Month: July 2008

It is out!

For the last four months I’ve been working on a physics puzzle game called Fantastic Contraption.

I released it to the world yesterday.

It is a building game. You build a machine out of rods and wheels to try to put a ball into the goal. Each level confronts you with a different puzzle and you have to make a suitable contraption to solve it. It borrows alot from existing buliding games but there are a few differences.

Most building games are about building up an environment to accomplish a goal. Like building a bridge or a Rube Goldberg contraption. In Fantastic Contraption the goal is to make a machine that goes off into the environment and accomplishes some goal.

So instead of building a bridge for a basketball to roll across you make a catapult that flings the basketball over the divide. Or make a crawler that carries the ball down into the ravine and then up the other side.

It worked out really well. It’s pretty easy to make insteresting contraptions to accomplish all sorts of things.

From the simplest wheeled cart, to walkers, to ingenious solutions, to imaginative wonders, there’s alot of room for creativity.

If other people like playing it 1/2 as much as I do I think it’s going to be a real winner.

And of course I have to give a quick thanks to the team:

James Mark for the music
Sarah Collins for the art
And Andy Moore for testing and pushing and prodding

Photo by Kanaka’s Paradise Life.
(we haven’t been taking many!)

This city loves a party. Since May there has pretty much been one celebration or another every weekend. Bay to Breakers, a footrace across town started out relatively professional, with many of the runners in inventive costumes or in the buff, but a few hours down the line the race came nearly to a standstill and became a 12k long drunken, naked street party. It entered the park two blocks from our house and was probably the most drunkenness I’ve ever seen before noon.

Then there was Carnaval, the Haight Street Fair, and last weekend the Pride Parade. I found the parade particularly touching because of the number of newlyweds (same-sex marriage once again became legal in San Francisco last month; hopefully it will stick this time).

But we haven’t had all that much time for parties, as we’ve been working hard on Fantastic Contraption, which I’ll let Colin tell you about.

Oh, and I almost forgot – Pete and Leah came to visit which was rad. Yes – rad. We did a tour of The Rock, finally, and enjoyed many a fine alcoholic beverage with them. We’ll be seeing them again soon when we come through Seattle to the Isle of Van at the end of the month for James Mark’s wedding.