Vex Appeal is a weblog and collection of projects by Guy Parsons, a game designer, online community and digital strategy dude in London, England. Read more about the saucy butcher boy here.
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projects:
101 things in 1001 days
psychopatch
LOLgod
elsewhere on the internets:
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zoominfo
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vexy young things:
jey biddulph
mike jewell
roo reynolds
dan hon
adrian hon
naomi alderman
steve peters
previously on vexappeal:
Modular gaming Let's change the game together! Uff the coff Play And Out Come Play/Time Labs Text, drugs, and rock'n'roll Mashup Mo' traffic mo' problems Do you recall? There was woodchip on the wall project management 101
News from the front
Friday, October 26, 2007
Hello! It's been a busy week!
I've been at the London Games Festival Fringe Playtime Lab (try saying that five times fast) in deepest darkest Soho. The first few days saw ideas aplenty as we came up with game concepts for buses, big screens, the Olympics, fairytales and more besides, and then I spent the last few days working with some ace people on a kind of resistance/anti-totalitarian game that takes (in my mind, anyway) stylistic cues from V for Vendetta and Children of Men.
(Playtimers, including me looking grumpy. Photo from Frank Boyd.)
It's been a funny week, because it's usually the case that you sit about thinking "man, I just need to have a really good idea." The outcome of this week for me has been to show that ideas are, in fact, dime-a-dozen... and inspired me to get on and actually make stuff. Anyway, I met lots of lovely people and I look forward to seeing them all again soon at a reunion in, err, two weeks time.
I'm also proud to be working with some fantastic minds on a Let's Change The Game pitch who got in touch after my call for help. We're assessing the various mechanics that influence the game and batting lots of ideas back and forth, and I'm excited to see what the judges make of it. (Although, other people are still welcome to get involved! Artists and illustrators especially, right now.)
Then it was off to the Gamer Geeks Quiz, surely the hardest yet most erudite quiz on gaming there has ever been, challenging players' knowledge on everything from typography to voice acting and the C64 to the Wii. Here are the esteemed organisers taking charge:
(thanks to the most gracious Thayer Driver for the photo!)
Fear their wrath! I know I do.
Hurtling onwards, I'm at Gamecity in Nottingham tomorrow (as in Saturday 27th of October) pretending to be Dan Hon and talking about alternate reality games at the thing he was meant to be speaking at, but isn't speaking at, because (long story short) Royal Mail are fuckwits. But it does mean I'm speaking at 4pm, Saturday, at the Broadway Cinema. I'll also be around Nottingham for some of the day (afterwards, mostly) exploring some of the other stuff going on, so if you wanna come make friends then get in touch by twitter or text - deets here.
More soon, and less hurried "more" at that.
Labels: arg, gamecity, games, playtime labs, quiz
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Glad to hear you are having fun and keeping yourself busy.
Do tell Dan he needs a haircut - he looks a mess ;P
Fx - 7:57 PM