Have posted about Google’s Picasa Face Search technology before.
Here’s what it came up with recently while browsing through the photo library on my computer .
Appears to be a new achievement honoree in there.
24
Mar
Add a Name
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Or: How I’m Learning Without Actually Writing Anything
(this is a crosspost from my personal blog, blog.simonwiscombe.com)
When I first made this blog public about week ago (read: finally decided on a theme), I thought to myself, “IT’S TIME FOR THE WORLD TO HEAR YOUR ROAR (about games)!” I planned to write a daily entry (ambition!) about rants, interesting things I found on the internet, various insights, etc. It was self-indulgent, sure, but if anything I thought it a place to espouse my opinions off into the realm. Someone might actually stumble upon it, we’d have a rousing game of “I Can Type in All-Caps Better Than You,” and be life-long best friends afterward.
And it started, very briefly, as such. I hadn’t much time, but I had topics! I started draft after draft of various things I could write (I currently have 7): the disconnect between narrative and gameplay in games, the appeal of board-game designing, the parallels between engineering-design and game-design and the advantages and perils of both, and more. But, with the exception of the “Death of Indie”, I hesitated publishing them all. There was just something wrong with them.
So I started researching. I stumbled across talks given by Matthias Worch (from LucasArts) about“The Identity Bubble”, which led me to articles on ludonarrative dissonance, which led me to re-evaluate Zimmerman and Salen’s establishment of character and avatar creation Rules of Play. My reviewing board games led me to work of Frank Lantz about the digital nature of all games. My critique of engineering project design applied to games has led me to companies and organizations that, while I knew of their existence, had no idea that they’re trying to establish new methodologies of game creation (thatgamecompany and area/code to name a couple). Every single topic I had drafted created a rabbit-hole effect. Every single rabbit-hole is making the blog posting more and more difficult, because it’s opening my mind to others who have encountered and are attempting to solve, with experienced and well-thought methods, the same problems about which I’m mindlessly espousing opinion.
And so the nature of my blog has already changed within a week without me having posted a thing.
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Award-winning author Julia Lupton will be on campus tomorrow, Friday, March 25th at 2 p.m. in Doheny 240. She will offer a wide-ranging exploration of the D.I.Y. impulse of the past decade. The do-it-yourself movement, which signals the resurgence of craft and the handmade in contemporary life, exists in interesting tension with the widespread use of digital media. Julia Lupton is ideally poised to address this seeming paradox. She is a noted Shakespearean scholar who has published a series of popular books focused on design and everyday life, including Design Your Life, D.I.Y.: Design It Yourself and D.I.Y. Kids and is a leader in the move toward a public humanities.
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Below is a paper I wrote for my advanced writing class. I disagree with some of the points I’ve made in it, but for the purposes of the paper I argued them. It was interesting and educational, having to state ideas I did not quite agree with.
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Speaker: Scott Warner, Lead Designer – internal project at 343 Industries
Time: Wednesday, March 23, 6-8pm
Location: USC’s Robert Zemeckis Center for Digital Arts (RZC), Room 111 [NOTE NEW LOCATION]
Scott is a 16 year entertainment industry veteran. He started working in 1996 during the dot com era as a web developer for the English dance group Underworld. Shortly thereafter he decided to turn his lifelong obsession with video games into a career and joined the talented Black Isle Studios crew at Interplay Productions. While there he served as a designer on two classic role playing games, Planescape:Torment and Icewind Dale. In 2001, he followed his desire to make action games and joined Pandemic Studios. During his long tenure at the studio he was a key designer on two franchises – Full Spectrum Warrior and Mercenaries – that propelled the company from a small startup to an action game powerhouse that was later acquired by Electronic Arts for 860 million dollars. In 2009, Scott joined Microsoft’s new Halo-dedicated studio 343 Industries to work as a lead designer on internal projects.
Scott was designated as one of the hot 100 game developers in 2008 and 2009 by Edge Magazine.
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The Institute for Multimedia Literacy is pleased to present an evening with Colleen Macklin this Monday 3/21 at 7:ooPM in SCA 112. Macklin is Chair of the Department of Communication Design and Technology at Parsons The New School for Design in New York City and Director of PETLab (Prototyping Evaluation, Teaching and Learning lab), a joint project of Games for Change and Parsons, with support from the MacArthur Foundation. Macklin’s work is focused on developing new games, simulations, and play experiences that encourage experimental learning and investigation into social and global issues.
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18
Mar
Website Update 2.0
Hello everyone. As you can no doubt see, the website has been updated.
If you want to log in and get back to blogging, go ahead — your passwords have been reset but all you have to do is click on Log In, then “Lost Password” and you will receive an email reset.
More info: Take the Site Tour
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IndieCade was established to create vibrant festivals and showcases dedicated to independent games and open to the public. It is their goal to showcase exciting and innovative new work, host productive networking environments, hold important discussions, and have a lot of fun.
IndieCade invites independent game artists and designers from around the world to submit interactive media of all types. Work-in-progress is encouraged.
A diverse jury of industry leaders will select entries for finalists and top awards at the IndieCade 2011 Festival. All entries for the Festival will also receive consideration for presentation at additional IndieCade showcases.
Gamemakers and their teams are supplied with passes to all the events they are selected and all related IndieCade social events. It is IndieCade’s ultimate goal to bring the eye of the public and industry to your games.
Submission Processing Deadlines and Fees
Submissions open March 1, 2011 and close May 31, 2011. Late submissions will be accepted until June 15, 2011 with an additional fee.
IndieCade is an independent organization. All submission fees are used specifically and entirely to cover the costs associated with processing your submission.
Early Submissions March 1 – March 31, 2011: The early submission processing fee is $35.
Standard Submissions April 1 – May 31, 2011: The standard submission processing fee $45.
Late Submissions June 1 – 15, 2011: Submissions Close May 31, 2011, however late submissions will be accepted from June 1 – June 15, 2011 for a $70 processing fee.
http://www.indiecade.com/index.php/submissions/index_2011/
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For anyone who hasn’t seen this installment of Extra Credits, I ask you to please take a few minutes to do so. It’s one of the most inspiring things I’ve seen…well, ever. It’s an amazingly articulate and uplifting examination about the coming Renaissance of interactive media.
Plus, it mentions USC! Awesome!
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