The Incredibles: still incredible!

I just took my kids to see the Incredibles again... this is like my 3rd time seeing this movie, strangely enough. And I have to say, it's still such an amazingly awesome movie. The best part about that movie is the fact that the family gets to rediscover who they really are. When Dash discovers he can run on water, and laughs, that just makes the whole movie for me. Makes me want to go out and discover who I really am, since I feel like the father quite a bit. Sure, this is old news, but if you havent managed to see this movie, you should go before it leaves the theatres.

Security, Cool Features Of Firefox Web Browser Beat Microsoft's IE

Walt Mossberg - a well respected writer and thinker (you WANT your tech toy to meet with his approval) digs Firefox. Whoop! Poetic justice.

Interactive Storytelling: Storycrafter

Interactive storytelling is something I've always been very interested in. Even in the days of playing DND, we would eventually just put away the dice and let each person tell a story while the other folks contributed what their character did. This site seems to be very similar to that, and perhaps you might find it interesting too.

Here on storycrafter.com, you and your fellow literary actors tell a story. Each of you designs a character for that story. Depending on the game, your characters could be knights-in-shining-armor, superheroes, private detectives, or whatever you pull out of your imaginations. These characters become the main characters in the story. Throughout the course of the game, you spin the tale of your characters' exploits.

Laszlo update on serverless deployment

Looks like the dream of serverless deployment is growing closer to reality. Go download the latest 3.0 beta and try out the features that are already there (not including serverless deployment, but you might see hints of it if you search this wiki post).

New Comet now visible to Naked Eye

I love watching the sky, since it seems to be something that is always so alive with changes and interesting confluences of planets and stars. Comet Machholz can now be see with the naked eye if you are fortunate enough to be in a dark area (read: no city lights).

How to be creative - article

ChangeThis has an interesting article about how to be creative. Since we all can stand to be alot more creative than we are now, I urge you to check it out.

Pixel Artist Spotlight: Army of Trolls

Ah, I always seem to start posts with things like "if you like XXX you'll really like site YYY". Guess it's time to go back to grammar class and figure out how to really express oneself with a greater degree of sophistication. Meanwhile, I'll assume you really enjoy checking out amazing retro pixel art like the stuff you'll find at this site, so I wont have to ask you if you really like XX.. er pixel art, you'll really enjoy YY... er Army of Trolls. They even have some funky games there and an adopt a creature service.

The Eye of Argon - one of the worst sf stories ever written

Whilst poking around with the Wikipedia, I discovered this story, which is supposedly one of the worst SF stories ever written. You decide. Appearantly now it's a game at SF conventions to read this story out loud without breaking out laughing.

5 minutes free

Gosh, you know the expression "I need a vacation from vacation"? Well that is what I feel like right now. I've had all of 10 minutes to check out the happenings on the web before its back to putting toys together or taking out the trash or run to the grocery store. I'm happy to be off for a bit, but it'd sure be great to have some spare time to think about stuff. Plus having a full blow cold isnt helping anything either. Wah wah wah right?

A pox on twist ties!

Here I sit, two hours into helping kiddos unleash their toys from their boxes. There must be a special place in Hades for those people who put 1,000 twist ties just to completely bind a toy to it's plastic display case.

Toys from the 70's and 80's from TV Cream

If you are in your 30's like I am, you'll really appreciate this site - especially now on the holidays.

Track Santa

If you still happen to be up with the kids, this is a fun site to go to.. it lets you track santas progress around the world.

Half - Life 2 -- completed

Just stayed up till 2:31am to finish Half-Life 2. Wow. What a game.
Wow.
....................

Best 46 free utilities

Here's a freebie Christmas present for you - a fine list of 46 great freeware apps that you should promptly add to your collection.

NFL ScoreBox -- Laszlo sidebar widget

Laszlo "Bloxes" such as PhotoBlox, WeatherBlox, etc are pretty interesting, especially as they are handy things to add to your blog to help attract traffic, etc. I'm not a sports fan, but this is a nifty sidebar to add to your website if you like reading NFL scores.

Merry Christmas!

I'm busy busy busy, with kids, presents, projects, etc. But here's a big Merry Christmas to everyone out there. Go find a fun game to play.

3D Helicopter in javascript

Just a quick post today... trying to get several things done. Check out this really nice DHTML 3d style helicopter... too bad there arent more things like this on the web. The browser is capable of so much more than just displaying static text.

Exile: Flash Based Online RPG

There can never be too many RPG's and ones that you can play anywhere there's a web connection are even better. Give this one a go and see what you think. Very well polished and high production values.

Triglav -- javascript based RPG engine

Web browsers can do waaay much more than just display static documents. However usually folks create games for the web in java or flash. This site has given us a real treat in that they have created an RPG engine in DHTML. My only big beef with this is that they have coded it for IE only. So go give it a try and send them an email asking for them to upgrade their engine to support mozilla firefox.

Laszlo: Constraints, events and layouts

Frome the site:

There are three ways to manage space in a Laszlo application: constraints, events, and layouts. Each has an appropriate use.

WebComic: Order of the Stick

Web-based comics are really starting to take off. They are one of the reasons the Internet is better than say TV or magazines - since you get what you want instantly, and there's simply a ton of great webcomics out there. This one is pretty funny in an RPG - geeky sorta way. And that suits me just fine. It appears to be about a series of characters that you might play if you were playing everquest, or DnD. Great stuff!

November 2004 Indie Game Monthly Round-Up

Here's a great collection of indie games that you should immediately add to your own burgeoning collection. You already know how I feel about BreakQuest.

2Entwine | FotoBuzz Viewlet

From the site:




FotoBuzz™ lets you annotate your digital images and share the stories in your pictures.

With the FotoBuzz™ Viewlet you can easily integrate this functionality to any existing website or weblog and let your visitors add comments too!

42: Open Laszlo

Lot's of folks talking about Laszlo now, especially since it is open source. It's nice to see the grassroots taking ... root.

GifPlasma - realtime gif generation using javascript

It may be slow and need a ridiculously fast computer to render well, but this truely is a first - realtime generation of a gif via pure javascript. I found this on the Ozone Asylum.

Indie RPG - The Spirit Engine

Let's face it, there are a ton of crappy games out there. More created every day from well meaning and well intentioned folks who are either lacking in talent, or for some reason not able to bring a game to the level of "gee this is kinda cool". However, this game is not one of those. This game actually manages to claw it's way to the arena of "this actually doesnt suck". As a matter of fact, it's pretty darn good. If I had to go to a deserted island with only my top 10 indie games with me on my laptop, this one would be included. Of course deserted islands dont have electricity, so I'd be screwed after about 3 hours.... ah well.

Anyway - its a great game and definitely one of the best indie rpg's you'll see in a long time.

Top Shareware Games of the Year 2004

Every year the folks at Adrenaline Vault post their top shareware games of the year. Congrats to the winners!

Laszlo server 2.2 reviewed

From the review:

Laszlo Presentation Server 2.2 has come a long way from Version 1. Now with Web services support, good prebuilt components and customized skinning options, and free open source licensing, LPS holds potential, but still needs to include an offline client and improve performance.

The comparision between Flex and Laszlo put them very close together in terms of features, etc. while Flex gets bonus points for having a GUI IDE, Laszlo gets points for being free.

Indie Game - Super Gerbal

Super Gerball (not to be confused with Super HamsterBall) is a Super Monkeyball clone that is quite fun! It looks like it's finally been released, and even comes with a level editor - which looks to be as fun as the game itself.

The Glass Bead Game Network

From the site:

Imagine a game, playable by anyone, anywhere in the world, over the Internet or on a board in the living room. This game focus on any topic imaginable: literature, movies, sports, history, music, mathematics, or many topics at once. This game's strategy is simple to understand and play, but nearly impossible to master. Communities center around the game, discussing possible moves. Well-played games bring respect to the players. The game evolves according to the input of those who play it. A game can be played in a single sitting, or can extend over nearly a month's time. Teams can play against other teams. Text, pictures, music, and video all play a part in the game. The single most important skill in the play of this game is imagination - the ability to envision links between ideas, and connections between concepts.

New 2d game development software - BlitzMax

I frequent many indie game forums and websites, and it looks like all of them are reporting about a new product from the folks who gave us Blitz3d and BlitzBasic - called BlitzMax. It looks to be a new and improved compiler/engine for 2d game development. Right now it's only out for Mac OSX, but other platforms are planned to have releases very soon. I've heard many good things about the Blitz platform, so head over there and check it out. I'm bookmarking this till the Win32 version comes out. However it'd take a lot to draw me away from GameMaker...

The Calcium Bomb

I just got in to work this morning and I was listening to NPR, and they were talking about a book called The Calcium Bomb. Appearantly, there are these little buggers called nanobacteria which create little calcium shells - and it appears they may be playing a role in a huge number of human illnesses like Cancer, Heart Disease, etc.

Cross Browser Rich Text Editor

I love public domain code, especially useful code that I need for a project I'm working on. If you too have a need for a simple rich text editor (read, easy way to do HTML in forms) then look no further.

Metamemes Game - spreading the meme

I love games of all kinds, and I enjoy intellectual fun - so this game seems to be something you might also dig. Here's a quote from the site:

MetaMemes is a game of ideas about ideas. During this creative card game you combine, for instance, Mambo Chickens with the children's' game Chutes and Ladders and see what their offspring looks like. Players take Idea, Word, and Object cards from the deck and combine them to produce New Ideas, which just might be brilliantly off- the-wall enough to become a meme of their own. And remember, a spoonful of funny makes the creativity go down.

New Free MMORPG - The Universal

Via the wonders of del.icio.us I've discovered a new open-ended MMORPG in the style of Second Life. I just downloaded the client myself, so I cannot really say how cool or sucky it is. The idea is very cool. The game is free for anyone to play. However, if you want to create stuff or build worlds, you donate a bit for access. From the site:

Magrathea (London branch), 3rd December 2004: the first publicly-available version of The Universal is here! The Universal is a free, massively-multiplayer online game set in a virtual 3d universe of worlds owned and run by other players. Created by Games For May, an independent team of volunteers from the games industry, The Universal brings a totally unique approach to the popular massively- multiplayer gaming genre.

Deep in Half Life 2

WOW! Words are hard to find to describe my experience so far with this game. It's singlehandedly restored my faith in PC games as a cinematic experience. Things have come a long way from Wolfenstein (or Ken's Labyrinth). If you have anywhere near a decent PC, you simply MUST buy a copy of this game.

New Indie Game - Iggle Pop

If you have kids, or like cute games yourself, this one is a brand new gem of a game. Imagine combining "snake" a game where you pick up pellets and grow longer and longer with "pac-man" where ghosts chase you around... and mix in a little tribble-style cuteness and you'll begin to see where this game is coming from. This is from the folks who gave us "Feeding Frenzy" a right fun game as well. What are you waiting for? Click away.

Flash gaming site: gotoAndPlay()

Creating games using Flash seems to be a pretty hot topic right now, especially when Flash is showing up everywhere from browsers to cellphones. One of my favorite flash gaming sites right now is one called gotoAndPlay(). You can find tutorials, games, news, and other goodies such as a flash game server called SmartFox. They even host flash games sometimes for indie developers, so if you think you have a winning game, you might find a ready-made audience here.

In Laszlo Training Today

Training is always fun, and my favorite subject of late is Laszlo, so it's great that I get to spend the next few days going over some "official" training here in SF. I highly encourage everyone interested to partake of classes like this - as nothing can beat intense, focused learning... or at least nothing else to distract you for a few hours :)