v21

step 1 is not to start writing a blog post instead. but let’s ignore that part for now. step 2 is to do nothing. just sit. no, sitting is too active, lie down if you can. close your eyes. do nothing. step 3 is: that’s boring isn’t it?

Today, Downpour comes out!

I am delighted to announce that Downpour, the game making app I’ve been working on for the last few years, is coming out on Android and iOS on March 6th!

This is a talk given at the Pervasive Media Studio for their lunchtime talks series.

So, last night Elon Musk bought Twitter!

I have just released a new tool for generating epicycles.

With the recent news that Twitter is being sold to Elon Musk, lots of people have been setting up or rediscovering Mastodon accounts.

Together with Viviane Schwarz, I am releasing a new social network for frogs.

I’ve not set this up, but I think it would be a good idea.

Today I announce a new project!

This is a crosspost from my Patreon page, but with the bits thanking people for their support removed.

Update, 20 Apr 2022: The recording of the talk is now available to watch on the GDC Vault This is a rough transcript of a talk I gave at GDC 2022, as part of the “Making Room” track.

I have a new webpage up!

I’m in the mood to chat with people.

The other week I saw a tweet by my friend & banging chiptune musician Chipzel, where she was giving a little guided tour through LSDJ, the premiere Gameboy music software. should probably rehearse this or find someone to edit 😅 pic.twitter.com/ijgKcXDqAw —

I have been excitedly following the progress of Electric Zine Maker, by Nathalie Lawhead.

10 Games I Played This Year Black Room by Cassie McQuater This was one I really wanted to show in this year's Now Play This, but we couldn't find a space for it.

last night i was on a website that writes reviews of obscure retro games, and i decided to poke at it's archives to see if i could find a game that's been itching away at me. it was a golf game i remember playing from a vaguely Christmas-themed shareware…

making tools is a creative act teaching is a creative act curating is a creative act criticism is a creative act community building is a creative act manifesto writing is a creative act making games is a creative act (there are many more creative acts than

friend simulator is a videogame about virtual pets. in friend simulator, the simulated pet is not a real pet - it is a stuffed toy instead. it would be easy to recurse into an extended bit about "simulating the simulated" here, but i'm going to resist - i…

What did I do last year?

Last week, I recorded and put up three new episodes -- I guess they're episodes, I guess this is a podcast, and if it's a podcast then they're episodes.

A few weeks back, Emilie Reed ran the Visual Essay Jam.

Yes yes, it's February already, I know.

videogames are presented as consequence-free sandboxes. you can try things, you can run over the pedestrians, you can do a genocide run with no real world impact. i hear lack of real world consequence is a fundamental condition of play?

Gosh, it's been a long year.

Some people I know can be pretty negative about VR!

A while back, I became interested in the design problem of making games that would help you fall asleep.

After the wonderful and inspiring Bot Summit last weekend and Art of Bots this weekend, it feels like there's a critical mass of botmakers and associated folks in London.

Count from 1 to 100.

I've been reading other people's year-in-reviews, and I thought maybe I should do one, before it's quite too late for that to make sense as a thing to do.

I remember reading about how the advent of computers into math had changed what it meant to prove a theorem.

What I Thought About The World, by muffinista https://github.com/muffinista/NaNoGenMo2015/blob/master/i-thought-output.md I thought about how easily I thought about other people.

This is a heavily-edited version of the talk I did at Bees In A Tin on Friday.

This weekend I ran two workshops of botmaking at the always fantastic Feral Vector (this time, tucked away in a gorgeous valley in Yorkshire).

I have just released a tool for making Twitterbots, called Cheap Bots, Done Quick.

These are the bots I showed during my hypertalk at Screenshake festival in Antwerp: @gamejobsbot @knocknockbot @dungeon_bot @tiny_star_field @tiny_astro_naut @tinyshootinstar @FFD8FFDB @rom_txt @MinecraftSigns imgshredder/status/564068350490595328 @imgcon…

Many moons ago, I ran a workshop at Screenshake called Tying Stories Together With Twine.

Hullo!

materials required : - a walk home and - a stopwatch as you leave, push "start" on the stopwatch and walk home (don't look at the stopwatch) just before you open your front door, stop the stopwatch make a note of the time the next day, as you leave, push…

Okay okay, so I've not played it, but apparently there is a couple's boardgame thing called Monogamy.

Here are some things I love about it: It has a flavour and a colour gradient!

David O'Reilly's Basic Animation Aesthetics : Discover the secret to making your games not look, or sound, or feel like crap.

A long, 4AM conversation about the nature of games, the trajectories of our careers and our current plans and state of mind, between @lauraehall, @minkette, @edclef, @nachimir (until he fell asleep) and me.

So the first Twine Tasting evening is this evening.

If anyone finds this useful, I've made a small python script for converting Twine .tws files into Twee .tw files (without using the Twine GUI) Download from here (You will need a working copy of Python) This was made as an incidental part of writing our d…

Disunion - The guillotine simulator from André Berlemont on Vimeo.

Make games for objects like you make games for consoles.

Here’s a design pattern I use a lot in Unity when sketching out or testing behaviours: public bool bangFollow; void Update () { if (bangFollow) { bangFollow = false; FollowSpline(); } } As I use it a bunch, I’m not sure how clear the intent here…

Valve used to emply 12 people to look after (I'm not entirely clear) Steam, or submissions to Steam.