Meaningful Play - All Comments

Comment on 'GDC: Bits and Pieces' by Danushka

tim@straylight-studios.com — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 19:24:54 -0500

the Havok release is great, but you should also make a note that it still carries the hefty price tag if your project gets commercialised, and as far as I’m aware, you can’t just download, an account manager of some kind has to approve your access based on the credence of the project which you wish to use it for. (see: gamedev.net news archives)

Comment on 'Play a game, save a life' by Soundwave

tim@straylight-studios.com — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 14:23:43 -0600

Awesome! +100 points for Computer Gaming / Meaningful Play!
On a serious note, it really does show how important it is to do solid research when making a game.
I noticed in the original article, the guy could even remember the training section numbers!
I wonder if GameDev’s the world over realise how much the content they produce gets retained and absorbed :D

Comment on 'Games as Art?' by Soundwave

tim@straylight-studios.com — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 14:58:52 -0600

Yeh, definately! It’s (Passage that is) not a game that you’re supposed to “get” straight away. I thought the main beauty in the game came from the perspective that it gives :)
And it gives tonnes of that.

Comment on 'Grandma ♥ DS' by Soundwave

tim@straylight-studios.com — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 14:54:38 -0600

Well, I have seen a few bridge building games, albeit without all the bells and whistles…
http://www.chroniclogic.com/
There’s games there called “Bridge Construction Set” “Bridge It” and “Pontifex”, which all sound like what you’re talking about. I see they also have free demos there too if you’re interested :D

Comment on 'Grandma ♥ DS' by Harvey Kong Tin

tim@straylight-studios.com — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 17:27:13 -0600

I’m just commenting about videogames in general here…
I don’t find it strange that RockStar released ‘Table Tennis’ for the Wii, following it’s violent videogames releases – because they played this sport in real life. I have semi-retired from videogames playing because of the trend towards more and more violent videogames. In the last few months I have been getting back into playing real Table Tennis and enjoying it more than ever.. Anyway – developing non violent videogames or less violent is only limited by one’s imagination – and it has always been easier to design destructive and violent videogames than creative generative productive games. I remember an old BASIC computer game listing in C&VG called “Engineer” in which you built a simple bridge, and then have some guy walk across it. With todays computers, etc it would be wonderful to see a modern day version of this with all the bells and whistles possible now.

Comment on 'Grandma ♥ DS' by Soundwave

tim@straylight-studios.com — Sun, 09 Dec 2007 21:56:28 -0600

A gateway drug? That’s actually quite a funny idea! Game developers aren’t usually compared to drug pushers… unless you take WoW into account. I tried Brain Age once, and can see how people think it’s good for you.

If only I could get them doing something even more useful… like doing my tax returns for fun! Now that’s meaningful play :D

Comment on 'Grandma ♥ DS' by Grimlock

tim@straylight-studios.com — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 23:02:02 -0600

I guess I don’t really see it so much as a Gym for my brain, rather its probably closer to mental stretching . Its the boring thing you have to do before you workout so you don’t pull a muscle.

I agree though, however I do enjoy how sweaty I don’t get from playing it.