North Woods Inn paper wallet

(click photo for larger)

For GDC 2011 I made a new paper wallet. It's not my best craftsmanship, but it will do. The wallet is cardstock, and I experimented with a new kind of glue. The experiment was pretty much a failure.

On the outside are postcards from Clearman's North Woods Inn, a Klondike-themed resturant in Southern California. This is the second wallet I've made with the North Woods Inn theme. 

Maquette at GDC

Part of the Experimental Gameplay Workshop sessions



Good news! Maquette was chosen for inclusion in this year's Expermental Gameplay Workshop session at  Game Developer's Conference in San Francisco, CA. 

Being asked to present in the Experimental Gameplay sessions is a really big deal to me. Not only is it pretty competitive, but many EGW games have gone on to great success, including Katamari Damacy, flOw, Braid, Portal, World of Goo, and Today I Die, among others.

Every year at GDC I attend EGW to see what is truly some of the greatest game ideas I've ever seen. The session has long been a big inspiration to me, and I'm excited and honored to have my game featured in this year's session.

See the game demoed and development explained:

Thursday March 3rd, @ 1:30 in Room 303, South Hall

Idea: USB drive with physical eject button

The idea is that it has a small button on it that sends the Eject request to the OS. 

Sony's amazing customer support

 A quick story about some amazing customer service from Sony: continue reading

Maquette Website



 The official website for the Maquette video game is now located at  http://maquettegame.com. 

Clever, I know.

The reason I started eating cereal again

My WED cereal bowl.

My Charlie Brown Thanksgiving feast, 2010

Here's my Thanksgiving dinner: A traditional Charlie Brown Thanksgiving feast of popcorn, jelly beans, pretzels, and a friggin' huge stack of toast. And yes, I did attempt to shuffle it like Snoopy did, after I took the photo. It didn't work.

click for larger version

HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE! (Yelled in unison by the Peanuts gang)

Idea: Candyland Simulator

WARNING TO PARENTS: this post contains adult language not suitable for little kids. 

This Christmas, no doubt many kids will get their very first board game: Candyland. And no doubt, many adults will have to suffer through games of Candyland with these whiny little brats. 

Enter my  latest invention: the Candyland Simulator. 

The game Candyland is a real drag to play with a 5 year old.  It's boring as hell. And kids that age tend to whine when they don't win, or when they draw a card that sends them back to the beginning. So the next time a 5 year old asks you to play, say "sure! Let's use the Candyland simulator!"

Candyland does not require the player to make any decisions in the game. It is completely deterministic based on how the cards are shuffled beforehand. You just draw a card and follow the instructions. No decisions to make.  Because of this, you can calculate the winner of the game simply by examining the cards, without actually playing it. 

The Candyland simulator does this for you. You just click "play Candyland" and the game immediately tells you who won. You can now play Candyland in less the a second. Shit, you can play 60 games in less time than it takes to take a dump. 

Your move, Milton Bradley. 

Fort Wilderness Cabins at Walt Disney World

I recently got back from Walt Disney World, and this time I stayed in the Fort Wilderness cabins. Here's some photos, down and dirty.

Here's the "Outpost", AKA the front desk where you check in: 

Here's the cabin I was in. It's free standing, surrounded by pine trees, and other cabins. It really didn't feel like Florida at all. I felt like I was in the mountains (something Florida certainly does not have, if you've never been there.)

Interior shots (sorry for the mess, this was before housekeeping came):

That's a twin(?) bed on the left, up against a wall, and a bunk bed. This room has it's own private door out to the patio. Although it has no key and automatically locks, so you can leave without disturbing anyone in the living room, but you won't be able to get back in without going through the main door.

This is the living room. There's a Murphy bed in that wall between the two windows. The TV is off to the left.

Here's where the Hoop-Dee-Doo Revue is performed: 

Here's a weird mosaic in the bathrooms at Pioneer Hall. The cowboys all appear to be scratching themselves. Fleas?

Fort Wilderness is mostly an RV park. As it gets closer to Halloween, RVers park and set up elaborate Halloween displays. I'm not sure if this happens in all RV parks or just at Fort Wilderness, but it's really cool and involved. 

And while this is not in Fort Wilderness proper, here's Wilson's Cave Inn, from Davey Crockett and the River Pirates (although it was based on the real life Cave-In-Rock):  

Fallingwater in Minecraft

I found this in Reddit's Minecraft subreddit. Pretty sweet. I wish I had thought of doing this.

There's two pages of pics on Imgur.