July 2010
5 posts
Here, have a game!
I’ve got a bunch of gift copies of games on Steam that—for various reasons or other—I’ve not yet given away. So it’s time to remedy that: if you’d think you’ll enjoy playing one of these games, DM me your email address and the one game you’d like most. If I don’t follow you, @me to claim it, and I’ll follow you so you can DM me your email. Only claim one game, please, leave some for the others.
...
“A lot of designers don’t like “save game”, because it makes it possible for the...”
– Bad Game Designer, No Twinkie II
Wasting the user’s time is poor UX.
Do you really need my permission to begin searching? It’s not as if I get a choice at all.
You know the search is finished. Why do you need me to handhold you through this? Is removing previous versions of Office emotionally troubling for you?
Couldn’t you have told me that on the previous screen?
Thank you for taking my time to present a tautological conclusion.
Counterpoint to Words from Strybe: Right time,... →
I would never have actually started blogging without Tumblr. I had tried several times to start a blog with Wordpress or something else, but I just spent too much time faffing about with settings and themes and never got around to writing much.
The lack of comment support is also a benefit in the end. Comments require moderation, which requires time and effort. And comments for me would...
A completely dark carpeted room: sheer bliss! →
“After the light, the second most important aesthetic character in the game is the floor. Of how many games could you write that sentence? You’re always acutely aware of what you’re standing on. Tiled, stone floors make up most of the streets and buildings you encounter, loudly registering your clip-clop footsteps.… But then, there it is: carpet. Sweet, blessed carpet. On carpet Garrett can...
June 2010
8 posts
“‘Cinematic gameplay’ is an oxymoron. In order to do both you must weaken both.”
– You will soon have your god, and you will make it with your own hands. « OneGate
On advertising
It seems to makes sense to run ads on a blog, in order to help recoup the costs of bandwidth and hosting. But moving from ad-free to ad-supported should be carefully considered. It changes your relationship with your readers at a fundamental level: because you are not merely selling space on your blog to the advertisers, you are actually selling a small portion of your readers’ attention....
“Intellectual property”, derivative works,...
Just a thought. How did we, as a society, ever come to accept such an innately ridiculous concept: that I can own what’s in your head?
“We all realise you rely on advertising revenue, but it’s not something you’re...”
– nostrich - Oh Man, That Jim Lynch Guy
“First, even though the content is digital, the reader loses most of digital...”
– Engadget on the Wired iPad app
“So, is single line of black pixels on a white background invisible from...”
– @aggroboy
Let’s see. The display on the iPhone 4 is the same height as that on the earlier model iPhones: 76mm. It has 960 rows of pixels. Therefore each pixel is 0.079mm high. With the iPhone held 250mm (10 inches) away from the eyes, each pixel is 2.arctan(0.079/250/2) == 1.1 minute of arc....
“Tolerance peers over a wall and says “I’m going to keep my mouth shut.” That’s...”
– The Case Against “Tolerance” | Mind Matters | Big Think
VVVVVV
VVVVVV is a row of jagged spikes that I have just accidentally collided with, killing me and sending me back to the last checkpoint. Slowly my skill at manipulating movement and gravity improves. I can do it this time…
VVVVVV is the set of teeth that grips me, holding my attention in this unfairest of games. Attempt and failure cycle rapidly and blur the passing of time until I can succeed and...
May 2010
6 posts
“The iPad does not have a Graphical User Interface but a gestural one. GUI design...”
– » Usability Ain’t Everything – A Response to Jakob Nielsen’s iPad Usability Study Johnny Holland – It’s all about interaction » Blog Archive
What a load of nonsense. On the iPad, you don’t interact directly with the content, no more than you do on a desktop or with paper...
“And finally, two related problems. I already have a personal library. The entire...”
– Texts, as Opposed to Books
The Path, in 80 words.
The Path:
It is only by turning away from our forebears’ rules that we can truly
experience the richness that life can offer. A life that stays on the path
ends at last with nothing of worth to show for it, either good or bad. But
if we rebel, if we leave the straight path and stray into the darkness of
the forests around, we can get a glimpse of the beauty, and the mystery,
and the...
Tableau I
In the courtyard was a long-abandoned children’s playground. A roundabout, rusted and lopsided, but it still turned, squealing, at a push. Beside it was a slippery-dip, the once smooth slide now pitted and corroded. This had once been a place of joy, where children played laughing in the sun. No longer. He half-fancied he could hear the echo of their laughter, as though the place itself held...
Live Music
Last December I realised what a great place Edinburgh is for live music. Even apart from the Fringe, it’s a popular place for bands of all sizes. And Glasgow’s barely an hour away, too, and it also hosts many live music events.
I’d been to see quite a few gigs while here: Jonathan Coulton on his first ever visit to Scotland (and again on his second visit); Emiliana Torrini; Death Cab for Cutie;...
A bit closer to Heaven.
In a landscape of poorly sketched video-game characters, Max Payne stands out. Maybe it’s because the strokes are broad, and the outlines so simple. Max has clarity, because he has one defining characteristic, one overriding emotion. Max Payne is Revenge.
The game opens and closes with the same scene: Max, standing atop a skyscraper, rifle in hand, his revenge complete. “They were all dead....
April 2010
11 posts
“In the process of downloading a free app to my iPod touch today, I was presented...”
– SensoryMetrics
Overloading
The iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad, all have a single home button. Initially seen as a mark of the device’s simplicity of design and focus on the touch screen, in subsequent iPhone OS releases, the home button has had more and more functions grafted onto it—some of them not even constant but contextual—until I wonder why Apple just didn’t add another few buttons:
A single press will take you...
Observations on Lua and the iPhone Developer...
Some observations on the use of Lua in iPhone games, and sections 3.3.1 and 3.3.2 of the iPhone Developer Agreement:
The use of (non cross-compiled) Lua has not been allowed by the terms of section 3.3.2 of the Developer Agreement since March last year. Developers have continued to use it regardless, probably not even noticing the change.
Apple doesn’t come close to enforcing the terms of the...
Natterings: Fluid as Xcode Documentation Viewer →
This is almost exactly what I was looking for in a standalone documentation viewer for Cocoa:
A standalone Documentation Viewer for Xcode with tabs, bitches.
Note that what Stephen writes about modifying the page titles is no longer needed.
I’m now using Fluid to view all the reference docs on my second monitor. And unlike Xcode’s documentation viewer, I can ⌘Tab directly to...
In which I complain (again?!)
Marco writes:—
Before Instapaper Pro 2.2, I got frequent emails from customers who were upset that they had inadvertently tapped the status bar, which scrolls to the top of the article and loses their position. I understood completely, since losing your read position is a form of minor data loss.
Most of them were unaware that this is a systemwide gesture on the iPhone OS: if you tap the...
1 tag
Resolution
Resolution Magazine is a small online games magazine. It’s been around for almost two years now, and although I’ve only been reading it for a little less than one, it has become my second–favourite place to read about games[1]. Not to get the latest news or gossip, since the magazine purposefully avoids regurgitating headlines endlessly—but to read reviews, opinions, and commentary on games...
2 tags
apt-get remove freedom
From Tei—
“
corporations@internets$ apt-get remove freedom
E: Unable to lock the administration directory (/var/lib/democracy/), are you the people?
corporations@internets$ su politicians
politicians@internets$ sudo apt-get remove freedom
Reading package list.
Modern Culture, Technology Leader and Peace depends on freedom.
Do you want to remove these too...
2 tags
Profiling execution with the Django Debug Toolbar
Rob Hudson’s Django Debug Toolbar is a great little app that adds a sidebar to every page of your development site, giving you details of timing, settings, SQL statements issued, and a whole lot more. Also, it’s really easy to add your own bits to it.
I had a view that was performing abysmally with some data sets, so I decided I needed to profile it. With a few minutes work, I was able...
Modern Warfare
Two years ago, I purchased Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. It’s a great game, and I thoroughly enjoyed playing it. But there’s this one level that made me feel very uncomfortable.
I was the gunner in an AC-130 gunship, slowly circling an area to support a friendly squad moving through to an evacuation point. My only view was through the infrared gunsight of a cannon, shooting back at...
Optimal Configuration
Here, mostly for my own future reference, are the various “hidden preferences” I configure on all my Macs. After setting these, you should log out and log in again.
Hidden apps are translucent in the Dock
defaults write com.apple.Dock showhidden -bool YES
iTunes shortcut arrows don’t open the iTunes store
defaults write com.apple.iTunes invertStoreLinks -bool YES
Save dialogs default to...
Tabs Don’t Scale
Tabs are a great answer to the UI question: “How can I efficiently manage a number of different windows in the same space?” Tabs achieve their usefulness by providing four key benefits:
Summary. At a glance, you can see all the available tabs, and scan their labels.
Spatiality. Each tab is always in the same place, so you know where to find it.
Convenience. Activating another tab takes a...
March 2010
1 post
The Secret of User Interaction Design
I read Jason Van Horn’s review of The Secret of Monkey Island with interest. While he also has issues with the puzzle design and storyline of the game, he raises a point that highlighted for me the importance of designing the user interaction of an application to suit the control scheme available to the user. Jason writes:
As a point and click adventure game, The Secret of Monkey Island...
February 2010
1 post
Stalker: Call of Pripyat
The night is dark, so that I can barely see where I am walking. A line of bushes stands in my way; I make a long detour around them, rather than risk making noise by pushing through. Packs of blinddogs roam this area, preying on the mutant pigs, flesh, but they are always hungry and are not afraid to attack lone Stalkers. And I can hear them howling not far away.
In the distance ahead, a flash...
December 2009
1 post
CSS3 brings Christmas cheer
I suddenly realised today that I had never played around with some of the more exciting CSS3 features: masks, keyframe animation, and transformations.
So in the spirit of the season, I spent 15 minutes whipping together a quick demo. This demo is entirely built with HTML and CSS, no javascript required. You’ll have to view it with Safari 4 or Chrome to see the effect though: Let it snow!
November 2009
1 post
Half-Life 2 is a beautiful game
Photo by CitrusFreak
Photo by banapaulo
Photo by Michael Heilemann
Photo by CitrusFreak
Photo by Fotografia Virtual
Photo by CitrusFreak
Photo by CitrusFreak
Photo by Fantt
Photo by Fotografia Virtual
Photo by Dabs84
Photo by thmx
Photo by Fotografia Virtual
Photo by Fotografia Virtual
Photo by...
October 2009
1 post
September 2009
4 posts
Unfit for purpose—followup
Just a few notes to follow up to my previous post about Apress PDF troubles:
After my first tweet about the problem, Apress got back to me very quickly suggesting the Aji Reader app that can process password-protected PDFs. And even followed up later, letting me know that Aji Reader prompting me for the password multiple times was a known bug. Unfortunately, thanks to the lack of Wifi on the...
Unfit for purpose
I had another run-in with the paranoid attitude of publishers today. I decided to buy the PDF version of Apress’s “iPhone Games Projects”, which—despite the clumsy title—looked like it might be handy. I’d flipped through a friend’s hardcopy edition a bit before: each chapter is by a different author, and on a different topic: networking, OpenGL, cross-platform game coding, and more.
...
How to sell to a pirate
Paul Battley, to the media industries:
There is no point in putting restrictions on the sale of the legal copy, because your free competitor has the same product.
When you region-code the product, you prevent me from buying it.
When you don’t sell the product in my territory, you prevent me from buying it.
When you put DRM on the product, you prevent me from using it on the device of my...
Ramp Champ Revamp?
After noticing quite a few people on Twitter talking about Ramp Champ, I decided to give it a go. The artists from The Iconfactory have done an amazing job on the graphics for this little game.
The first time you start the game, and tap on a ramp to begin playing, it opens with a brief tutorial made of of five short messages:
This final message thoroughly confused me: the game was...