Peter Brinson

Obama game ads

Tue, 14 Oct 2008 15:00:32 -0800

And to continue Jamie's voting theme here you go. I've already early voted for Bob Barr, but I still found this interesting.

http://gigaom.com/2008/10/13/confirmed-obama-is-campaigning-on-xbox-360/

Garriott - game design can pay off

Sun, 12 Oct 2008 09:50:20 -0800

The game designer, Richard Garriott, became the 6th space tourist. By the time you guys are his age, maybe such a trip will only cost about 10 million.

http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5jkTcZ4EMnsrwpreYifsi3MC2kyPA

IDE for Torque (like Torsion)

Wed, 24 Sep 2008 12:11:56 -0800

I have an IDE (script editor) for Torque now that I think works pretty well on OSX. On Windows, we've always used Torsion because it does exactly and only what we need for Torque. I feel about 80% satisfied with this IDE, Eclipse as there's a plugin that makes it specific for Torquescript.

More on my class blog:
http://usc.pabit.org/viewtopic.php?p=114#114

The blogs login is the same as all the computers in the IML

Play Junta

Thu, 18 Sep 2008 12:14:21 -0800

Friday, Sept 19, at 6pm we’re going to play Junta, a board game about military coups. In the game lab.
Pizza and drinks will be provided.
Please RSVP if you are interested and positive you will come and play. Others are welcome to come by and we’ll see if spots become available. If you RSVP, I will send you a pdf of the rules and ask you to master a section of it before we play, which I imagine equals about 15 minutes worth of 'homework'.
Email me at

Here are the rules (right-click to download): http://www.pabit.org/junta/juntaRules.pdf

Need suggestions

Sun, 31 Aug 2008 16:02:39 -0800

I need to play games that incorporate a tilting mechanic. Can you guys suggest some?

You may wonder what I mean by ‘tilting’, but I’d rather not tell you tell where I’m coming from (other than admit it concerns my game) so that I may get a wide range of answers.

Vote

Sun, 24 Aug 2008 14:45:08 -0800

To all of you new to the division, I’m breaking the rules by posting something not related to interactive media. We take the blog seriously in that regard, but I want to say something once.

http://www.sos.ca.gov/elections/elections_vr.htm

If you don’t vote for president this November then you are a chump. I will not tell you who to vote for, and please don’t reply to this post about who you’re going to pick. Just do.

Torque for iPhone

Thu, 24 Jul 2008 13:58:02 -0800

http://www.garagegames.com/products/torque/iPhone/

GarageGames is going to send me some more information on this, but it sounds exciting. I can imagine a lot of you guys' games from 483 and 484 being ported to the iPhone. And of course I'm sure many of you will make new ones for it as well.

I hope I can buy and use the iPhone without needing the service...

Square Eyes Festival

Mon, 21 Jul 2008 11:38:04 -0800

This looks like an interesting festival. Especially for anyone with machinima.

http://www.square-eyes.org/eng/sef.htm

"Square Eyes Festival is a festival for the short digital film. Square Eyes examines and programs films made with digital media. Therefore this year there is a special interest in films related to Games."

Guinness World Records

Mon, 30 Jun 2008 15:15:15 -0800

I've always wanted to do a game about the history of Hollywood stuntmen. In it you would play/recreate famous stunts in cinema. But I think this is even better. There is a game in the works about records featured in the Guinness World Records:

http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=19187

Good news for short game fans

Fri, 13 Jun 2008 16:35:22 -0800

Next month American McGee’s game Grimm comes out. The game itself certainly seems worth talking about, but here I’m interested in it’s delivery. A 30 minute episode will come out every week for 24 weeks. This model seems liberating for both designers and players. I’m guessing you can pick and choose which episodes you want to play (and pay accordingly). So you don't have to play episode 3 to understand number 4, etc. As an advocate of short games, I’ve always said that I’m happy to pay more money for quality of experience rather than quantity (of time). But if one plays all 24 episodes the experience is hardly short. So this satisfies both conditions.

http://www.gametap.com/grimm
------------------------------------------------------
Separately, I found this on Ian Bogost’s blog. You have to try this game. (Yes, its controls are painful).

Randy Balma: Municipal Abortionist

…and a review here: http://rhizome.org/editorial/fp/blog.php/800

Art on the Edge

Sat, 07 Jun 2008 13:20:29 -0800

The 2nd Biennial 01SJ Global Festival of Art on the Edge is going on right now for anyone in the San Jose area.

http://01sj.org

Eddo Stern, while visiting us during seminar recently, talked about his portal-to-be. Here is documentation of the piece.

http://www.eddostern.com/portal.html

Playing Columbine

Mon, 19 May 2008 10:48:12 -0800

Danny Ledonne sent me a copy of his documentary Playing Columbine, which is about the couple years after he made Super Columbine Massacre RPG! I imagine some of you received a copy as well. It’s a feature that examines questions concerning the value of non-fiction games through the controversies surrounding his game. We get quick comments from Julian, John, and me, while Kellee and Jenova have a number of nice moments. And Tracy delivers consistent clarity.

http://www.playingcolumbine.com

Intermediate Game Design and Development

Wed, 14 May 2008 14:10:45 -0800

Many of you asked about this semester's final projects from CTIN 484/489 after seeing them during seminar two weeks ago. They have just been added to the projects page, and Tracy and I are very proud. Direct link here:

http://interactive.usc.edu/projects/games/20080514-intermedia.php

Iron Man

Mon, 12 May 2008 12:48:52 -0800

I guess it’s not surprising now that the war has been unpopular for a couple of years, that Marvel releases Iron Man as a film, instead of say, Spiderman (2002). The franchise is about an arms manufacturer tycoon, Tony Stark, who has a change of heart after nearly dying himself. I was always fond of the comic as a kid, but never gave the premise much thought. (If you consider just how predictable the film is, it is surprising how entertaining it turns out to be).
By the end of the film, it is truly not controversial as the message is essentially, “It’s better to kill only the bad guys than to kill bystanders as well.”
In modern war, the problem with missiles is that they never really are accurate enough to spare innocents. We don’t see the results so much, but the first gulf war made us think such warfare is completely humane.
It is consistent that most people consider the victims of suicide bombers to be tragic, while those dead from our bombs, are an unfortunate consequence of war.

Does the film Iron Man confront this? I’m not sure.
It also gives all of us the chance to exclude ourselves from its moral questions. None of us own a weapons manufacturing enterprise, so we need not face this dilemma.
Perhaps the film can be read as a change of heart for the whole country, concerning our consistent war-waging. But I think it really is just an inevitable theme for a film that comes out now that it’s cool to be against the current war.

I don’t expect a blockbuster to confront viewers really in any way, but maybe the sequel will ask more questions.

The First Annual IMD One (Animal) Video End of the Year Online Video Contest

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 15:05:52 -0800

In celebration of the end of the year and to those graduating in May, I would like to loosen the blog etiquette for this one post. I’m sure we’re all often tempted to post a favorite (non-relevant) online video on the IMD blog from time to time, but know it's not appropriate to post non-IM content.

But for this ONE post, please reply with a comment ONCE which includes ONE link to a video involving animals that you want to share.

The winner will receive this shirt (in a couple of weeks).

Rules:
- Submissions will be closed on Wednesday, April 30 at noon.
- At that point everyone can email me their vote for favorite video.
- If you don’t vote (exactly once for someone else), you can’t win.
- Don’t embed the video in your comment. Just link to it.
- The winner will be announced at seminar Wed evening.
- In your post, please include your name and the video title next to it like I have below

*Maybe at the end of next year another faculty member can pick a different theme.