Category: Links

A new site launched by Khoi Vinh of Subtraction that features 200 word design opinion pieces. Good idea, well executed. I like.

A few hotshots have gotten together and drafted a very sensible list of rights every user of a social website should be entitled to. I don’t see anything I disagree with, but do wonder how easy it’s going to be to sell to clients. (Not that I won’t try.)

A new journal dedicated to computer game culture. Some of the content looks interesting, like things on Shadow of the Colossus and Electroplankton.

“Dopplr is like the iPod of social networks.” – Now that’s a great sound-bite. Congrats to the Dopplr team for getting funded.

Habbo has paid close attention to machinima I guess. They have a tool with which you can make your own movies in game and are now running a contest.

I love these cute playful plates that encourage adults and children alike to have some fun with their food. Via Pixelsumo.

These abstract shooters make me want to own a PC again. Can’t wait to get my MacBook and try these.

Have been using Reader for quite a while but somehow never found this great little bookmarklet that lets you skip through new items in their original form right in your browser. Have set this to command-1 in Camino and am loving it. Via James.

There’s a lot of discussion going on about Twitter Blocks. I don’t think interfaces have to be functionalist and utilitarian. Having a playful way of exploring data like Twitter’s (which is quite frivolous in and of itself) makes sense to me.

“There are some things we’re just not good at and shouldn’t even attempt. A love story, for example!” GSW blogs Warren Spector’s questions to judge a game idea. Good stuff, but surprising he dismisses a whole genre as a bad idea!

All the Bad Game Designer – No Twinkie! columns by Ernest W. Adams in one place, indexed on topic. Great resource for anti-patterns in game design.

Interesting little casual Flash game that uses the concept of karma as its inspiration. Deceptively tricky to complete.

Saffer has started to collect patterns for gestural interactions in a wiki. Might come in handy next time I teach my mobile game design course.

Cool video remix contest for Picnic ‘hosted’ by Dutch electronica producer Eboman. Via Hessel.

Karsten has some interesting starting points for people interested in Google’s possible descent into evilness.

Jones posts the answers from his Facebook contacts to the question “Toys or Stories?” Interesting stuff (and useful for my upcoming presentation). My vote would be for toys, of course.

Home of a pretty sweet piece of software that allows you to lock your MacBook similar to using a car alarm.

Infographics of a number of coffee specialties. Pretty nifty! Via Alper.

Moll has released his book on mobile web design as a PDF. I wonder if it’s any good. Will check out the preview sample soon.

Pretty sweets IxDA shirt. Might need to get one of these. Thanks to Leisa for the link.

In de comments een interessante discussie over de (on)zin van subsidie van conferenties, startups en onderwijs in de Nederlandse internetbranche. Via Iskander.

Anyone participating in this crazy game design contest? Max. resolution of 256×256 and use an Xbox 360 controller. There’ll be a party in Montreal… Via Edwin.

“Makes Google Notifier show Growl notification bubbles whenever new email arrives in your Gmail inbox.”

This post links to a recording of Will Wheaton’s keynote at the Penny Arcade Expo 2007 (PAX07). His speech is mostly a celebration of geekdom, but he also makes some good points on how gaming is inherently a social activity. Via David.

Finally got around to skimming this article on the apparent reasons people use Twitter. Also in here is a rough taxonomy of Twitter user types and some suggestions for improvement, such as allowing for groups or groupings and facilitating conversations.

For some nice examples of how to communicate concepts in a different way from the usual slide deck, check out this post from Schulze & Webb on the posters they developed for the BBS outlining their ideas on mobile media. Love the graphic design on these.

This little indie game is making some ways in the game design & development scene currently. It’s a platform game without an overarching plot, apparently with very nice art, sound and controls.

Handy AppleScript to send an URL from any browser to del.icio.us link posting app Pukka (using Quicksilver for instance). Too bad it doesn’t send the title of the page too.

This looks interesting: a toy dog with an RFID reading nose called Sniff. Meant to be used in play by visually impaired children.

Very weird-looking game footage of a shooter taking place in a shadowy world conceived by Michel Gagné. The smooth animation is particularly noteworthy. Via Hessel.

Cool interactive info-graphic for The New York Times’ feature on China’s pollution problems.

Short piece on how the corrupted blood epidemic in WoW helped scientists to gain insight into the social aspects of epidemics. It will be published in the prestigious medical journal Lancet.

This post on Adaptive Path’s Charmr project contains a movie that’s a nice example of how to visualize an experience design concept. A bit too commercial-y for my tastes, but I guess that’s the point.

First in a very worthwhile 4-part exchange between two video game journalists on the renaissance of small casual short-session games.

The Sandbox is a theme for themers. It has the ability to be easily skinned, so beginners will feel comfortable styling it since they only need to know CSS. More experienced designers will drool at the rich semantic markup and profusion of classes, dynami

Entertaining article that profiles the creators of Penny Arcade. Haven’t read that comic for a while but seems those guys have been doing OK, outdoing E3 in attendance, for instance.

This O’Reilly Radar post contains an eye-opening video of Eben Moglen expressing a partisan view at O’Reilly’s 2007 OSCON on the relative importance of open source compared to the rights conflicts created in a free software world.

“No matter how much advertising agencies spend on photos of lithe women lolling by the pool with their PSPs, […] the image of the secluded, oblivious gamer will remain.”

Fun look at the Vibri trilogy. Three games that are related in an unconventional way, all very creative.

An analysis by a new indie game developer of their options for bootstrapping the company. Their conclusion is to go with Flash and Kongregate. Includes a nice comparison chart.