What a week
TwoFiftyWords
diary of the compulsively curious
Little Big Planet
This is quite possibly the most beautiful piece of interactive design and development I’ve seen for a long time. The minute you pop that disc into the PS3, the magic begins. It’s is a puzzle platformer and user generated content video game where you begin by introduced to your little avatar sackboy self. Yep, you’re made of an old sack and you’re very cute.
It was developed by Media Molecule, a British company founded in part by Rag Doll Kung Fu creator Mark Healey. What is particularly lovely is that you actually start to navigate your character through the credits straight away, being introduced to the development team. Very nice. The voice over by Stephen Fry is totally charming.
The graphics, physics and audio are superb. It has a raft of customisable features that combined with it’s unique gameplay make it a sheer delight. You can even use the Playstation camera to add your own images to levels.
I have asked people to take a crack at the game when they visit my office. Almost every single person expresses sheer delight.
From the initial open screen you can select three modes of gameplay. You can also decorate the room with stickers and decorations. Once you have the basics mastered, you’re free to play the rest of the game.
There’s a version of the game announced for release on the PSP which will feature new levels and content in the second half of ’09.
Take the time to explore this masterpiece.
Mile High WiFi
I recently nestled into a Delta Shuttle seat and prepared for the quick jaunt home. Peeping from the seat pocket was a little green card that said “GoGo WiFi service on selected Delta flights”. I was intrigued!
While many roll eyes at the idea of having the last bastion of digital connectivity invaded, I beamed and whipped out my iPhone. My browser pointed straight to the server. How could I not sign up? $5.95 was quickly charged to my card and I was ON. Online. Wired. Jacked into the interweb. Everything worked. Email, chat, browsers and iTunes all functioned without a glitch. But we’d reached the end of our LGA-BOS trajectory and it was time to turn off and stow all electronic devices. Hmmmmm, mile high WiFi. How exciting.
That night, I asked myself questions. How does it work? How much bandwidth is there? And what exactly is that person doing in the window across the park? Yes, so I decided I wanted to test this fancy flying WiFi out.
Enter NimBuzz. an iPhone application that aggregates your chat clients in one nifty little package, including Skype. I’d already tested Nimbuzz in Starbucks WiFi hotspots with excellent results. Free calls anywhere with every steaming cup, but does it work up there? On my next flight from NYC, I couldn’t resist. I logged on to GoGo selected a Skype contact and BINGO! A VOIP call to grandma in Australia from 30,000 feet. Not the intention I’m sure, but what a discovery.
OBEY Boston
Yesterday afternoon, I had the pleasure of taking my family to one of the best art retrospectives I’ve ever seen. You may have spied an Obama poster here or there. Or maybe you’ve spotted an Obey sticker from time to time. Well they’re both the work of Shepard Fairey and his exhibition Supply And Demand is currently on at the ICA.
As a RISD student, I am sure Shepard had no idea what a random image of Andre the Giant and a stencil for a friend would turn into. From street hoardings to lamposts, bare building walls to empty billboards, the work of Fairey is prolific and certainly not without its share of critics and opposition. Even Banksy highly criticized his work, calling it “repetitive and nauseating”, but now admits Shepard makes most street artists feel scared and lazy. And that he’s had more reach than any artist in history, and which means he’s won.
Question everything. Perhaps the two most powerful words for a creative. (or for anyone). The natural inquisitiveness and desire to “know” should course through our veins. And this is what drives Shepard. His work is beautiful, bold and confronting, referencing strong graphic styles, layering text, type, stencils and patterns to produce some of the most beautifully ornate pieces. And what I find particularly interesting, is how he harnesses business like models to grow and perpetuate his work, demonstrating a fascinating symbiosis between creativity and business not unlike Warhol and Koons. You must see this exhibition.
Primordial Oooze Anyone?
It’s called Spore and I hesitate to call it a game. It’s many games wrapped up into an incredible experience. The epic brainchild of Will Wright, creator of SimCity and The Sims, Spore challenges all aspects of experiential game development, drawing influence from all aspects of social media to multi user dimensions.
Spore puts you in the drivers seat of evolution. They call it “Creatiolutionism”. It’s a ”massively single player multi-genre online metaverse” (quite a mouthful), where you control the evolution of a species from its very beginning as a single cell organism, nurturing and crafting it into an intelligent social creature. But don’t stop there. You can then develop it into an interstellar explorer with spacefaring capabilities.
This beautiful development harnesses procedural generation, which essentially means content is created on the fly. From it’s music scores to the infinite gameplay, this world grows continuously.
Outside of the sheer genius involved in the creation of Spore, what I find fascinating is the way it has been campaigned in many shapes and forms across many devices. It was immediately available on MAC and PC platforms, but it is also available in mobile applications as well. There is of course an iPhone application Spore Origins as well as the Creature Creator for desktops. It was launched across the globe on September 7 with partnerships galore including a YouTube channel, Nintendo DS Spore Creatures and even a “how to build a better being” DVD by National Geographic Channel. You must check it out.
Coffee Break
Anyone with a passion for coffee will relate to this. I’m not talking about that stale, insipid poison most establishments offer. I’m talking real coffee. Espresso. (Not Expresso!) The world of the coffee lover is similar to the wine connoisseur. Grown here, ground there, plunged or pressed, it’s a whole new language. ( Check out CoffeeGeek.com ) Yes people, I’m a coffee snob, and I recently had the worst coffee of my life in a Boston restaurant. I swear it was the result of a well rung kitchen sponge. That was the last straw. This is serious.
My search for great coffee in Boston lead me to Simon’s Coffee in Cambridge. It’s excellent and reminiscent of Carlton’s cafe’s in my home town of Melbourne, Australia. But it’s out of my way on that side of the Charles. Then, right under my nose, I discover Uptown Espresso in Columbus Ave. The owners are friendly and they deliver a seriously good cup. They’re tremendous!
However, there’s nothing like the smell of fresh coffee at home in the morning. Maybe I’m a true addict, but it was time for a machine at home. The Francis Francis machine in Australia was a cute little number. But I didn’t want to buy another. So I started hunting. And after a long search, I settled on the Kitchen Aid Pro Line Espresso. It’s seriously solid with super fast boilers and a steam supply that never fades. Combined with the George Howell Terroir coffee my addiction is finally appeased.
Smile
What could be better than a product designed purely to put a smile on your face. Let me introduce you to Smiley the worlds very first anti-stress perfume from the Arthes label. It was launched at funky French store Colette in Paris last year. The logo is reminiscent of my hazy clubbing days in late 80’s London. And if the fabulous packaging doesn’t grab you, perhaps the scent will. It’s designed as a unisex fragrance and is formulated on the natural olfactory molecules theobromine and phenylethylamine, that are known to trigger happiness.
The scent itself was developed by Firmenich and whilst fragrances are very personal, it seems to be extremely appealing. The science of scents is fascinating and complex and a description I came across suggests “Smiley is a fruity, spicy accord with bergamot and orange at the opening, and cocoa, praline and curaçao at the heart of the fragrance. The dry-down features patchouli, myrrh and musk.”
The sensational product design and packaging was created by designer Ito Morabito (ORA-ÏTO). The Eau de Toilette and Eau de Parfum are housed in very scientific looking glass vessels by Saint-Gobain. They do tend to over deliver a little when sprayed and believe me, it comes on stronger than a sailor on shore leave. There’s also an Emergency Kit as part of the range that contains additional Body Gel and Therapeutic Bath scent.
You can buy Smiley upstairs at Henri Bendel in New York. Gerard is more than happy to help you out.