Topics:
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Procedural Website Glitch Script

published:
2014.04.11
topics:
javascript
video

I wrote a little program in JavaScript that procedurally glitches out any website's HTML. It is fun to watch! My friend Floriaen put my script on his site. Go there and click the red "Glitch my website!" button in the top right corner.

The effect is also potentially quite dangerous on API driven sites, and so if you're crazy enough to try the script out for yourself, then please note:

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.


Eye Cycle - Global Game Jam 2014

published:
2014.01.29
topics:
games
javascript
webgl

Make sure to check out Cycho -- a more recent and more polished version of my GGJ 2014 project.

If you're like to learn about the original Global Game Jam project, then read on!


Global Game Jam 2014 Redux

published:
2014.01.27
topics:
games

Global Game Jam 2014 was this weekend. I jammed with everybody at the IGDA-TC location. This year's GGJ had people participating at 485 locations in 73 countries. I think there were close to 80 people at our location, and several of them stayed on-site for the entire 48 hours. I think one person stayed there and stayed awake for the entire 48 hours. No, it was definitely not me. There are twelve of our games on the website, but I know many other games and prototypes were worked on by the attendees. I ended up making the game Eye Cycle.

Jam Memoir

This year's theme was the sentence, "We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are." I was pretty stumped in terms of game ideas from that theme, although I will say it left me pretty deep in thought about the nature of games themselves. Surely, the way we perceive other peoples' games often says more about ourselves than those games. And definitely the games we make say something personal about ourselves. The best games are maybe the most personally meaningful... even if that meaning isn't explicit to the player.

After the theme was announced, GGJ kicked off like it always does with a group brainstorm where people share their game ideas. This has always been one of my favorite parts of GGJ, because I love to see everybody's creativity and riff off the ideas that are shared.


</2013> <2014>

published:
2014.01.11

Photos from 2013.

Wow! What a year! I marked the second year anniversary of my company Zachstronaut LLC. Since starting my own company to work for myself, the challenge has always been finding meaningful work and balancing consulting/business partnerships with creative/artistic interests. These two things are not mutually exclusive, and they overlapped wonderfully in 2013!

December/January are the time of ennui and self-reflection. "Did I accomplish anything this year?" I wonder to myself. How did those New Year's Resolutions turn out? Well, read on, because that's what this post is all about...


Deathmastree Data Visualization

published:
2013.12.23
topics:
games
video

For xmas I made a Panta Claus mini-episode for my game The Legend of Equip > Pants. This episode is the first in my game to introduce player death, and it is pretty challenging. I've been capturing players' paths through the level as well as where they are dying.

As a bit of thematic layering, and with data visualization in mind, I made the episode map itself in the shape of a Christmas Pantsmas Tree. I knew then that I could capture the data and play it back... and with a little smart use of shapes and colors... I could have the player map data visualization come out as a lovely holiday themed animation.

I titled this data visualization "2000 plays. 6000 deaths. 40 seconds." I think it turned out really great, so I wanted to share it with all of you.

Update: Turns out Kotaku thinks it is cool, too!