Many months ago, I did a review of the game Smilie by Mory Buckman. That review lead me to being asked to help with Mory's next game, the Perfect Color.
I find it's creation to be particularly intriguing because it was accomplished entirely by email. It's been an interesting collaborating across the world, myself in Montreal, Canada; and Mory in Beit Shemesh, Israel. I suspect this design process is not well suited for everyone, but for two people who enjoy blogging and communication through text, it allows for very clear and thoughtful dialogue.
I have been involved with the game since roughly September and have been working on the character designs and animations, though I have also been able to help work through some of the game design choices and play test the game.
To give a little setup for the game, try to consider video games from a new perspective. It is not about getting a high score or winning, in the same way that film, music and painting aren't about those things. Enjoy it. Absorb it. Look carefully, there is no rush. Play it once. Leave it. Play it again later. Try playing it differently. Analyze it, interpret it.
The Perfect Color
It only runs on Windows.
Enjoy
Kyler
Work Flow
Some days at school I feel that the only way to gain knowledge from particular classes is to analyze what is wrong with them and from that gain a better understanding of the situation.
The problem class recently has been Technical Aspect of Animated Film Making. As it sounds, it is a class where we learn about the tools and methods that are used to put an animated movie together. For most arts there are technical aspects, but I think animated film making nears the highest level of technical complexity in art, with video games being the only art form that is more complicated.
The advent of computers only made things worse for film makers. There are hundreds of new steps with thousands of new options, all of which will result in some wildly different, or absolutely similar results. In addition to that the information about everything is either spread out, not existent or wrong. Thus there is a lot to teach.
But now we come to the problem I see in the class. The objective of our class is to teach us how to work through the animation work flow of our specific school. You use such and such a camera, the film goes then through this process, use this audio program, edit your video here, use these things for that, and so on.
What really needs to be taught is how to make your own work flow for a specific project. To learn that you need to know what tools you have at your disposal, what they are good for, how to use them and how to decided between different options and most importantly, how your decisions will impact your final film. Our class gets about half way to such an experience because we do learn about some underlying principals that could help make a work flow, but simply following a work flow is dramatically different than creating and following your own.
In any case, at least I know what the problem is and can get my own better experience out of the class by thinking about the fundamentals.
Kyler
The problem class recently has been Technical Aspect of Animated Film Making. As it sounds, it is a class where we learn about the tools and methods that are used to put an animated movie together. For most arts there are technical aspects, but I think animated film making nears the highest level of technical complexity in art, with video games being the only art form that is more complicated.
The advent of computers only made things worse for film makers. There are hundreds of new steps with thousands of new options, all of which will result in some wildly different, or absolutely similar results. In addition to that the information about everything is either spread out, not existent or wrong. Thus there is a lot to teach.
But now we come to the problem I see in the class. The objective of our class is to teach us how to work through the animation work flow of our specific school. You use such and such a camera, the film goes then through this process, use this audio program, edit your video here, use these things for that, and so on.
What really needs to be taught is how to make your own work flow for a specific project. To learn that you need to know what tools you have at your disposal, what they are good for, how to use them and how to decided between different options and most importantly, how your decisions will impact your final film. Our class gets about half way to such an experience because we do learn about some underlying principals that could help make a work flow, but simply following a work flow is dramatically different than creating and following your own.
In any case, at least I know what the problem is and can get my own better experience out of the class by thinking about the fundamentals.
Kyler
I always hear about Twitter, and decided to just check out the website to see what it was.
What I found: Epic Meme Machine.
From the very outset it is obviously perfectly designed to be spread. Every step of the process maximizes how much it can spread. Things like automatically checking your Gmail address book, suggesting random people to connect with, suggesting famous people to connect with, asking you to invite people from your email address book. You can't even see any content on the website without signing up.
And beyond that, the whole idea is based around messages of less than 140 characters. You can barely even make a meme that takes up less data then that.
No wonder it seems to be taking over the internet.
But I'm staying away, no need to distract me with that junk. I'll just continue using my blog to write nice long posts that not many people read all the way through and have little ability to spread wildly around the world.
At least I will still have my integrity.
Kyler
What I found: Epic Meme Machine.
From the very outset it is obviously perfectly designed to be spread. Every step of the process maximizes how much it can spread. Things like automatically checking your Gmail address book, suggesting random people to connect with, suggesting famous people to connect with, asking you to invite people from your email address book. You can't even see any content on the website without signing up.
And beyond that, the whole idea is based around messages of less than 140 characters. You can barely even make a meme that takes up less data then that.
No wonder it seems to be taking over the internet.
But I'm staying away, no need to distract me with that junk. I'll just continue using my blog to write nice long posts that not many people read all the way through and have little ability to spread wildly around the world.
At least I will still have my integrity.
Kyler
Memetics of Truth - Obama
(Caution, I think this is a fairly low quality post in which a yabber on about something I have already discussed. You have been warned)
This afternoon, after Obama had been inaugurated, I had drawing class. My drawing teacher is a really smart guy, and in a similar method to myself, leaps to completely different perspectives on topics.
The topic was Obama as President. Now the main point he suggested was that the media control politics because they control what the general public see. Now to a certain extent that is true. That is probably true in terms of getting Bush elected. You pay media, they give you coverage, you can get elected. Through this logic, those with the money control the world. Not a bad theory.
But I disagree in the case of Obama. Obama didn't win by paying the media and getting more coverage. Money can only get you so far. Obama used an idea to get elected. I will tentatively say that he latched on to a "meme" to win the election. (I use it tentatively because I find its meaning often misused which maybe someday I will be able to explain).
The idea he latched on to was fairly simple. Change. Desire for something different. It was an extremely simply message, which while easy to describe as "change" actually is harder to pin down. I would almost describe the "meme" as simply a guttural feeling that change should be coming, or is coming, or you want it to come. It was a feeling/idea that seemed to infect people, that could spread. Its a feeling that gets into you and makes you want to vote for Obama even if your a Canadian.
It's a feeling that makes you want to tell the world about it. And thus the feeling will spread. It spread through the internet. Through Obama's campaign design. Through his speeches. Through the music videos. It spread through people simply talking about Obama.
The feeling had so much power it got Obama elected. Now supposed the worst. Suppose it is all a sham that has been engineered from the ground, by the most evil corporations on the planet. Suppose some how the US government is going to start acting even more irrationally and do even more stupid things. What would happen?
The whole thing would shatter. In an instant the truth would be known. There would be revolution. This feeling that has spread across the world simply wouldn't allow the wrong thing to remain. The people who had been feeling change would force it. I don't know exactly how, but I'm fairly certain it would matter what the government did, the ball of change is already rolling and there is simply no stopping it. Obama simply was able to take advantage of this meme and become President.
Kyler
This afternoon, after Obama had been inaugurated, I had drawing class. My drawing teacher is a really smart guy, and in a similar method to myself, leaps to completely different perspectives on topics.
The topic was Obama as President. Now the main point he suggested was that the media control politics because they control what the general public see. Now to a certain extent that is true. That is probably true in terms of getting Bush elected. You pay media, they give you coverage, you can get elected. Through this logic, those with the money control the world. Not a bad theory.
But I disagree in the case of Obama. Obama didn't win by paying the media and getting more coverage. Money can only get you so far. Obama used an idea to get elected. I will tentatively say that he latched on to a "meme" to win the election. (I use it tentatively because I find its meaning often misused which maybe someday I will be able to explain).
The idea he latched on to was fairly simple. Change. Desire for something different. It was an extremely simply message, which while easy to describe as "change" actually is harder to pin down. I would almost describe the "meme" as simply a guttural feeling that change should be coming, or is coming, or you want it to come. It was a feeling/idea that seemed to infect people, that could spread. Its a feeling that gets into you and makes you want to vote for Obama even if your a Canadian.
It's a feeling that makes you want to tell the world about it. And thus the feeling will spread. It spread through the internet. Through Obama's campaign design. Through his speeches. Through the music videos. It spread through people simply talking about Obama.
The feeling had so much power it got Obama elected. Now supposed the worst. Suppose it is all a sham that has been engineered from the ground, by the most evil corporations on the planet. Suppose some how the US government is going to start acting even more irrationally and do even more stupid things. What would happen?
The whole thing would shatter. In an instant the truth would be known. There would be revolution. This feeling that has spread across the world simply wouldn't allow the wrong thing to remain. The people who had been feeling change would force it. I don't know exactly how, but I'm fairly certain it would matter what the government did, the ball of change is already rolling and there is simply no stopping it. Obama simply was able to take advantage of this meme and become President.
Kyler
Squares
Imagine this progression.
Your eating a meal in a cafeteria. Your holding a fork. It is not square at all.
There are plates and cups on your meal tray. They are circles.
Your meal tray is square.
It is on a square table.
That square table is on a floor made of squares, which is in a square room, which is alongside a series of square rooms to make up the floor of the building.
The square floors of the building are stacked up to form a square building which is adjacent to square buildings which make up the square block they are on in the city.
The city is a series of square blocks that form the grid that make up the city.
So the big question is: Why all the squares?
Well first imagine you starting to build a row of buildings. What shape should you make them? The quick answer is square because that is the shape that allows for the least amount of wasted space. Try putting any other shape in a row, your simply can't beat the square.
Now you have square buildings, what are you going to put in those buildings? Triangles, circles, lozenges? Of course not, squares fit inside squares. You will make square beds and tables. The floor tiles will be squares and the doors will be squares and you simply won't break the trend.
That is until a threshold is met. The moment that the objects in the house become more about how they physically interact with humans, the less square they become. Think of chairs, and stoles. They are designed with your body in mind, yet also to fit into the square shape of the building. Consider the fork. It is designed for your hand. It is small and does not require extreme efficiency in how it is integrated into your house. I think the most extreme example of design that is not square is that of clothing. It is simply designed to fit your body, with no intention of ever trying to fit into the square context of a building.
So considering my belief in the very two dimensional manner that the brain can think, this square theory makes a lot of sense. Squares shouldn't be considered boring and uncreative, they should simply be accepted as the standard. If you want to make a statement and express another idea, sure use a different shape, but squares in our society fit in for a reason.
In terms of evolution. Once you have one square, all square objects will have an advantage afterwards, as they will all fit together better, and simply yield more square design
Kyler
Your eating a meal in a cafeteria. Your holding a fork. It is not square at all.
There are plates and cups on your meal tray. They are circles.
Your meal tray is square.
It is on a square table.
That square table is on a floor made of squares, which is in a square room, which is alongside a series of square rooms to make up the floor of the building.
The square floors of the building are stacked up to form a square building which is adjacent to square buildings which make up the square block they are on in the city.
The city is a series of square blocks that form the grid that make up the city.
So the big question is: Why all the squares?
Well first imagine you starting to build a row of buildings. What shape should you make them? The quick answer is square because that is the shape that allows for the least amount of wasted space. Try putting any other shape in a row, your simply can't beat the square.
Now you have square buildings, what are you going to put in those buildings? Triangles, circles, lozenges? Of course not, squares fit inside squares. You will make square beds and tables. The floor tiles will be squares and the doors will be squares and you simply won't break the trend.
That is until a threshold is met. The moment that the objects in the house become more about how they physically interact with humans, the less square they become. Think of chairs, and stoles. They are designed with your body in mind, yet also to fit into the square shape of the building. Consider the fork. It is designed for your hand. It is small and does not require extreme efficiency in how it is integrated into your house. I think the most extreme example of design that is not square is that of clothing. It is simply designed to fit your body, with no intention of ever trying to fit into the square context of a building.
So considering my belief in the very two dimensional manner that the brain can think, this square theory makes a lot of sense. Squares shouldn't be considered boring and uncreative, they should simply be accepted as the standard. If you want to make a statement and express another idea, sure use a different shape, but squares in our society fit in for a reason.
In terms of evolution. Once you have one square, all square objects will have an advantage afterwards, as they will all fit together better, and simply yield more square design
Kyler
Lego Sorting
My friend Stuart brought some of his Lego to residence. He got some boxes to store it in. Obviously, it needed to be sorted into said boxes. The process of sorting consisted of starting with a large pile, and separating them into the categories of regular block, flat block, mechanical piece, or appearance enhancing piece.
Now the process of sorting made a natural phenomena exceedingly clear. Imagine that the pieces were some sort of animal, and the sorting process was the hunt. What became apparent was that there were strong evolutionary forces at work. First the large bright pieces got sorted. There were only small pieces left, and then there was a majority of black pieces. And pieces that were difficult to classify became numerous.
By the end we had found the most difficult to sort Lego piece. It was a small brown Lego Man gun that was the same color as the floor.
Now we all know about evolution. But rarely do we see it so clearly.
Over the next few blog posts I am going to continue to discuss evolution, and how I am beginning to understand that Universal Evolution is the fundamental force that is driving everything in the universe. From human evolution, to design, to physics, I think evolution is the fundamental algorithm in understand everything.
Kyler
Now the process of sorting made a natural phenomena exceedingly clear. Imagine that the pieces were some sort of animal, and the sorting process was the hunt. What became apparent was that there were strong evolutionary forces at work. First the large bright pieces got sorted. There were only small pieces left, and then there was a majority of black pieces. And pieces that were difficult to classify became numerous.
By the end we had found the most difficult to sort Lego piece. It was a small brown Lego Man gun that was the same color as the floor.
Now we all know about evolution. But rarely do we see it so clearly.
Over the next few blog posts I am going to continue to discuss evolution, and how I am beginning to understand that Universal Evolution is the fundamental force that is driving everything in the universe. From human evolution, to design, to physics, I think evolution is the fundamental algorithm in understand everything.
Kyler
Life Drawing
This is my drawing, not bad. But my teacher often sits down in my spot and uses my drawing paper and pencils to show the class how to do things right, so his drawing is from exactly the same spot, and I end up with his drawings. This is how he drew the same knees.
I love what he always says.
"There is no way that you can go wrong."
Kyler
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