> https://oddconley.com/license/ Thu, 12 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://oddconley.com/license/ <p><em>The Play Never Ends: An Arcadeia Arcanum Novel</em> was written to be read — but it was also written to be shared, reused, and built upon. The story is one expression of a larger fictional world, and that world is intentionally open.</p> <p>Here is what that means in practical terms.</p> <hr> <h2 id="what-you-are-welcome-to-do">What You Are Welcome To Do</h2> <p>You are free to write new stories set in the Arcadeia Arcanum universe. You can use its characters, locations, ideas, and lore as a starting point for your own work. This includes:</p>