The Magnavox Odyssey retailed for $100 in May of 1972 and is considered the first video game console for home use.  The Odyssey was the brainchild of Ralph Baer.

In 1966 Ralph Baer, an engineer at Sanders Associates at the time, started working on an idea for a game system that could be played using a television.  He began working with some colleagues and after two years of development ended up with a prototype video game system and 12 games.  They called the system the “Brown Box” after it’s housing and sought out licensing.

Baer took his Brown Box system to various Cable TV system operators and TV manufacturers around the United States.  There was moderate interest but a licensing agreement was not reached at the time.  It wasn’t until July 17^th of 1968 that Gerry Martin, the VP of marketing for Magnavox, saw an opportunity in Baer’s creation.  In 1971 Magnavox and Sanders Associates signed an agreement that left Magnavox with all the data and design specifications to create what would become known as the Magnavox Odyssey.  By the fall of 1971 Magnavox and a group of engineers led by George Kent had a final design, an “OK” from the FCC, and the Odyssey went into production.

Magnavox, despite very poor marketing efforts, went on to sell 130,000 units of the Odyssey in 1972.  Over the next two and a half years Magnavox sold a total of 330,00+ units of the original system before replacing it with an updated model named the Odyssey 100.  In addition to the original console and games, a rifle pack could be purchased for around $25 that added more functionality for four “shooting gallery” games.  The rifle pack sold around 80,000 units in total.

Baer’s Odyssey was not extremely complex, but was more of a unique idea.  The console worked by using “discrete transistors and diodes” – 40 of each to be exact – that functioned as the brain of the machine.  His setup was similar to the IBM 1401’s Diode-transistor logic circuits.  Each game was in a cartridge form, but was simply a “series of jumpers between pins of the card connector.”  The games themselves contained no other components, rather as the games were inserted into the console, the jumpers connected to the logic board and dictated the game play and output.  The inputs were two hand-held controllers and the output consisted of a simple rf connector that sent information to a television for display.

The Odyssey was capable of outputting a series of simple white dots on a black screen.  Depending on the game, and what was happening in the game, the dots would turn on or off.  To supplement the simple graphics, Magnavox shipped the system with a series of screen overlays.  The screen overlays were printed in color and came in two different “small” or “large” sizes – a screen overlay for each of the 12 games.

Baer’s creation was an important pioneer in the video game industry.  Before Baer, digital or “video” games were restricted to computers – which were not always accessible for that purpose.  The idea of taking a smaller, simpler version of the computer and using it for game play in conjunction with a television was a novel idea that started a whole industry.

On May the 24^th of 1972 Nolan Bushnell attended a demonstration of the console put on by Magnavox.  Mr. Bushnell then proceeded to found Atari on June 27 of the same year.  He then went on the produce a prototype and final version of their first arcade game “Pong” which he put into a local bar.  Pong began the Arcade game industry, as we know it now.  In 1974 Magnavox filed a lawsuit against Atari, which resulted in Atari’s licensing of the table tennis game that originally shipped with the Odyssey. Since then countless other videogames and game systems have spun off of, or been directly influenced by Baer’s Odyssey gaming system.

A couple interesting notes: The Odyssey did not have any “memory” thus it did not keep track of scores.  The system did respond to the user’s interaction and was made to be played by two people, but the original device did not have the capability to save any information.  As I mentioned earlier, Magnavox fumbled in their marketing of the Odyssey.  The original marketing made it sound as if the Odyssey would only work on Magnavox televisions, which, in addition to the high price-tag at the time, turned off a good number of potential consumers.

Of the final Magnavox version of the Odyssey, Baer is quoted as saying “We were happy with Magnavox’s design.  The only thing we didn’t like was the price.  It was that high partly because they spent a lot of money on plastic.” Baer has since been recognized with a Legend award by G4 at their video game award show G-Phoria.  In 2006 Baer received a National Medal of Technology, presented by President G.W. Bush, in honor of his “groundbreaking and pioneering creation, development and commercialization of interactive video games.” Baer has received numerous other awards over the years and is widely considered the “father of videogames.”

Works Cited

Slater, Derek, and Joe Sullivan “Good Idea, Bad Timing” CIO 15 Aug. 2001: 129-130

Wikipedia contributors. “Magnavox Odyssey.” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 8 Jan. 2010. Web. 11 Jan. 2010.

Wikipedia contributors. “Ralph H. Baer.” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 10 Jan. 2010. Web. 11 Jan. 2010.

Winter, David. “Magnavox Odyssey.” Magnavox Odyssey. 3 July 2009. Web. 11 Jan. 2010. <http:// magnavox-odyssey.com>.

Winter, David. “Pong-Story:Magnavox Odyssey, the first video game system” Pong-Story. 2010. Web. 11 Jan 2010. <http://www.pong-story.com/odyssey.htm>.

“Remembering the Magnavox Odyssey.” The News & Record (Piedmont Triad, NC) (Sept 29, 1997): D1. InfoTrac Newspapers. Gale. Lewisville Public Library System. 11 Jan. 2010 http://find.galegroup.com/gtx/start.do?prodId=SPN.SP00&userGroupName=txshrpub100226.

“The Untold Story of the History of Interactive Entertainment, From Mainframes to Mainstream.” Computer Gaming World 200 (2001): 59. MasterFILE Premier. EBSCO. Web. 11 Jan. 2010.

“Video Game Odyssey.” Technology Review 105.2 (2002): 96. MasterFILE Premier. EBSCO. Web. 11 Jan. 2010.

Julian Voss-Andreae's Quantum Man

Julian Voss-Andreae’s Quantum Man stands ten and one half feet tall at the center of the Bravern shopping center in Bellevue, Washington.  Quantum Man is one of the artist’s many quantum themed sculptures.  Voss-Andreae is an artist turned scientist turned artist once again.  He grew up around art, specifically painting, and began his artistic career as a realistic painter.  When painting ceased to be interesting in 1993, the artist turned to science and worked for the next seven years to eventually complete Physikdiplom in Europe – essentially a Master’s of Science in Physics.  While attending university Voss-Andreae participated in research regarding quantum physics.  That research in physics inspired the scientist to return to his artistic roots, moving to Portland, Oregon and completing a BFA in Sculpture at Pacific Northwest College of Art.  Julian Voss-Andreae now spends his energy sculpting physical representations of quantum objects and other science related phenomena.

Quantum Man, 2009, is the latest sculpture in the artist’s quantum figure series.  Viewed from the front or back, the sculpture appears to be a massive hunk of metal cut to the shape of a man walking forward.  But from the side that same man is nearly invisible.  The effect comes from the layering of more than 100 sheets of stainless steel, separated by metal rods, layered from front to back, vertically.  Voss-Andreae states that his aim, specifically through this sculpture, is to “increase the audience’s capacity to intuit the unfathomable deeper nature of reality.” [1] That reality is quantum mechanics.

Quantum mechanics is a mathematical theory that describes the behavior of microscopic particles.[2] Quantum mechanics allows for the observation of the qualities and possible movements of electrons, hydrogen atoms, and the like.  The historic problem with quantum mechanics, and science in general, is that even if there are unknowns, people will always want to visualize how an object might look.  As Voss-Andreae points out in his paper Quantum Sculpture: Art Inspired by the Deeper Nature of Reality:

The problem [with representing quantum objects visually] is the very notion that a hydrogen atom, or any quantum “object” for that matter, is an object and has a particular appearance or properties independent of the means used to observe it. Consequently, it seems impossible to assign a “quantum object” any objective existence at all. (…) Using images in science or philosophy to illustrate states of affair is generally a two-edged sword because it is essential that the audience knows the limits of a picture and uses it with discrimination and intelligence. With that caution, I believe that art, having shed the requirement to visually represent reality accurately, is uniquely capable of instilling an intuition for the deeper aspects of reality that are hidden to the naked eye. [3]

For Voss-Andreae, quantum mechanics is a source of inspiration and a springboard rather than a tether.  Inspired by a conversation in graduate school, Voss-Andreae set out to create an artistic rendering of a man walking through space-time.  The parallel vertical steel plates in Quantum Man are representative of the wave fronts a person might create as they stride forward in time.  Each plate is positioned with constant spacing, though the connecting rods are irregularly positioned vertically and horizontally to represent Richard Feynman’s 1948 method of path integral formulation for calculating quantum mechanical probabilities.  Voss-Andreae seems to be pointing to a duality between the reality we experience directly and the true nature underneath.  Any person at any moment appears to be a static figure – one person now and the same the second later.  Quantum mechanics would instead describe the same person as multiple objects over multiple instances of space-time. In essence, a person moves in waves, though those waves are rarely perceived.  Quantum Man most excellently illustrates this duality.  Voss-Andreae is not trying to be technically accurate in his sculpture; rather he is attempting to show mankind the alternate reality Quantum Mechanics describes.

In addition to quantum mechanics, Voss-Andreae also works with protein molecules and other underlying structures essential for human life.  In 2005 Voss-Andreae was commissioned to create a sculpture for the entrance of The Scripps Research Institute in Florida based on the molecular structure of the human antibody.  Angel of the West is a 1500-pound sculpture with a twelve-foot circular diameter and a four-foot depth.  The piece is made up of 1336 pieces of rectangular stainless steel tubing, assembled into ninety ‘beta strands.’[4] The beta strands were then assembled to mirror Da Vinci’s The Vitruvian Man.  Many of Voss-Andreae’s sculptures are created from metal pieces welded together, but Angel of the West required more technology than simple welding equipment.

To execute the piece, Voss-Andreae employed computer technology in the form of a custom program he wrote to envision how the beta strands might fit together.  Once the artist found the configuration he was looking for, he wrote another program to calculate the various mitre cuts that would need to be made, then executed those cuts on a laser-cutting machine.  Together, the programming took Voss-Andreae six months to write – but without the aid of the computer, the sculpture would be an impossibility.  Once the programs were written and the pieces cut to size, nearly two years were required to assemble all 1336 pieces inside the twelve-foot diameter stainless steel ring.

Angel of the West is impressive to behold.  The name of the sculpture is derived from Voss-Andreae’s belief that “Human antibodies are like an army of angels”[5] and also openly references the Angel of the North sculpture in England by artist Antony Gormley.  The sculpture itself is a tribute to both the research and science of Scripps Research Institute and the importance and significance of the antibody in human life.  As with any Voss-Andreae sculpture, the visualization of the science is truer in spirit than in function, but the final piece communicates exactly what it needs to: scientific research and the human antibody are immensely important to life.

[2] http://msc.phys.rug.nl

[3] http://www.julianvossandreae.com

[4] http://www.opb.org

[5] http://www.opb.org

Rattlesnake, opus 539

Robert Lang began his foray in origami when he was six years old.  His teacher gave him a book detailing several fold designs.  Lang, at that time, viewed origami as both a mental challenge and a world of endless possibilities.  The reality, as little Robert Lang saw it, was that any free sheet of paper he could obtain was a potential toy in the making.  As Lang got older he never grew out of what he thought might be a childhood obsession.  Instead, he began to create his own folded figures and always had origami on the back burner as he went through the rest of his life.

In 1987 Robert Lang and his wife Diane moved to Ludwigsburg, Germany where he was executing his post-doctoral work in Applied Physics as part of a program with the California Institute of Technology.  While in Germany the couple made a stop in Black Forest, original home of the cuckoo clock.  After seeing the intricately carved clocks, Lang was inspired to fold his own version of a Black Forest clock from paper.  On the artist’s website, he freely admits that his “first cuckoo clock was fairly plain”[1] but that his second was better.  By the third version he had a novel design, very intricately folded.  Black Forest Cuckoo Clock, opus 182 was Lang’s first real smash hit in the origami world.

The design is folded from a single one foot by ten-foot rectangle of Zanders “elefantenhaut” paper down to a fifteen-inch high version of a Black Forest Cuckoo Clock.  Lang’s masterpiece is complete with a pendulum and pinecones at the bottom, leaves along the sides, and a stags head at the top of the clock.  The final design was so involved it took Lang three months to complete the folding instructions and another six hours to actually complete the folds.  But the work paid off.  Lang was flown to Japan to demonstrate his design on television and was beginning to be recognized as an international origami master. 1987 was pre computational origami for Lang, but the Black Forest Cuckoo Clock was still one of the most complex origami figures produced to date.

Though Lang was receiving international acclaim for his origami designs in the late 1980s and throughout the 1990s, he kept pursuing physics as a full time career.  After his doctoral studies, Lang went on to work for NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab in 1988, then spent more than nine years at Spectra Diode Labs and eventually ended his full-time pursuit of physics at JDS Uniphase in 2001.  In that time Lang was credited with more than forty patents, most revolving around laser physics, and produced more than eighty technical papers.  To this day Lang holds technical positions in the field of physics, including Editor in Chief for the Journal of Quantum Electronics.

In the early 1990s Lang and another origami master Toshiyuki Meguro both independently recognized that origami was fundamentally a circle-packing problem.  In other words, mathematics was the key to complex origami design because each flap or appendage of an origami figure must originate from a circular section of paper.  The more circles one can fit on a page, the more intricate the figure can be.  Lang wrote a program named TreeMaker in the early nineties that was designed to formulate a “non-trivial origami figure based on a description of the number, lengths, and connectedness of the flaps.” [2] Within a number of months Lang had written the first version and by 1998 he had released TreeMaker 4.0, which could solve origami problems that Lang could not solve with traditional pen and paper.

ReferenceFinder is another program Lang wrote in the 1990s, meant to accompany TreeMaker.  Where TreeMaker works to solve the problem of the placement of circles on a page, ReferenceFinder works with the problem of folding an object once the crease pattern is mapped out.  Before ReferenceFinder origami artists were left with a trial-and-error approach to folding.  Even if they could map out the creases, they then had to figure out in what order to make the folds to create the intended figure.  ReferenceFinder uses seven folding operations to calculate the best possible folding sequence for a given figure.  Those seven folding operations are known as the Huzita-Hatori Axioms.  The Huzita-Hatori Axioms come from the discoveries of the first six axioms in 1989 by Humiaki Huzita, and the last one by Koshiro Hatori in 2001.  The axioms are essentially a set of mathematic rules that define how paper may be folded.  Because the axioms are expressible in equation form, Lang recognized the ability to create a computer program based on those formulas.  By 2003, and the third version of ReferenceFinder, all seven axioms had been integrated and could generate the folding sequence for virtually any set of crease patterns.

With TreeMaker and ReferenceFinder now in hand, and the use of a commercial precision laser cutter to score paper, Lang is able to create works of art that would not be otherwise possible.  One such work is Rattlesnake, opus 539, a private commission in 2008 that features a snake coiled in a defensive posture, tail up as if to shake its rattle as warning before it strikes.  The tail itself contains ten beads and the body features approximately one thousand scales.  The head contains nostril indentations and an open mouth.  The snake is folded from one uncut rectangle of brown Thai unryu paper[3] and at completion is approximately 8″ in size.  The incredible precision of the folds and the intricacy of the hundreds of scales and rattle make the piece incredible and nearly unbelievable under the standard constraints of origami.

Lang’s complex origami is often referred to as computational origami because of his use of mathematics and the computer.   Without the mathematic discoveries of the Huzita-Hatori Axioms, the development of the computer as a tool for complex calculations, and without the laser cutter to aid in folds, Lang’s artwork would not be possible.  Lang is an example of a brilliant scientist porting his knowledge over to another field.  For that ability Jan Polish of Origami USA calls Lang the “renaissance man of origami.” [4]

[2] http://www.langorigami.com

[3] http://www.langorigami.com

[4] http://www.smithsonianmag.com

I would strongly recommend teachers and students not use the XanEdu service.  After not providing the correct materials in the first place, I requested the issue be corrected.  They told me the materials would be corrected “soon” but did not update me when they were corrected.  Rather, I was left to check and see when they would be updated.

Well, I checked the materials at the end of the semester, after the applicable period had passed and they had updated the materials – but they had scanned everything sideways.  When I emailed to ask for a refund, they cited the terms of service and told me no refund would be given.  They claim they fixed the error the day after I notified them.  I do not know if this is true.

My experience is that XanEdu is not interested in keeping their customers happy.  The other scans I received were poor quality and not worth the price paid – some were nearly illegible.  As a teacher I will not use them, and as a student I won’t bother purchasing anymore course packets from them.  XanEdu is not a company I trust.

Theo Jansen's Holy Leg

Theo Jansen is a kinetic sculpture artist born and based in The Hague, Netherlands.  Jansen, once a painter with a physics background, now spends his time creating new forms of life.  Jansen calls these sculptures “Strandbeest”[1] or beach creatures.

In 1979 Jansen, then a professional painter, created a black flying saucer four meters in diameter, decorated with lights, speakers, and propelled by helium.  The saucer flew on a hazy day over Delft, Netherlands and caused a near riot in the small town.  This gave Jansen notoriety and motivation to pursue forms of art other than painting.  Jansen tried a few other art projects post 1979 before stumbling into the Strandbeest series in 1990.  As an integral part of the ufo’s design, the artist used a light-weight yellow plastic tubing to frame the space ship.  That electrical tubing has since turned into the basic building blocks of life in the Strandbeest.

The Strandbeest is a series of creatures, most of which can move to some degree based on the wind.  Theo Jansen classifies the development of the creatures into seven periods or eras, in much the same way scientists divide the periods of life on earth.  Each period is defined by a certain method of construction.  The Pregluton period is the period before Jansen introduced adhesive tape as a material to bind together the plastic tubing.  The Calidum is known as “the hot period”[2] because the artist used a heat gun to bend the plastic tubing.  Within each period, each beach creature is given a scientific name that describes the essence of the creature.  For example, Animaris Geneticae is a beach animal that uses genetic codes to reproduce and lived during the Tepideem period.  The seven periods signify landmark decisions in the development of the beach creatures.

In 1990 Jansen held a column in the national daily in the Netherlands called the de Volkskrant.  One day he wrote about the rising tides and the inconsistent heights of the dunes.  He talked about the idea of a creature that would simply take sand from the beach and fling it into the air so the sand would be blown into the dunes.  This act would build the dunes higher, as a wall to ensure the neighboring towns would have ongoing protection from the sea.  As a result of the column, Jansen decided to devote a year of his life to the beach creatures and began working in September of 1990 to create the very animals he described in his article.

As a result of reading Richard Dawkin’s book The Blind Watchmaker, Jansen became infatuated with the idea of evolution.  He began experimenting with genetic algorithms on the computer, spurred on by his desire to see evolution before his own eyes.  His first computer creature, a part of the Pregluton Period, was aptly named Animaris Lineamentum.  Jansen wrote a program that spawned a number of lines onto the screen.  Each line had a dot head with a stinger, and a line trailing behind it.  Each creature was divided into four sections and each section could bend one way or the other.  The creatures then randomly moved on the screen, stinging each other.  When one creature got stung, that creature was eliminated from the gene pool.  After a time the existing creatures reproduced.  As the creatures evolved they became more and more curled or compact, which helped them avoid getting stung.  Upon seeing the evolution of his creatures, Jansen went on to create other computer creatures including one that evolved to walk across the screen.  The idea of the walk cycle motivated Jansen to return to his yellow plastic electrical tubing.

The Gluton period lasted from 1990 thru 1991.  This period was marked by the use of adhesive tape to attach various lengths of plastic electrical tubing to create sculpture.  Animaris Vulgaris was the only full animal produced over the year.  It had 28 legs that worked to some degree when the animal was turned on it’s back, but once the animal stood upright it was never able to walk.  Part of the problem was the flexibility of the tape and the resulting lack of rigidity of the legs.  As Jansen points out in his book The Great Pretender “Although it was hardly a success in technical terms, I had learnt a lot along the way.”

The next period was the Chorda Period, or strap period, from 1991 thru 1993.  This period used cable ties to bond the pieces of plastic together.  But more importantly, Jansen realized that his leg from Animaris Vulgaris was not quite perfected and he needed to create a computer program to generate the perfect leg. Because the number of possibilities, based on 11 rods having at least ten different possible lengths, is in excess of ten trillion possibilities, Jansen knew he needed to create a computer program to do the calculating for him.  What’s more, he needed the program to be somewhat random in it’s initial calculations and evolve, or the act of computing ten trillion possibilities would take far too long.  Jansen wrote the program and in a matter of months had a solution, which he calls the “Twelve Holy Numbers.” [3] These eleven lengths, plus one for the length of the crankshaft, define the walking motion of the rest of Jansen’s creations.  The walking motion is very distinct – the foot of the leg essentially moves in the shape of a mushroom head viewed from the side.  The motion is flat at the bottom, when the foot is on the ground, then arches across the top when the foot is in the air.  Each creature has a number of feet so that at any given time one foot is meeting the ground when another is moving into the air.  This allows the beach creatures to walk in the sand effortlessly, in a way a wheel could not.  Ultimately Animaris Currens Vulgaris of the Chorda Period accomplished what Animaris Vulgaris could not – it stood on it’s own and actually walked with the help of Jansen.

The Calidum period lasted from 1993 thru 1994 and gave way to the Tepideem.  These two periods are a result of Jansen using a heat gun to slightly melt and bend the electrical tubes into the various shapes he needed.  The difference between the two periods has to do with the temperature of the heat applied.  The more heat applied, the easier the tubing bent, but the more brittle it ended up being.  Eventually Jansen settled on a moderate temperature in the Tepideem period.  The Tepideem is also home to Animaris Geneticus, which was the first animal to live in a herd and also the first animal to reproduce.  Jansen put the herd on the beach and allowed the animals, propelled by the wind, to race along the sand.  The winner’s dimensions would be transferred to the next generation and the losers would be modified to reflect portions of the winner’s makeup.  And so Jansen created evolution in his beach creatures.

Lignatum signifies a period from 1997 thru 2001 in which Jansen experimented with wood from wooden crates.  In 2001 Jansen returned to the yellow electrical tubing and experimented with the idea of animals moving on their own.  The period was named Vaporum and was a time in which the wind was captured and stored in plastic bottles.  Over time the bottles built up air pressure – that pressure could be released to enable the animal to walk against the wind.  Jansen also experimented with other enhancements such as pneumatic tubing that would allow a beach animal to adjust the length of its rods as it went.  His hope was to allow the animals to reproduce autonomously by passing certain genetic codes between animals that would determine the length of certain rods.

Cerebrum is the current period marked by the introduction of simple digital brains in 2006.  The brains act as a binary mechanism that counts the steps of the animal.  This mechanism combined with sensory organs allows the animals to sense where they are on the beach.  If the animal senses water, it can walk in the opposite direction so it does not drown.  The point of the brain, as with all of Jansen’s work, is to allow the animals to survive on their own.

Each period marks new developments in the life of Jansen’s beach animals. Each creature has been unique, but they are all an amalgamation of electrical tubing and cable ties, able to move on the strength of the wind.  They are similar in shape to a bridge structure, mostly formed on the strength of triangles.  The use of the computer and genetic algorithms has given Jansen the Holy Numbers that define the way his animals walk.   The yellow plastic electrical tube and the cable tie give the animals their unique form.  The heat gun and various other tools enable the act of creation.

Jansen envisions a day when he can let his animals roam the beaches of the Netherlands, flinging sand to the dunes to protect the towns and survive on their own, reproducing and evolving over the years.  Until that day, onlookers will always be mystified as to the way the animals move and behave, even with the help of their creator.

[2] The Great Pretender

[3] The Great Pretender

Audizer: Image to Sound Translation

I’ve completed my first final project for grad school.  Audizer: Image to Sound Translation centers around extracting qualities and colors from an image and creating a song based on that data.  The project is available here: http://audizer.deptof.com.  Check it out.

The project makes extensive use of the SampleDataEvent in Flash’s Actionscript 3.  I had some problems with it but eventually got it working.  I’ll try to find the time to create a post centering around the AS3 code behind the project as there’s not much data to be found concerning generative audio in Flash.

Theo Jansen rocks.  I bought his book The Great Pretender to read partly for pleasure and partly for a class I’m in.  I’m writing a paper on Jansen and 2 other sculpture artists.  It’s very interesting reading.  He has used genetic algorithms, among other things, in developing his “beach animals“.  I love it.  I’ve done some experimentation with genetic algorithms myself, though I have yet to use them as effectively as he has.

On a reading break today I checked Facebook (sigh) and AID alumni Chris Griffith posted a note about “one of the best Flash games he’s ever played,” which caught my attention.  It’s Record Tripping by the Bell Brothers.  Go check it out.  Very interesting stuff.

I’m still banging away in grad school.  I’ll be taking 15 hours next semester.  Fortunately two of those classes are programming classes and *should* be a cake walk.  We shall see.

I created the rules and some diagrams of a game I’m calling the Trenches.  Feel free to check out the full write up here (pdf).  I like the idea, though I’m not sure I’ll ever create the game.  We’ll have to see.  Just wanted to share it though!

This semester I had to create a project for one of my classes.  It had to be non-digital in nature so I chose to create a board game.  The board game is based on a digital game I created last year – Begins With… Here’s a link to the final project proposal (pdf) which explains the game, the rules, why I designed things the way I did, etc.

On a side note, you can keep up with my weekly postings on my grad school blog for the 705 class (for which my project was made) here:  Formula ITGM 705

I just started grad school at SCAD.  I’m taking 2 classes in the Interactive Design and Game Development program.  Interactive Design/Media Applications is the first class and is in my direct major.  The second class is a generic Contemporary Art class.

It’s interesting so far.  I think it will be a good experience.  Currently they have me reading the first chapter of A History of Modern Computing by Ceruzzi which will be a good background for the Programming Logic class going forward.  The book I’m looking forward to reading for the IDMA class is Rules of Play: Game Design Fundamentals by Salen/Zimmerman.

I’m excited to see where these classes are headed, though I know they will be challenging.