This week we finished another game for Glasgow Science Centre.  Forces at the Funfair uses a rollercoaster game to get across the concepts of rolling resistance, drag and the impact of weight, shape and colour.  

Forces at the Funfair was another highly technical development.  Because the science centre wanted the game to be as accurate as possible, they called on freelance physicist Ben Craven to come up with a mathematical representation of the rollercoaster.  Ben’s model was highly detailed and in the end produced 72 different “what if” scenarios, timed to a tenth of a second.

The finished game puts a fun ’skin’ on the logarithmic curves and equations that are going on behind the scenes.   I’m particularly pleased with the way the control panel turned out.  Rather than going for the usual Fisher Price look and feel, I opted for something a bit more industrial.  The result reminds me of the kind of control panel you might see in a 1950’s movie.

While I was working at s1 I proposed the idea of ‘video job ads’.  It was based on an emerging trend I noticed on niche US job sites.  The idea was greenlighted a few months ago, and it became one of the first projects that our new developer Ken worked on (it was also one of the last projects I was involved with at s1).

I wanted the process to be as quick and simple as possible for recruiters, so I came up with a really easy workflow based around Flash Media Server.  Rather than take the usual approach of requiring recruiters to record a video locally then upload the file, our system allows recruiters to stream their recording up directly from the JobsManager web page.  All they need is a standard off-the-shelf webcam and a broadband internet connection.

The system, entitled ‘Jobcast’ officially launched today with the publication of our first client video for Hammond/Rise.  See the screenshot below, or go to s1jobs to see it in action.

Last night we launched a new site for The Herald called HeraldTalk.   Based on the Movable Type platform, the site provides a central, pre-moderated place for readers to comment on the big topics of the day.  

I’m fairly pleased with the look & feel we’ve achieved in a relatively short space of time.  Both in terms of appearanace and code, it’s a fairly big leap forward from the main Herald site.  So far the feedback seems positive and we’ve already had a decent number of readers signing up — result!

I’m now two weeks into the new job and I’m really enjoying it.  Whereas in s1 the empahsis was (rightly) on long term planning and multi-month development cycles, the new job is much more instant.  Like a daily printed newspaper, we’re already putting together online features that have a lifespan of just a few days, but which attract a big audience while they’re live.

This week we put together a special section for the US Election.  It wasn’t till the day before the election that we started putting everything togther.  Using freely available tools, data and widgets, we knocked together a fairly impressive page featuring a live results map, photos, videos and a live as-it-happens blog.

The blogging software, from CoveritLive, was the most impressive part.  It allowed a number of journalists, editors, photographers and columnists — based both in the office and in the US — to contribute to a live, constantly updating blog stream.  The streaming coverage included text, photos, videos and user questions.  It ran right through the night from 8pm till around 5am when the election was decided.  

Here’s a wee grab of how it looked on the night.

Yesterday I wrote about my new Penguin Knockout game that had just launched.  Well it turns out Flash games are like buses — you wait 6 months for one to come along and then two come at once.

Today sees the launch of another product of my spare bedroom… Epidemic Emergency, a new educational game for Glasgow Science Centre.

This is actually one of the most technical games I’ve ever developed.  As the science behind the game had to be accurate it required a lot of research into virus transmission and mutation.  I now know more than I ever expected to know about ‘macrophages’, and actually know what they’re talking about when they describe bird flu as ‘H5N1′.  

Please visit the site, have a wee play and let me know what you think.