D. Keith Robinson |
I'm a writer, designer, artist, publisher, etc. currently living in San Francisco. My interests include online publishing and community, photography, fiction, gaming, music, mobile computing and design. |
This is a great example of what can be done with a web application on an iPhone. One has to wonder if this was more work than creating a native application though. Then again… with all the application store hassles it might have been worth it anyway!
Been really enjoying Gowalla. I use both it and Foursquare, but for different things. Gowalla is more of a game I play, whereas Foursquare is for sharing my location with friends around town. They both offer similar features, but seem pretty different to me.
I think all the comparison between the two is really just a sign of the youth of the space.
Susan O’Connor was one of the writers on Bioshock and here she gives a great interview where she talks about writing for games and how it can be improved. Lots of interesting insight here.
It interesting stuff to think about. We’re starting to see how game theory is being used both in and out of games for a variety of reasons, why not for the greater good. An in-game example of this is how Farmville uses some of the higher end plants and items to drive charity as well as their bottom line.
Game theory and game mechanics are popping up everywhere and are clearly good motivators. I’d be surprised if we didn’t see more of this kind of thing.
You know what? That’s totally true.
The title pretty much sums this up. Awesometown.
Someday soon I’ll do a write up about what game design has taught me about UI/UX in general, but for now I give you a link to this great read.
Good discussion here. I like the idea of having unified terminology: Sign (-up, -in, -out) and her example of a unified form seems good. I do worry a bit that people might be confused with these, but her solution seems clear enough.
An interesting interview with the makers of the iPhone game, Spider: The Secret of Bryce Manor. They talk about their process, what it’s like to be an independent shop and more. There is some interesting insight into the iPhone App Store as well. David Kalina talks about how quality usually gets attention:
“I mean, quality does seem to rise to the top in some cases. I don’t know of very many examples of really high quality, amazing game experiences on the iPhone that haven’t gotten into the charts, that haven’t gotten some level of attention.”
James Cameron, director of Titanic and the new movie Avatar from an interview in The New Yorker
Good read. Hat tip to 37signals
