gewgaw

What would happen if a Sim realized… they were a Sim?

Go here and select Movies… The Awakening. A funny take on the afterlife and the Sims that shows you just how much work fans will do to make machinima.

Wow!

From Scott – who dug it up during research for a History of Animation course he’s teachign at DePaul:

“The public has seen too many trains, trams, and autobuses. And with the exception of a few films whose humor is too French to please the British, one could say that no one up to now has begun to exploit the possibilities of moving pictures, to make us laugh, cry, or be amazed.”

– Robert W. Paul, British film pioneer, 1898

This goes to Checker’s point about rants vs. raves. How often do you get to be at the beginning of a medium’s development? Fantastic opportunities abound!

Souris’ photos are up – beating me to the punch once again! Go Team HP!

The summary of EGW ‘06 is up now – a truely fantastic show that once again exceeded expectations.

My favorite presentation was the GH review of improvisational features (see my small movie here), followed by Braid, and Everyday Shooter. But even then, it’s hard to choose a favorite. Everyone was just inspiring as hell, and I can not wait to see what next year brings!

Plan early – get started… make something cool for EGW 07!!

So – I am at the grocery store after work, shopping for dinner. I am thinking I’ll call Mark and ask him to come by and catch up on GDC in general. And while I’m there, I figure I’ll stop by the magazine rack to look at interior decorating stuff – a subject (that you can imagine) comes up quite a bit at Maxis.

And that’s when I realize that the new ish of Dwell is out, which features SILVIO (see finger pointer in photo above) and his lovely cat in the Team HP kitchen! Wow – small world!

But then… I see that Will’s guest edit issue of Wired is out, with Warren and others inside! CRAZY SMALL WORLD!!!

And THEN, when Mark arrives – he tells me that Jane M. is in Lucky – with a 2-page spread on “gagets in my bag”!

OMFG! Games and Game Developers are taking over the world!!!

GDC made me very happy this year.

Perhaps I was just looking forward to a break from work (it sort of stood in for my holiday vacation) – but I think it was more than that.

Being a developer makes a difference in how I feel about other developers. Things that I talked with people about last year (when I was mostly an “academic”) were somehow … closer to my heart. Now that I’m actually making games each day, I feel a kindship with people that’s gone far beyond my prior (intellectual) understanding of the process of development.

And it’s kinda nice!

The end result was many smiles and laughs – and some great photos. More later in the week, when I get a chance to parse them…

So just after GDC each year Lulu throws a party that doubles as a secondary birthday celebration. And for the last two years, Team HP has provided a stunning game-themed cake!

And it was sooooo yummy! Muchas Gracias! It is indeed *you* who rock!

Ahh, sleep. I missed you!

Here is the first of several posts about GDC ‘06 – the content of Jon Blow’s rant, complete with slides. Jon’s presentations at EGW and the rant were totally inspiring to me. He’s an excellent person, with fantastic talents and a huge heart.

And really, that goes for a whole lot of my fellow developers. I can not say enough how proud I was of Checker, Chaim, Will, Carol, Neil and Clint … as well as the entire Game Design Tutorial and ranting panel participants this year! Between rants, raves, indie games and corporate innovation strategies – they all showed up with something really fantastic to share with fellow developers.

Way to go, people! Little by little – we change this industry for the better!!!

Cooking secret: How to peel a potato without much work at all!

• Article on StarForce anti-copying badness in games…
• A related story and interview…
• A list of games that use StarForce.

As a treat, I went and got my hair cut today. YAY!!

Since I moved to SF I’ve been less than pleased with my haircuts. I was really spoiled by Sevren and Susan at Art+Science in Chicago – and it has been difficult to transition into a new stylist. Beyond having to pay a TON for the same service, I have just not felt inspired by the color and cuts I got since I moved here.

However – I believe that those days have passed! Aaron, who is a neighbor here in Diamond Heights, stopped me in the street a few weeks back and asked if I would be interested in a free cut. While I had to pass (scheduling stuff), I finally went to see him at the salon, and got a super stylish cut for only $25 bucks! If you are in the bay area and looking for a friendly stylist with good technique – he’s your man!

Aaron Grenia
Patrick Richards Salon
3631 Sacramento
San Francisco, CA 94118

PS: Have you ever tried google imaging haircut? Look at all those smiling faces! All that hair!

The WOW/LGBT guild debacle has finally made it to the Washington Post!

“Why do we [play as a lesbian couple]?” she asks. “Why wouldn’t we?”

Congrats to Constance and Rod for getting some great quotes into the piece!

Rep-rahhhh-zent!!!

Two blips on the “innovation is everything” radar:

1) A good article on the Revolution and what Nintendo faces moving forward with current-gen hardware and next-gen designs.

2) A blurb in Business Week about EA’s own plans for dealing with the same problem.

And look at that reader feedback! I wonder how long it’s going to be before our PR department hires people to comment on sites like this…

*shudder*

Ok so after posting about Etsy I did some poking around and OMFG!

Anka thought that her new job at the Computer Technology Lab would be a big step up from Ye Olde Pasta Factory where she spent many years in production. But they just cut her health benefits package, and the data entry does nothing for her recurrent carpal tunnel. She still enjoys the color pink though, and she’s hoping that someone will come out with a new shade of elastic bandage that will match her outfits.

Anka is crocheted (amigurumi) from a variety of yarns, and stuffed with polyester filling. She is 12.5 inches (32 cm) long.

She has some delicate stitching and is recommended for older children and adults. Her elastic bandage is removeable.

Anka is #4 Injury Series.

Other favorites include Mort, Trent, and Matt (who I bought).

See more here… but beware. They are hard to resist!

I have been thinking a lot about the concept of quality in games. Measuring quality is a huge issue in most industries, but it’s especially difficult with consumer entertainment products. So often, we end up focusing on short-term results and leaving the long view to others…

My dad had been very good to talk to about this stuff. Consider this snippet from a recent email:

“When you can measure what you are speaking about you know something about it; but when you can not measure it, when you cannot express it in numbers, your knowledge is of a meager and unsatisfactory kind…”

–Lord Kelvin

Think about it this way… the short term consequences are measurable and visible if you had an unfavorable variance in delivery or budget, but the immediate impact of quality deficiencies is hard to know. Longer term, however, chronic deficiencies in quality are likely to erode reputation, image, market share and revenues. Being a few dollars over budget or a few months beyond scheduled delivery will generally not have the same debilitating impact.

Using General Motors and ford as examples, the leaders had to change their perspectives when Japanese cars started eating up market share (still are) and when J. D. Power started gaining high publicity for measurable aspects of warrantee and customer satisfaction after sale. Car maker started measuring defects in parts-per-million… discovering that 2% defective is 20,000 failures per million operations.

This is a big part of the management message that I’ve tried to promote as a consultant. Have achieved limited overall progress, but created some “points of light”.

That’s my dad. Taking on the world’s waste and mismanagement with one big quote and an even bigger heart.

Am I, essentially, doing the same thing?

Wednesday is my birthday – and what better way to say YAY than with…

I *heart* Etsy. They’ve got cool magnets, sooper gloves and… so much more…. it’s hard to know where to start! Overall, it’s way better than ebay (at least, for a DIY fan like myself) when it comes to content… but also way way harder to find stuff, because the stuff is handmade. What an interesting problem, just from a catalog and category standpoint.

*geekout*

Last month’s GDmag published a Harmonix post-mortem for Guitar Hero, which I’ve scanned in for your enjoyment (1, 2, and 3 – they load slow, but should be legible). Kudos to these guys for continuing to develop high-quality music games – and this title in particular – on tight schedules and budgets. ROCK ON!

News that expansions are in the works doesn’t come as too much of a surprise… tho it is still shocking how difficult it was for Red Octane to supply guitars at the beginning of the cycle. Let’s hope this development drives the controller business forward – and promotes music and alternative-input games to awesome new heights!

Art immitates Art immitating Life:

More good news on the review front: Gamespot gave us really good marks, and our overall Metacritic is right on target – especially when you ad back the 15 points we typically lose in commercial press reviews for being a Sims expansion pack.

:P

it were true…

and I could still get that cool Zelda Watch!!!

Looks pretty – kinda cool, from a physics in games perspective (thanks Andi)!

Check it out!

Vanity of vanities,” says the Preacher,
“Vanity of vanities! All is vanity.”
What advantage does man have in all his work
Which he does under the sun?
A generation goes and a generation comes,
But the earth remains forever.
Also, the sun rises and the sun sets;
And hastening to its place it rises there again.
Blowing toward the south,
Then turning toward the north,
The wind continues swirling along;
And on its circular courses the wind returns.
All the rivers flow into the sea,
Yet the sea is not full.
To the place where the rivers flow,
There they flow again.
All things are wearisome;
Man is not able to tell it.
The eye is not satisfied with seeing,
Nor is the ear filled with hearing.
That which has been is that which will be,
And that which has been done is that which will be done.
So there is nothing new under the sun.

- Ecclesiastes, game developer.

… from a friend at work, in response to the last post.