Something to Oversea.

My brother's getting ready to go on a cruise at the moment. I'm pretty excited for him because the cruise sets off from Miami, so to get here it's his first long-haul flight. His first flight ever was Christmas Eve' just gone. It's also going to be his first time in America, which I'm excited about. Until tomorrow, I'm going to have been the only one of our family to have been Stateside. I'm so stoked that he's coming over and that he's going to be able to experience something of the culture here.

Here's his band's Facebook page:

http://www.facebook.com/Brontidetheband

Also, search for them on iTunes and get their album, 'Sans Souci'. It's incredible.

Also also, their new single 'Coloured Tongues' comes out pretty soon.

We have a new puppy! It's a 'PikaPoo', but it's only really mostly Poodle. Pooping everywhere and peeing in all the corners. It's a joy.

I was walking through Wal*mart the other day. I make no apologies.

I came across an Angry Birds Valentine's Day card set.

Angry. Birds. Valentine's. Day. Card. Set.

Now, I'm all for capitalising on a good idea, but really? I've seen a whole lot of Angry Bird products. Dog toys, stuffed toys, phone covers, T-shirts, keyrings, beanies, paperclips, tiny toy sets that are just non-phone versions of the game... the list goes on. For an essential re-skinning of a pre-existing game/idea, they've done pretty well for themselves.

As a game design course graduate, it's both good and bad to see. It's really good because it shows a couple of things (albeit obvious) - a simple idea done well goes a long way. All we're doing is firing an object into a series of other objects. Add a squawk here and there, a few feathers and some oinks and you have the app. equivalent of Charlie biting his brother's finger.

The other thing is that in-game sales make much more money than the game itself. For the same amount as the app., you can buy a bird that will complete a level for you. I stopped looking through the extra items after that. Eh.

On the other hand, I have a friend who has been working for six years with a small team he got together after graduating and only now have they got to the point where companies are hiring them and giving them contracts and things.

I guess it's luck and timing. I'm a Tiny Wings fan, myself.

I'm needing blog ideas. It's probably safe to say, seeing as though my last post was in August last year. I guess I'll work on it. I've been updating my other blog regularly - danfairweather.blogspot.com - so check that out for smaller, daily updates that don't say a whole lot. For more though out things, I think I need to reak out my Blog Ideas notebook again. It's a small Moleskine that I carry round and jot down ideas. It helps me remember points I want to make but it also makes me feel somewhat pretentious.

I've also tried a newer layout with my paragraphs. If it's not that clear, I've just started to bold and enlarge the first three words of a new topic.

I'm off to bed.

Peace.