I really like getting the chance to help Chinese visitors find their way. First, it’s a nice karmic balance for all the times kind Beijing and Yantai folks helped get me where I wanted to go, despite my awful Chinese. And second, my survival-level Mandarin includes the four compass direction, the words for bus, train and street, and numbers, and that’s really all the vocab you need to give Chinese directions in New York City.
Redress Raleigh
I was really excited to interview Mor Aframian from Redress Raleigh for arts mag thalo. Mor and I worked together a few years ago at a fashion-meets-tech startup called Thimbler, and I am so pleased with her success!
RALEIGH, NC – Redress Raleigh, a North Carolina-based fashion startup, focuses on bringing environmentally and socially aware fashion to the forefront. Fortunately, Redress Raleigh isn’t a pricy boutique, but a community movement with a DIY, everyday focus, organzing large-scale clothing swaps, educating eco-conscious shoppers on sustainable alternatives, connecting green-focused fashion designers with suppliers and buyers, and presenting an annual eco-fashion show.
Posted in New York City, North Carolina, Raleigh
Tagged New York City, North Carolina, Raleigh, thalo
1 Comment
East Coast Game Conference
I first attended Raleigh’s East Coast Game Conference in 2010, when it was Triangle Games Conference. (I’m a gaming convention hipster, apparently.) Now in it’s fifth year, ECGC offers seven programming tracks, allowing attendees to focus on Design, Programming, Art, Writing, Serious Games, Education, Mobile, Career, or choose different events from various tracks. The East Coast Games Conference is large enough to attract interesting speakers, offer worthwhile networking and opportunities, and allow local game developers to connect.
Via Geek Insider
I didn’t write about this part for Geek, but the conference ran out of programs and maps before 9:15 on the first morning. The kids at registration said that everything was on the website, but conference center wifi is $9 a day. Press had wifi included, after I tracked down a volunteer who knew the password, but some of the rooms and events had last-minute changes, so even the website wasn’t entirely helpful. The lack of programs was one of those awkward annoyances because the volunteers at the registration desk clearly weren’t to blame and there was nothing to be gained from complaining to them. But, as often happens, having to ask if this is the right room or what time the sessions started led to a lot more conversation between attendees.
ECGC offered two passes this year, Basic or VIP. VIP included speakers, panelists, press, and so forth, and the Basic pass was pretty much local game dev students. The first time someone asked about a possible internship working for me, I thought I’d leveled up to new industry awesome! After a few more times, I realized it was a side effect of my VIP badge. 90% of the useful networking for me happened in the VIP lounge, and then I really felt like I had leveled up, but it seemed odd that all of us with comped passes were hanging out where the folks who paid for their passes couldn’t go.
Vanished: The Island
Recently started beta testing on Sky Horse Interactive’s upcoming iPad game ‘Vanished: The Island‘, as part of my ongoing quest to play every tropical island adventure game ever.
Card-Carrying Geek
Obligatory press pass photo! I don’t usually cover a conference for one editor. Usually I’m freelance, which means going a little crazy trying to hit multiple deadlines, with different wordcounts, different styles and different readerships. This felt a bit like leveling up.
Posted in North Carolina, Raleigh
Tagged being a real journalist, Geek Insider, North Carolina, obligatory press pass, press pass, Raleigh
Leave a comment
‘Cow Crushers’: A Message Game Done Right
New piece on IGM about Cow Crushers:
Auroch Digital has released a new relevant game, Cow Crushers, around the recent scandal about fast food beef tainted with horsemeat. I’ve written about GameTheNews’ previous titles, My Cotton-Picking Life and Endgame Syria, and mostly concluded that although I admired the motivation behind relevant games, both titles ultimately fell flat for me.
But Cow Crushers is exactly what relevant gaming should be.
The mechanic is clear and engaging, and never deviates from the message. At it’s most basic, Cow Crushers is a pattern matching game. Animals appear in front of the players, as if brought in a conveyor belt, and the player needs to tap a burger, steak or chop button to smash that cow into the assigned cut of meat. Blood splashes up as animals become meat, and it’s surprisingly gristly for a stylized 8-bit game. As the game progresses, horses come in with the cows, and the player’s goal is to makes as many cow-burgers as possible without tainting the meat with too much horseflesh by accidentally making horse steaks. The contrast of gristly blood splash and the cute burger icon is particularly effective.
Via ‘Cow Crushers’: A Message Game Done Right | The Indie Game Magazine
Posted in Chapel Hill, Game Reviews, Gaming Culture, North Carolina
Tagged Auroch Digital, Chapel Hill, Cow Crusher, Game Reviews, games, Indie Game Mag, North Carolina, serious games
1 Comment
Not Just Another Zombie Apocalypse
New interview with Sarah Northway from Northway Games.
I asked Sarah about the growing freemium trend. “I’ve been hearing some real cautionary tales of indie games releasing only a free version with IAP.” Sarah says, “Free-to-play is territory best left to unscrupulous optimizers like Zynga.” Zynga, the producers behind scores of derivative freemum social games, is unfortunately why most of us shudder when a game ends in -Ville. Although she sees a potential for a well-balanced free-to-play MMORPG to actually be free to play, Sarah plans to steer clear of designing for freemium and “making people pay because they don’t want to wait all day for some plant to grow or because they’re out of “energy” and not allowed to play the game anymore. That’s the worst.” (We couldn’t agree more.)
This was a great interview, I loved hearing about the next Rebuild, and snarking about bad freemium design. I’m so very impressed that Sarah and Colin Northway manage to travel the world together AND work developing interesting games, which makes me feel that it’s totally possible to combine the two things I love best.
Via Not Just Another Zombie Apocalypse: An Interview With Sarah Northway on Hardcore Droid.
Posted in Chapel Hill, Game Reviews, Gaming Culture, North Carolina
Tagged Chapel Hill, Game Reviews, games, Hardcore Droid, North Carolina, Northway Games, travel
1 Comment
My Internal Monologue, #5
How many F-bombs do I get to use?
-Was not actually what I said when my editor asked if I’d be interested in writing an editorial discussing the massive layoffs in the games industry.
Flavortext
I recently wrote about Avabel, a beautiful tablet MMO with a truly terrible UI, for Geek. I struggled to describe the frustrations of a gorgeous gameworld made fairly inaccessible by almost incomprehensible localization and an awkward UI, and hoped that the game points to great new development for tablet MMOs.
But if you don’t feel like reading the article, this screencap sums it up.
I can’t see the world because almost-sentences and abbreviations are covering it!
Related: People actually do read game text!
