Another merged report of March and April, because I spent much of March and a chunk of April traveling….
Fun and games:
- How many animals can you list in a minute (with time added for successful animal additions. I got to 109….️
- Outsmart the computer in this simple five-round betting game
- Wikipedia Gacha
Spring is the time to watch the Utrecht Fish Doorbell again!
Images used to illustrate words on Wikipedia in every language. Reload to get a different random word (or enter one of your own).
Extrapolated Futures Archive: Mapping real-world scenarios to the science fiction stories that explored them first
Nobody Gets Promoted for Simplicity: “In design reviews, instead of “have we thought about scale?”, try “what’s the simplest version we could ship, and what specific signals would tell us we need something more complex?” That one question changes the game: it makes simplicity the default and puts the burden of proof on complexity, not the other way around!”
Game Devs Reveal All Their Ugly Placeholder Assets Made Without AI, recommended for the examples and the clarity the devs have that about the merits of placeholders that are clearly draft content. We see students often spend way too much time on visual assets in the early prototyping stages.
It’s always nice seeing what my alums are up to, so I particularly enjoyed reading through a former student’s breakdown of a recent DMV text scam, including a bit of AI usage to help with de-obfuscation.