http://www.cynicalstuff.com Games, culture and cynical observations. Sat, 28 Jun 2008 19:12:54 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en So, I've been to West Coast Riot - a nice little one-day punk festival in Gothenburg, Sweden. After some initial hesitation me and Sophie finally got our rear ends off there. And boy, am I happy we did! I may not have passed the magical age of 30 yet, but ... http://www.cynicalstuff.com/west-coast-riot So, I've been away for two weeks on a trip to Taiwan and Singapore, and it was pretty awesome. Nothing spectacular happened, but on the other hand I think I'm pretty happy that I didn't get lost in the mountains or robbed or anything like that; a nice relaxed trip ... http://www.cynicalstuff.com/fear-and-loathing-in-taiwan-and-singapore Once upon a time I tried to make extensive travel posts every time I travelled abroad, but lately I've been rather...lazy. I went on vacation to Greece and didn't bother to post about it. I went on a business trip to Germany and didn't bother to post about it. Now I'll be ... http://www.cynicalstuff.com/what-to-do-in-taiwan-and-singapore "Well, Karja, how are things going with Wildhollow? Last you were moaning about art and design changes - how are things progressing?" Since no one has asked me that question I'd better ask it myself. And, because I'm so kind to myself, I'll even answer it! First, here's a small ... http://www.cynicalstuff.com/wildhollow-wip-screenshot-1 These last years I have been lamenting the fact that I'm getting too old for behaving like an uncouth youth. Slowly but inexorably I've cut down on my drinking, partying and general weird behaviour...but something inside me misses the good old days. I miss hitch-hiking to festivals to watch strange ... http://www.cynicalstuff.com/the-rumours-of-punks-death-have-been-greatly-exaggerated These last days I've seen quite a few articles on the 'net mentioning MySpace's recent "Data Availability" program which will make them share data with, among others, Yahoo and Twitter. This revelation is often mentioned alongside DataPortability, a framework for combining information from different social networking sites. I'm all for solutions like this; I ... http://www.cynicalstuff.com/data-portability-in-games I simply have to brag about the awesome character art that's been pouring in lately for my adventure-puzzle-management game Wildhollow! Take a look at the cast so far: Tiny, tiny samples of the characters in Wildhollow. Tiiiiny tiny tiny! It's going to be a whole lot of characters, and a whole lot ... http://www.cynicalstuff.com/wildhollow-more-character-art Yesterday I received a very kind e-mail thanking me for developing Spandex Force, heaping enough praise over the game to make me blush like a little girl. This morning I blushed almost as much, as I got another mail from the same source, suggesting that The Crossdresser (one of the villains ... http://www.cynicalstuff.com/am-i-the-crossdresser PopCap, developer and publisher of casual hit games such as Bejeweled, Peggle and Bookworm Adventures, have funded a study that shows that playing casual games relieves stress and improves your mood. Maybe I'm just a tad cynical, but my initial response to that is a raised eyebrow and a "no excrement" ... http://www.cynicalstuff.com/breaking-news-fun-games-are-relaxing I've been a lazy bum lately - my new puzzle/management/adventure game Wildhollow is progressing very slowly. This last week I have only written one dialogue, and added eyeblink and speaking animations to the dialogues. I've tried to defend myself with the fact that I'm still waiting for some art in ... http://www.cynicalstuff.com/game-economics-design-thoughts