Studio Notes 10-1-23

New Studio space! I just moved some things into a workspace at The Museum of Human Achievement. Now I am deciding what to work on next. I think there was potential in the installation I did for my graduate thesis show, but it was missing some important pieces to be effective. The first think it’s missing is a legible mini-map. Navigating a maze that is a tree structure is incredibly frustrating. It’s maybe the worst possible level design. people get trapped in branches too easily looking for the one door back up. I’m experimenting with maps in the web game using the api, but it’s very difficult, as I’ve said before, to automatically lay these maps out. You really need a force-directed nodemap, which clashes stylistically with the patterned-tiles-on-a-grid style. I’m playing now with some nodemaps using D3, and I’m going to functionally solve the problem first and then deal with the aesthetics.

Research Using the Census Tree

What is the Census Tree? The Census Tree is the largest-ever database of record links among the historical U.S. censuses, with over 700 million links for people living in the United States between 1850 and 1940. […] Link

studio notes 9-24-23

test

(Epilepsy warning: flashing image) Early test for a new animation piece.

The Paradox of Rules in Games and Life

Learn the rules like a pro, so that you can break them like an artist, this is what Picasso told us to do. As a medium mediated by rules , but expressed through play, games exist on the border of this division. This essay explores how we conceptualize and define both rules and play, and the paradox […] Link

Directed by Andrew Bujalski

Progenitor of the early-2000s indie filmmaking wave that would come to be known as mumblecore, Andrew Bujalski has retained the handcrafted, DIY spirit that defined the movement even as his productions have grown (modestly) in budget and scale. His films are humorously offbeat, precisely observed snapshots of hyperspecific social microcosms—from a 1980s AI nerdfest in COMPUTER CHESS to the world behind the counter of a Hooters-like sports bar in SUPPORT THE GIRLS—lent vivid authenticity through their unfailingly naturalistic dialogue and keen understanding of human relationships. […] Link

Twin Peaks Into The Night – Beta Demo

Twin Peaks: Into The Night is an incredible fan made Twin Peaks game that recreates David Lynch and Mark Frost’s classic series as a PS1 styled adventure! […] Link

The Knowledge Box by Ken Isaacs (1962)

In 1962, experimental designer Ken Isaacs imagined and constructed a ‘knowledge box’, a compressed environment for experiencing ‘culture’: a cube of wood, masonite and steel equipped with twenty-four slide projectors and audio-suppliers. […] Link

It's Time to Build Resilient Communities

The month that I wrote this, it was potentially the hottest month in human history. By the time you read this, you will have seen hotter. The month that I wrote this, there were fires and floods, there was mass suicides by whales. […] Link

studio notes 8-17-23

It’s a little confusing to keep calling these posts studio notes, since I no longer have a studio space. I’m sitting in a room at our place back in Austin that’s still filled with unpacked boxes. Settling back in is a slow process, and the last month has been really busy with moving a relative out of this space as we move back in. We also got a new kitten, who we are slowly acclimating to our other cat through a pet gate, carefully negotiating their two territories and resources (is there a strategy game idea somewhere in cats claiming or sharing litter boxes, food dishes, toys and sunbeams?)