It’s about time I cleaned this blog up a bit. I look back on it and have a few questions: Why on earth did I pick func-auton.net as the URL?* Why weren’t post titles also permalinks? Why was a blog that had a few good posts once but was quickly turned into a massive, fluff [...]

For the first 10% of GTA IV, I had a backseat driver. “Go left here!”, “You missed the turn!”, “No not that way”. The most annoying thing about this particular backseat driver was that it was always right, even in times of crisis. It led me from one waypoint to the next flawlessly, but I [...]

Some friends and I once invented a game while working together in a night club. It’s called One-Behindmanship, and basically turns good door etiquette into a competitive game. By being the last of a group through a door without anyone realising, you earn gloating rights. “After you” is a perfect way to telegraph and cause [...]

I went to the Hide and Seek Festival last weekend. It was great and I’ll be writing about it soon, both here and at Pixel-Love. It’ll be a little while yet though since I’ve been laid up with a fever for the past few days.
For now, here are the photos I took there.

After the jump there’s a written version of the keynote talk I gave at Under The Mask, Perspectives on the Gamer on Saturday the 7th of June. You can find slides to go with it here, an embedded version with image credits here, links to most of the things I’m talking about here, the conference [...]

Here are the slides for the Game Culture Talk I did last Saturday at Under The Mask:

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These are also mirrored with transcript on the Pixel-Lab site.
If the embed doesn’t work for you, here’s a link to the slide page.
Photo credits after the jump. Most images were used under creative [...]

I’ve been asked to deliver a keynote at Under the Mask: Perspectives on the Gamer. Provided everything goes to plan, this post will be automatically published while I’m giving the talk.
Slides and a written version of the talk can be found at the Pixel-Lab site or a few entires on in this blog. For now, [...]

(CC licensed image by Roadsidepictures)
I ran an event for work a few nights ago, and one of the things that came up in discussion was this blog entry by Ste Pickford. He raises an interesting question:
I’m playing GTA4 right now but I’m not very good and shooting / aiming games, so I’m struggling with some [...]

There’s some interesting work being done at Playing Together. Talking about social gaming and the Wii in particular, they quote a few kids/teenagers:
“I was addicted to Unreal and i knew all the cheats.”
How often did you play it?
“All the time!”
And why did you stop playing it?
“I grew up! [laughs]”
[Male, 19, Yorkshire]
It goes on:
I do wonder, [...]

Caught this tidbit about performative AI in an interview with Evolution Studios, while researching a piece for work this week:
Simon [Benson]: The AI is incredibly advanced. Its primary goal is to entertain the player rather than just turn laps.

I saw a lot of indie games at GDC. Gesundheit!, by Matt Hamill is by no means the most innovative, but it is utterly delightful. The art style has the same effect on me that Katamari Damacy did some years ago.
The concept is pretty easy: The little pig must bait monsters into traps by sneezing [...]

Of all the game developer events I’ve been to, GDC probably has the highest proportion of women attending, though they’re still a small minority. It is tempting to hit on them, especially as a single young man, but for the whole conference, I didn’t. The reason why is that I suspected something, and had it [...]

I’m about to fly off to GDC 08 in San Francisco, and I’m really looking forward to some in depth discussion on games. I’ve been thinking a lot about what makes things into compelling experiences, and am starting to think about the current state of engines, the realisation of their applications in non-games fields, and [...]

For years, I’ve had a love/hate relationship with any kind of aspiration and status. That kind of internal conflict always signifies something interesting, unsettled and insufficiently explored. I can’t resist tugging away at the loose ends, which in this case has driven me to some extremes in the past, and only now is it really [...]

Currently, I’m writing a response to the Byron Review for my employer, and a part of that involves looking at the risks of virtual worlds.
One which very few people seem to be thinking about is that many of them conflate self worth with shopping:
If you’re a parent, I would be much less concerned about things [...]