Wonderland

Character Design in games

I had a coughing fit laughing over this one, esp "fulfils diversity requirement" and "russian".

Via @TeamIGNUK and @farazosman, that one.

The Girl with the Triforce Earring

One of some Clint Wilson prints, available to buy at the Nakatomi store at a very reasonable 20-25 bux. The - whole? - "reNESsance" collection is at that link, some Mario refs there too.

(Thanks, Jones!)

Boardgame Remix Kit

You have bought one of these for a loved one/the whole family for winterval, right? Right?

It'll keep everyone sane.

Comes in all forms: iPhone, eBook, cards, book... made by the clever, clever Margaret Robertson and pals at UK indie Hide & Seek.

I Felt Awesome

This one's a perfect winterval present if I ever saw one, not least because it means you can make one of these amazing felted, magnetic, Katamari Damacy playsets.

(Thanks for the link to that, spugmeistress!)

Moxie teaches you felting. I've had a look. It doesn't look tooooo hard? In fact she makes it look easy! One of my favourites is this, the felted brooch with added dismembered doll part.

I'm very tempted.

You can buy from Amazon.com, or direct from Moxie too, and she'll sign that copy.

Star Wars wreath

Glorious. Nerd wreaths definitely the next project now that nerd tree is now full.

Over at Craft:zine.

Leaving Channel 4!

(I've been sat on my hands on this one for ages - over a month! -  but that's what happens (as it turns out) when you resign, it takes a while for official channels to happen and stuff - the PR was timed for 9:30 this morning, but it's been delayed a bit ...  meanwhile, @jemimakiss got a bit of a headwind on it, so here's some elaboration.)

I resigned from my rathergood job as Commissioning Editor for Education at Channel 4. I think a lot of folks are going to think I'm crazy, and they'd probably be a bit right. But sometimes, things and timings just happen: in my case, I had a magic startup idea that I actually want to go do, again. I've done this before (1998-2002), and always thought I might want to go back to it. This coincided recently with suddenly available office space close to home, and suddenly available 3D printers, and sudden, incoming queries about my availability outside of C4 for things like interesting-project consultancy.

Also we got the majority of the new projects signed and lined up for 2011. So that's all tidy.

So, here's what I'm doing. I gave C4 a long, long notice period (4 months), so I can help them get stuff organised as the place goes through its pretty radical change programme. Dr Jo Twist will pick up the baton, which I'm obviously over the moon with: she's a towering talent, and all the Education sites, games, telly and apps will be in literally the best hands in the business. And that's what I care about: making wonderful products for young people: long may it continue at C4.

As for me: the plan is to go raise finance and prototype. This stuff will take a while, so I expect I'll be doing much of that through 2011. Meanwhile, I'll also be getting stuck in to a few play-related projects: I'm organising the gaming section of the incredible Campus Party in San Francisco, for instance. LAN party roots ;-)

What's the startup? Dolls. That's all I'm saying for now, but you can take it as read that it'll be something pretty different from Barbie. And Moxie. And Liv. And BBF Ink. When was the last time you were in a toy shop looking at dolls? It's astounding how little innovation there is there. So that's where I've set my sights. I'm taking a bunch of learning to it: games and avatars, educational play, social technologies, identity parameters, emerging technologies... it's called Makieworld, for the mini makers out there.

I'll miss Education. We have the best team, and we have the most fun I think it's possible to have in a large corporate environment. It's not uncommon to find us screeching with laughter, and walking away from that is really tough. I'm fantastically proud of what we've accomplished in the three years of taking Education from a TV-only department to an any-platform, any-format department.

I'll miss our indies too, I've been blessed with working with some of the absolute best over the past three years, and it's won us a BAFTA, an Emmy, a Develop award, an armful of BIMAs (four of Channel 4's six this time round!), a Prix Jeunesse, a handful of Learning on Screen awards, and two SXSWs.

That'll do.

So thank you Margaret Robertson, Preloaded, Littleloud, Raw, Somethin' Else, Introversion, Neon Tribe, Oil Productions, Six to Start, Zombie Cow, Beatnik, Tuna Tech, Objective, Pulp Theatre, Public Zone, Fish in a Bottle, Big Talk, Failbetter Games, Hide & Seek, Coney and Ladbury PR, everyone I've inevitably missed (sorry in advance, I've only had one coffee) and all the brilliant folks about to work with Education in 2011. You're making education a lot of fun.

Which is, of course, exactly how it should be.

And with that... :-D

Okabu

Here's the hotly anticipated next 'un from @simonoliverUK 's HandCircus, makers of Rolando.

I reckon Zelda and Keita Takahashi fans are going to get a lot of satisfaction from this one, eh?

Count me in for that. Can't wait.

 

Happy winterval!

Yesterday I tweeted that the builders had thrown out our nerd tree decoration collection. Poor builders. Turns out that despite three rummages under the stairs, the husband managed to entirely look past the large cardboard box with XMAS written on it. Adorable! New glasses for hannukah for you, sunshine!

So, happily, the tree is complete, again, this year with a new set of Heroes of Science to boot.

Gorgeous. But full. We're gonna need a bigger tree*, especially as - thinking we'd lost the whole shebang - I've ordered a complete set of console ornaments to go with the controllers. (* cue C trilling, "I'm opposed to bigo-tryyyy!". Every time, I kid you not.)

Here, check out the scientists. There's Elizabeth Blackwell, the USA's first female doctor. Hiding behind her is Charles Darwin, and the little guy at the front is very scientific with water physics.

Happy festive season, you lovely lot.

GT5 requires many cups of tea

Hey, television people, there is a lot of scope for a games review show with comedy in it! Just sayin', because, you know, three pitches in a row recently and all that.

Matt's hair is awesome. Jon reminds me of Derren Brown.