Crunched Bytes: May 2013

Alright, so here is a compilation of interesting articles read for the month of May

Starting this month's reading is with the big question - "Why are you making games?" followed by a look at the problem affecting the Game Reviews and much more!

Why Are You Making Games?

http://gamasutra.com/blogs/BenServiss/20130425/191183/Why_Are_You_Making_Games.php
A very thought provoking article forcing the reader (read game developers) to re-evaluate why they are actually making games?? What's the motivation?

“Surely there is some reason you are going through all the trouble of trying to design great games.” –Jesse Schell, The Art of Game Design

So have you figured out your reason yet?? May be this article is just meant for you!

The Problem with Game Reviews (And Why Games Are Like Restaurants)

http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/BenServiss/20130502/191616/The_Problem_with_Game_Reviews_And_Why_Games_Are_Like_Restaurants.php
Author Ben Serviss indicates how we have simply copied the rating systems from a linear comparable domain of movies and mapped it to use for rating the interactive and immersive experience of games, and why such a system is incomplete and broken.

Cognitive Overhead, Or Why Your Product Isn’t As Simple As You Think

http://techcrunch.com/2013/04/20/cognitive-overhead/
Does any of these sounds familiar -

• Make your product simpler, 
• Minimize the number of steps, 
• minimize time required, 
• minimize the features, etc. etc.

David Lieb, co-founder and CEO of Bump has something different to say... Making simple is all about reducing the cognitive overhead and this may even mean adding an additional step i.e. make users do more rather less!!!

Google Introduces Portable Native Client, Makes It Easier For Developers To Add C And C++ Code To Their Web Apps

http://techcrunch.com/2013/05/17/google-introduces-portable-native-client-makes-it-easier-for-developers-to-add-c-and-c-code-to-their-web-apps
After Mozilla's asm.js now we have PNaCl… its soon going to be c/c++ on web as well… way to go!

Ten classic games you can actually beat, but probably won’t

http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2013/04/ten-classic-games-that-are-surprisingly-technically-beatable/
A fun read on games that you weren't supposed to win and what happens if you win

Anatomy of a hack: How crackers ransack passwords like “qeadzcwrsfxv1331”

http://arstechnica.com/security/2013/05/how-crackers-make-minced-meat-out-of-your-passwords/
With hackers decoding upto 90% of leaked passwords (in the form of md5 hashes) within
a day… are your passwords really secure?

Why you should move that button 3px to the left

https://medium.com/adventures-in-consumer-technology/c012e5ad32f7
How to bring together design and engineering. As an engineer, its a nice read into a designer's mind.

Designing Game Logos

http://gamasutra.com/blogs/SimonDean/20130425/191184/Designing_Game_Logos.php
A quick writeup based on the experience of designing their game logo. Few good tips to keep in mind though

Euler vs Verlet

http://kahrstrom.com/gamephysics/2011/08/03/euler-vs-verlet/
A small primer to help you decide how to integrate the laws of motion in your game/simulation. If you have ever wondered how to model the movement (velocity, distance, etc.) of your scene objects and wrote a code to model the Laws of motion, this article will help you name the method you used or better, provide you with a better alternative.

Crunched Bytes: April 2013

I love reading, novels, stories, articles...
There are many articles I read, few I find interesting and retweet, and this gave an inspiration to make a monthly compilation of these article with a short summary. As my professor from "How People Learn" would say, repetition is one strategy for effective learning and summarizing your learning is another... so this is a mix of both :).

This new monthly post series will be the compilation of these interesting articles. Most of them will be technology oriented but some can be general blogs or viewpoints as well!

So here goes my first collection drawn from April 2013 readings. Enjoy! 
(*Ordering of articles is not arbitrary)

How Pixar Used Moore’s Law to Predict the Future

http://www.wired.com/opinion/2013/04/how-pixar-used-moores-law-to-predict-the-future/
A very very interesting article from Alvy Ray Smith, co-Founder Pixar, reflecting on why Moore's Law exists and how it brought about the creation of Pixar and all those lovely movies along with it!!! And importantly the belief that "the law" still has life to live and imagine what all it can do…
"Moore’s Law reflects the top rate at which humans can innovate. If we could proceed faster, we would."
"That’s the reason for expressing Moore’s Law in orders of magnitude rather than factors of 10. The latter form is merely arithmetic, but the former implies an intellectual challenge. We use “order of magnitude” to imply a change so great that it requires new thought processes, new conceptualizations: It’s not simply more, it’s different."

Pixar's Senior Scientist explains how math makes the movies and games we love

http://www.theverge.com/2013/3/7/4074956/pixar-senior-scientist-derose-explains-how-math-makes-movies-games
A look into what goes behind those beautiful curly hairs or those cheering crowd in the car race - the mathematics and the chief person behind it.

There are no smartphones

http://bergie.iki.fi/blog/no-smartphones/
An article that puts into words, something that has been there in the back of my mind for some time now, especially after moving to Switzerland. I've been hardly using my mobile (smart)phone. Come to think of it, even back in India, the most used aspect of that device was to read novels (yes on a small 3 inch screen) while I travelled or to play games... and lately, I've been thinking to get a regular old-style Nokia (I still love those sturdy keypad devices) and rather buy a tablet for these purposes, a view recently pushed further by another professor of mine who is doing the same :)

The technique LucasArts used to design its classic adventure games

 http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/189266/The_technique_LucasArts_used_to_design_its_classic_adventure_games.php
Using puzzle dependency chart for narrative-driven games.
Provide alternate paths for players to avoid getting stuck. Work it backwards from end to start (a matter of choice but does look easier to do). Makes it simpler to identify too easy and too hard, and align story with gameplay.
All this and more...

A Plain English Guide to JavaScript Prototypes

 http://sporto.github.io/blog/2013/02/22/a-plain-english-guide-to-javascript-prototypes/
Confused about __proto__ and prototype in JavaScript? This article explains it well along with some background on inheritance and object model in JavaScript

Design Tips When Porting Mobile to Console

 http://gamasutra.com/blogs/NathanFouts/20130405/189905/Design_Tips_When_Porting_Mobile_to_Console.php
Planning to port your android games from mobile to upcoming OUYA console, here are some tips that are worth keeping in mind while porting!

INFOGRAPHIC: How Interviewers Know When to Hire You in 90 Seconds

http://theundercoverrecruiter.com/infographic-how-interviewers-know-when-hire-you-90-seconds/
Some quantification of the aspects you might generally know about, or do you??
E.g. 33% of bosses know within the first 90 seconds of an interview whether they will hire someone, The number one most common mistake at a job interview is: failing to ask for the job and much more

I follow the tech industry news, thanks to Twitter @Techcrunch, @GamesBeat, @IGN and many more, plus a few email subscriptions.