Crowd + Games = Great Success!

The Indie Games Scene Showcase and Mixer went even better than we had hoped. Thanks to everyone who came along, and a huge thanks to Minh (OneTwenty Event Organiser) for making it all happen!

There was a great crowd:

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There were great games:

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There was Great Success:

dscf2024

At the end of this week, we will be announcing details of the next event. After talking to a lot of people last night, we feel that running events on a monthly basis is the right sort of frequency (so we’ll aim for that!).

Showcase and Mixer is on tonight!

Just a reminder that the (Perth) Indie Games Scene Showcase and Mixer is on tonight! (7:30pm at The Velvet Lounge in Mount Lawley.)

A few people have inquired about the format for the evening. There will be table-space for local game developers to demonstrate their work. Aside from that, it will be a fairly casual event for good conversations over food and drinks.

There will be brief announcements at 8:00pm to formally kick things off (after people have had a little while to setup), and again at 9:30pm to start winding things down.

Hope to see you there!

Click to (re)start

Inspired by Chris’ minimalist platformer, I made a minimalist flash game.

I mostly wrote it to learn Haxe (it was my first real Haxe program after “Hello World“), but I quite like it:

I’m drawn to the concept of games that only last a few seconds, are something that you might share with other people, but not anything that you can enjoy repeatedly… kinda like witty comments or lame jokes.

This game is a one-trick pony that gets old immediately. Is that a bad thing?

Xtranormal

I just found out about Xtranormal via Rockethands‘ (rather detailed) Vision Statement video. It’s pretty crazy awesome!

I made this video using their neat in-browser creation tool:

The technology has a fair way to go, but it really feels like a precursor to the way that movies will be made (or at least prototyped) in future.

It’s an excellent example of technology empowering individual creative efforts!

Update: I decided to make a series of videos! Here’s part two:

Update: Hmmm… couldn’t stop. Episode 3 is available now as well. Check out my Xtranormal profile page.

Update: Looks like viewing at Xtranormal doesn’t work unless you have an account. I might just export to YouTube. For now, I’ll embed videos here. Here’s Episode 3:

Apologies

I felt awful after being a jerk to Heidi the other day, and (while she was at work) I spent the afternoon trying to figure out how to show that I was sorry.

I tried the following things:

  • I bought flowers and set them in the vase on the dining table
  • I cleaned the mysterious black mark on the floor
  • I polished the (chalky) olives we collected from the garden
  • I bought milk (which I often forget) and hot-cross buns (Heidi loves them)
  • I cleaned the house (a bit)

Here are some photos of things that I tried (because I like photos):

attempts

They all seemed like not quite enough (even when combined into a sort of composite apology). Finally (in desperation), I drew this picture of Kevin Rudd:

dscf1997-modified-in-gimp-image-editor

I figured that he’s good at saying “sorry” when others fail to do so properly, and he sounds sincere when talking about committment. Sigh.

When I picked Heidi up from work she was just happy to see me (even before I showed her the picture of Kevin). She’s wonderful.

Large format photo printing

I’m getting some photos printed and blockmounted for my joint exhibition next month. I sent an image over to docuprint (in Fremantle) for a proof which I hope to check out on Tuesday.

They mentioned that their printing technique has better long-term colour retention, but that the colours may not be as vibrant as those produced by other printing options. I hope the proof is suitable for my pieces. If all goes well, I’ll be getting quite a few photos printed.

I’ll post a few results when they come through. Simon is getting his digital paintings printed on canvas (which I also considered). Anyone out there have experience with any particular printing services (in Western Australia)?

Jinh & Tonic

I’ve previously joked with Jim, Minh, and Tone that if we ever start a company, we should call it “Jinh & Tonic”.

This time I went so far as to make a logo:

jinh-tonic

I reckon it’s classy. Tone reckons it’s “kinda gay”. I don’t like the term “kinda gay” since it implies a negative value judgement on homosexuality… and now I’ve just made this post a little too serious.

Anyhow, I like the logo. It’s classy. Like a James Bond film. Misogynistic and glamourising alcohol, smoking, and gambling. Hmmm… too serious again…

It’s like TortoiseSVN for Linux!

I’ve recently been using NautilusSVN, which is described on the project homepage as:

NautilusSvn is a Python extension for Nautilus which integrates a load of Subversion functionality into the GNOME Nautilus file manager, basically as a clone of the TortoiseSVN project on Windows.

Here’s a screenshot:

nautilussvn_blog

It’s only up to version 0.12, but it’s already very easy to download and install, featured packed, and I haven’t experienced any issues.

Conclusion: Highly Recommended.

Teh Learning Curve

A few friends of mine over at Teh Learning Curve have just released the first episode of their video game review show.

Here’s a blurb from their site:

Episode 1: Rise of the Argonauts

Our pilot episode, needless to say it’s a little rough around the edges! At this stage we were just testing out our tech and some show ideas, but hopefully you will find the core concept of the show still intact and enjoyable.

I like the format and hope to see their personal styles evolve more as the show goes on. I also want to see less short shorts; or at least shorts that are a different colour to the couch so that you are constantly reaffirmed that they are there!

I think that Dan described the show as something like America’s Got Talent for video games. They have the funny guy, the harsh critic (although Dan could try on a British accent), but now they just need a pretty artist (sorry Scott…).