Science Imagery

National Geographic has a story on the Best Science Images of 2008. Fascinating and awesome! Is anyone else as excited about mixing science and visual arts as I am?

Jonathan Blow

My new (video game) hero is Jonathan Blow, the creator, designer, and programmer for the XBox 360 game Braid. Braid was created literally only by him and David Hellman, who did all the artwork. Unfortunately I haven't been able to play the game at all since I don't own a 360, but Jonathan is putting together a PC version that I will definitely buy the day it comes out. So far it has received literally the highest rating ever for a XBox Live Arcade game, and 10th highest ever for the console as a whole, and that says something.

What makes me so excited about this is that Jonathan is and always will be an independent game creator, doing nearly everything on his own. He does it not for the money, but for the love and the Art (yes, with a capital "A", more on that in another post I think), of video games. Video games can be a method of communicating an idea or concept rather than simply for entertainment - and this is something I've been looking for myself. Using video games to teach creates, I believe, a bright future for the medium.

Anyway, I've been reading an interview with Jonathan at gameculture.com, and I saw an incredible quote about video games and teaching that I wanted to save. Thus, the impetus for this blog post:

"...all games teach things and the way they teach is by guiding you toward the goal by giving you feedback about whether you are accomplishing your tasks successfully or not, and that entire guidance is a communications process."

This communications process is the essence of video games. Without effective communication between a video and a player, the player is lost and has no interest in continuing the game. I have a feeling Jonathan Blow and Braid will affect how Omnivore turns out in a deep and exciting way.

A New Year Begins

School year that is. I don't remember the last time I've been this busy - it's the craziest time of year for my job, my grad course started yesterday, and Emmet's Essentials has had more stuff going on in the last few weeks than probably ever.

My grad course this semester is Computer Graphics, and I'm incredibly excited for it. We'll be programming graphics with OpenGL and making some great looking stuff...

Man, it's hard to think right now. My brain is just fried... and I'm not seeing any rest in my future. This weekend we're heading to Burlington, Massachusetts for an Emmet's Essentials event. Tomorrow is the first day of classes at my job. Every night we're working on a big EE account for a person out in Oregon. I've got homework again for the first time in a month because of my grad class. All the equipment I've been programming for projection in the classrooms has been doing weird things and not working correctly.

Rest, relaxation, oh how I miss you...

Nintendo DS

It's happened! I've purchased my first-ever portable game system, the Nintendo DS. It is just plain great. Two screens, nice bright graphics, a stylus and touch screen, quality sound, awwwww yeah. First game: Phoenix Wright, Ace Attorney. I've never played a game like this, a courtroom drama, and I'll say that I'm pulled in already. It's so exciting that I hardly know what to say!

Another sad day...

Wow, two in a row here, sorry about that. Yet another icon has died, this time George Carlin. Here's a link to his wikipedia page.

Carlin was in my opinion one of the funniest and most insightful people I've ever had the pleasure of listening to. I actually saw him live a couple years ago right here in Northampton, and it was an awesome show.

I don't want to get too morbid here, but I'll bet his funeral will be one to remember. He was certainly an unbeliever, and probably has it somewhere in his will that he not be buried in a cemetery. I'd say he wants people to laugh about his life - I think I'll find some youtube videos to watch to commemorate this genius of comedy!

Perfect! Here's a short 10 minute video of the man himself talking about death. I think this is the way he'd want everyone to remember him!

A Sad Day

Stan Winston, special effects master, died on Sunday. His work is one of the main reasons that today I love movies, computer animation, and special effects so much!

Drumming

Last Friday night we went to a party up in Goshen at probably the most amazing back yard I've ever had the pleasure to explore. There were stone walkways, iron and glass sculptures, a trickling stream with a little waterfall, a fish pond, and a big stone tower about 10 feet tall, among many other amazing sights. They had a large dragon head sticking straight up into the air with a place for a fire underneath, so when a fire was raging smoke would come out of the dragon's mouth.

I ate, I drank, and I had a really great time. At one point I joined a bunch of people playing drums, and I didn't stop for about two hours! I realized that I loved drumming. I used my hands, and when they hurt from too much rhythm, I asked for a drum stick, and used that.

I found that I have a very good ear for patterns and drum-slapping, and it is such a satisfying feeling to drum along with a whole group of other people. One guy, who happened to be really tall, actually came out in front of us and the fire and just made up words and sung a song as we played.

Then we moved over to another area that was larger so people could dance to our drum and cowbell playing. It was so amazing to watch people dance and move to the sounds that I was a part of creating! Then, it got really crazy - a couple people came out with these ball and chain things, but the balls were on fire. Their balls were burning, as it were! They swung them and looped them around like a battle straight from the middle ages.

The highlight of this time of the evening I'd say was when a woman came out with a hula hoop that had attachments along the outside that were on fire. Here I was, drumming loudly with a bunch of other people, to the sights of this woman using a flaming hula hoop. I'll never forget it!

Grad Class #2

Well, my second-ever grad course has started. I did incredibly well on the first one, and I'm really looking forward to this course, called Appropriate Web Technologies. You too can see my progress on this course - some work will be on display on my WPI webspace at http://www.wpi.edu/~damo/awt/

This course is online-only, so I won't have to drive to Worcester or Westborough every week. It's the first time I've ever taken a completely online course, though I certainly have tons of experience with online education thanks to my job. Judging from the course description and schedule, I'm going to be very busy in the next two months! I'll be learning a ton, and quite a bit of it will be stuff I've been wanting to learn for a long time (Ruby on Rails, more Javascript, etc.).

Here's to a great class!

Snake with Legs!

Not that I need any convincing for myself about the truth of evolution, but there was recently an article at the BBC about a fossil snake found with two vestigial legs.

It seems snakes evolved from more "normal" four legged reptiles, and then following evolution, lost the legs slowly over the course of millions of years. I think (I could be wrong) you can even see some species of snakes alive today with the remnants of legs.

In the very, very loosely reminiscent words of Carl Sagan, "science and reality are far more amazing than fiction!"

Doing My Part

Maybe you've heard of it, maybe not: there's a new documentary coming out in a couple weeks called Expelled. It is hosted by none other than Ben Stein. This is a propaganda film through-and-through for intelligent design - they attack biology, evolution, and true science every chance they get. Full disclosure: I haven't seen it yet. All I mention here can be read online or heard on podcasts.

Some of the actual scientists interviewed were lied to about what the documentary would be about, and some have been barred from screenings at theaters (in one case the person kicked out was actually in it!). Talk about expelled!

In my mind, the most egregious fallacy purported by this movie is their claim that evolution = atheism = Hitler and the Nazis. Huh?

I will do my part to spread the truth about this film by linking to Expelled Exposed. Read and enjoy!

Underway

Well, my class in software engineering is well underway, and it's going great. My group did a presentation a couple weeks ago, and we did a great job I thought. It's a lot of reading and a bunch of homework, but I've been able to keep up. The stuff I learn in this class will really help me when I make my games, and also even in my job for the next larger-sized programming project (whatever it may be).

I've thought of a couple more very stand-out games from the past:

The Dig (PC) - an incredible adventure game from the likes of LucasArts. This game was awesome, I mean, Steven Spielberg was involved! I remember purchasing this one by scraping together quarters, dimes, and nickels - that's how much I wanted to play it.

Command and Conquer (PC) - This game (like The Dig) started out for me with a demo. I played the demo level of this one more times than I care to mention. In my mind, this is THE real-time strategy game. It's what started me on that entire genre of video game.

Ahh video games. I am determined to show people that video games are not just for kids - they are for us older citizens ("adults" if you will) as well. Even more, I'm going to use them in the classroom.

Busy-ness

So much going on! First and foremost, I've begun graduate school back at my old alma mater, WPI. My first course is called Design of Software Systems (basically Software Engineering), and I've had a couple classes so far. It's great to be back in school - I can really tell I'm going to learn quite a bit in this class. It'll certainly be a lot of work (already is), but it is awesome. In fact, I'm procrastinating on some homework right now...

I realized that trying to put together a personal top 10 games of all time is a useless pursuit. I've played way too many games in my life, with so many amazing memories, that trying to pick 10 is incredibly difficult. Every time I tried to think of a game to put in the top 10, I'd think of another one, and then another one, and so on. What do I base it on? Games I thought had the best graphics? Games that made the biggest impression on me? The ones I thought were the most fun? The ones I spent the most time playing? It's too much. I think I'll just take a swig of beer and think about how great the sushi was that I had for dinner tonight.

Well, how about I list a few games that just popped in my head, just because.
Solar Jetman for the NES
Super Mario Kart for the SNES
Super Mario World for the SNES
Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past for the SNES
Syndicate for the PC
System Shock 2 for the PC
StarCraft for the PC
Command and Conquer for the PC
Portal for the PC (check this out)
Space Quest 1 through 6 for the PC
Final Fantasy 7 for the PlayStation

And there are so many others. How about I say now that I'll post any more games as I think of them, from now on. It'll be like a retro (and sometimes brand new) gaming remembrance. Hey, just thought of another:

Battletoads for the NES

Alright, back to the homework. Or maybe bed. Tough choice...

Make Things!

I just read an article called New Years Resolutions for Game Industry Newbies, since I do one day, eventually, want to make games. All five points really made sense. Number one was to Make Things - something I'm incredibly excited to do.

I've been thinking quite a bit (instead of Making Things, I'll admit) about the marble game that I want to create. After playing Portal, seeing and trying (links at bottom) Echo Chrome, reading about Braid, and playing Cursor*10, I've made the decision that I don't want to make the same marble game everyone has seen and played before. I want to make something different - something that makes people really think and use their brains in a way they haven't before.

I'd say that's one of the powers of video games. It's the ability to change and bend the reality that someone is experiencing. Maybe you can see yourself through a portal, change your perspective to solve a problem, or help yourself in a new way. I absolutely love things that make me think in new and exciting ways, and those are the kind of games I want to create and let people experience as well. Perhaps you'll learn something about others, and especially about yourself.

And, since it's literally 2:30 AM right now and I can't sleep at all because there are huge trucks doing some damned loud revving engine (moving trees? blasting the road? digging for pipes? performing an alien landing cover-up?) things on the street across from my front door, I'm going to expand my mind with some Portal. Making Things is not an option at this time of night, except for a blog post I guess, but I don't think that counts.

Missed Games

Last week I took a short couple-of-hours-a-day for a week fun course called "The History of Video Games." It was fun, and I learned a lot of things about the world of video games. The course ended with a sort-of list of the top 10 video games of all time. Our teacher left out the entirety of computer games, and the list was heavily weighted to the Nintendo side, so there was a bit to be desired. The list was of course much-contested by everyone in the class (since top 10's are incredibly objective), but some games were mentioned that I've never played.

I decided to make a list of games that I totally missed in the last 15 years that I'm going to go back and play someday. One reason I missed them is because after purchasing a PlayStation and a few games for it in the mid-90s I basically went completely to computer games, leaving out consoles until about 2003 when I bought a PS2. Here they are, in no particular order:

N64:
Super Mario 64
Star Fox 64
Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time
Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask
GoldenEye 007

GameCube:
Super Smash Brothers: Melee

PlayStation:
Metal Gear Solid

PS2:
Shadow of the Colossus
Resident Evil 4
Okami
We Love Katamari
God of War 1 and 2

XBox:
Halo 2

PC:
Deus Ex

Some of these games seem to be on just about everyone's best-of all time lists. Do I have any glaring omissions? Maybe I need to put together my own personal top 10 list. I think I will, but I've really got to mull over it for a while. Check back in a couple days!

Since I'm currently still playing The Witcher and BioShock, I won't be playing these too soon, but we'll see. I will say that after about getting 10-15 hours into The Witcher, it is still very, very good. It just might make it into my top-10 list...