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Bookworm Adventures: the $700,000 casual gameDec-1-06, 4:23 pm by Hanford | Read full postFile under: Misc.  According to CNN, the new casual game Bookworm Adventures took Popcap games two years and $700,000 to make. Well, I played it, and I think someone at Popcap has $650,000 stashed away in swiss bank account somewhere.
What's more interesting about Bookworm Adventures than the budget is the gameplay. While the basic mechanics is a simple jumble-like spelling game, it's wrapped in a turn-based RPG format, including special items, magic powers, special attacks, and boss characters. There's a lot more to it than most "casual games" have. I played the free version for a bit, but I just felt like I wanted more RPG elements in it; I wanted to be able to use the items and explore the world more. It will be very interesting to see how this game does on the various casual games portals. Check out bookworm adventures at popcap.com. I won the Design Your Own Nightmare Before Christmas Character contestDec-1-06, 2:18 pm by Hanford | Read full postFile under: Misc., Photoshop, Disney  I saw the "Design your own Nightmare Before Christmas character" contest listed on the The Disney Blog and decided to enter it because I enjoy creative contests where they just don't pick a winner at random. I thought the video from Tim Burton would be a pretty cool prize.
I spent about 2 hours designing a headless character, but I was wondered if it invoked Tim Burton's Sleepy Hollow movie more than Nightmare before Christmas, so I scrapped it. In thinking about what would be more in spirit with the movie, I came up with the idea of playing off of the 3d aspect of the re-release. Soon I had the idea to combine two one-eye'd heads onto a single body. Continued Zune and Creative CommonsNov-27-06, 12:46 pm by Hanford | Read full postFile under: Mp3 Ugh. I just read an article on Wired today about Zune and Creative Commons. The super condensed version: Zune has a sharing feature that allows a file to be transfered to another Zune, but the receiving Zune has only 3 days or 3 plays (whichever comes first) to listen to it before it's rendered useless. This goes against the spirit if not the letter of some Creative Commons licenses, which state that DRM cannot be applied to the source files. Here's where it gets ugly: Continued Confusion with Amazon.com and the $100 xBox 360Nov-23-06, 11:47 am by Hanford | Read full postFile under: Bad User Interface, Amazon, Video games  I got up at the crack o' 10:45 am on Thanksgiving morning to try and get a $100 xBox 360 from Amazon.com. They only had 1000 at that price, going on sale at 11:00am sharp, and virtually every video game blog in the Universe had reported on it. So it was going to be tough. ContinuedMp3 player rantNov-20-06, 3:26 am by Hanford | Read full postFile under: Trends, Mp3, User Interface, Apple  This is a comment I posted on the blog zuneinsider, where the question "where will we be in 1 to 5 years?" was asked. I decided to repost my comment here as well.
I want an MP3 player that I don't have to *use*. No one ever says "I love to use my radio". They say "I love listening to music". Right now, all I associate my iPod with is maintenance. I gotta make sure it's charged. I gotta make sure it's synced, and I gotta do a fair amount of spinning and clicking just to get some music playing. On the PC I gotta answer little dialog boxes for store updates and downloads, which appear at the worst time. I gotta check the screen to make sure it's okay to unplug it, or I may hurt the little thing. Keeping a working iPod in my life is more trouble than owning a pet. So, when are these things actually going to become easy to use? When is using an Mp3 player going to be just as easy as using a radio? At the end of the day, it's not about the iPod, or the Zune. It's about the music, and any time I spend "using the player" is just taking away from "listening to music". Less is more. In 5 years, that's where we should be. Listening to music, not fussing with dialog boxes and cables. (And a full mia clupa here: I've worked on a few MP3 players, but it's not easy to cause a sea-change.) vgsmart.com to shut downNov-14-06, 1:55 pm by Hanford | Read full postFile under: Video games According to their official blog, vgsmart.com, the go-to for independent game PR, is closing down, with founder Joseph Lieberman going to work at arcadetown.com. From the blog: Well, after 3 years of running VGSmart (Or possibly of VGSmart running me) I have decided to close down shop. The reasons are all personal decisions to aid my sanity. Neither lack of skill nor lack of interest, but the reality is I was really exhausted from doing it. Working 9 AM to 1 AM takes its toll after three years. I never used vgsmart, because they either did not exist or I didn't know about them when I launched my first two games, but I was planning on contacting Joseph when my latest work got closer to being finished. I wish him the best of luck, and I hope this isn't the last of the indie game PR firms. If anyone knows of any others, please let us all know. UpdateDrake from Rabidlab kindly pointed me towards the indiegamer forums, where a topic has started about alternatives to vgsmart. No word yet as to whether any of them are standouts, but time will tell, I suppose.http://forums.indiegamer.com/showthread.php?t=9002 Windows 3.1 file dialog in windows XPNov-6-06, 2:59 pm by Hanford | Read full postFile under: Misc. Wow, this brings back memories. I went to install a font in Windows XP today and saw a relic from the past: the Windows 3.1 file dialog. This is in Microsoft's own code. To see it, open the fonts directory and choose "install new font" from the edit menu. It's funny to see this kind of thing in XP; clearly it's holdover code from eleven+ years ago. 
I wonder if this still exists in Windows Vista. Unfortunate Grammar: Special K cerealNov-2-06, 10:39 am by Hanford | Read full postFile under: Misc. I saw a commercial for Special K breakfast cereal the other day. The female voice over said this line: People who eat cereal like Special K way less. I thought it was a pretty bad (but honest?) way to advertise a cereal. Then I realized what they were actually saying: People who eat cereal like Special K weigh less. Then I thought it was funny. It reminded me of the "Make 7 / Up yours" commercial, except that it wasn't done on purpose, which makes it even funnier. Unfortunate, but funny. Firefox 2's Oct-31-06, 12:19 pm by Hanford | Read full post |
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I make things. From consumer electronics, to video games, to theme park attractions. Perhaps I can make things for you! Check out my portfolio. When I'm not making things for other people, I'm usually experimenting.
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This is my second post in my 
