Jump to content
gdf

Plug your shit

Recommended Posts

Thanks for interest, folks! As I said, it's a course on teaching literacy. My own focus is on Elementary school (grades 1 - 6 here) and, in this course, has trended toward trying to find ways to find authentic audiences for kids (via student blogs and such) and prepare them for participatory text creation while balancing administrative and parental safety concerns (for example, if a high school assignment includes keeping a blog, it is legally required in my district for their parents to have signed a permission slip). In some ways, it's weirdly become the same kind of argument people have over sex ed here, where the debate is between people trying to scare kids away from using social media at all and those trying to teach them how to use it well and to positive ends. Really, I'd like to have a conversation going around the @EDUC404 (class number) account and the #EDUC404B06 (class number and seminar code from the U of C) hash tag. Even just to get some back and forth going before the presentation happens next Friday so the account isn't just empty when we start up would be good. Any thoughts on introducing kids safely to social media so it's not just this thing that they start throwing all their personal information on when they hit 13 and don't have to lie about having parental permission anymore, or ways to get kids involved in the emerging "remix" literacy, or whatever may occur. If you have any thoughts and want to share them, throw them up there. I'd really appreciate anything that people would want to add to the conversation.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Though I have nothing to contribute, it seems like an interesting thing, and I'll be watching that account like a motherfucking HAWK.

edit: Also that was my four thousandth post!

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Ok, the actual presentation isn't until Friday afternoon, but I'd like to populate the history of the account with things that aren't just group members making sure it works. I've sent out the starter question "What would your reaction be if you were told that a class you were enrolled in required a Google account?" I can see that Ben and 'Blix are both following already and may (?) respond, but if anyone else wants to say a thing, tweet your thoughts to @EDUC404. I'm going to try to post a couple of these seeder questions each day leading up to Friday, at which point hopefully my class will pick up on the idea and start asking things. I'll also encourage the other members of my group to think of some to post. I hope this turns out at least a little interesting, as right now it's just sort of a weird experiment.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Hey this is kind of a quiet release since this game remains very buggy and unpolished as well as missing some art assets, but the past few months I've been killing myself over this silly Facebook game for Syfy using their dumb B-Movie monsters from recent years:

http://apps.facebook.com/syfymonsterisland/

I did a little bit of art, mostly the Monkey and editing other people's art, but all of the character animations are mine. It's rough around the edges and frustrating to play as well as bugging you too much to pay like most Facebook games, but I'm vaguely proud. It's the biggest thing I've worked on so far in life at least.

Edited by syntheticgerbil

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
Ok, the actual presentation isn't until Friday afternoon, but I'd like to populate the history of the account with things that aren't just group members making sure it works. I've sent out the starter question "What would your reaction be if you were told that a class you were enrolled in required a Google account?"

I like being able to help a little with this. The time it takes is fractional, but it appears you might be asking questions I normally wouldn't consider myself, or at least reframing those issues.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Yeah, I was about to give you a special shout out for being super helpful so far. Also, Hermie and Thompson. I just put up a response to your last one that was something my group talked a little about but was a really hard question for us to answer.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
link doesn't work, requires me to register or something

Oops, I think I put in a bad link. This might work, but it still requires you to allow the app into your Facebook account.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Man, Miffy, your questions are hard!

And, sorry Synth but I'm not signing up to any FB apps, the things are like viruses.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Haha. The rest of my group is finally catching on to the twitter account. A couple of the girls I'm working with have been posting replies to you guys, and its nice to see traffic happening a little bit. I threw up another question just now to see what sorts of responses come in. Unless another group mate adds to it before tomorrow-lunchtime, it'll probably be the last one. Thanks again to everyone who showed interest in this! It's making me seriously consider blogging my student-teaching time next term. Pseudonyms will have to abound of course, especially as children are involved, but it may be something worth doing.

EDIT: I also noticed that someone responded to a question that I asked with the twitter account USING the same account. If we're not careful, we may end up having an account that argues with itself. Gonna have to watch that.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
And, sorry Synth but I'm not signing up to any FB apps, the things are like viruses.

Very true. The game kind of sucks to play, I can't convince anyone to start. I'll probably just record video of my favorite things for portfolio reasons at some point.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

It's sad when things you work on turn out not as good as they should be, because of other people involved.

(THAT'S WHY I DO EVERYTHING ON MY OWN AND ALSO NEVER MANAGE TO FINISH ANYTHING.)

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Speaking of group work, that presentation yesterday went really well and I wanted to thank everyone on here who helped out with it. My professor was super impressed with what we did, and I've now solidified my straight As in a really rough and way too busy term. Working 5 days a week and going to school 5 days a week sucks. There are not 10 days in a week. I actually have had no idea what to do with myself the last two nights without homework, but that'll be resolved in a month. Thanks to everybody who tweeted, especially BBX, Nachimir, Thompson, and Hermie who contributed a bunch!

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Nice work, Miffy! Unfortunately, I had computer problems all last week, so missed out on this completely.

I have one thing to plug, though, and that's VIGIDEN, the new webseries I've been developing with the same guys who did Behind The Bytes over summer. It's both a broadening of the scope and a honing of the form. BTB was a mockumentary series about the scandalous lives of video game characters, VIGIDEN is a sketch show based around a video game news network.

The first sketch went live on Friday. Here it is.

pJZdnda6uQw

It's a very silly series.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I like it, Nevsky. It's obvious it can use some faster editing and a better focused kind of satire (the jokes here don't really seem to have a point other than being funny), but it looks slick and you're sure to work the kinks out.

I work on an online social world for kids, so obviously I make it point to work obscure references to The Mighty Boosh into the text.

oroboro.jpg

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
It's a very silly series.

Haha. I liked it. I think the satire could be more pointed, as Rodi said (Is it mocking mainstream media coverage of games? Is it mocking Rockstar? Is it just a weird fantasy world?). Not sure I agree with the "faster editing" statement, though. I don't really understand how it could be "faster". Anyways, I enjoyed it.

Rodi, the kids that got that reference will have LOVED it.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

On second thought, I'm not sure what I meant with 'faster editing' either. It's more... it needs to be... pithier? It's hard to grasp.

(PS. Thunderpeel, you have passed the balls test.)

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
I work on an online social world for kids, so obviously I make it point to work obscure references to The Mighty Boosh into the text.

Oooo, what's that game?

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

It's called... no, I can't say, maybe someone will Google this :shifty:

Let's just say it's about DREAMS and BEARS and a SAGA. The game's not even out yet, we softlaunched a year ago on a national social network (boy that sounds like Nazis) and we're currently trying to launch this damn thing in Germany.

OK, now I'm pretty sure this is about Nazis. I should've gotten suspicious at our rotating fireplace.

I've been working on the game for a good two years now, so it'll be stellar when it finally hits the (virtual) streets. I hope it becomes a bit of a success because my employment quite depends on it. You know, even though it's at its core a typical money-grabbing online social game, it's kind of a cool place. As you can see we have really nice handdrawn artwork and there's a huge emphasis on story and quests, courtesy of yours truly. My point is, if your kid is going to waste a lot of time and (your) money on anything online, our game isn't be such a bad choice. Once it hits wherever you live. I'll inform you when that time comes!

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Thanks Rodi/Thunderpeel!

Sure, we could have been more on-the-nose. There's definitely the intention in there to skewer both the superficial mainstream view of games, and how new GTAs can only be so different. I think the other writer just enjoys being silly, too, so we ping-pong a lot - and get quite a varied response as a result!

The next few sketches are much less pointed (apart from the news-room pastiche), and much more silly. More driven by the collision of video games and broadcast journalism. We'll see how they work out!

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

One of the things I did until January this year was organise a conference for indie developers. A bunch of them have been asking if I'd do another since I went freelance, and the answer is yes! :tup:

I've been thinking about it for months, settled on some ideas I'm happy with, and found a good artist too:

http://www.bit-of-alright.com

It's in London on the 3rd of February next year, and the early bird tickets are going about a million times faster than I expected them to.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now

×