Less
More
« Older
Home
Loading
Newer »

Archive for June, 2006

Go Into Your WriteRoom

I’m currently taking a dramaturgy course in relation to work. We’re two sessions in, and it’s already changed my perception many things in relation to dramatic writing and storytelling.

Anyway, the reason I mention this is because we for each session, of which there are twelve, have writing assignments. And I don’t know about you, but I’m so easily distracted by mails, feeds, IM’s, colorful icons and uh, shiny…

And that’s where WriteRoom comes in. No distractions, just you and text. I plan on trying it for next weeks assignment, though since we’re working in the movie script format, I’ll have to pass it through either Oliver’s TE scriptwriting bundle or Celtx anyway.

If only either of those two had WriteRoom’s features, I’d be sold.

Valve Shares Valuable Data

a href=“http://www.steampowered.com/stats/ep1/?gamesHelp”>Valve has been collecting some information on how people have been playing Half-Life : Episode One, and boy is it interesting stuff. Many game companies would kill to have this information.

Especially stuff like where in the game do people die the most? Obviously that’s probably a bottleneck likely to frustrate players. Maybe that coinsides with the number of players dropping out at that time?

Very very cool stuff, and great to see them sharing it with the world. Valve is really positioning themselves to be at the top of the world.

Update Aug. 25th 2006: The link is now dead. Suck!

Free Vista Screenshots

I like to think of myself as open-minded and a share-alike kinda guy, which is why I don’t get Paul’s response the other day. Luckily like-minded people exist, and Stewart was kind enough to come through for me and provide a whole slew of new Vista screenshots.

And not only are these open source, royalty free, do-what-you-please, can’t-steal-if-you-wanted-to screenshots. They’re also not resized and compressed like Paul’s are, so it’s kind of a win-win situation for all. So now I can exchange Paul’s shots with these, and Paul can go back to rating games with his own head. Win-win.

I’ve also uploaded all the screenshots to a flickr set on my own account where I’ll be commenting on them as soon as I get the time.

PS: You can get Vista Beta 2 for yourself and create even more screenshots, as long as you hurry!

Game Stories

Warren Spector, one of my idols of course, talks about linear vs. nonlinear gaming experiences:

That is so much cooler than listening to people agree how cool it was when they all killed some monster in exactly the same way, or got across some chasm in exactly the same way, or solved some goofy puzzle in exactly the same way. #

As any self-respecting gamer and game developer, I’m always toying with game ideas in the back of my brain. And in this case I lean towards the non-linear approach more than the linear. I love being able to share stories of unique gaming experiences with friends, rather than what Spector describes in the above quote.

Don’t get me wrong, I loved Half-Life 2, but once you’re done with it, it is limited just how many stories you have to share with others, except for how cool the particular moments that you both shared were.

Xbox 360 Universal Remote TV Codes

Xbox 360 Universal Media Remote

So, you’re like me and you want a universal remote for use with your new Xbox 360. You head on out and get Microsoft’s Xbox 360 Universal Media Remote (phew). First you’re a bit miffed that it only supports you 360, the TV and a Windows Media Center. There goes the dream of having the VCR, 360, Xbox, TV and stereo on one remote… But then again, that is a bit much perhaps.

Either way, you then read the manual to find out how to configure it. It simply says:

The Xbox 360 Universal Media Remote manual includes a code list that covers many popular TVs. For the most current list of TV library codes, visit the following Web site:
http://www.xbox.com/support

So you go there… And you can’t find anything! Except for a knowledge base article which says the exact same thing. Great, thanks a lot!

In the end, Google came through, and hopefully this entry will make it even easier for future owners.

Here they are, for your perusal.

Restart? I Don’t Think So!

Thurrott can use this screenshot if he wants to, but no one else dammit!

God knows I have hated that dialog since the day I first saw it. But hey, now there’s a solution. (via)

Danish Radio to Work With Wikipedia

Now [Danish Public Television and Radio is] launching a cooperation with Danish Wikipedia to provide content to the Wiki sports encyclopedia. # (via)

In the great spirit of sharing, that is just downright awesome! And kudos to DR for already providing so much of their backlog (including hours upon hours of satire shows as well as frontrunning the podcast world in Denmark with your radio shows, even if they’re sans music) online. If only TV2 would get their head out of their ass and drop the Windows-only Sputnik crap.

Here’s DR’s article on the Sports Wiki as well as “The Sports Wiki” itself, to which I’ll just add: I could really care less for sports, it’s the gesture I’m interested in.