“I don’t know, Joe,” Sammy said.  ”I’d like to think we could do something like that.  But come on.  This is just, I mean, we’re talking about comic books.” “Why do you look at it that way, Sammy?” Rosa said.  ”No medium is inherently better than any other.”  Belief in this dictum was almost a requirement for [...]

I. Introduction Andrew Stern and Michael Mateas’ “Facade” is a work of art that anyone interested in interactive media should play at least once in their life. Although its authors describe their work as “interactive drama”, and I would call it as a video game, I think there are many reasons to discuss it here, in [...]

http://www.universalhappymaker.com/wp-content/uploads/Soundscape.mp3

I have a new post up at Universalhappymaker.com

If you are a potential happymaker who would like to post projects or writing, please contact joe for an account.

The New York Times has an excellent article for those of you who have been wondering about Neo-Calvinism. You’ve got to love a guy that would like protestantism to be more like Warhammer 40k or Dethklok.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/11/magazine/11punk-t.html?_r=1

For those of you who have played my games and found them totally unacceptable, don’t miss this article (originally a developer rant at IGF 2010, now available online via boingboing offworld): Less Talk More Rock Indie Developer Superbrothers (AKA Craig Adams) advances a theory that games are a primarily audiovisual medium which should not contain copious amounts of [...]

By David Mershon and Mike Sennott Last semester we produced a prototype of a recombinant-narrative strategy game called “Adelbert Vester: Humoural Physician.” This game combines occult medicine with political intrigue set against the historical backdrop of the holy roman empire on the eve of the 30 years war. Players take the role of a young physician [...]

I highly recommend this to anyone even remotely interested in adventure games, IF, or cyberpunk fiction. If you’ve ever dialed a BBS it’ll leave you feeling all squishy on the inside.

Digital: A Love Story

Article on the game at tigsource.com

The original proposal for this project was to create a device that would attempt to measure if the subject’s mental discipline was stronger than their instinctual response to a stimulus. The project would take the form of motion sensor combined with software to interpret the motion data. The program was supposed to cause the user [...]

My character project is based on the idea of pitting mind over matter. I was inspired by the scene in the science fiction novel Dune in which Paul Atreides, the protagonist of the story, is tested by a device called “the box”. His examiner produces a device and asks Paul to place his hand inside. She [...]