PhotoSketch – freakin’ amazing

 Posted by (Visited 7200 times)  Art, Misc
Oct 102009
 

To quote Mashable, it “transforms basic stick-figure drawings in to a photograph.”

In one example of the technology, a basic sketch, showing the rudimentary outlines of some boats, seagulls and a kissing bride and groom, is transformed in to a beautiful image showing an embracing couple against a sunset backdrop. In another, a diagram of a man throwing a Frisbee, and a dog leaping to catch it, is turned into an action-packed picture.

via PhotoSketch picture software wins plaudits – Telegraph.

The video walks you through how they do it. Totally cool.

Sketch2Photo: Internet Image Montage from Tao Chen on Vimeo.

Mike Laidlaw on single-player games

 Posted by (Visited 11006 times)  Game talk  Tagged with: , , ,
Oct 092009
 

PCWorld ran an article in three parts on Dragon Age, Bioware’s upcoming RPG, and part three leads by posing the question

Is Bioware’s Dragon Age the last of its kind? A solo-player game absent an integrated online component? Or is it actually the next step in what Spore designer Will Wright calls the “massively single player” experience?

Mike Laidlaw, the lead designer on the game (justly well-known for his writing chops) offers up some interesting and nuanced thoughts.  He leads with the observation (boldface mine) that

I think the glory of stories–and I think this is something computers are only now starting to be able to participate in–is that stories are shared experiences. It’s the shaman telling the tale of whatever around the campfire, the boy scouts with the flashlight under their faces. All these things are primal ways that we as a people communicate, share experiences, and quite often, share wisdom and growth. Before written communication, before the printing press, and before computers certainly. Lore and legends were often wrapped up as fables and parables, for the purposes of sharing experiences.

So to my mind, the most valid story is one that can be experienced but also shared…

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Don’t Display Negative Karma

 Posted by (Visited 7433 times)  Game talk  Tagged with: , , ,
Oct 072009
 

Randy Farmer (he of Habitat fame, and much more besides!) and Bryce Glass have been posting excerpts from their upcoming book Building Web Reputation Systems on a blog, and today’s has a great anecdote in it that hammers home all the math behind negative reputation systems.

“Hi! I see from your hub that you’re new to the area. Give me all your Simoleans or my friends and I will make it impossible to rent a house.”

“What are you talking about?”

“I’m a member of the Sims Mafia, and we will all mark you as untrustworthy, turning your hub solid red (with no more room for green), and no one will play with you. You have five minutes to comply. If you think I’m kidding, look at your hub-three of us have already marked you red. Don’t worry, we’ll turn it green when you pay…”

If you think this is a fun game, think again-a typical response to this shakedown was for the user to decide that the game wasn’t worth $10 a month. Playing dollhouse doesn’t usually involve gangsters.

— Building Web Reputation Systems: The Blog: The Dollhouse Mafia, or “Don’t Display Negative Karma”.

There’s whole rough drafts of chapters on the site — totally worth reading, pondering, absorbing, and using.

Me, cantina dancing, and gasp, music!

 Posted by (Visited 4718 times)  Game talk, Music  Tagged with:
Oct 052009
 

A friend of mine spotted a familiar name under the musical submissions. You probably know Raph Koster as the designer of Star Wars: Galaxies, the ill-fated MMO. But folks at The Sixtyone know him for his selections under “folk and instrumental”. You can listen to them here. Unfortunately, they’re pretty good, so I can’t ridicule them.

But how would Raph Koster do as a cantina dancer? | Fidgit.

I think it is hilarious that this is news (of a sort, anyway). Blogged by the estimable Tom Chick, no less!

For the record, I wouldn’t do so well as a cantina dancer. Maybe in my younger days…

Flash comes to the iPhone

 Posted by (Visited 8885 times)  Game talk  Tagged with: ,
Oct 052009
 

Well, this is a nice end-run around Apple. In a nutshell: develop in Flash CS5, cross-compile to iPhone as a standalone app. Public beta later this year.

How is this different from Adobe Flash Player 10 coming to iPhone? Will iPhone users be able to view web content built with Flash technology in the iPhone browser?

The new support for iPhone applications in the Flash Platform tooling will not allow iPhone users to browse web content built with Flash technology on iPhone, but it may allow developers to repackage existing web content as applications for iPhone if they choose to do so.

Flash Player uses a just-in-time compiler and virtual machine within a browser plug-in to play back content on websites. Those technologies are not allowed on the iPhone at this time, so a Flash Player for iPhone is not being made available today.

Flash Professional CS5 will enable developers to build applications for iPhone that are installed as native applications. Users will be able to access the apps after downloading them from Apple’s App Store and installing them on iPhone or iPod touch.

Adobe Labs – Adobe Flash Professional CS5: Applications for iPhone.

This s a huge game-changer. Expect the App Store to get overwhelmed with Flash apps within days of this becoming available as every good Flash app is ported over. It’s another solid step on Adobe’s part towards making Flash a common rendering and development platform across multiple devices, too — Flash 10.1 is already scheduled to land on basically every other smartphone, and honestly, users don’t care whether it’s runtime interpreted or not.

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