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Here, have a game!

Wed, 28 Jul 2010 18:48:00 +0100

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.

These are all great games; if I had to decide on my top 10 favourite games ever, each of these would be likely to make the list, and some of them would be jostling for first place. Without further ado, the games I’m giving away are:

The Secret of Monkey Island, Special Edition - Windows only.
Psychonauts - Windows only.
CLAIMED World of Goo - Mac, Windows.
CLAIMED Team Fortress 2 - Mac, Windows.
A second copy of The Secret of Monkey Island, Special Edition - Windows only.

I’ll update this post as the games are claimed.

"A lot of designers don’t like “save game”, because it makes it possible for the players to restart..."

Wed, 28 Jul 2010 17:57:46 +0100

“A lot of designers don’t like “save game”, because it makes it possible for the players to restart any time any little thing goes wrong, which means that they get through the game quicker and lose less frequently. In short, they don’t get to experience the full amount of suffering and disappointment that the designer has planned for them.”

- Bad Game Designer, No Twinkie II

Wasting the user’s time is poor UX.

Fri, 23 Jul 2010 10:15:04 +0100

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, wrong place?

Mon, 12 Jul 2010 22:50:38 +0100

Counterpoint to Words from Strybe: Right time, wrong place?:

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 mostly be ego-stroking anyway. But Tumblr makes it easy to comment on another post, just like this. Only I’m not writing my words on your page, where they might (hypothetically) be offensive, or boring, or just stupid clutter, but on my own space. Which keeps the best of both worlds.

The only lack from having no comments is the lack of community. But building a community of commenters is hard, and keeping it sane and civil is harder yet. Better a forum with a team of moderators, I think.

A completely dark carpeted room: sheer bliss!

Tue, 06 Jul 2010 23:32:00 +0100

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 run, jump and be merry, producing nothing more than a soft scuffing. Sneaking up on the enemy is a cinch, picking their pockets and being long gone before they’ve a clue you were ever there. Oh, heavens, a completely dark carpeted room: sheer bliss.”

John Walker eloquently captures the character and the genius of Thief: The Dark Project in this retrospective written last year for Eurogamer. Every time I play Thief or Thief II, they jump right back to the top of my favourite games list.

"‘Cinematic gameplay’ is an oxymoron. In order to do both you must weaken both."

Mon, 28 Jun 2010 13:23:46 +0100

“‘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

Fri, 18 Jun 2010 01:04:46 +0100

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. You are beginnig to commercially exploit your visitors.

That’s not necessarily a bad thing—it depends on the aims of the blog, the audience you are seeking, and the kind of relationship you are trying to build with the audience. But if the context is inappropriate, this may lead to your readers feeling used, or even offended.

Another oft-overlooked impact of advertising is how it changes your message. Many web-based advertising services exercise little editorial control over the ads they run, which results in disreputable ads all over the web, even on otherwise reputable sites. Since you are ultimately responsible for the content that appears on your site, you can end up appearing to endorse medically questionable diet pills, or whatever the cheap-scammy-ad-of-the-week is. And that makes you look bad.

“Intellectual property”, derivative works, cultural experiences…

Thu, 17 Jun 2010 12:30:17 +0100

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 entitled to, it’s..."

Tue, 15 Jun 2010 20:49:38 +0100

“We all realise you rely on advertising revenue, but it’s not something you’re entitled to, it’s something you earn by cultivating a user base, and any revenue lost to ad blockers and Safari’s Reader is money you failed to earn this week, because you pissed off all your readers. That’s the game you play when your income relies on users actually wanting to look at your website.”

- nostrich - Oh Man, That Jim Lynch Guy

"First, even though the content is digital, the reader loses most of digital content’s benefits. I..."

Mon, 14 Jun 2010 13:20:17 +0100

“First, even though the content is digital, the reader loses most of digital content’s benefits. I can go to the Wired website, link to articles there on my blog, share them via email or Twitter and use the power of the web to share and opine. The iPad edition offers none of that flexibility — and it doesn’t offer any of the flexibility of paper either. I can annotate my paper version of Wired, clip out articles, or even pass the entire magazine on to you and you can in turn pass it on to others. I can’t do any of those things with the iPad edition.”

- Engadget on the Wired iPad app

"So, is single line of black pixels on a white background invisible from 10” on the iPhone 4..."

Wed, 09 Jun 2010 22:22:04 +0100

““So, is single line of black pixels on a white background invisible from 10” on the iPhone 4 display?””

- @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. According to Wikipedia, the naked eye has a resolution of 1 to 2 minutes of arc.

No, a single row of pixels is still clearly visible from 10” on the iPhone 4.

(I could have avoided the trig and just quoted Wikipedia: “Observing a nearby small object without a magnifying glass or a microscope, the usual distance is 20–25 cm. At this close range, 0.05 mm can be seen clearly”, but you know, maths is fun!

"Tolerance peers over a wall and says “I’m going to keep my mouth shut.” That’s better than shooting,..."

Wed, 09 Jun 2010 20:36:39 +0100

“Tolerance peers over a wall and says “I’m going to keep my mouth shut.” That’s better than shooting, but it still confirms the importance of the wall. Diverse societies aim for better than tolerance. Their people don’t get along by tolerating each other; they get along by being each other—by feeling, sincerely, that a difference in religion or race or class doesn’t matter, due to a self-evident sameness on some other measure.”

- The Case Against “Tolerance” | Mind Matters | Big Think

VVVVVV

Tue, 08 Jun 2010 23:30:00 +0100

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 move on to the next screen. Dammit, so close!

VVVVVV is how you spell the sound I’m making, screaming at the top of my voice while my teeth bite down on my lower lip in frustration. I don’t even need to complete this section, it’s just for an optional collectible! But I can’t give up now.

VVVVVV is a captivating old-school styled platform game by Terry Cavanagh, that will surprise you both with its economy of ideas and the variety of challenging puzzles built from them. It’s available for Windows and Mac, so why not try the demo? Veni, vidi, vici.

"The iPad does not have a Graphical User Interface but a gestural one. GUI design guidelines do not..."

Mon, 31 May 2010 13:16:33 +0100

“The iPad does not have a Graphical User Interface but a gestural one. GUI design guidelines do not necessarily apply when users can interact directly with the content.”

- » 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 documents. All interaction is done through a medium, and UX design is all about understanding the medium and working with it’s advantages and disadvantages to achieve a desired end.

And the iPad’s user interface still has far more in common with a desktop computer than it does with any physical medium. All the user input and visual output is mediated through the touchscreen.

"And finally, two related problems. I already have a personal library. The entire impulse behind..."

Mon, 31 May 2010 01:11:00 +0100

“

And finally, two related problems. I already have a personal library. The entire impulse behind Amazon’s Kindle and Apple’s iBooks assumes that you cannot read a book unless you own it first — and only you can read it unless you want to pass on your device.

That goes against the social value of reading, the collective knowledge and collaborative discourse that comes from access to shared libraries. That is not a good thing for readers, authors, publishers or our culture.

”

- Texts, as Opposed to Books

The Path, in 80 words.

Mon, 24 May 2010 14:39:21 +0100

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 danger of the larger world.

In response to this tweet.

Tableau I

Sun, 23 May 2010 10:19:00 +0100

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 the memories of years long since gone. Or was it their screams he heard? The sound faded from his mind. No, the playground was only a reminder of a bitter truth: there were no children anymore.

He looked down as his foot hit something on the ground. It was a triangular prism with a hole through the centre, two of three faces marked with an X and an O. He walked to the other side of the path, where an an abacus-like frame held eight more of the same objects, rotating on three axles. He remembered the game. Noughts and Crosses, they used to call it; an unwinnable game. Two people playing perfectly would always end with stalemate. He brought his mind back to the present situation—was the same true of their current struggle? Did they really have a chance of beating their oppressors, destroying them? Or was the best outcome an endless stalemate, a constant struggle just to survive? That would almost be worse than losing outright.

He replaced the piece in the gap on the centre axle, and gently spun it. It stopped. There, along the diagonal from the bottom left to the top right, was a line of three X’s. A winning move. Perhaps there was hope after all? A smile came briefly to his lips as he left the playground and continued on.

Live Music

Thu, 20 May 2010 21:51:06 +0100

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; and My Friend the Chocolate Cake. But I found out about most of these by searching specifically for the band, and tour dates.

On December 8th last year, purely by coincidence, I found that Deerhoof were playing, that night, at The Bongo Club, just a few minutes walk from my flat. I’d recently discovered their album “Friend Opportunity”, and while it was still strange to me, I had liked what I’d heard. So I went to see them, and was blown away. No doubt it’s cliché to say so by now, but they were far more frenzied and energetic live than on the CD.

So that serendipitous discovery set a little wheel turning in my head. I did nothing about it in January, but come February I decided to search for shows on that month. And was thrilled to find that Shearwater were playing in Glasgow on the 23rd of that month—another of my recent discoveries on eMusic, and I’d really loved what I’d heard; so I went to see them. And decided on a not-quite-New-Year’s resolution sort of thing: to see at least one live music gig each month.

March was MONO, an instrumental post-rock group from Japan. Unfortunately their live performance was a little disappointing, the usual lushness of their sound was lacking.

I then promptly forgot my resolution for most of April. Typical. Towards the end of the month, I went searching again, and ended up deciding on two gigs in May: Woodpigeon on the 2nd, and Mark Knopfler—tomorrow, in fact. I’m looking forward to tomorrow’s gig, and all the rest this year.

Finally, a wee plug: if you’re in Edinburgh or Glasgow, Ripped Records (also on twitter) is a great site (put together by a mate of mine, Matt Riggott) to find out about upcoming music events.

A bit closer to Heaven.

Wed, 19 May 2010 21:43:49 +0100

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. The final gunshot was an exclamation mark to everything that had led to this point. I released my finger from the trigger. And then it was over.”

A tale of revenge is a natural fit for a game that, in its core mechanic, is all about shooting. Most of the game is a series of shooting galleries, in which you—as Max—kill innumerable goons and their bosses, ultimately uncovering the secret behind the murders and confronting the Big Bad at the end.

Violent weather provides a congruent backdrop to the game’s violence. New York’s worst recorded snowstorm begins as the game starts, and increases in intensity as Max hunts deeper into the underworld organisations. Max Payne is not just the protagonist of this story, he is the centre of it; even the weather exists only to reflect and amplify his emotion. When Max finally satisfies his revenge, the storm too is satisfied, and dies down. The snowstorm also resonates with the Norse myth of Ragnarök, the battle of the gods whose beginning is marked by three winters without a summer. And indeed elements from Norse myth are woven throughout the story, adding colour to the dingy New York setting: Æsir Plaza, Alfred Woden, Valkyr, Project Valhalla.

Interspersed with the shooting, the game’s story is laid out in a sequence of graphic novel pages, famously narrated with Max’s hard-boiled internal monologue. Both adored and derided by players, the writing walks just this side of noir parody—aware of its inherent absurdity, but always keeping a straight face. Maintaining this style consistently is not as easy as it seems, but the game’s writer, Sam Lake, manages it remarkably well. To the characters within the story, it’s a deadly serious drama; but to the player the wordplay and overdrawn metaphors provide an additional layer of enjoyment.

The first of these graphic novels gives the game’s backstory. As a young, successful New York detective with a beautiful wife and a baby daughter, Max is living the American dream. You already know what’s coming next: One fateful evening, Max returns home to find his wife and child dead, murdered by junkies high on a new drug, Valkyr. Max inevitably turns to single-minded pursuit of whoever is responsible, joining the DEA to track down the source of the drug.

Valkyr seems to cause severe mental health issues, and prolonged use leads to psychosis, paranoia, and extreme violence. At one point in the story, Max himself is forcibly injected with the drug. Under its influence, Max dreams, and his dreams are nightmares, all his existential doubts brought to the fore. He fears that he’s not, after all, in control: that he’s just a pawn in someone else’s game—even someone else’s videogame. “Funny as hell, it was the most horrible thing I could think of.”

As the drug has taken Max out of his grimy reality into hallucinations, the game can finally break its straight face, and openly share a joke with the player. The greatest fear of the fictional character—brought to life only in the player’s imaginations, and imbued only with the traits written for him—is that he might be, after all, fictional. This realisation horrifies Max; but to the player the irony brings a light-hearted chuckle.

As the game’s plot develops, its threads are not unexpected, indeed many are cliché: Max being framed for his DEA partner’s death; a failed government super-soldier research programme; a powerful secret society; and corporate greed. If any of these were dwelt on too long, they might well break the player’s immersion. But the momentum of Max’s revenge drives the story on.

Ultimately, it’s this momentum which makes the story work. The different elements of the writing are combined together effectively into a flavoursome whole. Like a good hamburger, Max Payne’s story is an mix of appetising layers on a bed of just enough meat—and garnished with a slice of cheese.

"In the process of downloading a free app to my iPod touch today, I was presented with Apple’s 68..."

Sat, 17 Apr 2010 11:17:00 +0100

“In the process of downloading a free app to my iPod touch today, I was presented with Apple’s 68 pages of terms and conditions. The choices are ‘cancel’ and never upload another app [ever again?] or ‘Agree’. They should at least have the check box ‘under duress’ available.”

- SensoryMetrics