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Call it Funware. That’s the name for applications with game-like mechanics and game-like behavior that really aren’t traditional video games. And Funware just might steal the thunder from video games, which may no longer have a monopoly on either interactivity or fun.

This concept was brought up a few times at GDC and it was generally laughed at. Like the guy spoke at panels and people basically giggled and said “hehe, cool idea.”

But as far as warm bodies using a product, and time spent doing so, ‘funware’ is now rivaling ‘gameplay.’ I’d rather not pit them against each other, though. Let’s all be friends! Some amazing, amazing points in this article…

Funware’s threat to the traditional video game industry » VentureBeat

This is insane. Sorry for the huge quote but it makes the most sense when you see it all in one clump:

Attent™ with Serios™ tackles the increasing problem of information overload in corporate email using psychological and economic principles from successful multiplayer online games and market economics. Attent creates an economy with a scarce new currency (Serios) that enables users to signal the importance of their outgoing email by attaching value. Recipients can use the Serios received to prioritize their attention to messages, and in return use their Serios to assign appropriate weight to their responses. Attent also provides tools to analyze and manage communication patterns and information networks in the enterprise.

The lively marketplace of ideas and communication patterns that emerges from this economy offers new insights into collaboration, teamwork, and goal alignment. The Seriosity solution to information overload will give your information workers more time, more thoughtful input, and more insight so that they can be more productive.

I love this, I wish I could use it, but I don’t currently suffer from information overload. I’ve worked in a few jobs where this would work well in, however. Just a facinating idea, and more proof that ‘game design’ is beginning to span more then just games.

Wow. I am a huge fan of Assassins Creed and all of the run-everywhere-parkour-esque craziness… This game, Mirror’s Edge, is mainly about Parkour, except from the tops of giant skyscrapers. Another amazing game that does what good games do: Let you live out your dreams, easily and enjoyably.

Mirror’s Edge Trailer – FileFront.com

On her blog, industry veteran Brenda Brathwaite sent out a challenge to game designers to honor the late Gary Gygax through his medium of choice. Just as poetry is written in memory of poets, and paintings are made in memory of painters, Brathwaite hoped that games would be created in memory of Gygax’s contributions to the industry.

Possibly the first game designed in memory of someone? Of a historic game designer?

The Escapist : Game Design Friday: Gygaxian

Ren’Py is an engine that supports the creation of visual novels and dating sims, forms of computer-mediated storytelling. It supports a movie script-like syntax that makes creating simple games easy, while still being customizable and extensible by advanced creators. With no additional work by the game-maker, it supports features expected of all visual novels, like loading, saving, preferences, and rollback.

I’ve always been interested in this concept of creating a ’storytelling engine.’  This one in particular is based heavily on Python and has you writing a lot of scripts.  In this case, this is one of those things I know I could do myself in Flash, but the fact that someone took the time to make a universal engine is appealing to me, in that I *wouldn’t* have to do it myself in Flash.

The appeal of these things is that the time saved from not having to do it yourself can be spent on better telling a story.  This is the main appeal to me.  I’m not sure how complicated the games can be, but when you refer to them as “visual novels” it suddenly becomes more acceptable to make them just narrative-heavy interactive works of fiction.  It’s worth trying out.

http://www.renpy.org/wiki/renpy/Home_Page

I’ve been doing some reading up on the concept of Flow.  At first I thought it was pseudoscience but it turns out that it’s actually a pretty established theory.

I’ve instated a period of time each day which I refer to as “Focus O’Clock.”  It’s when I hunker down, put up an away message, close all extraneous browsers, put on headphones to a repetitive song, and climb down my tunnel of focus.  So far it’s been working well.

There’s some really good stuff at the bottom of this page, especially the “Solving Procrastination” concept at the bottom.  This short two-page paper explains that you should stagger your tasks in such a way that you’re working on the hardest tasks when you’re deepest in focus, which is when you’re at the height of your game.

I’ve frequently been “Flowing” (haha) in gaming, the state exists there, for sure.  Times off the top of my head have been during particularly awesome arena matches when playing WoW, or intense battles in RTS games, where you just seem to do everything right.  Flow is obviously an important concept in gaming, but particularly interesting to me because I think casual gaming deals with Flow differently.  Play sessions tend to be shorter, so the user might not get as ‘deeply’ into the game.  I wonder if that’s why they are casual, or if it’s a bad thing and we should make our games more focus-able?

Flow (psychology) – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

An amazingly polished and fun and quick flash game.  A short level, a boss fight.  See if you can beat it.  It’s really, really hard.  The ending music is totally worth the struggle.  The music is what really floored me, actually.  There needs to be more games like this.

Mazapán.se – You Have To Burn The Rope

This looks to be a bit of a teaser in a few sense of the word.  Castle Crashers isn’t out yet.  Tom Fulp grew a bear, so you can beat up his beard with a Castle Crasher.  It uses real audio clips from Tom, which makes it fantastic.  The polish of the game is fantastic as well, the animations and whatnot are incredible.  I’m sure it’s art from the actual game, so it’s kind of cheating.  It’s fun as hell.  Every game Tom has any involvement in always ends up incredibly difficult.

Play Castle Crashing “The Beard”, a free online game on Kongregate