Nice day for some bungee jumping!

Days ago I made this little game for the ADVA CODEAR contest. The premise was to make a game in 100×100 pixels.

Since I think it´s a lot of space I made something that usually would seem like a game for a big resolution, but in 100×100.
Thanks to everybody who helped coding this! (Lucas Callelo,  David Roguin, Ariel nader, Fabián García and Ariel Flesler)
The music was made by Leandro Kalén, he composed and recorded it in his underwears. Incredible.

Jump now!

Prince of Persia meets Another World

Creators of two of the most beautiful games ever made are interviewed together here. Eric Chani, author of “Another World” and Jordan Mercher, author of “Prince of Persia”.
This are two games that I recognize as true examples of art in videogame. Atmosphere, gameplay, characters, level design, story, music, everything that makes for a great experience in gaming is present in both of this titles.

S.O.S.! Este juego intenta educarme!

Los videojuegos nos obligan a prestarles una gran dosis de atención (haciendo uso de varios sentidos a la vez) desde que presionamos START, lo que no es poco teniendo en cuenta que día a día aumenta el bombardeo de estímulos de distintas fuentes que recibimos. Es por esta capacidad que constituyen una poderosa herramienta para la educación.

Entendiendo lo anterior propongo hacer del uso del alcance de los videojuegos una responsabilidad a la hora de desarrollar nuestros productos. Sin perder el foco en el entretenimiento que deben proveer, porque cuando lo pierdan también lo hará el poder que poseen.

A lo largo de los años 80´s y 90´s cientos de juegos pasaron por nuestras manos, capturaron nuestra atención por horas o días y de una fracción de ellos aprendimos algo sin quererlo. Desde la necesidad de reconocer solo en el afán de jugar nuevas aventuras gráficas que aún no habían sido traducidas al castellano, otros ganaron conciencia de la importancia de la materia prima, lo imprescindible de generar el máximo valor agregado de ellas y el buen manejo de recursos para hacer crecer una organización, cientos de títulos despertaron en millones de jóvenes la curiosidad por la literatura y el arte de la narración, conocimos en detalle los mecanismos que mantienen en vuelo a máquinas de decenas de toneladas, trabajo en equipo y cooperación, etc.

Los que en décadas pasadas aprendimos sin darnos cuenta hoy tenemos la posibilidad de conocer mas a fondo los mecanismos que ayudan al aprendizaje, así como las herramientas para producir juegos que hagan uso de ese poder. Muchos de los títulos que publicamos día a día se olvidan del alcance que tienen, mucho mas allá del entretenimiento.

En el pasado las novelas fueron estigmatizadas como pasatiempos de señoras, una coincidencia con los casual games actuales. Hoy nadie se atrevería a decir que las novelas son entretenimiento para señoras (al menos no todas), quien sabe en que pueden devenir los Casual Games una vez que se eche por tierra la pacatería que los envuelve hoy? Estamos siendo parte activa de un momento clave en la evolución del medio de los videojuegos.

Mi propuesta es que diseñadores, programadores, artistas, músicos, etc, tomemos como una responsabilidad el incluir algún elemento en nuestros productos que provea al jugador, que está otorgándole toda su atención a la acción que se desarrolla en la pantalla, la posibilidad de descubrir algo que vaya mas allá de una sesión de juego entretenida.

Key elements for educative games

Before reading every bullet please insert (in your mind) this:
“In my opinion…”

1.FUN
A game can be a powerful tool for education as long as it remains fun and compelling.

1.EDUCATION NOT INFORMATION
A game for education must be a door to new knowledge, not a pile of information.

1.HUMAN GUIDANCE
No software can replace the human role in education. A teacher must transmit knowledge along with social and human values.

Another Perfect World – documentary

If you are interested in how virtual and the real world are no longer so far apart, this documentary is worth viewing. Money and economy, social interaction,  careers, love,

More about Another Perfect World
“Another Perfect World is a documentary about digital utopias, about online worlds created as places for work, play, friendship and love.
People have always created utopias, worlds that reflect the greatest, most enlightened and noble ideas of the period in which they live. The utopias of the future will be created online, in digital worlds capable of rendering photo-realistic depictions of whatever the mind can imagine with technologies that allow people from around the world to join in. We now have the chance to build a new world from scratch.
If you were going to do so, on which principles would you establish it? What is more important: freedom of expression; an active marketplace to encourage social interaction; or laws to define the limits of social relations?”

DeathSpank on 1up

1up is starting a series of articles about Ron Gilbert´s upcoming title “DeathSpank”, a RPG/Adventure game that´s been in his mind for 6 years now. The game is being developed at Hothead Games -the publishers and developers of the very good (and funny) “Penny Arcade”- where Gilbert works as a Creative Director.
There´s a quote that resumes what I think Ron Gilbert felt during his last years.

“You get a lot of publishers who want humor in games,” says Monkey Island creator Ron Gilbert. “They see that as an important thing. But then you try to be funny and it scares them.”

Update
Link to the articles
Main
Exclusive DeathSpank Preview
Ron Gilbert Interview
LucasArts Reunion Video
Inside Hothead
DeathSpank Video Special and Trailer

Quote from Chris Crawford

“Ask a child to point toward himself, and he will respond by pointing toward his approximate center of mass – chis chest. Ask an adult the same question and you´ll see a finger pointing at a face – the face we present to the world.”

Chris Crawford on Game Design

Ignite

Fast, fast, fast, give me, toss it out, give me more, don´t want that, see more, pick one, toss it back, fast, fast, come here, get out, see that, see this, link, link, fast, show me, tell me, shut up, mark it, show,  fast, faster,  come, go, play, fast forward, stop, play, do not pause, play, close, open, open, open in new window, open in new window, close, close, don´t care, what?, don´t care, I like, saw it… and so on.

The world today is casual in every form. Games, education, movies, food, and now even things like TED are having it´s casual cousins.
Like IGNITE. Take a look.

“What Is Ignite?
If you had five minutes on stage what would you say? What if you only got 20 slides and they rotated automatically after 15 seconds? Around the world geeks have been putting together Ignite nights to show their answers.
Ignite was started in Seattle in 2006 by Brady Forrest and Bre Pettis. Since then 100s of 5 minute talks have been given across the world. There are thriving Ignite communities in Seattle, Portland, Paris, and NYC.”

Look and shoot

Focus.

A Tyrannosaurus Rex for Ideas – C. Crawford

“What you need is a Tyrannosaurus Rex stalking through your mind, viciously attacking every idea you create. It should pounce instantly and sink its teeth into the soft flesh of your idea. It should rip and tear with bloodthirsty abandon. Most of your ideas will be torn yo shreds by your inner Tyrannosaurus. That´s good -better that they be prey to your own monster than shredded by others or, worse still, fail in the marketplace after you´ve invested time, money , and reputation on them.”

That´s Chris Crawford on his book “C.C. on game design”. I agree mostly, but I tend to let the ideas grow a little before start attacking them. They need at least that, a little time to grow a bit and have a chance to fight back.