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My favorite games to read
I've been reading a really great story recently. By which I mean I have been playing a really great video game. Specifically, I've been playing adventure game Kentucky Route Zero, now on its fourth episode (of five). Despite being a video game, it is also one of the best magical-realist stories I've read in years. Kentucky Route Zero's existence is a testament to the steadily improving quality of prose writing in video games.
Stephen Colbert dares you to 'Escape From a Man-Sized Cabinet'
The beard might be gone, but Stephen Colbert has a new way to entertain you ahead of his debut with The Late Show this September. Game-playing folks of a certain age with pretty fond memories of text-adventure Zork will surely get a bang out of Escape From the Man-Sized Cabinet where you venture into an office cabinet, choose from various text prompts ranging from euphemistically waking up a centaur to continuously standing inside the cabinet until... well, I'm not going to spoil the surprise for you. The writing is pretty funny throughout and clicking through the story is actually a pretty excellent way to get a few laughs before the weekend starts. Want to make your own and maybe add in a Grue? Well, considering that Escape is a Twine-made title, that probably isn't out of the realm of possibilities.
Learn to fear The Uncle Who Works for Nintendo
Author Michael Lutz has released The Uncle Who Works for Nintendo, a short work of interactive fiction revolving around that one kid you knew in school who supposedly had an industry insider relative. The story begins with players sleeping over at a friend's house on a rainy night, and recalls commonly shared experiences with the Nintendo 64 and tall tales that once circulated regarding Pokemon's infamous Mew. Things take a sudden turn as the in-game clock approaches midnight, however, leaving you questioning the nature of your boastful childhood friends and their always-nameless Uncles. There are multiple endings, and experimenting with alternate story paths pays off in a big way. Make sure you wear headphones, too. [Image: Michael Lutz]
Anna Anthropy invites you to 'A Very Very Very Scary House'
Anna Anthropy, developer of the powerful autobiographical flash title Dys4ia, has revealed a new project: a digital choose-your-own-adventure entitled A Very Very Very Scary House. Built in part with the interactive story tool Twine, the game is available now for $2. "Investigate the scariest house you've ever seen!" the description for the title proclaims, noting the game has 58 unique endings. "This is probably the largest Twine story i've ever written, at over 11,000 words in 197 passages," Anthropy wrote on her blog. A Very Very Very Scary House, featuring original art from Shelley Yu, represents something of an experiment for the creator, monetizing one of her creations for the first time. "Putting games behind paywalls is something I've been extremely wary about – the people I want my games to reach are the ones most marginalized within games culture as it stands, the ones with the least money and the least access," Anthropy told Gamasutra. "Why would I buy a Twine game for two dollars when I can get all of these polished indie games [emphasis hers] for the same amount? This is an attempt at pushback, at establishing a precedent for folks to be able to sell little Twine zines and make some money off their work," she added in her blog post announcing the game's availability. For more on Anna Anthropy and her unique and personal games, be sure to read Joystiq's original feature Games on the Fringe.
Twine uses your interests to match you with singles
Twine (free) launched today, and it offers a novel approach to the age old problem of meeting other singles. While niche sites like Cupidtino come and go, your Facebook profile, check-ins and activity provide a map of your interests. Twine looks at those interests, the people around you (more or less), and suggests a "twine" for you to try and connect. You then chat semi-anonymously, and if you hit it off you can later reveal your profile pic and personal info. Design Twine is absolutely lovely to look at. There's a minimum of buttons, subtle design elements are lovingly crafted and the typography and textures are elegant. The app oozes class, which is good for a singles app. Interaction is very intuitive, which is good because Twine, like any social app, is going to need as many users as possible. Users who are confused will be deleting the app quickly. A small cue indicates you are still hidden from the other chat participant by sliding a visor across the eyes. A lightbulb to the left of your text input area makes suggestions on what to say, with a logical plus sign to the right to add that to the text area (you an still edit the text afterward). Twine allows you to move between the main screen, your twines (and chats) and your profile by swiping left and right, somewhat like Facebook's app. Functionality Twine tries to keep the male to female ratio even, so it's possible if you are a guy you'll have to wait to get to use it. So far the line isn't long -- I had only one person in front of me. There's another attempt to rate limit creeps by Twine after you find "twines" (connections with others). You can only "find a twine" so many times every so many hours. I looked up about four people before I "ran out of juice" and had to wait six hours to try again. This is an interesting way to ensure people are only connecting to good matches, I suppose. If you are used to casting a wide net, however, you'll be limited by design. Speaking of a wide net, I would note that as Twine is young, the user base isn't very high yet. There's no telling what the future will bring, but the more users generally the better matches will appear for you. Once you've found a "twine" you can start chatting. Chat is a very Messages-like experience (in a good way), and Twine offers a neat shortcut if you're stumped on conversation starters. By pulling your Facebook data, it suggests things like "How often do you go to [place you've checked into]"? Based on my testing it was trying to match up similarities. Both I and my girlfriend like Weird Al, and Twine suggested the text "What is your favorite Weird Al song?" Being data, it can sometimes be... vague. One question was whether she had seen the movie The Well, when it is in fact a local bar we've both been to. Luckily the text pastes in already selected so you can edit it before you send. I'm not sure if it encourages laziness, but it certainly is a quick way to find common interests. Conclusion If Twine can keep adding users I think it will become a fun way for people to meet. The only drawback I see is, aside from "making connections" there's no other utility. I've met people on Flickr who weren't just into photos, but had a cool picture of something they did. Likewise, I've made friends on Facebook based on groups that do something. While dating sites are general purpose, being social is often built around personal choices of activity. Then again, what you've done and what you're into -- insofar as it shows up on Facebook -- is how Twine tries to connect you to others. I have to hand it to the team at Twine for connecting those dots, but I am curious to see if the app is used extensively enough for those connections to become real. Pros: Matches according to interests, check-ins via Facebook Great design You can stay relatively private Cons: Age gate a little iffy (someone's profile said 16 when the agreement is for 17 and up) Given small population, "local" is a wide net sometimes (had someone in DC suggested for someone in TN) Ratio balancing means one female per male, so guys may have to wait or invite a female via Facebook
Twine Cloud Shield puts Arduino gadgets online in seconds (video)
If you're hip-deep in Arduino projects, you're likely aware of shields: graft-on boards that add functionality, most often getting the Arduino in touch with the rest of the world. Many of these require more than a little coding skill to get the ball rolling, even in light of the Netduino, which has led Supermechanical to unveil its new Twine Cloud Shield. The board links the Arduino to a Twine WiFi sensor and gives the Arduino every internet feature the Twine can offer through just three lines of code. There's even a pair of touchpads on the shield to trigger actions through capacitive touch. Do be prepared to pony up for that ease of use when it costs $35 for the Cloud Shield alone, and $150 to bundle one with the Twine. Still, the outlay may be justified if you're more interested in quickly finishing a fun experiment than frittering your time away on the basics.
Pebble ties itself up in Twine: sounds so rustic, couldn't be any less (video)
Take an e-ink e-paper smartwatch that's got plenty of willing customers, throw in a WiFi-connected sensor box and well, imagine the possibilities. The founders behind Pebble and Twine hope you are, because they have announced that the pair will be connectable through the latter's web-based interface. This means you'll be able to setup text notifications to your wrist when your laundry's done, when someone's at your door and plenty more mundane real-world tasks. A brief video explains how it should all go down, but try not to get too excited -- pre-orders are sadly sold out.
Switched On: Extra Sensory Perception
Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about consumer technology. At Intel's CES 2012 press conference, the giant chipmaker justified calling thin notebook PCs "ultrabooks" by noting how the devices would increasingly be characterized by more than their thinness. The integration of sensors has become so core to the modern smartphone experience that their absence would make using such devices untenable.Most of that differentiation was based on plans to integrate the kinds of sensors that have become commonplace in smartphones and tablets, sensors that can detect location, motion, orientation and proximity. The integration of sensors has become so core to the modern smartphone experience that their absence would make using such devices untenable. Imagine if we had to manually reorient a display every time we wanted to play a game or take a photo or if we had to avoid activating a button with our cheeks when holding a phone against them.But as Switched On discussed in taking on how screen size affects form factors, what is a limitation of form factor today may not hold true tomorrow. Already, of course, smartphones can tap into remote intelligence for applications such as remote camera viewing or unlocking of doors via services from home security companies such as ADT and Vivint. From around the world, you can even remotely start a vehicle using the Viper SmartStart app. But there are increasing opportunities for smartphones to act on information from sensors that are not embedded into their shells.
Insert Coin: A look back at ten top projects from 2011
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Insert Coin: Twine connects your whole world to the internet
In Insert Coin, we look at an exciting new tech project that requires funding before it can hit production. If you'd like to pitch a project, please send us a tip with "Insert Coin" as the subject line. Wouldn't it be great if your laundry emailed you when it had finished? You got a tweet every time the room got too cold, or your basement sent you a text if it began to flood? "Easy," says the Arduino expert in the peanut gallery, but what about those with neither the time nor inclination to solder and program it from scratch? Fortunately, the gentlemen who founded Supermechanical feel our pain and have just the tonic for our maladies -- head on past the break to find out more.
