anna anthropy

Pixel graphics by Ilkke in his particular textoid style. Designed for the C64-game Not Even Human (cartridge, 2011).

Next year, me and Kyle are starting a (very small) virtual reality ("VR") research lab at Parsons. We've set our initial long-term research initiative as some sort of "virtual sculpting studio" -- so maybe one day you'll put on your Oculus Rift and power gloves, sculpt some virtual clay, and then send the model to a 3D printer? Wouldn't that be cool? We have lots of other ideas too, but those will require a lot more money / space / time, so this is us, thinking "small."

If you think it sounds awesome, please "like us" (ugh) on this weird startup grant social media platform thing so some giant well-funded entity can give us money. Or, if you happen to be a corporate or nonprofit entity that has money you'd like to part with, please get in touch.

The full proposal text is here:

We envision virtual reality as a “place” that allows us to do useful work and experience unique phenomena. Much like going to a woodshop to work wood, or a kitchen to work food, we imagine dedicated VR spaces for people to work and play with data in intuitive ways. How can we use the unique affordances of virtual realities to visualize, embody, and interface with virtual data most effectively?

Our initial research direction involves pairing LeapMotion hand-tracking with Oculus Rift VR headsets to create a virtual sculpting workbench that outputs to 3D printers. Recent advances in immersion technology provide novel affordances that a flat 2D display or mouse / keyboard interface does not. Specifically, it could provide all the benefits of an intuitive interface metaphor rooted in physicality (pinching clay with fingers?) yet remain completely free of pesky real-world material constraints (digital clay can defy gravity?) while taking advantage of digital workflows (touch to create a ball? copy and paste a folded crease?).

We believe this direction will make 3D modeling / 3D printing more accessible for everyone. The promise of this interface and its possible applications could radically empower learning design, film production, video game development, web technologies, or digital fabrication and prototyping -- thus strengthening creative economies around the world.

Future research initiatives would focus on pairing wireless VR with seamless body-to-finger motion tracking system to create immersive “holodeck” environments: a “virtual maker space” where we could imbue a physical space with our imaginations... a dreamlab.

(NOTE: We're kinda immersion-effect-skeptics, but I think it's a useful lie.)

Very impressive stop motion text movie: TXT ISLAND.

TXT ISLAND is a typographic tale of epic misadventure. The film was shot as stop-motion animation of plastic sign board letters by animation director Chris Gavin and completed in May 2009 after a production period of around 9 months.

Thanks to Ilkke for the headzüp.

utomaru-works:

手斧と女給さん（Waitress with Hand Axe）

Electronic Sweet-N-Fun Fortune Teller (NES, 2013) by Party Time! Hexcellent!

[Play online (HTML5)]

porpentine:

HIGH END CUSTOMIZABLE SAUNA EXPERIENCE

im so sorry

And here’s Porpentine’s game that she made specifically for/about last night’s Oakland Nights… Live!, and made the audience play through with her. It was really really beautiful seeing 200 strangers yelling PLANT ARMOR! NO! CRYSTAL ARMOR! at the screen. I honestly almost teared up. And the applause when she talked at the end about wanting to destroy ‘Games’ with a capital G… it really felt like another world is possible, not to be too sappy about things. Definitely one of my absolute top ONL experiences, and I’m so proud to have been a part of it.

Invaders from Hyperspace


Attack of the Timelord


Blockout and Breakdown


Basketball & Bowling


Alpine Skiing


Computer Intro


Dynasty


UFO

ultrace:

I know what you’re thinking. “I need more color in my life!” Odyssey² has heard your feeble cries and answered. That its answer came over thirty years before your pleas only speaks further to is incredible majesty as a video game console and universal power.

These are some seriously awesome covers that look more at place in a rave than on your shelf. Although every Odyssey² game had the system’s logo emblazoned across the top of the box, most had the title of the game itself in nondescript text at the bottom, so you get the artwork in its full, unconcealed glory. I’m pretty sure that these weren’t printed with fluorescent blacklight inks, which qualifies as the greatest crime against video game art in its generation.

Want more? Oh yes, I’ll be putting up another eight covers later on, once your eyes have had a chance to come down from their high.

COLORS

“see title” — April 21, 2012

Noyb’s remarks: “Whirling text taken (verbatim?) from Finnegan’s Wake juxtaposed against more modern, self-aware interactive fiction-style prompts and commentary. Text becomes action becomes text. Tutorials appear after they are needed. The player embarks on a slight adventure independent of Joyce’s rambling words. A short work that embraces the absurdity of the source material as well as its own in a way that feels deliberate.

“Exploring a peril-filled game world as a parallel to unpacking a dense text? Taking the frequent disconnect between narration and gameplay to an absurd new height? Whatever the intent, I left confused but intrigued.”

[Play Online]

Dear Raph Koster's Letter to Leigh,

You were right when you said that the authors of "personal games" would probably take you the wrong way... It's hard not to. It's impossible to divorce the politics from the forms of these games, which, yes, makes them difficult to critique as formal designed objects without appearing to attack their politics.

These authors argue that "apolitical formalism" is inherently political, that the worst politics pretends it's not politics. Porpentine tweeted that she prefers "blatant bullshit over honeyed poison." (Uh, she was talking about you, by the way!)

I'm sure you'll understand these authors' reluctance to trust this kind of criticism after the past decade of sustained critical attack on such games and their contexts -- perhaps these "crimes" weren't always inflicted by you or whatever, but it's certainly a trigger when you begin your letter with wondering, "what is a game?" My brain shifts into red alert. That line of inquiry has been a long favored tool of well-intentioned oppression, because these arguments often masquerade as thoughtful discourse but function as a weapon of de-legitimization, that argue these personal games can't really fit a formal definition of game. The emotional leap is that these people can't really fit a formal definition of people. Adding, "it's okay if it's not a game" comes off as sounding like, "it's okay if you're not a person," which doesn't really help you seem apolitical.

Again, you're aware of this. You are a very carefully written letter.

I do think that you imply that this inability to separate content from form is an inherent (formal) weakness of personal games and the ways they mean things. That, because these games can't fit into a formalist frame, they are thus less game-like. Instead, I'd argue that this is a weakness of a traditional formalist approach: mechanics are often boring / limit what authors can do with games. (I'm construing your use of "agency" and "game-yness" as meaning "mechanics", because that's how I think you're actually using those concepts.)

I also think your idea of "dialogue" is too formalist. It emphasizes the shape of dialogue and presumes a positive effect, when I know better. In general, "promoting dialogue" is usually code for "we're going to go through the motions of a reasoned process, but we won't actually do shit." "Dialogue", on an oppressor's terms, rarely results in empathy. Outside of philosophy books, a dialectic is rarely fair and is subject to a power dynamic between the participants. (Poor Glaucon.) Fox News, for instance, often uses the "form" of dialogue to intimidate and mislead under the guise of being fair and balanced; and a few years ago, the completely rational dialectical democratic process of the state of California removed my right to marry. Dys4ia does not "argue with itself" because that'd compromise its politics -- it's taking its turn in the larger dialogue outside of the game, saying, "no, now YOU listen to ME for once."

I'm just trying to explain why authors of personal games don't / can't trust formalism... and now I notice what's happening: I'm rhetorically casting you in the role of Fox News, bigotry, and ignorance. See? You can't take the politics out of this!

There's simply no way to say, "Anna, you should've tightened up the graphics on level 3" without coming off like an asshole with an axe to grind. Maybe if we were talking about Starcraft, that nitpick could be legitimate critical dialogue and we could add it to the annals of Starcraft Studies and Starcraft theory because Starcraft is (partly) *about* the graphics on level 3, and "tight graphics" actually means something to the Starcraft developers. For personal games, it isn't and it never will be, partly because we are our games.

So here's what I propose: don't take this as, "these games think they're above formal criticism." Instead, perhaps formal criticism just occupies a space that's orthogonal / lateral / irrelevant to this game design space. We need a new mode of games criticism!

I mean, I do agree that formalism has its uses. Sometimes putting things into classes, categories, and types is useful. (Starcraft sure is interesting! Let's analyze all those systems!)

Unfortunately, here, I just don't think this is one of those situations.

Here, game design is not physics, engineering, or science -- rather, it's political science, it's history. Maybe we could approach our criticism of these games more like those fields?

I remain your most obedient servant,
-- Robert Yang

首ビューン / neck byu-n!

princess peach

obscurevideogames:

American Dream (Coconuts/C-Dream - NES - 1989) 

Japanese-only, but a fan translation exists. 

from wikipedia: “The player must earn money in order to become the wealthiest gambler in the world. The game, set in New York City, is considered a spin-off from the Pachio-kun franchise. Al Capone has a cameo role in this game even though he lived about one thousand miles to the west (Chicago) in real life.”

holy shit what a beautiful logo

Strange Adventures in Infinite Space

marras6:

My dating sim/interactive story/comic/love poem

“TAPES” 

“TAPES” 

“TAPES” 

http://marrasart.net/tapes.html

http://marrasart.net/tapes.html

http://marrasart.net/tapes.html

misterjoyboy:

hecate

When you don’t know who you are, but know enough to know who you are not. – [Author's description]

[Play Online]

--←╤§Ö♣▲♣Ö§╤—→/

(from You Are Margaret Thatcher: A Dole Playing Game, 1987; by Pat Mills and Hunt Emerson)

Submitted on this auspicious day by Phillip F.

[Play online]

Source

I had initially planned on making a dating game where the player took on the role of a sentient (but silent and immobile) gun in a first-person shooter for the Pulse-Pounding Heart-Stopping Dating Sim Jam. I got tired of the idea a few hours in and around 2 AM decided that it was really important that I write a poem about some first dates I’d been on over the past few years. The next day I plugged them into Twine, using Leon Arnott’s replace macro to allow the player to read each piece at their own pace (and end each date earlier than I did, if they so choose), and the result is 1STDATEMEM.EXE.

I’ve been trying to make something on this subject for a while, so thanks to madamluna for providing an opportunity to frame it in a way that made sense to me. – [Author's description]

[Play Online]

Decide whether or not to help a sibling have good dreams or nightmares by exploring a surreal dreamscape.

Download

torontocomics:

My Dumb Dirty Eyes
by Lisa Hanawalt
Debuting at TCAF 2013! Author in attendance!

Published by Drawn & Quarterly
Flexicover, 7 x 9, 120 pages, full color
$19.95

Sharply observant, laugh-out-loud funny comics from The Believer cartoonist and New York Times illustrator.

My Dirty Dumb Eyes is the highly anticipated debut collection from award-winning cartoonist Lisa Hanawalt. In a few short years, Hanawalt has made a name for herself: her intricately detailed, absurdly funny comics have appeared in venues as wide and varied as The Hairpin, VanityFair.com, Lucky Peach, Saveur, The New York Times, and The Believer.

My Dirty Dumb Eyes intermingles drawings, paintings, single-panel gag jokes, funny lists, and anthropomorphized animals, all in the service of satirical, startlingly observant commentary on pop culture, contemporary society, and human idiosyncrasies. Her wild sense of humor contrasts strikingly with the carefully rendered lines and flawless draftsmanship that are Hanawalt trademarks. Whether she’s revealing the secret lives of celebrity chefs or explaining that what dogs really want is a tennis-ball bride, My Dirty Dumb Eyes will have readers rolling in the aisles, as Hanawalt’s insights into human (and animal) behavior startle and delight time and again.