Simon Carless’ article discusses the return to difficult content in games and how these new difficult games are receiving positive reviews. While very insightful I think it misses one critical point; “hard” does not equal “good” from everyone’s viewpoint.

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I like to collect forced and unforced computer glitches. Computer glitches are, in my eyes, an art form unto themselves.

Thanks VirtualDub for the glitches!!

If you know the film, you're elite! Leave a guess in the comments

and, something I made that is inspired by Magic Eye:

computational arts, errors, Glitch Art Hide

I collaborated with Mieka Lake to make a version of the Pixel Generator optimised for generating prints (patterns) for her final year collection ‘Destination: Infinity’. Unfortunately I don’t have a copy of the final image we made, but you can clearly see it repeated in the red and black prints in the style shots below . Here are some of the final products:

From the collection ‘Destination: Infinity’ by Mieka Lake (2008)

ULTRA MAGNUS /w BLADE CATSUIT

VORTEX pants

ULTRA MAGNUS /w BLADE CATSUIT

some of the collection...

computational arts, fashion, pixelgenerator, pixels Hide

Here is a quick analysis of what makes me, as a player, interested in playing Double Wires, a ’swinging on ropes’ flash game (yep, spidey stylez!). In this game design analysis I am looking to understand what motivates me as a player to play the game.

In Double Wires you have one rope in each hand, and each click of the mouse throws out a rope from alternating hands. You throw out ropes in front of you to keep swinging forward. The concept is great; simple, fun, challenging! It hits many of the key attributes of a good core mechanic, although its other non-essential elements (visuals, level design) are rather lacking.

Double Wires - an excellent concept poorly executed.

For how long did I play? 6 minutes.

What hooked me:

1. Simple physics-based mechanics that implicitly described my goals. I knew what I had to do without any explanation.
2. No distractions from actually playing the mechanic. I was experiencing the core mechanic within seconds of starting to play; swinging with two ropes, from ceiling to ceiling. Gorgeous! Some games suffer from pulling me away from actually playing the core mechanic, wasting my time – this game certainly did not.
3. Groking the mechanic and improving my skills was almost instant. It only took me a couple turns to get used to some of the subtleties of the design; the length of the ropes, how long each connected rope would stay alive, how fast I would move through the air, the elasticity of the ropes etc. Not only was it easy to improve, the better I got, the better it felt to fluidly swing through the air.

What broke me:

1. The difficult curve. I found the difficulty at the very start of the level quite easy, however it becomes 50x harder within about 10 seconds of the first level and for me that broke the whole system. It was completely unapologetic and did not ramp with me gently. Personally I cannot be bothered to pursue it since I feel like the skill I was gaining was not rewarded. I stopped playing here. I knew I liked the concept, and I wanted more, but the challenge to get over that initial wall was too high! Essentially, all that skill I felt I was gaining, was wasted because it still was not enough.
2. Vision impairment and level design awkwardness! The screen scrolls sideways at a constant speed like the infamous ‘Helicopter game’. However as you move faster than the camera speed, you reach the far right edge of the screen (the direction you’re heading) and the camera then begins to scroll with you at your speed to keep up, putting you at a constant 20-30% from the right edge. This is an issue because you need surfaces to shoot your rope onto and you don’t get much of a chance to see them coming when you’re up against the far right edge. This means you are effectively punished for moving faster than the camera. Ideally, you’d be kept on the left side so you can always see whats coming. Furthermore it would have been nice if the ceilings weren’t so low to start with!

Summary:

• Fell in love with the concept instantly.
• My experience soured almost as quickly once I hit an unforgiving and pointlessly hard difficulty curve.

I might be back, when I’m not tired.

Why am I doing this gameplay analysis? See ‘Analysing the shorter game experience’.

EDIT (the next night): I just replayed it and got much further. I like this game enough to return, but am still disappointed by its level design.

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New Pixel Generator for the Flamingo Crash myspace http://www.myspace.com/flamingocrash.

Move your mouse like you just don’t care! Click, click, click. and… Combine the two, click and drag!

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Don’t you just love those fortunate moments when a window suddenly stops rendering and you get to make magical patterns with your mouse!? I do!

VJ Scratchin - Anyone can make generative art!

aww I’m going to miss Windows XP :C I think one day I’ll have to rewrite this bug myself. Not just for myself… someone needs to explain to future generations how we entertained ourselves with the simplest of things. haha

Gallery here: http://picasaweb.google.com.au/psibaspace/ComputerErrors#

computational arts, Glitch Art, windows xp Hide

I’m playing more games these days, but I’m spending less time doing it. How? I am playing smaller games. Games on flash portals, iPhone, Xbox Live Arcade, Xbox Live Indie Games, Wii Ware and finding short PC demos / experiments. There are some absolutely fantastic games out there and they have quickly become my favourite style of game! Generally they are short experiences that focus on “hooking” you quickly with a strong core mechanic, without much distraction.

Conversely I am some way through Fallout 3, however it’s such a mammoth task requiring a large investment of time that I don’t end up visiting it very often. Unfortunately I am often disappointed when I play it because I don’t get such a short and sweet kick from groking a new concept and completing a whole game in under an hour!

So I want to look at the flash games and analyse their core motivational hooks – from a game design perspective. Its not a game review. When I enjoy a flash game, I will cut it apart and look at what it did well from a game design perspective. I am exposing their innards to find out what made me stay there for the experience in the hope that better understanding them will help me to make more focused short game experiences myself.

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Dolphin Hero: Agent Duski to the rescue! now available on the App Store.

Six weeks of development later and I have my first iPhone and iPod Touch game available on the iTunes App Store!! You play as a dolphin and save drowning people. The game is a balancing act between getting a high score, saving people and dodging enemies. I’m really happy with the result, especially since it is our first title as a company and on this platform. Buy it now!

Check it out http://www.thevoxelagents.com/dolphinhero/

Follow us on twitter: http://www.twitter.com/thevoxelagents/
Read about our development process: http://www.thevoxelagents.com/agentlogs/

game development, Games, iphone, iphone dev, iphone games Hide

For years I struggled with waaay too many game controller cables, and I dreamed up a better solution than the old “ignore-the-pessimists-and-wind’n’stash-anyway”.

The results (after being roughed up by a couple months of use):
half artwork, half convenience, bonus half just cool.

Thanks to Archer Davies for the organic collaborative additions...

More photos [1], [2], [3].

And just recently we were invaded down here in Melbourne!

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I make these for fun, and now … I have a little collection growing.

Flamingo Crash’s necklaces:

Tron logo:

works well on a necklace

Soph’s Combi:

and the bead version is hanging in the combi!

Once I have permission to post people’s photos, I will post my growing family of pixel friends.

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