Digital Cream

I recently got Dungeons and Dragons version 4. D&D is a tabletop RPG with real dice and real people around a real table. It uses this fancy new nanotechnology called “atoms” to render its images. Version 4 is the radical replacement for the previous version 3 (which upgraded to a minor 3.5). Version 3 was itself a huge rebirth of D&D done in the early 2000s after “Advanced D&D” collapsed under its own weight decades ago. V3 and V4 are made by Wizards of the Coast, who makes the card game Magic the Gathering.

Having played it a bit and read it all, I am very positive on v4. I would regard it as a pretty much new game system, and 3.5 still a good valid system. Sort of like playing Shadowrun and D&D—you may be in the mood for either. For easily distracted kids, new players, and a lower-hassle gameplay experience, I’d say v4 is well worth it. (continued »)

Australia does not have a category for videogames on a par with the USA’s “M” rating, for games which are for those 17/18 years or older. This means such games are barely shaved down to squeeze into the M15 rating, advised for 15 years of age, similar to the USA’s “T” rating. Or the games are kept out altogether, though this is more rare. There is a revived debate about whether to allow games to be classified as R18. In doing so, they would match the ratings for movies, which have the same distinction between M15 and R18. (continued »)

As promised, a week after the premiere, I added lots of new photos and guests to Taboo Snaps, the first game to use my Picture Game Platform. You can see more detail about the update at this announcement.

Stay tuned to this blog for an article I will write about the exhilarating experience of launching Taboo Snaps. In short, it went stunningly smoothly, with no real problems of any kind. Traffic is fine but I want to grow it a whole lot more. It remains a fantastic learning experience, and tremendous fun. I am satisfied, but hungry to do much, much more, with this game and many others. More to come, I guarantee!

It’s barely midnight Australian time, but I just can’t wait any longer—Taboo Tuesday has begun!

Anyone in the world now can go to http://www.taboosnaps.com and enjoy the weird wonderfulness of perving and playing that makes Taboo Snaps one of a kind. Won’t you come give it a try? And better yet, won’t you please spread the word so this odd little indie developer can break through the net-noise with a viral wave?

Here are some links to social bookmark sites. Please take a moment to sign up and boost the link *today*– if we all pull together, it can poke above the seething net-waves and get noticed by the larger world.

Click the “Digg” button here:
http://digg.com/playable_web_games/Taboo_Snaps_perv_play_with_real_photos_of_hot_models

Click the up-arrow button here:
http://www.reddit.com/r/offbeat/comments/9djia/taboo_snaps_were_human_we_play_we_perv_this_game/

Click the main “Taboo Snaps” headline here, then the “I like it” button on the banner above the Taboo site. And/or submit a review:
http://www.stumbleupon.com/url/www.taboosnaps.com/

Once you are signed in, click this then click “save this bookmark” in the upper right corner (I think):
http://delicious.com/url/fc76b6aa1fdd02218a745f08fa657ba3

Then, spread the word today any other way you can—talk about it and share links in Facebook, Twitter, email, and everywhere else. You don’t have to fake a climax here; be yourself. Say the game is good, bad, shocking, bizarre, original, or weird—any mention is helpful.

If you like playing the game, click the options button (the little gear icon) to get a special URL. The more people play the game from your link, the more elite “golden guests” you get in your game!

With just a few minutes of your help, you do what I can’t do alone—build up a genuine net-wave of our own. Please give your crazy indie comrade a little kick. I promise to do the same for you!

I appreciate this so much. With deep thanks,
–Matt

On Tuesday the 25th of August, my game Taboo Snaps will be open to the public at http://www.taboosnaps.com. Please help your indie developer friend and take a few minutes to build a viral wave to promote it. In less time than it takes to watch a YouTube video, you can help me out a lot!

If you wish to help, please do these today:

–Make sure your favourite “social bookmarking” site is working. If you don’t have an account, it takes only a minute to make one. Here are some sites. If you already have an active account on any of them, use that one. If you don’t, please use Digg.
http://www.digg.com
http://delicious.com
http://www.stumbleupon.com
http://www.reddit.com

– Follow/befriend/befan(?) as many of these as you can:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Taboo-Snaps/51119882856
http://twitter.com/taboosnaps
http://www.myspace.com/taboosnaps
http://groups.google.com/group/taboo-snaps-announcements/

–Anytime you see a Taboo Snaps message, please give it a thumbs-up and share it on Facebook or RT it in Twitter.

–Set yourself a reminder to take action on Taboo Tuesday!

Here’s what to do on Taboo Tuesday, next week on the 25th:

–Please promote http://www.taboosnaps.com at Digg and any other social bookmarking site. If the URL is already in the system, vote it up.

–Spread the word any way you can—talk about it and share links in Facebook, Twitter, email, or anywhere else. Say it’s good, bad, shocking, bizarre, original, or weird—any mention is helpful. (If you play the game, click the options button to get a special URL. The more people play the game from your link, the more elite “golden guests” you get in your game!)

All this takes just a few minutes, a tiny slice of your Internet recreation time, but it helps me out so much. You’ve seen silly stuff sweep the net like wildfire—well, now I ask you to throw a few sparks to help out your odd indie buddy. Please make Taboo Tuesday epic!

With many kind thanks,
Matt

The internet is a series of tubes, and I am squirting Taboo Snaps down every one of them. Follow the news about Taboo Snaps on any or all of the following:

Google Groups

…or just keep an eye on the game page at www.taboosnaps.com , of course!

I am inviting all readers of my blog to a sneak preview of Taboo Snaps, starting soon! Head to http://groups.google.com/group/taboo-snaps-announcements/subscribe to sign up. I’ll send directions through that Google group.

I’m seeking a development partner to port my Flash game Taboo Snaps to iPhone and other mobile devices. If you or someone you know is interested, read on! (continued »)

A small group of colleagues has been testing Taboo Snaps for a while now, and I thank them for their help. Now that it is nearly done, I am starting to build up a bigger list of all my friends and colleagues to give it a try.

If I know you personally– that is, we have actually met in meatspace– then you are invited to join the list! If I don’t yet know you personally, I have to hold you off for now, but stay tuned because soon I will expand the list yet again.

To get going, please subscribe to this Google Group. It’s a good, spam-filter-dodging way to blast out email to a list. If you have a Google account, it’s super easy. If you don’t have a Google account, it’s easy to get one, and in the Goo World Order it will be mandatory anyway…
http://groups.google.com/group/taboo-snaps-announcements/subscribe

If you have an email address I might not recognize, please let me know who you are as you apply. Don’t worry if I don’t accept your application right away; I will do a rash of acceptances when I publish the new alpha version on about March 15th.

If you are going to GDC, give it a try beforehand and meet up with me there! I will post more details about that a bit later.

EDIT: I am chickening out on opening up the alpha before GDC, for a few reasons. I want to make a great first impression and though it is near done, it can get better. Also, this is my first time making sure my game can’t be ripped off– meaning its ads get replaced with someone else’s and it gets posted in a hundred places. So I need more time to enable and test that level of security. So, please do join the group as described above, but I will open it up after, not before, GDC.

The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth District has ruled that a California Law that would require stiffer penalties for minors purchasing violent video games and more stringent labeling requirements is unconstitutional.

“We hold that the Act violates rights protected by the First Amendment.” – The Honorable Judge Callahan.

Once again another court joins to rule that games are a form of protected speech. Read more about it here at the Video Game Voters Network.