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Coolest music videoclip EVER! – It's interactive! Red Hot and Chilli!
Drawsomething sells 50 million 'copies' – an update…
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Drawsome is Awesome!
But still, could be improved…
I just advised the guys at Drawsome to add some game-mechanics to their app to make it more fun.. Let’s see if they incorperate it…
1. Add ‘time’. This will work two ways and will increase the points you get for drawing and guessing a word. The quicker you draw, the more points you (both) receive when guessing. The quicker on guesses a drawing – again – the more points (you both) receive.
You could even add a challenge mode: draw THIS WORD within 100 seconds (amateur-mode), 60 seconds (designer-mode), 30 seconds (Bob Ross-mode)
2. Limited Ink… the less ink you use the higher your score.
3. Draw with 1 strike… the less ‘strikes’ you use on the canvas, the more points you get! In challenge mode you can have: 30 strikes (amateur), 15 strikes (pro) 5 strikes (Mondriaan mode) …
What do YOU think?
Friday Fun: I'm an Art Director
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This is why Art Directors SHOULD NOT develop game concepts…
Touch Code System…
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Impressive enough to share, but I have NO IDEA what you should do with this technology… Just like Augmented Reality in many cases. It’s a stunning technology, but applications are most of the time badly thought-through and useless.
Facebook and Google: Disrupting Gaming Platforms
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I wrote about this two years ago, when I started writing the Dutch version of my book ‘A Brand New Playground’ in 2009. In my book I wanted to described the available gaming platforms like Nintendo Wii, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 as well as handhelds Nintendo DS and PSP. But when I dove into ‘PC platforms I noticed that a ‘PC’ as such was not the just one platform or ‘a platform in itself’. You would have ‘multiple platforms’ you could access by using a PC (or rather … the internet). Within the platform ‘PC’ I defined three segments:
1. Client based (DVD Roms)
2. Server based (DVD combined or downloadable code that you need to install combined with Server based prescriptions – paid or free)
3. Browser based (casual games on websites)
Since mobile phones and tablets can go online so easily through Wifi you have to redefine how you describe gaming platforms… now (from April on) all the new television sets will be 100% online as well offering all sorts of content, varying from the weather on demand (like an app), through YouTube-channels, Google-channels, Gaming channels, etc. etc.
In my book I mentioned that gaming consoles like the PlayStation 3 are not just gaming consoles, but portals to all the internet content there is: music, film, photo, etc. LA Times recently posted an article claiming that the Xbox is actually used more to watch other content than just games. Microsoft reports that families are spending over 80 hours monthly on content like movies (through the HBO-portal for instance) and music!
At the end of writing my book I got frustrated about offline versus online, above the line versus below the line and such and concluded: THERE ARE NO LINES ! The internet is based on one thing and one thing only: Content! This ‘content’ can be textual, visual (static or dynamic, audible or software (fun or functional). If you want to build a brand around ‘content’ it is wise to first come up with a good concept and content strategie, but that is all (largely) explained in the presentation below. And of course I would be happy to help you with developing a good concept for your brand anytime.
The point I wish to make here is that platforms and hardware are no longer connected in the traditional sense. Both ‘hardware’ as well as ‘software’ platforms (like Facebook) can be gaming platforms… Facebook was the best example up to now, but Google Play will be a fierce competitor to Facebook and might actually be the key driver to make Google+ successful (as I believe Google+ is not really successful in terms of active users year to date).
So keep your eyes open for Google Play and Smart TV and stay tuned to my blog! 😉
Social Gaming Trend Report 2012 by Newzoo
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An interesting outlook from my friends at Newzoo on social gaming or casual gaming as it was called since the social media hype exploded into our faces… 😉 Check it out and let me know if you have any questions through Twitter. Newzoo Trend Report: Casual Social Games – February 2012
View more presentations from Newzoo
Man (60+) playing flight simulator
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A great example that not only young people are playing games… This man plays his flight sim every day since he got his pension. He actually talks with friends over ‘Skype’. Great to see how old boys still keep their game going on!
Funny also that his wife is actually scanning stamps for her collection… !
PS – Yes … I need a new television, but I seldom watch TV hahaha. Will buy a Smart TV soon…
Friday Fun: K-Swiss Blades by Kenny Powers … FOR ADULTS ONLY….!
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Don’t watch this if you hate swearing and stuff…
Friday Fun: Build a calculator in Minecraft – the game
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I heard there was a guy that build a giant living calculator in Little Big Planet from Niels Roodenburg (Publisher of the biggest gaming magazine in the Netherlands), but this is even more impressive! A guy that build a WORKING calculator in Minecraft… how many hours of work have gone into this project do you recon…? It probably contains more than 500.000 building blocks!!!
Re-mission Revisited: Fighting Cancer
>By Morton Geertsen
Reading a book can be like following a path of unique field knowledge and insights. I remember discovering the strange fields of math, or learning about the rules of creation in 3d programs. However, although a book interacts with you in terms of its ideas, which challenges you, you remain a relatively passive participant. This affects the learning process, which are at the risk of being weakened, as the participant quickly and easily can lose motivation. After all, the initial motivation that makes a person open a book, watch a TV program or listen to the radio, might change: Leaving the participant with no reasons for continuing the learning process.
A Brand New Playground gives life to the idea that the best games succeed in creating a highly beneficial learning curve by making the participant engage in the process – and thus “wake up”! A Brand New Playground proposes: “Where watching a movie is a relaxing activity where you can lean back or even slump on the couch, you are a passive participant; a game generally requires active consumer participation and generates a high level of involvement – stronger yet: the person playing the game even dictates the course and outcome of the game!”
The above quote meets further scientific backup, stating that indeed game offers a unique way of learning, which potential is hidden in its ability to involve players: “Active involvement in video game play sparks positive motivation in a way that watching and hearing information does not,” says Steve Cole, Ph.D., Vice President of Research and Development at HopeLab, professor of medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles, and co-author of the article. He continues: “All participants in the study received the same information. It was the active participation in gameplay that made the big difference in motivation. This study helps refine our ‘recipe for success’ in harnessing the power of play in the service of health.”
This statement is part of a study, investigating the effect of a new serious game called Re-Mission, targeted young cancer patients. In Re-Mission players pilot a nanobot named Roxxi as she travels through the bodies of fictional cancer patients destroying cancer cells, battling bacterial infections, and managing side effects associated with cancer and cancer treatment.
As the most essential finding, this study shows how reward-related activation is associated with a shift in attitudes and emotions that has helped boost players’ adherence to prescribed chemotherapy and antibiotic treatments in a previous study. Check out the video below to get a first-hand impression and initial opinion on how well the concept has been carried out.
The study compared brain scans in 57 people who were randomly assigned to actively play Re-Mission or to passively watch the same recorded game play (similar to watching a movie, with the exact same information, but no direct participation in the game play events). Results of functional magnetic resonance imaging (FMRI) showed that neural circuits implicated in reward activated strongly while players were actively playing Re-Mission, but not when they were resting, or when other players passively observed the same game play events.
The article on PRWeb.com, despite its slightly exaggerated nature, gives some relevant insights: This and other recent studies could prove a change in how both game developers and health care professionals think of games as a learning tool. As a growing body of research data shows that digital games can positively alter the players’ attitude and behavior, the interest and realized potential of “serious games” and “games for health” is gradually increasing. Although the main idea has existed for a long time – the idea that games’ ability to involve players improves motivation and thus learning – the added scientific value of such studies should not be underestimated, when health care institutions and governments consider games as a way of reaching their goals.
In A Brand New Playground there is a reference to the work of Gordon Calleja analyzing the aspects of involvement. These aspects are affective involvement, spatial involvement, narrative involvement, tactical involvement, performative involvement and shared Involvement. Looking at the game through the lenses of these various terms, can help us understand the effect of Re-Mission.
Spatial and tactical involvement is particularly important, because the rules that required you to win and the tactical understanding of the game, is inevitably related to the way the treatment of the patients/players works. Furthermore the similarity between the game story and the real-life situation of patients/players, makes narrative involvement especially strong, as participants can identify with the feelings of fighting cancer. It is not an option to interact with other players/patients in-game – however shared involvement can be expected to happen outside of the frames of the game, as patients most likely will discuss the game with other friends, who are in a similar situation as themselves.
Re-Mission was developed by non-profit organization HopeLab, specialized in the improving the health of young people through new technology. The game has distributed more than 185,000 free copies of Re-Mission in 81 countries worldwide since its release in April 2006.
Contact
Dutch Game Garden 02
Arendstraat 27
1223RE Hilversum
T: +31(0)687002363
barthufen at brandnewgame.nl
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