A Princess of Mars

I just finished reading Edgar Rice Burrough's novel "A Princess of Mars". It's based on the adventures of John Carter, an American Civil War veteran and his otherworldly exploits


It was written in 1911 and published in 1912, and despite the age I found it to be a cracking good read. Burroughs wrote this as a pulp novel so don't expect Shakespeare.

I can see how John Carter along with Flash Gordon and Dune were obvious influences on Star Wars - from the fanciful names such as Jeds, Padwars and Jeddaks - to the desert setting, different alien races, giant arena battles with hero pitted against an array of alien beasts, etc.

It's fascinating to think that this was first published almost one hundred years ago. In fact Andrew Stanton of Pixar fame is prepping a movie version for release in 2o12 in time for the centenary of the book series.

The book's copyright has lapsed so you can read it for free. I read it using Stanza on my iPhone - a great ebook reader that lets you download the books directly to your personal library. Yes, reading books on the iPhone is actually a pleasure - something I was initially skeptical of. No wonder the Kindle is doing great business.... but that's another story.

You can also grab "A Princess of Mars" online from Project Gutenberg here.

If you're a sci-fi fan with an interest in where the genre began then I recommend having a read.

www.passfieldgames.com

Brainiversity at Local Library

My friend James emailed me this photo:


It's Brainiversity at one of the local libraries here in Brisbane. A quick check online revealed that quite a few of them have copies - and a number of them are checked out!

What's interesting about this is that the retail version of the game is currently only available in North America through Wal Mart, Sam's Club, etc. so the local libraries must have ordered their copies from the US.

That's pretty cool. It's always a buzz to see a physical copy of your game in a store or a library :-)

www.passfieldgames.com

Woz Dancin'

Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs founded Apple. They're responsible for creating the company that brought us the Mac, the iPod and the iPhone.

Woz is a millionaire computer genius.

Woz created the Apple II.

And now Woz has done this - it's easier to watch then for me to explain...





www.passfieldgames.com

Polybius

I don't know how I missed this, but Polybius is a cool urban myth about a video game from 1981 that apparently caused players to go insane.

Conspiracy theorists say it was a project by a secret government organization, and men in black would visit the machine in the arcade not to collect the quarters, but to retrieve logged information about the effects on players.

Shortly after its release it disappeared never to be heard from again.

Until now. Here is the mesmerizing game play of the game that may, or may not, be Polybius. Watch at your peril!





www.passfieldgames.com

Game On Talk

This week I and the other 3 Blokes - Duncan and Marko - did a talk at Game On called "Game Design Under Pressure".

We presented some useful tips on how to make games from the perspective of a small developer, covering agile development and other useful strategies to stay focused and deliver a game on time and budget.

What was cool is that 3 years ago I did the Game On talk by myself and Duncan and Marko of 3 Blokes were in the audience. As a result of the talk they changed their company direction and moved into the casual space.

They soon shipped a game, got more work and the following year they presented the Game On talk covering similar topics from their perspective.

Now I've joined with Duncan and Marko and this year all 3 of us gave the talk. Hopefully we inspired some people to get out there and make some games.

And you know what would be really cool? If some of those people give the Game On talk next year. I would love to sit in the audience and give them a round of applause.

www.passfieldgames.com