DECO3551 General Elective A

In case you still don’t know (after continuous bombardment of emails from Tim), it is on this coming Tuesday 27th November and it starts 6pm (til?). That is only the opening night however. After that the works will be moved to the Hearth and will be there for the duration of 9am-5pm Wednesday 28th Nov to Wednesday 5th Dec. The venue is Carriageworks, 245 Wilson Street, Eveleigh NSW (Cnr. Codrington St). It is right next to Royal Pub (which is next to international student center).

I’ve just emailed Rob about borrowing 3 mainframes and 1 projector.

I’ve just emailed the coordinators of the exhibition about visiting the place before the exhibition to determine the space/location of our thing. Hopefully they are available tomorrow or this Sunday. However if the only time is Monday or Tuesday, I won’t be able to turn up unfortunately sorry. I won’t be able to turn up for the exhibition also sorry. Will anyone be free on this coming Monday or Tuesday?

Chloe will be filming the exhibition, which we could use as part of our documentation. Do you need tripod Chloe? Will probably have to meet you before Monday to give you the tripod and extra tapes.

Dear Jack,
It all sounds very promising. The group’s project should be fine. You can use the university’s projectors, but be mindful that if you want to rig up a projector from the ceiling we must have the correct craddle due to OH&S considerations. Alternatively place it on a plinth. You will need to supply your own computers however: maybe talk to people in the faculty ICT? You don’t need to pass everything by us: remember its your work so get the group together and start determining the equipment you need. 🙂 Maybe a meeting some time next week would serve us better?
Best,
Tim.

Dwarf Fortress

Dwarf Fortress is a game that is somewhat relevant to what we are currently doing. It is mostly a strategy game where you control a group of dwarfs, dig caves, mine, build stuffs, defend, etc. It is similar to us and unique in that it’s graphics are based on ASCII characters (with each symbolizing different things). The game also generates a new world (ecosystem) when you start a new game (as oppose to the conventional games where the world is predefined), so everytime you start a new game, you have new possibilities. The process of generating the world is interesting, it takes at least 15min, and you get feedback (visually and textually) that mountains are generated, vegetation grew, rivers ran, lakes formed, and animals imported, etc.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dwarf_Fortress
http://www.bay12games.com/dwarves/

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Spore

Uber kool game on evolution, coming out next year. Must see!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8dvMDFOFnA
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spore_%28video_game%29

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Creatures

Quoted from Wikipedia
Creatures is an artificial life (alife) computer program series, created in the mid-1990s by English computer scientist Steve Grand whilst working for the Cambridge computer games developer Millennium Interactive. The program is regarded as an important breakthrough in the advancement of artificial life research.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creatures_%28artificial_life_program%29
http://www.gamewaredevelopment.co.uk/creatures_index.php

I played the free Docking Station version, I was bored fast. As a game it sucked, it wasn’t motivating enough. The style of the 3D graphic wasn’t my liking. The other version looks alright, but they’re not free. I ‘bought’ the Creatures 3 game from Emule but haven’t played it since.

yours notoriously,
Jack

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/1419/designing_for_motivation.php

I was reading this article a few weeks ago. But I wasn’t sure on the relevancy, so I didn’t post. I changed my mind. It’s an important article if you want to know how to get the audience addicted to our game/exhibition. (Game I hope, exhibitions are usually boring IMO). Personally, this is what I wish to aim for, to get the player addicted. And no, the article is not about starcraft. Go read! it’s well summarised and truly enlightening!

yours notoriously,
Jack