In Articles on
9 January 2012 with Comments Off
Thought I’d do this again. I read 27 books last year, almost exclusively on my Kindle. Below is a list, in order of finish date (latest first). I highlighted five favorites and provided a bit of commentary.
- How to Do Things with Videogames, Ian Bogost
- Lady of Mazes, Karl Schroeder
- The Well-Played Game, Bernie DeKoven
- The Sirens of Titan, Kurt Vonnegut
- Critical Play, Mary Flanagan
- The Scar, China Mieville
- Lord of the Flies, William Golding
- American Gods, Neil Gaiman
- Rework, David Heinemeier Hansson, Jason Fried
- The Road, Cormac McCarthy
- The transmigration of Timothy Archer, Philip K. Dick
- The Divine Invasion, Philip K. Dick
- Vermilion Sands, J. G. Ballard
- The Broom Of The System, David Foster Wallace
- Number9Dream, David Mitchell
- Carter Beats the Devil, Glen David Gold
- Last Call, Tim Powers
- Thoughts on Interaction Design, Jon Kolko
- The Catcher in the Rye, J.D. Salinger
- The great Gatsby, Francis Scott Fitzgerald
- Unit Operations, Ian Bogost
- I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream, Harlan Ellison
- The Dispossessed, Ursula K. Le Guin
- Get Shorty, Elmore Leonard
- The Player of Games, Iain M. Banks
- Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, Philip K. Dick
- The Rational Optimist: How Prosperity Evolves, Matt Ridley
In Weeknotes on
24 December 2010 tagged De Stereoscoop, del.icio.us, Hubbub, Ignite, links, Maguro, Mediamatic, Nederlands Film Festival, NFF, Pinboard, PLAY Pilots, twitter, Weeknotes with 2 comments
And so the last workweek of the year has come to an end. I’ve just wrapped some going-away gifts for Wieger and Sylvan, who have been interns at Hubbub for the past four months. I’ve put together a little survival kit containing everything a junior agent of Hubbub needs to make it out in the big bad world.
It’s been a relatively quiet week, with some work on Maguro, which will kick off properly in the new year when all of the team is back on deck. Alper has started doing some small software prototyping of the basic gameplay. Prototypes over ideas, that’s how I prefer to do things.
I went over to the Netherlands Film Festival to look back on our collaboration as part of the PLAY Pilots project. Seems like we’re both keen to do more work together in 2011, which is nice.
I was at Mediamatic wednesday night to do an Ignite talk on the work that’s been going on at Hubbub. That went quite well (I was glad to have practiced the thing a few times, because the time pressure is killer). I’ll post slides and a transcript to the Hubbub blog soonish.
I managed to squeeze in some shenanigans in the snow too. A nice follow up to last friday’s snow fight, this time I rode a too-fast-for-my-own-good sleigh down the side of the old city fortifications towards the moat and almost collided with a dog and a little kid. I managed to stay dry though. That was fun.
And with that it is time to sign off. I started writing these weeknotes at the beginning of this year and wasn’t at all sure if I would keep it up. Turns out I did, and I have to say it’s been a pleasure to write these for the most part.
Even so, I don’t think I’ll keep writing these here in 2011. Most of my work now happens at Hubbub so I’ll be writing the occasional update over at the blog there.
When it comes to the link posts, I used to do this with Delicious, but like many I’ve made the switch to Pinboard last week. I don’t think I’ll reactivate link posts, so if you want to follow the bookmarks, follow me there.
And of course there’s my personal Twitter account, and the Hubbub one. That might be easiest in fact although maybe a bit overwhelming at times.
All that’s left to say is thank you for reading this, have a merry Christmas a happy new year, and I will catch you again sometime somewhere.
In Weeknotes on
17 December 2010 tagged Christmas, drinks, Hubbub, Maguro, Pampus, PLAY Pilots, Tron Legacy with Comments Off
First at the studio, coffee brewing, Tron Legacy soundtrack playing making this feel like an epic morning. It’s week 182 which means the penultimate workweek of this year. I’m looking forward to a much needed holiday between Christmas and the new year during which I will be completely off the grid. Being disconnected has become a luxury.
Thing are quieting down, but still there’s plenty to do, although things seem a little less fragmented. I basically focused on getting a new project codenamed Maguro off the ground. I signed the contract with the client and briefed the team. We’ll be making a pervasive game aimed at creating a change in the attitude of a large governmental service’s personnel. It’s ambitious and exciting. Good thing I have some very bright minds on the team: Alper, Simon, Karel and Niels. We’ll get started properly next year. Can’t wait.
Besides this I went over to Muiden to attend a demo and presentation of the game my students created for the island of Pampus. There was too much ice in the IJsselmeer so we couldn’t actually go to the island, so the demo was done on a dike with a view of the lake. I took some photos. It was great.
And in between I have been talking to the studios who created the PLAY Pilots live games. Evaluating the project, so that if we get to do it again in the new year (which I am very much hoping we can) we keep doing what we did well, and improve on the things we could have done better.
With that it’s time to sign off and dive into friday. Tonight’s Hubbub Christmas drinks at Kafe België. Very much looking forward to that.
In Links on
14 December 2010 with Comments Off
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A fascinating profile piece on Paul Linebarger aka Cordwainer Smith, psychological warfare specialist as well as writer of subversive science fiction such as Scanners.
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Keita Takahashi on some of his current thinking and of course the lovely, lovely park: "Of course, what I want most from the park is for it to be a space for children and adults, as well as the dogs or squirrels in the park to be able to play, although it might be a little bit dangerous."
In Weeknotes on
13 December 2010 tagged Learning Lab, Maguro, Pampus, PLAY Pilots, This happened – Utrecht, Tweetakt with Comments Off
And then all of a sudden there’s only a few more weeks left in the year. As is usually the case at such a time I’m trying to tie up as many loose ends as I can before taking a one-week break between Christmas and the new year:
I worked with Alper, Simon and Bernard to get the last PLAY Pilots addition out the door. I did a final assessment of the work my students did for Pampus. I worked with Wieger and Sylvan to tweak the very last test they’ll be doing for the Learning Lab metagame…
And then there’s new things, such as Maguro, for which I wrote a briefing and drew up contracts. And Tweetakt 2011, for which I had another meeting to go over production details of the various works on display. I also talked with Ianus and Alexander about the next editions of This happened – Utrecht. So 2011 is a lot on my mind already.
I don’t know if I will keep on keeping these notes next year. I want to free up some time to do other writing, and I think a better place for these status updates is the Hubbub blog, since I have more or less phased out my freelance practice this year and so don’t work under the Leapfrog moniker anymore. We’ll see.
In Links on
12 December 2010 with Comments Off
In Links on
7 December 2010 with Comments Off
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"The single greatest thing Nidhogg does is that it understands how to entertain a crowd as well as its players." a wonderful example of a videogame with performative qualities.
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"Nu nieuwe diensten als Foursquare, Runkeeper en talloze andere ons handelen in data vastleggen, en onze progressie in het leven kunnen meten, zullen onze levens steeds meer aspecten overnemen die we voorheen alleen kenden uit games." Juha snapt het, en legt het lekker helder uit. De tentoonstelling waar dit voor geschreven is (over naturalisme) lijkt me ook de moeite waard.
In Weeknotes on
6 December 2010 tagged Bandjesland, Buta, Learning Lab, Maguro, Pampus, PLAY Pilots, Tweetakt with Comments Off
Last week was packed again. When a few last minute meetings get squeezed in, it usually means trouble. Week number 180 was no exception, which explains the absence of a weeknote on friday. A quick rundown of stuff that went down:
- Wieger and Sylvan worked on a prototype of the Learning Lab metagame, which we presented on friday. Got heaps of feedback, now all that’s left to do is: do a last live test, document the design, write up things we learned throughout the project.
- Together with Irene I spent time detailing a storyboard for a video sketch for project Buta. We met up with Hein on friday, to see if he could be assist us, since he has mad video and motion graphics skills.
- Properly kicked off Maguro on thursday. More on that one soon.
- Did a review of the Pampus project, which is coming along nicely. This friday I’ll do the final assessment of the project, and the week after it’ll be presented to the client so the heat is on.
- We did a “pants down” release of the Bandjesland additions to the PLAY Pilots website. Shame’s a good motivator, so now we have a real incentive to tweak it so we can announce it officially this tuesday.
- I wrote some descriptions of the interactive work that’ll be on display at Tweetakt 2011.
In Links on
3 December 2010 with Comments Off
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"Spy Party is two-player game with one player taking the role of the spy and the other taking the role of the sniper. The spy may be one of any number of party guests, joined by an ambassador and a double agent. The spy has four tasks to complete: Bug the ambassador, steal a statue, transfer a microfilm and contact the double agent. The sniper has just one task: identify and assassinate the spy." This game sounds excellent. I want to play it now.
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"So here it is: all recent urban plans I saw where based on the assumption that some sort of growth (demographic, economic) would propel the city back into the limelight. Now that this assumption has been slashed we need to rethink our urban strategies. What will the city look like in a contracting world?"
In Weeknotes on
26 November 2010 tagged Bandjesland, Buta, Le Guess Who?, Learning Lab, Pampus, PLAY Pilots, This happened – Utrecht, Tweetakt with Comments Off
Another quick weeknote, things are simply too busy. I was going to attend the STRP conference today, for example (which looks great) but have had to cancel. Too much to attend to.
So what’s up?
- We ran This happened – Utrecht #8 last Monday. For a great impression of the evening read this report by Iskander. Video’s will be up soon at the event’s page.
- Work with Alper, Simon and Bernard on the last of the additions to the PLAY Pilots website. The project is nearing its end as the last live game will launch tonight at Le Guess Who?
- A full day of meetings and a session with the Pampus student team at the HKU. I also had the chance to discuss the next steps for project Buta (you know, the thing involving pigs).
- A trip to the Graphic Design Museum to discuss the challenges of exhibiting games.
- Some work with my interns at Hubbub on the Learning Lab metagame. They’ve built a great paper prototype; we’re going to play it today.
- And some talk in between about what happens after PLAY Pilots, as well as about the interactive program for Tweetakt 2011…
