Play, Live, Work, Enjoy.

Not much to say at this point… but wow… given the opportunity… play this game. 5th Cell rocks out once again… and this time with distribution by the WB no less.

Here's a little help… if you get stuck or are trying for something unique… visit the ScribbleNauts Fan / Guide Site for hints, tips, and object lists!

Here's a description from their site…

The game centers around Maxwell and his quest to obtain Starites. However, to claim them he needs to overcome certain puzzles and these can be solved by summoning items. For example, if a Starite is out of reach, Maxwell can write ladder on his notebook and it will appear, so he can climb it. This is only a very simple example though, as there could be many other ways to obtain the same Starite.

There are approximately 220 levels in the game, and players will be able to summon animals, weapons, forces of nature, famous people (both fictional and real), vehicles, household objects, and even internet memes as they attempt to obtain all of the Starites.

They say there's an app for everything on the iPhone… unfortunately there is no app for spam filtering. Yes, I've figured out the whole "send your mail to Gmail and get it from there" thing… and after some tuning I think it might be a decent solution.

Regardless it has me thinking about how digital technology affects our daily lives, how we're transformed by it, and how some of our analog habits may be transposed by it. Case in point worry beads (Komboloi)… worry stones, your car keys, or whatever you tend to fidget with while you're thinking, contemplating, or just idle (not that there's every time to be idle in this day and age). I've found myself comparing the deleting of spam to this type of ritual fidgeting. The act of checking email itself is addicting enough, but the ability to do something useful (though futile) like deleting spam with a repetetive swipe of the finger makes it cross that digital-analog devide.

I'm working on compiling a series of these "Digital Transformation" comparisons for a personal project. If you have any that you've thought of, drop me a line.

One of my favorite memories as a child growing up in New York City was taking the one train downtown with my grandmother and walking down Fifth Avenue and around Herald Square to see the holiday window decorations. They were always amazing and that is one thing that has not changed.

Our friend, and client, photographer Richard Cadan (RichardCadan.com) has started a tradition of his own. For the last three years… the moment these windows are unveiled he braves the weather and the crowds of shoppers in order to capture the holiday spirit… and some amazing images along with it. To celebrate this imagery and wish his clients a happy holiday season Cadan has commissioned us to create a Flash slide show of these images in time with the Nutcracker Suite and some programmatic snow.

If you have a chance to visit NYC this time of year… make sure you make it downtown for this spectacle… if not… you can get a glimpse right here… View Richard Cadan's Holiday Window Images.

What can I say… FlashPitt was awesome! I had a great time with some great people and saw some interesting Flash and non-Flash presentations.

This was a one day show… and a long day it was. The key note by Lee Brimelow of Adobe was very cool. A lot of what we had already seen here and there with some new bits. The fact that the new drawing API allows for 3D triangles just seems to open the doors for all sorts of 3D enhancements. One of the samples Lee showed was a super slick first-person-shooter style interface. Julian Dolce's physical computing presentation inspired me to work on my "Soma Room" project. Stacey Mulcahy did not fail to impress… she speaks the truth and has some wicked funny slides to back it up. Golan Levin had some amazing non-Flash tech to show… very inspiring as well.

My presentation on Flash Games in AS3 went pretty well. I've posted the source code for the Space Invaders game I used as a case study here: http://www.jrvisuals.com/content/flashpitt08/ and plan to pretty up the page a bit as soon as I get some time. I'll also be posting my slides and updating the SI source code soon.
As always the conference wrapped with a dinner and drinks… many drinks. The next day, after a few cups of coffee, Val, Julian, Stacey, and PaperVision guru John Lindquist and I got to hit the local Apple Store and a cool art museum called the Mattress Factory.

I love the buzz of these industry conferences… meeting new people… hearing what's new and coming up directly from Adobe staff… comparing notes with other Flashers… not to mention partying with all these folks. Good times. These "smaller" one or two day conferences are nice too since they are much more affordable and don't require so much time away from home. Kudos to the FlashPitt organizers… I hope to be invited to speak at next years show!

I know I'm a bit late out of the gate with this one (about a year and three months)… but wow… Geometry Wars - Retro Evolved just plain rocks. I was able to pick it up for $3.00 on Valve's Steam, which in case you have been living under a rock for the last couple of years is an online store where you can purchase and download games instantly. Thumbs up to Valve for making great indy (and mainstream) content available at the click of a button. Here's the link to the product page for Geometry Wars.

The game features some of the most fast and furious arcade-style game play I have experienced in a while. The controls are a bit daunting… you use two sets of four-way keys… the standard W,A,S,D for moving along with the arrow keys for shooting. Similar to the arcade classic Robotron (and later Smash TV) you can navigate your "ship" (an abstract shape reminiscent of your character in Tempest) in one direction while shooting in any other direction.

The visuals are astounding… and honestly… pretty psychedelic. The game play is addictive once you get the hang of it and becomes way hectic after the first ten or so waves of enemies.
I would love for us to develop a Flash game like this, but I think it may be some time before the Flash Platform can support this kind of speed.

Anyhow… check it out for yourself. Support independent game developers and have fun while you're doing it.

Our friend and neighbor, Michael Mulley, over at the College Street Gallery has recently published a book of black and white photos of Buffalo, New York. The photos are taken with a keen eye for history and architecture. You can find it for sale at the gallery or at online retailer Lulu.com.

Here is a short description from the back cover:

A Collection of the Queen City’s most impressive buildings “Buffalo In Black & White" brings the finest of Buffalo right to your finger tips. Spanning nearly 10 years of architectural discovery by photographer Michael Mulley. WIthin its pages you will find the magnificent Art Deco City Hall and the Prudential Building, Louis Sullivan’s Terra Cotta masterpiece and many more. Buffalo’s past come alive in this unique book. Whether your a long time resident, ex-pat or someone with an appreciation of great architecture this collection is perfect.

Here's a blast for from the past… but if you don't have these Flash extensions installed… you could be wasting valuable time.

Flash extensions are script-based files written in JSFL. They allow pretty much full access to the Flash IDE and FLA assets. John over at Potapenko has graciously coded and wrapped in an easy to install MXP package a variety of useful extentions. Once installed, these can be accessed through the "Commands" menu or their associated shortcut combination.

Here's a quick list of what you get:

• Set transformation point to top-left
• Pixelate position to all selection elements
• Pixelate bounds
• Get all instance names
• Instances naming tool
• Search in Library
• Replace library names
• Multi edit library properties

"The name of this class, __class_name_here__ , conflicts with the name of another class that was loaded __class_name_here__."

Well… maybe this isn't such a mystery but it is not very well documented and the experts seem to disagree about the solution. The error in question occurs when compiling a Flash movie whose class files are not locally hosted — for example, they are on a shared LAN server. Others have pinned this on the ASO file being cached… while some concur that it has something to do with the time stamp of the script file itself being out of synch.

The jury is still out over here… I've tried both clearing the ASO cache and modifying the server's internal clock with limited success. If anyone has a cure for this (short of implementing SVN or SourceSafe) let me know.

We're super-psyched about this launch… take a look… let us know what you think.
http://www.ripleys.com/

This is the official website of Ripley Entertainment, owners of the world-famous Ripley's Believe It or Not! brand. The world's #1 small attractions company, Ripley Entertainment has 54 attractions in 10 countries…Odditoriums, world-class aquariums, haunted adventures, moving theatres, family entertainment centers, mini-golf, wax museums, themed hotel hospitality, a globally-syndicated TV series, best-selling books, a cartoon that's still seen fresh in 42 countries every day, and a major motion picture with Paramount Pictures in pre-production…
Believe It or Not!

Just found this today — great stuff… especially if you're glued to your CPU and never get to attend any of these conferences.
http://www.gdcradio.net/

The Game Developers Rant (September'06) podcast is awesome… as was the talk on on Interactive Narratives (June'06). The seem to have a lot of freebies as podcasts as well as a variety of sessions set up as pay-to-download with prices around $8. I'm tempted as some of the topics are definitely of interest… I just don't know the speakers well enough to say if its worth the loot.