It was worth it. The main thing I learned was that people noticed the little design decisions I thought that would slip by subliminally. That they notice all the little details that kept me up nights. They commented on the plastic liner, and how it was laid out. They noticed that the printing was matte rather than gloss. And there was a vocal few who let me know they appreciated seeing a game that was medieval rather than fantasy.
Liz showing off the game at KublaCon. Liz is one of the instructors on laser and silkscreen at TechShop, and volunteered to help run the booth at the con. Yay for geeky volunteers.
Good times at the Hardware Innovation Workshop. This was a pre-Makerfaire conference. My team was invited to show some of our stuff, and were flattered to find ourselves in the company of the inventors of so many cool things. (arduino, chumby, littleBits, and so many more) I can also cross a visit to PARC off my geek bucket list after this, too.
Knowing that Fantasy Flight Games is bringing Netrunner back into print as an LCG. (A "Living Card Game". It's like a Collectible Card Game, except instead of making the players chase rares by buying endless boosters, it's just a monthly pack of cards that includes multiple copies of each card. So the player's cost to keep a full set is capped around the level of subscribing to an MMO.) Netrunner was my favorite of all the collectible card games, and its cancellation was for game design what the cancellation of Firefly was to science fiction TV.
Looking forward to MakerFaire this weekend.
I'm doing something right: My ticket to MakerFaire just got comped.
Today the news is that my maker crew just got comped 2 tickets to the Hardware Innovation Workshop. Now we just have to talk them out of two more tickets so that all four of us can be there. It's at PARC. That's the lab that invented the network connection you're reading this through now, and the ideas that Apple turned into the first macs.
Excited? More than a little.
We got invited for a handful of projects. But the one we're showing off most for this conference is some hacking we did with the Sphero, getting four of them to run a racetrack from XBox controllers. The first version of that code was turned out by a fine gentleman at Microsoft, and I've had a good time over the last week upgrading it to run lots of Spheros at once, putting in speed controls, and generally pushing the limits on what these little guys will do. Meanwhile, the rest of the team was building the racetrack.
The Sphero is an impressive little piece of hardware. It's got a full inertial measuring unit in a baseball-sized robot, with more precision on its gyros than the ones in commercial airliners. It's also a ton of fun.
Here's what it looks like when the president drives one.
The code to run many spheros through a single computer I just got working tonight. We started inventing different games beyond the racetrack almost immediately.
I don't sleep much anymore, but life is fun.
Edit: Video of when we first got the multiSphero controls going:
Berkshire-Hathaway had their annual shareholder's meeting today. Which is to say that two of the richest men on the planet got on a stage, took serious questions from the audience whose answers would shape the fortunes of the world, and shot back answers that were informative at the same time as they were on par with Stewart-Colbert for comedy value.
Here's how you stay mentally sharp and fit to guide the fortunes of the world into your ninth decade: Keep having fun.
Background:
For the entire 6-hour meeting, whenever Warren or Charlie aren't talking, they're chowing down on peanut brittle and coke.
Buffett was recently diagnosed with prostate cancer. He's 81 now, and the shareholders have been getting antsy about him choosing a successor.
Question from the audience: How are you feeling?
Warren: I feel terrific. I always feel terrific. I love what I do, I work with people I love. It’s more fun every day. Basically I think I have a good immune system. My diet is such as any fool can plainly see, I’m eating properly. All i can say is that it works. and I have four doctors. At least a few of them own Berkshire-Hathaway. My wife and my daughter and I listen to four of them, they describe various alternatives. The ones that they recommend do not involve a day of hospitalization, they don’t require me to take a day off from work, the survival numbers are way up, 99 and a half percent for 10 years. Maybe I’ll get shot by a jealous husband. This is a really minor event.
Charlie: I rather resent all this attention and sympathy that Warren has, I probably have more prostate cancer than he does. I don’t know because I don’t let them test for it. Anyways, I want the sympathy.
Been wonderfully busy. Here's the short version:
- Working on candidates for the next game.
- Spending tons of time with the folks I met doing the Mario lamps. Having too much fun. Like: We spent yesterday making race tracks for robots. The intent is that one of the creations from one of these too-fun days turns into the next saleable product, and we get to do it all over again.
- Found a bug in Lyssan that slipped in during the final tweaks of the graphic design for printing, after all the beta testing was done. Scrambling to get the patch for the bug included in the first print run, while we're waiting on the plastics to finish anyway. Fingers crossed, it doesn't hold up the first printing at all.
When there's time to catch my breath, more details then.
If, when walking into San Francisco's Airport from the train, you do not mount the escalator to the gates above; rather, you walk under that escalator.
You will find this exhibit: Automata.
Before thee were robots, finely crafted moving statues were an art in 19th century France. This one is of Pierrot, a fool, who's eternally heartbroken for his love Columbine.
This automaton scribes a letter. As it writes, it nods off, and the lamp dims. Wound up anew, its porcelain heart breaks again and again.
Still helping make the 8bitlit lamps.
Working with a new micro-startup tomorrow. These guys make a time-lapse pan-and-tilt unit. You use it to make movies like this:
And now: Endless hours of lasering to make the all-wood version of the Lyssan game pieces.
I lurk around the lasers like a vulture, waiting for any moment when other people miss their reservations. A laser vulture. I've got something like 60 hours of lasering to do to make all these for the 7 super-premium kickstarter backers. The results are beautiful (this picture doesn't do them justice) but take oh so long for each piece.
Currently stuck in my head: The opening theme to Ghost in the Shell (TV Series 1)
Emo Fish is just going to lay here and mope.
Pi Day with the googlers.
Those kids know how to party. And by party, I mean, "Bake a macaroni pie with a woven bacon top".Work in the Mario factory continues.
Working on the game is mostly quiet while it's at the factory. But they keep requesting changes to the box liner that holds all the game parts. Revision 7:
Not that I'm complaining. Playing in 3d design programs is fun.
