Breaking in a new playspace.

Back in April, amidst a rant on why I prefer social interactions in games over mechanical interactions, I briefly brought up the topic of bridging the technological gap that board games can't yet manage:

"When pegged about bringing board games to the modern game player, many designers will work straight to the tablet/PC port. Sometimes it works well (Neuroshima Hex!), but a lot of the time the port misses the point of it's original game, the tangible obligation."

It turns out Disney are going to be the force that breaks into this playspace in a significant way with AppMATes. These "Mobile Application Toys" are figurines that interact with an iPad app that Disney will release. The iPad will essentially become a digital play area that is manipulated by the physical toy.

A video with Disney Mobile's Bart Decrem shows how the toys and app will work.

Admittedly this is focused on toys and singular play. However the technology could certainly be abstracted away from the Christmas-retail focus that we'll undoubtedly see, and into more meaningful social play.

Imagine an Ogre Tactics style strategy game, with physical pieces and cards that manipulate the digital environment. A Civilization or Catan spin-off with digital calculators that respond to the movements of your meeples. Some of these broad ideas could easily be integrated to an established platform, like Disney already have with the iPad.

(Hello significant removal of development overheads!)

It will take pioneers of game design to move into this territory, lest the playspace become inundated with flashy gimmicks with no meaningful context.

Designers who value meta-data and automation to free up player intentions.
And layered user interface that is prohibitive to print, but intuitive to touch.
And juicy, juicy polish that can bring a stationary figurine to life.

I have a dream of these mash-up digital/physical playspaces, and they look fun.

-Anthony

The Habit.

For the last few months I have been using a Habit Chart to start good habits. It looks like this.

This chart is helping to cut down my wasted efforts (time in front of the TV or playing mindless timewasters) and encouraging me to spend time on the things I actually want to do.

What I've done is broken down my life - all the things I want to be better at - into seven responsibilities. Every time I do something to fulfill that responsibility, I fill in a vertical rectangle with the date and squiggles. By the end of the month you have what amounts to a primary-schooler's impression of a bar graph.

This chart gives me the incentive to do the daily grind that it takes to form good, lasting habits.

Going back to a previous braindump about the Success Circle, being successful at something is a habit borne of practice - every day. It doesn't matter how much you accomplish of the task, as long as you regularly, consistently practice at it. Quality in any discipline is 90% perseverance.

It can be incredibly easy to put off practice. I would know, I have an entire misspent youth of experience to back that up. The problem with putting off practice is that the procrastination itself becomes a habit.

When you put it off for one day, another day won't hurt.
And then another day turns in to a couple more.
And a couple more becomes a week.
Then one more week. And before you know it, you've spent a month without a single instance of practice.

It was important for me to include personal responsibilities to the list. Being a good father and a good husband is pivotal to having a stable environment to let me work on other things. And it takes a lot of work to fulfill those responsibilities. This chart keeps me accountable not only to myself, but to others that rely on me to pull my weight.

Now I have a way to look at how I've spent my time, and know which areas I can use some more practice to make a lasting habit of.

-Anthony