The Sunday Song: August Timepieces

 Posted by (Visited 8320 times)  Music  Tagged with: , ,
Aug 282011
 

Recently some colleagues at Disney gave me a few gifts in thanks for giving a talk to some folks internally. Apparently Warren Spector picked out one of the gifts: a harmonic capo (he knows I play guitar, you see; been a few years, but we’ve jammed together). This little beastie sits on the 12th fret and presses down very lightly on the strings with rubber feet. Unlike a regular capo, though, it does not depress the strings all the way — instead, it sits lightly enough to cause an open pluck of that string to play a harmonic note — those bell-like tones you hear sometimes out of a guitar. But you can play under the capo, and still get standard notes. The result is that you play a regular chord, and any time you play an open string, you get a harmonic instead.

Well, I had to try it out. Beautiful on the Baby Taylor; didn’t fit on my Blueridge (the heel on the neck is too thick)… and just barely fit on the 1962 Gibson, which is what you’ll hear if you click the link. Because once I had it, I started to noodle about in open G, and, well… got this done in the last couple of hours:

download “August Timepieces”

Hope you like it!

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Videogame History Museum in danger

 Posted by (Visited 8722 times)  Game talk  Tagged with: ,
Aug 192011
 

If you have been to E3 lately, you have seen the awesome stuff that the Videogame History Museum puts together for its shows. If not, check out this video:

But now Gamasutra is reporting that Time May Be Running Out For The Videogame History Museum, because they have been unable to raise the money via Kickstarter to continue what they are doing by opening an actual physical museum.

They’ve got 12 days to go, and are only halfway there. If you want to keep this charity going and help them towards their goal of having a permanent museum location, please visit their Kickstarter page and donate!

Indie Game Challenge #3

 Posted by (Visited 8318 times)  Game talk  Tagged with:
Aug 192011
 

Got this in the mail, and thought some of you might be interested!

The third annual Indie Game Challenge is now open for entries! Don’t miss your chance to showcase your skills and catapult your professional gaming career to the next level.

Presented by the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences (AIAS), GameStop and The Guildhall at Southern Methodist University, the competition offers almost $250,000 in prize monies and scholarships, including a $100,000 grand prize for the winning game. Finalists will also receive national exposure and be eligible for additional prize money by having their pitch videos posted on GameStop.com and GameStop TV for People’s Choice Award voting.

Individuals or teams are asked to submit game betas and pitch videos by Oct. 3, 2011. Finalists will get the opportunity of a lifetime, will be flown to Las Vegas to attend the prestigious D.I.C.E. Summit, have a chance to showcase their games to top publishers in the video game industry set up by the IGC, and will be invited to attend the Indie Game Challenge Awards in February 2012.

If you have a game that you/your team would like to submit, or to simply support independent game developers, visit www.indiegamechallenge.com. For questions about the registration process or game submissions, please email [email protected].

Good luck!

New Bartle video interview

 Posted by (Visited 7967 times)  Game talk  Tagged with: , ,
Aug 152011
 

Got this in the mailbox:

Hello Mr. Koster,

I’m a big fan of your work and reader of your blog. You probably don’t remember me but I briefly met you at GDC Online last year. I was looking for Dr. Richard Bartle, who I did find and conducted an interview with.

A few months ago I released the interview on my Youtube Partner account but forgot to mention to you that I had done so. I thought you might be interested in it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hGg4dx0DlFI

It’s divided into multiple parts because it was so long and I felt this would be a good way for people to keep track of each segment. Thanks for reading! Hope you enjoy!

I should be at GDC 2011 so perhaps I’ll see you there?

Carey

Interested indeed, and I am sure that others may be as well, so I’ve embedded them below the fold:

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