tingilinde

game for the birds

A serious gamer who happens to be a bird watcher gave a strong recommendation to this one.

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You’re not, however, just attracting birds to get points. You are also effectively building a biodiversity engine. It’s a challenge, a biology lesson and nail-biting fun. There are numerous routes to victory, from specializing in certain types of bird to amassing eggs. This is a thoughtful and strategic game with many interlocking parts.

It’s also visually gorgeous — an obvious labour of love. Food is represented on the sides of chunky wooden dice that roll out of a bird box. There are dainty, pastel-hued egg tokens, and the game boards fold up like field notebooks. Each of the 170 unique cards shows a different North American species, so superbly drawn that it wouldn’t look out of place in a field guide. And the cards feature key details, from what the species eats to how many eggs it lays, and a distinguishing fact — say, that the common nighthawk (Chordeiles minor) is crepuscular, hunting insects at dawn and dusk.

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the game of oligarchy

Brewster strikes again 

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I just invented and played a game today with my family, and it worked great– it was fun and we learned an important lesson. Similar to the game “Monopoly” which shows that one person ends up monopolizing even though you think the rules are “fair,” the game of Oligarchy shows that the “free market” leads inexorably to one person getting all the money and everyone else going broke. And fast.

The reason this is important is that it disproves one basic tenet of the free-market idea– that it is a game with many winners. Rather the free market, without redistribution, puts everyone (except one) in debt bondage, and quickly. We joked that those that were run out of money had to sell organs. Our game broke up into social classes– it was not worth it to the rich to play with the poor. It was all very real for a simple game.

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It's sort of obvious this works.. less obvious is it is also how parts of society work - more now than ever

a tip of the hat to Greg 

 

 

untitled goose game

A couple of friends have been waiting for a new puzzle game - Untitled Goose Game - for quite awhile.  It's out with a video trailer. How many games have Debussy's "Hills of Anacapri" playing in the background of the trailer?

I Am The Horrible Goose That Lives In the Town is a clever reaction. 

a tip of the hat to Lynn

no .. I'm not the type of person who goes for this gaming genre, but some of you are.

 

 

chess grandmasters and weight loss

This will probably be the most unusual thing you'll read today.

 

shape names

who knew?

retro games

John Guber is excited.

I wonder who the market is?  Older guys who played with games 20 and more years ago.. but I doubt many kids who play on their phones will be excited.

 

 

flowscape

I haven't tried Flowscape,  but it looks potentially interesting.  It's not a design program and doesn't allow you to import or export. The notes suggest it is limited, but intuitive and probably fun for awhile.

adaptive controllers

This is neat

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Computer gaming has long had an ethos of customization, and Ms. Hawley turned there during the six years she did not play console games. She can operate a keyboard and mouse, and people without use of their hands can benefit from eye-tracking and voice commands.

But console developers design their products for the masses, and people with disabilities had long been overlooked. In 1989, Nintendo released a hands-free controller that players operated with their chins while blowing into and sucking from a tube, but for decades the market was ceded to external creators.

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a kickstarter game campaign and my candidate for the most unusual kickstarter video of the year

From the guy who does Oatmeal

six years and dozens of doughnuts

The iOS game of the year involving raccoons, holes and doughnuts.  I'm not into this sort of game and won't go there, but a rather odd premise. eh..

a tip of the hat to John