Category: Links

“I’m betting on open. The Internet was designed around redundant, self-healing networks that could route around the catastrophic damage of thermonuclear war. I’m feeling pretty good about its ability to outlast the latest hotshot startup from Palo Alt

Ideas on how to include mastery tracking into scenario based software design methodologies.

(Am bookmarking some stuff that was sitting around in Yojimbo.) About how Bungie have gone about evaluating the playability of Halo 3 using instrumented game levels and so on.

Vanderwal on what’s needed to move tagging forward, thoughts on monitoring and analysis and enterprise use.

Lamantia on tagging’s future: “…tagging will follow two paths to varying degrees. The first path leads tagging to become commercialized as a recognized part of the technology ecosystem … The second path leads tagging to open source legitimacy”

Gamma 256 competition entry by my pal Hessel. An experimental shmup where the background and explosions behave as a cellular automaton/game of life/reactive grid.

This morning I played this open source rhythm action game on Jacob’s iPhone. Needs a little work on the visual feedback side, but great proof of concept.

Boyd starts blogging for Blyk. The Shift 6 blog is a corporate blog done right. I totally agree that “we need to develop applications that allow for social interaction at a mobile level” and wonder what she thinks of the Playyoo approach.

“Still more fundamentally, the mass of guilt that weighs upon the field deadens our conferences. That guilt arises from the divergence of what we like from what we think we should like.”

Next year’s The Web And Beyond will focus on mobility. Looking forward to it.

“Just a few very basic Processing examples that show how to use a Class with a Constructor, displaying multiple objects and then tweening them across the stage.”

Might visit the exhibition that goes with this workshop. Finally some hardware hacking goodness in CPH.

David reviews the W910i, which might be the phone that will finally have me switch from Nokia to Sony Ericsson.

“Is it a game, or is it real?” “What’s the difference?” On games becoming a dominant cultural force.

A list of the five most influential people in the development of virtual worlds and MMOs, according to Bartle.

Playyoo blogged in Smart Mobs. Very nice.

A web based strategy game. Looks good. Have requested an invite.

Some coverage of the Nottingham Gamecity Festival with specific focus on Weewar by Alexander Kohlhofer of Soda. Another great example of the blurring of the edge between the social web and games.

Looks like a different take on the old discussion forum. Might be useful for current/upcoming projects.

Coverage of a keynote by Keita Takahashi of Katamari fame presenting his upcoming PS3 title Nobi-Nobi Boy.

Punsalan points out which Leopard features have taken obvious cues from 3rd party apps.

Slightly old but still useful list of RFID resources.

More RFID goodness collected by Alexandra for Tinker.it – a design and technology consultancy based in Milan, London and Amsterdam.

“Designing Happy is a set of guidelines which identifies some key tips that design work can incorporate so that the design is better positioned to be productive in the manifestation of happiness and contibute to our wellbeing.”

These games teach you physics and are very well done. Also includes a level editor and sharing of your own creations with friends.

More or less randomly ran into this page showcasing a Teddy-like piece of software geared towards the intuitive design of plush toys.

Blocks with LEDs in them that ‘magically’ communicate with each other. Near future toys, in other words, released under a Creative Commons license. Not too convinced by the game examples but think there’s potential here.

“This website attempts to walk you through the long and diverse history of a particular aspect of human endeavour: The translation of ideas, stories and concepts that are largely textual and/or word based into a visual format, i.e. visual communication.”

Very interesting “Collaborative Production Game” that seems to be designed in a pretty nifty manner. The site describes its working in great detail, so it’s a good learning tool for game designers involved with similar projects.

Coverage from the Escapist on Project Horseshoe – a game design retreat that gathers some of the brightest minds in the field to tackle hard problems.

Figures… Something interesting going on in Utrecht while I’m out of town. Luckily this biennale on social design continues well into 2008 so will have the chance to visit when home for the holidays. Go Utrecht! Via Alexandra.