Slides are here.
Please post any comments on the class from 30 Apr 09 in the comments below.
Homework:
- Enter your blog comment
- Read the two papers under schedule for next week
- If you are presenting next week, practice timing!
- Watch: Time management
Thanks for the 'Magnificent 7' to post the pictures!
We still need a group to present paper 4!!!
Talking to Gerard and listening to him really helped add to the amount of ideas I had for this game concept. There were certain technologies I didn’t know existed like the Arduino.
ReplyDeleteHowever I really would have proffered to present our ideas to the entire class. Talking to Gerard in private was great, he did help give us ideas and ways for us to better our own but I think it would have been more effective getting responses and opinions from the entire class.I know not everyone is that comfortable talking in front of large groups, I myself get very nervous, but it’s only helpful getting use to it and the only way is practice.
Overall the lecture was successful and I came away with new ideas.
A wonderful, informative and stimulating lecture. I already knew that it was advantageous to develop games for an itouch and iphone system (cos you get a bigger slice of the profit pie) but I didn't realize how accessible the developer tools were until Gerard spoke. His lecture was informative, relevant and inspiring. I knew nothing about Arduino, did not know you could make a game with a wii-mote and hadn't considered performing a keyboard or mouse-hack before. The ideas and possibilities generated by his well-structured lecture sent my mind racing with thoughts and ideas. The additional of relevant links for further research were also extremely useful. Thank-you Gerard for another amazing lecture.
ReplyDeleteThe feedback provided by Gerard when we "bounced" or ideas and physical game concept off him were extremely useful in our game's development. It even got one of our team member's who wasn't sold on our concept more "into it". I would like clarification on how detailed our presentation and prototype needs to be. Can we "fake it 'til we make it"? Will a flash representation suffice? You know, all that jazz...
Thursday's lecture was rad, it was really helpful being able to discuss our game idea and get some feedback. great lecture.
ReplyDelete.. and some serious eye candy up the front.
I think Gerard is working for Apple and he was trying subliminally sell us the iphone.
ReplyDeleteJust putting it out there.
@Nikki Hahahaha I agr-- I mean, nothing...
ReplyDeleteReally good lecture, had heaps of fun. And yeah, gave our group a different idea for our game.
he was trying subliminally sell us the iphoneOh, I don't think it was subliminal...
ReplyDeleteI liked his optimism that anything was possible, that hard work is a mere distraction from the play. "Learn a language, languages are fun to learn" he said, as if we didn't have assignments or jobs or lives. Idealism like that is hard to come by.
Would have liked his definition of a "physical game" though - it seemed to involve sweat? Which is discrimination against zombies and cyborgs at the very least.
I'm also surprised that he didn't mention the obvious example of deaf sign language when doing the "talking with your hands" bit.
BTW, the list of "related documents" for Gerard's lecture on scribd is brilliant:
# he Occult Masonic Temple God
# W. Kirk MacNulty - The Secret Identity of Freemasons
# 1896 - Arthur Waite - Devil Worship in France
# The Masonic History of the CIA
# Scottish Free Mason Officers
Greetings fellow mathematicians and physicists…
ReplyDeleteThursday’s class was a lot of fun! I really enjoyed the lecture it was very informative and I hadn’t thought of ever hacking a keyboard or mouse or Wiimote ever before this lecture.
It made me think of different ways to do my assignment and I found that exciting.
I also liked the fact that the rest of the lesson was dedicated to sharing our game ideas with Gerard. I would have liked to hear the groups talk to the whole class but I didn’t want to do that myself so I voted against that lol.
But we are doing that soon right? That will be fun!
Anyway, another awesome Maths and Physics lesson.
Who knew that Maths and Physics would be so much fun.
Cheerio!
Carlita :)
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteHello,
ReplyDeleteIt seems like we're introduced to new concepts, ideas and technology each time we have a class with Gerard. Last week was no different. Like everyone else has mentioned, last week's class was informative and interesting.
I liked the Arduino quite a bit, but I find it to be too "techy", especially since this is a "for artists" class. Most of us won't go into making circuits or programming them. Yes he did show us a more "visual" programming environment (much like Alice), but I don't think that's the area we (or at least I) want to be in. Maybe these sort of things could be shown to the Programmers who could then collaborate with us? I don't know :p
I didn't quite like the way the second half of class went. To me it felt very unorganized, and I could have worked on my NWN2 areas >_<
Maybe it was the fact that our group was last to talk with Gerard and that we had to wait for about an hour before being able to talk with him.
Overall it was a good and inspiring class.
Cheers!
Chad
As a few people have said, Gerard's lecture was very informative about different and interesting methods through which we could demo our project.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I must ask Floyd, exactly what is expected? I mean, we're artists not programmers or hardware technicians.
Well I liked the lecture; it was a good change from heated debate. Not that the heated debate isn't a heckload of fun :P.
ReplyDeleteGerard definitely had a lot of knowledge concerning physical games; it seemed to be his area of interest. He definitely gave out a tonne of good ideas and his iphone abilities were inspiring :P.
The last part of the class was quite hectic but I found the eventual discussion with Gerard to be quite beneficial. What he did well was deliver the harsh truths about our concept and helped us realise exactly how realistic our expectations were.
I think I'm getting a good understanding of what developers like Gerard go through when bringing their concepts to life. Scary stuff :s.
I’ll just leighv this here…
ReplyDeleteGood lecture, it was great to see practical ways that we could use technology to actualize our physical games. I have always just assumed that things like using the Wii mote to control a flash game would be far beyond my technical capabilities but having been shown the steps to take to get such things all happening it seems surprisingly simple and I’m really glad we got to see these things.
Devices such as the ardruino are also pleasant discoveries; again, I’m glad I saw this because I’d always thought it would be far more complex to have homemade electronics interact with a computer/game.
I’m not sure that he really understood the concept our group was trying to present but I think he’s helped us look into the idea and helped us focus it into something people would want to play a bit more.
Yeah, it was definitely an interesting lecture. I think the main thing that we should take from it is that we should never be resting on our laurels.
ReplyDeleteThis is the kind of industry where you always have to be learning new things. Otherwise you just get left behind.
Hi,
ReplyDeleteThe lecture was interesting and Gerard revealed to us some cool ideas. He showed us a game on the iphone with a little stick man who is trying to dodge these round circles of death by tilting the screen. It was epic
I was a little disappointed when he didn't give our group more feedback on our idea though, he said "its too physical, and we need more technology".
Yes the lecture was informative, it really helped to have a look at a few examples of physical games and some ways to implement them.
ReplyDeleteThe talk with Gerard brought up a few ideas and posibilities, and was good to develop or realise how practical the ideas we did have really were. Although, i was quite glad for our group to have collaborated with Gerard early on.
The second part of the lecture was fairly unorganised, so while one group spoke to Gerard at a time, the rest were left to just sit there, and for quite a while i hear.
I think that the lecture could have been more productive, i'm not exactly sure how but if there was some structure to it, something where we could have worked on our ideas while waiting to speak to gerard, and after we had spoken to him - maybe with other groups or something - im not sure, but felt a little like a waste of time because i'm sure, like us, there are other groups who could probably use a little extra time colaborating, constructing new concepts and listening to feedback from others.
Maybe presenting in front of the group would have been the way to go? - using the feedback from both Gerard and the rest of us to sculpt our game concepts, even if the presentation of the idea was more like a conversation or discussion with the class. We could have ended up with some realy well developed and explored ideas.
This class has had some vastly different lectures/tutes over the last few weeks. Much better.
ReplyDeleteThursday's disorganised structure was as much everyone's fault, as presenting to everyone would have been a much better way to go about it. That's all in the past now though, not much we can do about it.
Best of luck to each team, I look forward to seeing the end results xD
hey guys yeah last weeks lecture was really good also lets all go make apps for the iphone and get super rich yay!!!! anyway thanks gerard for the feedback, it wasnt quite what w wanted to hear but we had to hear it
ReplyDeleteAlso any off u guys who are interested in the adruino i agreee it is a bit techy but be prepared caue in a couple o weeks our group of 7 will be doing our presentation on it wooooooooooooo
@Gregg: "I know not everyone is that comfortable talking in front of large groups ... I myself get very nervous"
ReplyDeleteI lol'd
Great lecture, came away with some pretty fancy ideas as to how to go about making our game. (Though pretty much all but the last two seemed to involve insane amounts of $$$? In the eyes of a poor student anyway.) I too like Pranee would like some further clarification as to what degree of technicality our presentation/prototype need reach - IIRC Gerard said a video simulating the thing would be okay? Without discounting my team members' abilities, I myself am not very well versed in Flash, so if that's all that's needed: HALLELUJAH PRAISE TH' LORD &c.
The lecture was interesting, and I learned quite a bit. It was a nice change to have a different perspective on gaming and development, even if it was a little unorganised. :)
ReplyDeleteI thought it was great and really helpful as Gerard suggested all those different interfaces (some of which I hadn't thought/heard of) that could be used for making a physical game and then explained how they work and then gave us an example. His feedback on our ideas was also very helpful and insightful.
ReplyDelete-Kalonica Quigley
s3237922
hey, its lawrence here
ReplyDeleteThe lecture was very interesting especially when Gerard talk about the iphone SDK (game invention) and a lil abt the wii mote in a certain program in the laptop. Last but not least, my group really appreciate the feedback we got for the group of 5 .
Lawrence Wong
s3175889
Gerard presented a great lecture, and is very knowledgeable on a wide variety of subjects in the gaming/interactive media industry. I think Gerard makes a great guest lecturer and look forward to any other classes or presentations by him.
ReplyDeleteHis presentations on different platforms and physical games, exploring more about arduino, keyboard and mouse hacks, motion detection/colour detection and face detection was great. If anyone didn't have any ideas before this presentation, they surely could have gained enough information about the many varied and different ways to create a physical/exertion games.
Gerards presentation on the iphone/ipod touch was great. Showing us how great the platform is, but also warning it is a bit gimmicky, like in his opinion, the wii controllers. He elaborated on this saying that it was a new and exciting interface and that people were seeing how many of the features they could use at once, thinking they would make a great app or game. This is not the case, obviously, as a great game relies on a great design and implementation. I'll let everyone else figure out what makes a great design and implementation, as it's something I'm still learning about at the moment!
But a great example of a well designed and implemented app/game was shown by Gerard, it was called Flight Control. This app showed how a simple and well executed idea could be so amazingly addictive. While not an exergame, it demonstrated how simplicity in use can provide great game play. Something to keep in mind when designing any game.
My migraine still hurts.
Hi people, its Nicholas here.
ReplyDeleteLast week we were shown the cool stuff possible with the iPhone. Needless to say, I was very impressed with its potential for generating fun.
However, I was even more pleased by the fact that Gerard noted that the phone/itouch is sort of a gimmick, and implied that its methods of interaction (tilting, shaking, etc) DO NOT make a game, at least, not on its own, as most of us know very well (I hope).
Also, like Lawrence, I was happy that Gerard got to review and give his opinion on our group's game concepts. Thanks, man!
Nicholas Lim Chong Hock
S3186372
Gerard=Great Help.
ReplyDeleteGerard seems pretty intent on us completely building whatever it is we are designing...pity.
ReplyDeleteThe ideas he presented are very nice though. Things like the arduino board and busting up an old keyboard to make some new input device is a very cool idea.
However, in my opinion the games industry has stagnated somewhat. And i suppose this is what this class is all about. The mouse and keyboard are old. Amazing inputs that they are, but games have just about exhausted everything that can be done with them. Enter Floyd, Gerard and their minions about how to change the world of games and interactive multimedia forever. The problem, is that everything i've seen presented in the classes is so specific to one or two uses at the most.
Gerard's unreal tournament/billiard board mod is impressive, no doubt. But...that's it isn't it, people see it and go...oh that's a bit new; next exhibit please. Likewise, Floyd's kicking a ball against a wall with cameras and playing against someone else also looks like fun. It also looks like something you'd see in science works.
Now don't get me wrong, i find it very impressive, they DO look fun, and i'm interested in actually playing them. But it you want to break into the mainstream market and have your idea really cemented. It's going to probably have to be something people can use for regular every day applications.
"BUT WHAT ABOUT THE WII" someone yells, yeah...ok. Now write me a 2000 word essay using the Wii remote, then come back to me. It shouldn't take more than a day or two. The Wii is fun for games (apparently), but...thats it isn't it, you can't use the remote efficiently in Word or Excel, or to surf the web, or blast your friends in online games (note: i said efficiently...but then i again i refuse to use a regular console controller for an FPS).
So, people...invent a new form of everyday input for the PC, which inspires other people to make games and apps for it. And then i think our industry will make a greater leap forward.
Last class was.... just ok.. as Daniel Angelone said the second half of the lecture was unorganize. Some of my friend just sit there and waste a lot of time waiting and some just leave the lecture.
ReplyDeleteAlso i stronly agree wat Ben metion that "people see it and go..." that so true! Also use the wii remote to powerpoint, excel is a AWESOME idea. Technology are going to improve every year. wii , iphone, nds are just a new style controller. They help us to play a game in a alternative way . :D And consuumer like fresh and new product!
Also, like Lawrence and Nicholas, Gerard gave our group's some great idea for our wii game and our refined physic game. it is worth to wait for so long. Thx!
Cheung Yi Kai(Jason)
s3232755
Not very happy about the last class. The second part of the class is what really pissed me off, spend a long time lining up and some people just casually strolled by and cut the queue. Never got to talk to Gerard but then again its not the concern of the other groups that cut the line.
ReplyDeleteThanks for nothing.
Waited for a really long time to talk to Gerard and ended up going home. So that wasted a lot of time.
ReplyDeleteHowever, the talk bout the iphone games was interesting.
VIc
i thought the class was pretty good because simple gaming, flash games in particular, is something that i have always been interested in. i thought it was amazing to see the way flash can be developed to interact with the wii remote.
ReplyDeletei would have prefered if it was made clear that the class was basically over after an hour because all i did was sit arround drawing ideas for the assignment.
Last class was rather interesting. Gerard made alot of fancy things look very easy. It was also good for getting ideas on what to do for our physical game. My group went in not really knowing what to do for our game concept and left with it all worked out.
ReplyDeleteGerard seemed to want us to actually make these crazy game concepts though. With such time/money/skill restraints i dont think its really possible.
But anyway, another great weekly enstallment of maths and physics.
Tim Goschnick - s3236138
Good evening, y'all.
ReplyDeleteThe talk was great as always from Gerard really interesting stuff. I learned a lot, pretty much all of it was new to me lol gave me some great ideas that i'd love to do, such as the modding keyboards, etc.
It was good to throw around ideas with Gerard and yes it was great to have our ideas picked to pieces because it forces us to strengthen our game and product idea. However i don't think we quite got our point across to Gerard as to what our game was exactly but i guess that's a lesson in itself: explain ourselves better. I would have loved to have been able to hear what other groups are doing and have a big open debate like we usually do, it would have probably given us more feedback and viewpoints than were given.
interesting it was,
ReplyDeleteGerards showed us some innovative ideas and enlightened us with the different ways to implement our physics game, good idea for a guest lecturer to try and inspire us like that,
but yes as for the feedback in the second part of the lecture
too many of us to one gerard. from the start we knew that wouldnt work out in such a small span of time.
The lecture part however was very helpful though
Hi all,
ReplyDeleteIphone and Ipod touch are interesting part of lecture. In the past we just play game with buttons.Now we got what ?!!!..physical games with high technology!... Wii games with emotions or NDS with pen-tablet...ect. Touch screen and interactive technology are preferred mostly at present.That's why Iphone and Ipod touch attract a large number of players. With just Iphone or iPod you wil get games( just developed for Iphone and Ipod touch) with free version. I did that. I bought some game with just under $2 a game...When I plsyed game, I had just used fingers and shaked iphone to different directions... dont have to press hard buttons ... sound cool, right!!!
My favourite Itouch games:
-"Bounce On" v3.0 by Team Phobic 2008
-"Megatouch" ... an original version of photo hunt
-"Bubblewrap" ... reducing stress =)
-"Crazy Snowboard" with alot of game interactions
-"Tap Tap Revenge 2" ... playing and enjoying music
Check them, then you will love them...
Alright! Time to sleep... Z.z.z.z...
Thao
s3242198
This is in regard to the hacking of controllers especially the Wiimote. It got me wondering what was out there and there are some pretty cool thigns you can do with it.
ReplyDeleteHere is a clip i found on youtube of a guy (Johnny Lee) who used it to make an interactive whiteboard. Not too sure how it works exactly..but some of you might.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QgKCrGvShZs
Gerard really has a way of getting you excited about the possibilities. I'm glad to have been introduced to the technical concepts he presented in the lecture. He kind of makes you want to go running to the nearest electrical supply store and start soldering some circuits or something, and that's pretty cool.
ReplyDelete'"(The iPhone is) a device that's made for 'social,'" said Bart Decrem, a veteran of browsers Firefox and Flock who went on to found Tapulous, a start-up firm that has released three iPhone games in the App Store and plans to roll out more. "This is a device that's always connected, that's always on you. It knows where you are, you can take pictures with it, and you can send messages with it."'
ReplyDeleteThere's no doubt the iphone's shiny nature and versatile properties are anything far from attractive. but it's more of a social platform than anything absolutely ground breaking, in terms of physical gaming technology (my same opinion as the wii). But if developers didn't see more compelling reasons to build software for the iPhone instead, they would just jump ship.
The only reason for this is. Money.
of course.
the ching ching has distinctly seperated the usually tight development
"There's cultural differences and technical differences. People who develop software for social platforms tend to come from the Web world. They tend to travel in their own social circles,"
"the people who are really into that stuff. The Mac developers are going to be the first ones there, mostly because developing for the iPhone is going to be a lot like developing for the Mac."said developer Jesse Farmer
So right now i think the only thing going for the MAc, and why people are so passionate is from the money they're making.
I still have a lot of fun with the iphone, I just think its pretentious.
Courtney
s3238885
It was a good broad exploration of physical games, as Gerard saw them. It was useful to get another persons opinion and personal defition of what they considered to be a physical game.
ReplyDeleteThe feed back was useful but time consuming.
Daniel Kidney s3237937
Samantha To s3197261
ReplyDeleteD= i still can't believe that someone can make so much money with that plane game. The iphone is a new way to look at phones. Its no longer just a phone but maybe its just as good as a DS + MP3
I loved the presentation. It was really interesting, especially the part about that guy making millions for that plane game. A few days later my dad came in playing it and telling me the same story.
ReplyDeleteThanks for assisting us with our projects. You helped us refine our ideas and get a lot of development done. Our game is looking a lot better now.
Bec here. The guest lecture, i thought was a fantastic idea to get some great feedback about our game idea from an outside source. I had no idea you could take part a keyboard and do all sorts of cool stuff to it. Also had no idea that you could upload your own apps for the iphone. Don't know if i will be doing that but a good idea. I got even more excited about the new iphone coming out soon :)
ReplyDeleteGerard added a great level of enthusiasm to this weeks lecture. I really enjoyed the insight into design and he gives through the examples of his previous projects.
ReplyDeleteseeing as this class has gone the way of a feel-goodery hang out session, i feel that guest lecturers and marking based on class participation is a great idea.
Daniel Mills
3233870
A lecture like that
ReplyDeleteIs only done justice when
Reviewed in Haiku.
But that would take too much time, so here's the disappointing non-haiku analysis.
It was interesting listening to someone who was passionate about indie development like Gerard explaining different possibilities in development. Arduino = cool.
@Ben - While game ideas like Floyds sports game may not be commercially viable, the can help to inspire ideas that are. Mainstream developers are using techniques pioneered in the demo scene, which I'm sure did not seem profitable at the time.
Anyhoo, fun lecture. Cheers!
gerard is prety wicked, he seems to have alot of wack ideas stored in his noggin. it's good to have him mixing up the course a little.
ReplyDeletei am liking the mass class participation aspect of the tut/lectures these days; it makes learning topics that can be sort of to grasp a lot more enjoyable.
it's always nice to get a second or third opinion of physiality in games, and to be made to understand their perspective.
Gerard is a very energetic lecturer, always fun to listen to. His perspective on our ideas was welcome feedback, and definitely helped to focus our idea more.
ReplyDeleteI would have liked to have had the groups present rather than see him individually, but the smaller consultation was okay too. The organization of the interviews meant that many people were waiting for quite a long time.
Anyways, its nice to see more perspectives on your ideas, it always helps to flesh them out a bit and weed out issues that one group alone can't always see.
Long days and pleasant nights. Ben (3168518)
josh platt s3239197
ReplyDeletei found his work interesting and what he offered for group advice helpfull. the only problem was i had no real understanding on what it had to do with what we were doing :P still i find it very usefull to see what other people in the industrie are working on and the parts that make up their work because i got a glimpse of what is out there.
thanks for his efforts on such short notice :)
Ciao a tutti!
ReplyDeleteI will begin by saying that the lecture was entertaining. Gerard introduced some interesting games and topics/concepts that I wasn't aware of.
I was glad that Gerard chose to check out the groups games individually as it allowed for more personal feedback, although it took a long time, it was worthwhile.
It was an interesting lecture and very helpful.
Cheers!
Lauren :)
Great lecture, really enjoyed it this time around- very useful and helpful for our Game ideas and all sorted out now !
ReplyDeleteGerard really knows his stuff ! the keyboard hacks and other ideas really sparked some good ideas...
anywho!
it was very helpful. thanks,
logan
What a fun lecture! It was awesome to know the possibilities of making apps for the iPhone and getting rich off it. I find it interesting that some iPhone games and apps are so simple yet because of the well known and adored platform, they are a hit. What I mean is, if Playstation made a game like that little 'land the plane' one he showed us, even if they sold if for just a few dollars, no one would buy it - it'd be totally boring. But because it's cute and pocket sized, it's a hit on the iPhone. I just find it interesting.
ReplyDeleteRhiannon
rhys here,
ReplyDeletei found the lecture really informative and enjoyable. it was great to learn about concepts and technology i had previously not heard of, and it was great to hear from someone in the industry
very helpful thanks
i enjoyed this very much... except for the waiting for advice. That was hard.
ReplyDeleteAm i too late to comment on it?
ReplyDelete:(
I thought the ideas that Gerard had were great,
but maybe a little unrealistic for people who have no idea about wiring and stuff.
Although you could always take things to an electrical wiring place n ask them to rig stuff up for you. :)
But some of the examples of the wiimote + iphone apps and stuff like that were really great.
Makes you think about things in a different light and really opens your mind into possibilities of what we can do these days with all this technology.
P.S.
Anyone else think he looks like Chris Carrabba from Dashboard Confessional? haha!
Adrienne Giuliano 3236467 O____^
ReplyDeleteYup it's late, but better than never. This was an awesome class. Gerard has some great ideas, and I especially loved the wide range of them, they explored so many different concepts and were all really innovative. It was a good idea getting a 3rd party opinion on our exergames ideas as it really gives us a feel for the way things will be in the industry but also is great for well-rounded feedback and evaluation of our own thoughts, what needs changing what needs touching up. Though I gotta agree with Trevor about 2 posts up, the wait was loooooooong.
Cheers
Adrienne
(I had this badge, it said "maths is a piece of (insert pi symbol coz it's not on this keyboard -.-)" 0____^)
The lecture was pretty fun and the examples of the iphone applications and wii stuff were absolutely impressive. I've got some resources about WII,Arduino and Keyboard hack.
ReplyDeleteit was very intersting & helpful.
Cheers
It was great to review all the technology available to us, irregardless of its feasibility.
ReplyDeleteLots of useful information on how the Wiimote works with computers and how the iphone is developed. I have been enticed to work hard over the holidays on my own game!~
s3200763- was difficult to get gerard's time
ReplyDeletePretty intersting lecture, really gets you thinking about all the diffrent possibilities with the iphone applications and the wiimote. I unfortunatly had to leave and did not get to speak to him in person. Overall I took alot of the information in, but I do't think I will ever be as tech savy as Gerard and be able to do all the stuff he and his team did.
ReplyDeleteThis is another amazing lecture. Gerard's presentation was pretty interesting and informative, just Like everyone else has mentioned.
ReplyDeleteGerard told us some new concepts, ideas and technology. We had a look at a few examples of physical games. He mentioned Arduino, before the class i totally had no idea with it. Also, He showed us some games on the iphone. At the rest of lessons we shared our game ideas with him. He gave us some good suggestions which were very useful in our game's development.
Although as a few people said that the second half of the lecture was unorganized, anyway thanks Gerard for awesome Maths and Physics lecture.
Jiajing Zhang(s3213125)