Jamie Antonisse

Ever since Values At Play, we've been thinking about making a website for Hush. Now that I did the thing (thanks for the push, Peter) and bought jamieantonisse.com, I figured I'd better start by creating a permanent space for the game to live.

Full admission: this is a site only in the most technical sense, the way a deep sea fluke is technically an animal, and Rolling Rock is technically a beer. That's right, I'm calling you out Rolling Rock. I don't even DRINK beer, and I'm calling you out. i will fight you.

But I have to finish this post first.

What else? Ah, yes. It's important to note that this site ain't finished. I wanted to get the link out there asap, but in the future, this page will have some/more information, including full credits for everyone involved in the game, system requirements, links to write-ups and most importantly, links to places where you can learn more about the Rwandan genocide and how you can help assist in current Human Rights efforts. I'll keep you updated here as the page evolves.

And I promise, all future communications between myself and Rolling Rock will take place off-blog. With fists.

I'm finally watching "The Wire", after listening to five separate friends rave about it as the "best show ever made". I'm three episodes in, and it's growing on me.

This scene is a little convergence of Interactive Media and Baltimore Hustling. We often talk about the "metaphor" of games, and how many different ways there are to make an abstract system meaningful. I can't thing of a better example than this.

I have a soft spot for slow games. Games that take place over weeks instead of hours. Glacier games, I call them, knowing full well that the phrase will never catch on.

Al Yang and Ed Zobrist turned me on to this gem, a little European MMOG that answers the question: what would happen if you played a game of Warcraft 2 on a geological time scale? Or, if you prefer: what would happen if Civ II WASN'T a compressed experience, a hyperspeed war 'n' progress sim, played out over turns, but was instead... a multiplayer game of civilizations growing slowly alongside each other?

Continue reading "Travian" »

So the other night, Sunday night to be exact, I set foot in the Roxy for the first time. It's a nice place, fairly intimate, with black leather couches scattered over half the floor and a great purple curtain concealing the stage. I love stage curtains, they tell me exactly when the waiting is over and the entertainment is beginning.

We were there to see the Oxford Collapse, a band from New York whose music I'd never heard before, but who had the good taste to name their new album after my roommate. The lead singer, who was cultivating a sort of Albert Brooks cum Magnum P.I. look, thrashed his way through a few good songs before stopping for the customary stage talk.

His subject of choice? The Happening. Using his slightly elevated position behind the raised curtain line for evil (an excusable, nervously snarky sort of evil, but evil nonetheless), he pronounced that he had Seen This Movie and that it was Great.

Continue reading "Crowd Mentality" »

June. How the hell did that happen?

Continue reading "Hey. I guess it's June" »

Tonight, for the nineteenth time, I decided to double-click the executable file for "Barkley: Shut Up and Jam Gaiden". This time, it actually ran.

Nothing else has changed on my computer. Apparently, Chef Boyardee programs his games to hibernate until May.

The first line of the game... White pixelated text on a black screen. "Warning- The game you are about to play is canon."

Second line: "The Year is 2053. B-Ball is dead."

This will be a great adventure. Full report coming soon.

My friend, associate, and future IMD masters student (!) Sean Bouchard recently pointed out to me that "there is nothing bloggier than a post about why you haven't been blogging." So in lieu of an apology, here's a list of some stuff that has happened since last I wrote.

Continue reading "I Still Function (April Quarterly)" »

What the hell is this," you might well ask.

"I know, I know this looks more than a little narcissistic. But it's so damn cool and so damn random that I had to post it.

Let me try to explain.

Continue reading "Dutch Master" »

In a recent entry, I described the events that led me to re-evaluate the underlying gameplay mechanics of The Cache.

After this soul-searching, I went back to the drawing board, looking for new fundamental game paradigms that could bring out the strengths of the Cache. Strategy? No. Rhythm? No. Action? Clearly, no. Puzzle? That had always held the most immediate possibilities for this form. I dug a little deeper this time, however, and found another paradigm, a cousin (nephew? son?) of the puzzle that I thought held some rich possibilities.

I started looking at The Maze.

Continue reading "Cache: The Winding Road" »

Wow... a club jamm(m) remixx of Boss Fight, courtesy of my good friend Ben Abrams, aka D-Luxx Supreme. Yes, a remix!!!!! Amazing!!!!

***FULL DISCLOSURE: THIS SONG CONTAINS THE F-WORD (FUCK). PLEASE DO NOT PLAY IT INDISCRIMINATELY AROUND LITTLE KIDS***

Adam's Review: "It'sjuicy. It's so juicy that [unprintable]."

Continue reading "Boss Fight Techno Remix (Not a Rickroll)" »