Barklund.org » Games

Facebook Notes and Images for Competition Results – January 2010 Ideas

Barklund — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 08:00:43 +0000

The twenty-fifth idea for my 365 social ideas is a small simple idea: use Facebook notes or images combined with tags to display results of games. For instance, imagine a chess game, post the result of the game as a note on the game’s page with the final board, all moves made during the game and both players tagged. Or simply post the final board as an image and tag both players as well.

It is a very simple idea, but the idea is to use profile tagging in a new way to indicate relationships to the displayed information in a way, that the users actually feel related to this. The great thing about using tagging is, that it can be done without the user has to accept it and it will be auto-posted to his friends’ news feeds. But given that it can be done without asking the user, it should only be done if it is actually relevant for the user and not done just to get a viral effect and annoy users.

Why?

It is a new way to use the Facebook platform for viral effects. It’s quite simple and does not require a lot of programming as it uses simple, existing features.

What’s next?

Do with this idea whatever you like – expand, implement, trash or forget. Just remember, that if you use it in anyway make sure to attribute me according to the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License, that all these 365 Social Ideas are published under.

Game of Life – January 2010 Ideas

Barklund — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 08:00:09 +0000

The twenty-first idea for my 365 social ideas is another gaming idea: create a set of classic flash-based games along the lines of break-out, tetris etc, but integrate a simple storyline with good and bad characters, places and items involved and make these configurable. You could through this create a game of your own life by inserting persons from your surroundings, places where you meet, stuff that you work with etc. and you could send this game to your friends and family and they could then play out the big game of your life.

This is still fairly simple, but then imagine automatic integration with social networks, so you simply connect via Facebook, Twitter or any other interesting friendship services and you can pick between your friends, recent updates etc. and it would automatically try to create this game.

Or what about having it automatically parse articles etc. for creating games about anything. Say this blogpost – it would automatically recognize names of persons, places and interactable items and then generate the game. It could be used for all sorts of fun things and the great thing would be, that anything could happen. You could re-enact Obama’s presidential campaign victory, the Algerian War or Romeo and Juliet – simply by using the right characters, places and items combined with the right storyline.

Why?

Because it is fun. And putting news and other items in a new perspective adds to the fun of information sharing. Plus, having fun with your friends and family the same way would be an added benefit.

What’s next?

Interest Groups on Foursquare – January 2010 Ideas

Barklund — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 08:00:59 +0000

The twentieth idea for my 365 social ideas is to combine the ideas of interest group websites like Meetup.com with location-aware services like Foursquare or Gowalla: Allow people with the same interests as you to see where you are available for talking about this interest. For instance, it is far more useful to know, that one of your friends, acquaintances or a stranger is at some place nearby and willing to talk about needle point with you, than just knowing where one of your friends is without actually having anything to use that information for.

Foursquare and related services all have the problem, that simply telling where you are does not necessarily mean, that anyone reading where you are, are welcome to join you. Some days ago, I read about someone checking at a local restaurant, two friends dropped by only to awkwardly leave again shortly after, as there weren’t room for them. By introducing interest groups and by selecting actively, that the fact that you are at a certain location can be revealed to this interest group, you explicitly specify “and you are welcome to join me for discussion/networking/drinks/fun”.

Why?

Revealing your location in a more or less specific position is one thing, but adding the information “and I’m revealing this to you because..” is almost as important. Some simply do it for bragging purposes, some for being known as the party girl and so on – and some do it for networking/socializing purposes, and these users would benefit from being able to attract like-minded people for heated discussions and sharing secrets about dog breeding, spelunking equipment or JavaScript libraries.

What’s next?

Helping via Gaming – January 2010 Ideas

Barklund — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 08:00:25 +0000

The seventeenth idea for my 365 social ideas is an idea for using the genereal need for casual gaming to solve important tasks: Helping via Gaming. It could be as simple as building dictionaries (for instance via the open dictionary projects initiated by OpenOffice or via Wiktionary), or assisting book scannings (make reCaptcha into a game) or some larger tasks assisting human mankind.

Maybe others can identify tasks like protein folding (like in the folding@home project) but that require the recognizability features of the human brain, that cannot be solved via computing power alone.

Folding@home (or SETI for that matter, though IMO not really worth it), does have a certain appeal to a lot of people, but you don’t really know what it is doing og have any direct interaction with it – it simply sits on your computer and does something. And it mostly appeals to people, who already have a scientific mind and know what the purpose is.

Imagine bringing some project like dictionary creation/verification/qualification/expansion to Facebook for a really cool fun addicting word game, that could spread virally in no time. How fast could you verify words, types, forms, spellings, translations etc. with the help of hundreds of millions of casual game craving users?

Why?

Because casual gaming is here to stay, so let’s make the most of it by actually harnesting the combined brain power of a large user base for a common good while providing fun procrastination.

What’s next?

A Twitter Gaming Mechanic – January 2010 Ideas

Barklund — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 08:00:42 +0000

The fifteenth idea for my 365 social ideas is about bringing classic games to Twitter in a quite simple, straight-forward way. The same mechanic can be used for simple games like Rock-Paper-Scissor or more complex turn-based board games like Monopoly, Chess or similar.

But before actually taking about the idea, I might as well address the major concern many will respond with: Why even bring it to Twitter? And the short answer is, that is where many people spend a lot of time, so why not? (answering questions with questions is frowned upon, I know). Just like RSS-feeds are a great way of getting the news out and an easy way to follow what happens from small or large publishers, RSS has now been almost completely replaced with Twitter feeds and Facebook page statuses. And in that way, many external non-private interactions will be transferred to where people already are instead of other places, that users must also visit.

The idea is simple, have a central game master, that all participants must follow (to give the game master the possibility to direct message the participants), and then simply start the game by mentioning the game master, the other participants and the type of game. The game master will then mention all participants in return along with a game-specific hashtag, like #chess6f1G. If the game includes some private communications, this will be done in direct messages (like the faces of cards or chosen secret actions), but otherwise it will be done by the participants directly by simply tweeting what they do and add the game-specific hashtag. Every time any player does something, the game master replies with the current status as well as a link to an external site, where the current result/board can be seen.

If the game was Rock-Paper-Scissor for example, the game master starts the next round in a public tweet to all participants, the individual participants direct message the game master with their move, and when all moves are in, the game master announces the result, and then potentially starts the next round for the remaining participants. If the game was chess however, the players would simply tweet their moves publicly, and after each move, that game master will notify the opponent, that it is his move and provide a link to the current board. And if the game was Texas Hold’em No Limit Poker, the message flow would be different, but related.

Why?

Gaming is always fun, and casual games in which you can excel over your friends with nothing at stake is a popular time-waster on many social networks – but not on Twitter due to the limited interface possibilities. With the above idea, simple or complex gaming could easily be introduced on twitter.

What’s next?

My Next Birthday – January 2010 Ideas

Barklund — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 08:00:33 +0000

The fourteenth idea for my 365 social ideas is a somewhat silly little gadget website idea, but none-the-less an idea, that I would like to share with you all: a service, that tells you when it is your next round birthday in all time units, that you could think of. Why did I come up with this idea, you might ask? Because I some time ago found out, that I missed my 10,000 birthday (that is the 10,000th day since my birth), which occurs when you are 27 years and 138 days (or 139 days depending on leap years).

This got me thinking, when do I then turn e.g. 1 billion seconds? (that’s around 31 years and 251/252 days plus some). Or some round number of minutes, hours, weeks, or other more or less exotic units of time? Then I thought, why not build a more general purpose for-the-fun-of-it website, where you can enter you birth date and time and it will output which round number is your next birthday in which unit.

For that purpose I bought mynextbirthday.com, which is still a nice blank website, as I as usual did not get any further than the invention. Oh, and if you decide this could be fun, I’ll throw in the domain for free as well ;).

Why?

Because it’s fun, it will create a short hype and everyone can relate to it.

What’s next?

Game Console Progress API for Social Connectivity – January 2010 Ideas

Barklund — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 08:00:11 +0000

The thirteenth idea for my 365 social ideas is about adding social connectivity to console games. But not straightforwardly, as in asking the developer of the Assassins Creed 3 to automatically tweet when you get a trophy on your PS3 (this will probably come soon, but is pretty boring). No, it should be possible to do some form of ping/trackback system, in which all games can “ping” your progress to any gaming progress ping recipients. And what happens with this ping is then out of the hands of the actual game. One obvious game progress ping recipient is a twitter bridge, that will tweet it as explained, but by building such a general system, it can be used for anything anyone else can think of, because you simply build a new website, that can receive pings and ask users to enter the url of your website in your game console’s settings.

I of course know it isn’t trivial to introduce things into gaming platforms, they are pretty tight and does not have to listen that much to community. But social connectivity will be coming, and I just hope it is an open model like the above describe instead of static “connections” that the developer decided would be good for you.

Why?

Gaming consoles will exist for a very long time to come, and many will spend a lot of time on them. Most consoles are online by now, so why not combine the user’s online life with his gaming life in an open way? Something like this will come very soon, so why not get out there and be the first?

What’s next?

Data Structures for Game Development in AS3

Barklund — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 15:41:03 +0000

This library by polygonal.de looks really nice. I would most definitely be using this for future development. Related posts:Open Data – January 2010 Ideas Game of Life – January 2010 Ideas Game Console Progress API for Social Connectivity – January 2010 Ideas Related posts:

Now introducing: Dexgames

Barklund — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 20:44:44 +0000

With a colleague of mine, Morten Reinholdt, I have started to work on a new flash gaming website called Dexgames. Actually we started on the idea several months ago, but now we both have the time to do some more actual work on it.

The concept is very much inspired by many other gaming sites. The ones that I personally have frequented some times are:

Just to name a few.

The site should be completely free, but we might add some google adsense here and there to get the hosting paid this way.

The current titles, that we are thinking about are mostly classical puzzle games like break-out. tetris and the like with different modern twists. But the big plan for the site is the big game, Dex Empire.

What this game is really about, no-one knows yet. But it is to be a combination of a series of games, that the both of us really enjoy:

Supreme Commander
Desktop Tower Defense
Travian
Civilization, Colonization and such simulation classics

With this as the basis, this game cannot fail. But it can and will take a very long time to develop – I just hope, that we will actually complete it.

It will end up as some kind of MMORTSRPG – whatever that means.

Clients can never be trusted

Barklund — Sun, 03 Jun 2007 13:05:34 +0000

And for once, I am not talking bad about our company clients, but the clients in a client-server architecture.

Flash memory cheats have always been known to any good flash game hackers and ditto developer, but some still don’t know about them. Thus, as shoemoney recently posted a competition to get the best score in Desktop Tower Defence, “some guy” of course fired up Tsearch and throw a lot of points his way. The result was of course, that he won (even though he cheated), and afterwards he posted a simple guide to do it.

That is why should should always have a server telling you what to do when. More on this topic in the months to come – as I and a friend is developing a brand new game site including high-level security.