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Defender of the FAVICONJul-15-08, 5:20 pm by Hanford | Read full postFile under: Misc., Video games, fun, tech  Here's an amazing hack: play a game of DEFENDER in the Favicon in your browser. Use arrow keys to fly, ctrl to shoot. Via Wonderland.
Spore's Time To Cock: negative two daysJun-16-08, 10:33 pm by Hanford | Read full postFile under: Video games, game design, fun Time To Cock refers to the amount of time between a game or virtual world being released until someone somehow makes a cock inside that game world. Spore's creature editor is not even out yet, and people are already making cocks with it. Let's get it out of our systems now. (note: cartoon animation that is NSFWish) First we get Cockasaurus Rex, who appropriately looks like he's on the verge of throwing up while little heart icons float above his, er, head. Next up we get Double Dong, the flying symetrical spiked-testicle penis monster: But then we move to something really disturbing that makes the saggy eyeball thing from Pan's Labyrinth look pedestrian. I'm going to have nightmares after seeing this one: And the list of cock monsters just go on and on. PS. I sure hope Google doesn't list my site as spam due to the copious use of "cock" in this post. Quick update: Netflix Player from RokuJun-3-08, 1:41 pm by Hanford | Read full postFile under: design, User Interface, tech, fun Hi readers (both of you!) -- Here's a quick post that I hope to expand on soon: the Netflix Player from Roku has shipped and is getting great reviews. Since January 2005 I was doing user interface design, UI prototyping, and user testing on this project, and I'm really happy to see it launch and get such great feedback. The Netflix player is a small box that you hook up to your TV, and it wirelessly streams movies so you can watch instantly. If you've got a Netflix account already, it's a $100 one time fee, and then you get unlimited hours of movie playback -- all included in your monthly Netflix subscription. I want to write more about the development, because we had one of the most progressive UI design processes I've ever seen for a consumer electronics product, and I think it shows when you use it. Here's a video of it in action (this guy has an incredibly slow net connection, but he video gives a good cross-section of the UI): The press and public are loving it. Here's what's being said about it: "this one-time $100 expenditure is practically a no-brainer" David Pogue, The New York Times Congrats to Tim, Donna, Marcello, William, and the rest of the Netflix and Roku crew! I had a blast working on it, and I'm really proud of the results. How I rickrolled Dr. Tiki and got video of it happeningApr-18-08, 10:17 am by Hanford | Read full postFile under: Tiki, fun I rickrolled Dr. Tiki. In public. At his own event. And took video. Here's the video of it happening: I've only been genuinely rickrolled twice and both were by Dr. Tiki, including the "lala Shower Outtakes" video that made it the front page of Digg.com. So when I heard that Jeff Macpherson (the guy who plays Dr. Tiki on Tiki Bar TV) announced a "Dr. Tiki meetup" at my local watering hole Forbidden Island Tiki Lounge, I had to come up with a plan to get him back with a rickroll while he was there. To trick him into clicking through to a rickroll while at a Tiki Bar seemed like it would be a difficult task, but I had some advantages: One, I am good friends with Martin Cate, the mastermind behind Forbidden Island, which was Dr. Tiki's destination. And two, I designed and programmed Forbidden Island's tiki-themed touchscreen jukebox. The idea of using something other than the Internet-- specifically a jukebox -- to rickroll someone seemed incredibly devious and yet the same time strangely appropriate. I pitched it to Martin and he was in. It all came together quickly. I made a special build of the jukebox software that when activated, would make every song selection on the juke trigger the Rick Astley video full screen. I got it working in record time and coordinated with Martin to clandestinely install it on the jukebox before opening. The rest was up to Martin himself. The plan was for Martin to give Dr. Tiki a tour of Forbidden Island -- which is a top notch Tiki bar truly worthy of a Tiki connoisseur's guided tour -- that would culminate at the jukebox. At that point Martin would add free credits to the juke while secretly turn on the rickroll mode, then encourage Dr. Tiki to pick a few songs. Meanwhile, my friends Chad Spacey, Rebecca and I would shoot video. The plan worked like a charm. Dr. Tiki was caught completely off guard. Someone not in the know even asked him what was going on and got him to explain the whole rickroll phenomena on camera. It was a classic moment. Jeff Macpherson was truly a great sport about it, a genuine nice guy, and I'm glad I and the other Forbidden Island regulars were able to meet up with him while he was in town. It took a lot of work to rickroll him in public like that, but it was totally worth all the effort. I'd like to think we're even ... but I wonder if I have to watch my back, virtually speaking. Digg this Flickr adds videoApr-11-08, 2:57 pm by Hanford | Read full postFile under: Misc., web2.0, Yahoo I know there's a been a lot of anti-video ranting about this, but I think it's brilliant. My camera takes both photos and videos. When I first started using a digital camera (in 1999), I took many photos and not too many videos. But as memory increased and video got easier to share, I've been taking more and more video. So for any event in my life, I have a mixture of photos and video. But there's never been a single workflow for getting the memories of the event into the hands of my friends (and thus, I never really shared videos). Flickr is solving that, and I think it's great. Good work Flickr. Shared Blog ItemsMar-20-08, 9:01 am by Hanford | Read full postFile under: web2.0, RSS I've been a bit lazy about posting stuff to my blog here. I guess "lazy" isn't the right word. I guess I've just been a bit uninspired. But I am still reading and commenting on blogs, and I've been sharing interesting articles via Google Reader (clicking a button is so much easier than writing a post). If you're interested in my shared reading list, you can bookmark this link (and get a feed from it if you wish), or you can scan them in this handy box below, which at some point will go into my side bar over there, if I can get it to look non-ugly. Enjoy! Registered for Game Developer's Conference 2008Feb-13-08, 8:20 pm by Hanford | Read full postFile under: game design Signed up for the Independent Games Summit too. Can't wait for it ... GDC is my favorite week of the year. SPORE to be released September 7Feb-12-08, 1:48 pm by Hanford | Read full postFile under: Misc. Will it be fun? I have no clue. But I am sure to play it for months anyway. At GDC last year they hinted they may be releasing the editors early (for free?) ... I wonder what happened to that plan .. CNet: Spore shipping September 7th  One of the reasons why I love making gamesJan-21-08, 1:52 pm by Hanford | Read full postFile under: Misc. I got an email from a customer who purchased my first indie game Rocknor's Bad Day from the now-defunct games site Dexterity.com, whom which I had a distribution agreement. She wanted to re-download the full version of the game, because she had lost it. The agreement I had with Dexterity stipulated, as usual, that they got to keep all the sales records, meaning I had no way to tell if she was a legit customer. But I decided to give her a free copy anyway. Here's a snippet of what she had to say the next day: Thank you so much for your prompt response. I can't thank you enough for your generosity. My son will be delighted! He has Autism and gets obsessed with things for months at a time. He will play the one game for months and then move on to another. Then he will often return to a game he was obsessed with previously. Its so long since we played Rocknor I honestly couldn't remember when we bought it. Thus far i have managed to keep him away from most of the awful games that consist of killing things.He will be so excited! Actually the whole family enjoys Rocknor and its so nice to have the kids playing something that makes them think instead of just pushing a button. When I hear firsthand how someone is enjoying something I made, it makes it very hard to think of doing anything else as a career or hobby. 66666666666666666 66666666666666666666666 66666666666666666666666 66666666666666666666666 66666666666666666666666 66666666666666666666666 66666666666666666666666 66666666666666666666666 66666666666666666666666 66666666666666666666666 Custom touch screen jukebox for Forbidden IslandJan-8-08, 6:57 pm by Hanford | Read full postFile under: Misc., Mp3, Macromedia, Director, Adobe, Shockwave, Lingo, fun If you're ever near Alameda, California, stop in at Forbidden Island Tiki Lounge and check out the touch screen jukebox that some bar buddies and I made: Tell them Hanford sent you. Scott Lund did the hardware, Matty & Jessica did the case, and Martin Cate organized the content and was executive producer. I did the software and most of the UI design along with the rest of the team. It randomly plays music from the least-recently played selections on the juke. This was a major beef the owners and staff had about the old off-the-shelf jukebox, which played the same 20 songs over and over. Here's a shot of the jukebox's custom "shipwreck" case.   |
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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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