Category: General

Everything that doesn’t fit into any other category.

Storm

Another lazy post, but hopefully this video makes up for it:

I never really got Tim Minchin, but I enjoyed this and his narration of Shaun Tan’s The Lost Thing (currently on ABC iView for a few more days).

Crazy crazy crazy last few weeks

It’s been a crazy last few weeks.

Minh, Simon, and I have been working on our web start-up Guts Up! which has subsequently become part of a much larger venture with Justin (our business development guy) pulling in contacts and lining up all sorts of stuff.

We’re now looking to form a parent company and various subsidiaries with very specific business models (one of them being Guts Up! with a focus on web development). We don’t really like to think about it in those terms though. Essentially, we are a deeply committed team and we want to collaborate with other people when it makes sense. So we’re viewing the parent as a band or record label (but less like The Man) and the subsidiaries as collaborations.

It all feels very exciting and we’re getting an amazing amount of stuff done each day. The lunch-time conversations and camaraderie are fantastic. Perhaps more important is how we resolve problems when they arise. We all want this venture to succeed, so we raise concerns with little reserve and work together to resolve them quickly. It can be a bit emotional at times (since we’re very passionate), but we produce much better outcomes and get to know each other on a deeper level.

I could write more about the last few weeks, but I’ll just list some practical tips:

  1. Work the same hours at the same location
  2. Write about what you are doing while you are doing it
  3. Talk to people (in person, on the phone, or over Skype)
  4. Have some methodology and time-frames (we use Agile)
  5. Share a vision for what you want to be (individually and as a group)
  6. Your gut feeling is right 99% of the time

Some of the above tips may be pretty specific to us (eg. other people may be super-productive even when working remotely), but I would imagine that they would apply to lots of other people.

The relevance of the last tip may be conditional on your having a highly-developed gut. I guess what I was getting at is: don’t work with people or on projects that give you a bad vibe. Assuming that you’re not a judgemental jerk, there’s probably a good reason for the bad vibe.

Web development intrigues me

Minh, Simon, and I are working on a new project to explore web development. Our goal is essentially to become super-proficient with web technology so that we can create exciting web-based media. When we have the skills to efficiently realise our ideas and deliver them to the web, we will have achieved our goal!

If you want to follow what we’re doing, we’ve started a group tumblog for project updates: http://gutsup.tumblr.com/

To be honest, I never really though much of web development while I was at university. It just didn’t seem hardcore enough (likewise regarding databases). I was all into real-time rendering and computer graphics. I also didn’t really understand the need for XML (Why try to make data human-readable? It’ll always be interpreted by a program right?).

Over the last few years, I’ve become increasingly interested in web technology. I think it’s because of the accessibility and universality of it all. I can access websites from pretty much anywhere, and on a whole bunch of different devices. Nothing to install. Nothing to maintain. On top of that, there is a huge amount of content online. The web is far and away my favourite source of media.

Complimenting my increasing usage of all things online, I’ve seen a marked decline in my consumption of all other forms of media. I don’t watch TV. I don’t buy CDs (I prefer Grooveshark). I dislike buying games on physical media (I don’t want more stuff!). I even dislike installing programs on my computer and portable devices. Just give me a browser and an Internet connection, and I’m happy.

Bearing all that in mind, it feels very natural to want to work in web development. It’s the cutting edge. It’s the future. It’s relevant. Moreover, it’s a fantastic time to be developing for the web: consider HTML5, CSS3, Javascript – and more specifically the Audio, Video, and Canvas elements, and WebGL.

I really enjoyed developing my HTML5 game, “It’s Lonely Being Alive“, and I want to find out what else I can do in a web browser. It’s great to know that I can produce stuff quickly, and easily link it to the rest of the web. I want my media anywhere and at any time, and as a result I only want to produce work that can be delivered in that way.

There’s been a decline in traditional media consumption and massive consolidation in the “AAA” games industry. I’m guessing it’s because online media is dominating consumer interest. I know that most of the time I’d rather browse the web than play games or watch television, and I can’t see that changing.

Bring on the future! Oh wait, it’s already here. 🙂

Interactive storytelling

I recently encountered two interesting examples of interactive storytelling.

The first is “1979: The Game”, a work that explores the history of Iran in 1979, during the Iranian Revolution. Russia Today interviewed the creative force behind the game, Iranian-born American Navid Khonsari (of Ink Stories).

Here’s a video:

And here is an quote on why the game is set in Iran – touching upon how games can present a unique form of engaging interactive storytelling:

I became to realise that there’s a number of different sides to a story, and that this aspect if introduced in a game kinda revolutionises the way we play games.

It’s not a matter of good guys going after bad guys or bad guys going after good guys. It’s a matter of a whole bunch of people in a number of different colours, whether they’re Iranian, American, pro-democracy, pro-theocracy. Whether they want to just make money on the side by sneaking in alcohol, or whether they want to make sure that everyone follows the religious rules of Islam.

These are all different stories, and to be able to actually convey that and let people interact as those players, I thought would just open up this entire genre of gaming.

The key point is that games can allow players to make meaningful decisions to guide the narrative. Rather than have the authors’ views (explicitly) imposed upon them, players form their own unique experience. This approach may make the game more like a documentary film.

I generally feel that player experience will be guided somewhat (often implicitly as a result of game design decisions; I wrote about this in a post on narrative in Minecraft), but players can explore a wide range of roles and reach their own conclusions as to the effects and merits of their actions.

Khonsari later talks about how “there are no good guys” to which Anastasia Churkina inquires “In the game, or in the real world?”. Khonsari’s response:

In the real world, in the real world. In games it might exist, but games are really a reflection of what we’re seeing in entertainment, what we’re seeing in politics.

The second example is “Touching Stories” by Tool of North America.

Here’s a video:

Clearly this work is coming at the convergence of games and film from the other direction (film), and it appears to be more of an exploration of how interactive elements can be used to interface with a branching story (rather than completely empowering players to make difficult moral choices).

Still the limited interactivity is probably more to do with subject matter and technology (filmed scenes rather than simulated 3D environment). Most of the appeal of this project come down to the high production values and focus on an accessible user interface and playful interaction, and I feel that this project has the potential to open up interactive storytelling to a wide market of people who wouldn’t ordinarily play video games.

I feel that the most intriguing characteristic of video games is the option for players to essentially write their own stories. Game designers essentially write meta-stories – frameworks within which players are invited to contribute to events as partners.

In many games, the player contributes little more than slowly progressing the story and there tend to be negative ramifications if the player acts against the game designers’ intent. However, games have the capacity for much more and I’m glad to see mainstream developers pushing games in that direction.

Concept to pitch for X|Media|Lab Perth

I spent yesterday at a workshop presented by the Department of Culture and the Arts, ScreenWest, and Murdoch University. It was called: Digital workshop: from concept to pitch.

Here’s a blurb from the event webpage:

Spend a day with digital professionals and workshop a hypothetical digital project from concept to pitch. You will work as part of a small team of creatives, mentored by digital pros and at the conclusion of the day you will have the skills and knowledge to prepare a digital project submission for X|Media|Lab Perth 2011.

I didn’t have many expectations at the start of the day. Primarily, I figured that various pitched crossmedia projects may require some game development work and I wanted to let participants know about the local game development community and Let’s Make Games.

After a brief registration process and introductions, we broke out into assigned teams (which involved more introductions) and started working on project concepts. My team decided to get behind a concept I suggested involving a think-global-act-local-cultural-exchange-competitive-activism crossmedia reality program.

At the end of the day, we won the People’s Choice Award (which was nice). More interesting though was that the winner of the Mentors’ Award (presumably for project most suitable for X|Media|Lab and the X|Media|Lab Perth Development Award) was a video game.

It’s no surprise that the game project won. It was a very well designed and pitched project with a clear market, positive social impact, and a number of potential funding partners. It looks like a lot of good clean edutainment fun, and I hope that the game is eventually developed in Perth by local developers. 🙂

So it’s not surprising, but it is interesting. Mostly because the funding agencies involved (DCA and ScreenWest) do not currently support funding of games.

Consider this excerpt from ScreenWest’s Terms of Trade (written in July 2009):

3.4 ScreenWest doesn’t provide development funding for:

h) Development of Computer Games.

So what does this all mean?

Clearly, attitudes towards games are changing – not just within the general public, but also within the screen industry. I’m very glad that a game won the Mentors’ Award, and I hope that this is an indicator that games will soon no longer be excluded from funding in Western Australia.

Overall, the workshop was invigorating and reinforced a feeling of opportunity for different media professionals to work together. I met some great people who inspired me with their work, and I felt that I could positively contribute in many areas. Thanks to the organisers and participants!

Cuddly cat + beard

I was lying down, reading comics on my iPod, when Pete came up for a cuddle.

So as not to upset him, I ended up with my arm in an awkward position for ages. Then I had to contort my other arm in order to take this photo:

In related news, I have a beard now… although I may shave it off tomorrow. Also, the scar above my eye is surprisingly clear in this grainy photo.

It’s lonely being alive (game)

I made a game for Global Game Jam. Check it out at:

Here’s a teaser image:

And some text from the game opening:

After sucking the life out of our planet to fuel our consumption… we left in the hope that we could find life elsewhere.

We wanted to keep living (in the manner to which we had become accustomed).

Life in a luxury capsule isn’t so bad… right?

More details are included on the game page on the Global Game Jam website. (I think that you can vote for me and stuff there…)

Update: Oh, I should mention that it works in Chrome/Chromium, Safari, and (kinda in) Firefox. Performance is best in Chrome/Chromium.

Update: Fixed the embed over at the Global Game Jam site, and changed linked above to point there (click on the “play” link on the linked page).