Som(a)niloquy

Time for rest: Flurry Friday Episode 13- January 27th 2012

Flurry Friday 12 – From a whisper to a scream

I try to make a semi-regular habit of getting away from any and all technology, usually in the wilderness somewhere, and spending a day alone with The Spirit. We call it a DAWG day – A Day Alone With God.

Two years ago I came back from that bonfire with a strong sense that the next season for Soma would be characterized by a kind of hiddeness or disguise for us.

When I wandered out of the woods a few weeks ago I was hearing something quite the opposite.

“All of that is over now.” is the best way to describe it. The veil was lifting, the lamps were being lit and the song was starting in earnest.

From a whisper to a scream.

Maranatha.

Flurry Friday 11 – WUR featured by Kotaku

No video today.  A few weeks have gone by since our last update. We took some much needed time away over Christmas and New Years. Wind Up Robots and Santa’s Giftship was featured for the third week in a row on iTunes as New and Noteworthy.  Today we were pleased to see that Wind Up Robots has been chosen as Gaming App of the Day alongside picks like Temple Run and Bejeweled on the front page of Kotaku! Go read the article, share it out and have a great weekend.

Flurry Friday Episode 10 – Double Feature…and rest

Today was just a great day to set us off on a long needed period of rest.

Wind Up Robots launched last week and today it was featured on Apple’s New and Noteworthy section of iTunes. On Tuesday we launched Santa’s Giftship (under our Code-Monkeys label) and it too was featured. That’s two featured apps in the store as we move into the busiest season of the store – what a fantastic opportunity…what a great blessing.

Look, we worked hard on these games, especially Wind Up Robots, but once they go out the door, the reality is that we have a pretty limited ability to effect what happens next. It’s hard to get a break with so much great stuff out there.

But Proverbs has this great line: The horses are prepared for battle..but the victory belongs to the Lord.

So we do a little Tebow, say thank you to our papa, and now we all settle down for time with family and hopefully stop wearing out the F5 keys and obsessing over ranks.

Keys To Your Calling

This Saturday I had the great honor of being the commencement speaker for the mid-year graduation at George Fox University (my alma mater BTW). It was very uncharacteristic of me but I wound up writing the whole thing out whee I always just go on outline notes. For some reason this one didn’t come out that way. Anyway, the text of what I wrote is below and we’ll post the video as soon as its available. (though you’ll see i drift from my own notes quite a bit…)

The Keys To Your Calling
For GFU commencement Dec 17, 2011

I remember this moment very clearly though I’m not certain how old I was – probably about ten.

I was lying on my stomach on the living room floor and the family was watching CHiPs.
At some point a commercial came on and I saw something that totally captured me – a computer generated 3D model of a corporate logo spinning in nothingness. It was as if I was a space ship grazing a massive chrome artifact in deep space – and I was so hooked. I made up my mind right there that I wanted to be a computer graphics animator. I told my folks, then and there, what I would be doing with my life and they smiled politely…but not exactly enthusiastically.

Through school plenty of interests flared up and receded, always fascinating in their time, but by graduation time I was still fixed on CG as a career. So I started junior college with that field in mind and I was very excited. One day I sat down for lunch and struck up a conversation with the guy next to me…”what’s your major?” he asked.
“I want to be a computer animator!” I beamed.
He looked me straight in the eye and said “why would you want to do that? That must be the most boring, tedious job I can imagine?”

…I was crushed.
I’d been going so far on pure enthusiasm. I really didn’t know anything about the actual work of CG. For all I knew he was right. And for lack of knowledge I believed him.
..and my spirit died. Or at least went off for a long winter’s nap.

Continue Reading…

Flurry Friday Episode 8- Dec 9th: WUR Approved!

We are excited to announce that Wind Up Robots has been approved by Apple and will be available in iTunes for the iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch December 15th (next Thursday). We also are about to release our Christmas Game Santa’s Gun Ship through our sister company, Code-Monkeys. For more details on both, please watch the video.

Flurry Friday Episode 7- Dec 2nd WUR Submit & Christmas Game

So we did it. Wind Up Robots is submitted first to Apple and as of yesterday The Barnes and Nobles Store for the Nook and the Amazon Store for the Kindle Fire and the Intel AppUp store for PC’s. It will also be available for the the Android Marketplace soon. The game should be available very soon.

On another note our sister company Code-Monkeys has launched a new game that will be coming out Christmas week. The whole shop loves what Limbic Studios did with Zombie Gunship. In a tribute to them we are publishing our ode to thier mighty craft in a game called Santa’s Gift Ship. Now let your imagination go wild there for a minute and you will basically fall on what our team has come up with. We know you are going to love it.

Meaningful Social Media

There was a video clip I watched over a year ago now where Seth Godin was saying something like “it’s pointless to have 1000 people ‘following’ you if you can’t call any of em to crash on their couch when you’re in town.” Of course he was speaking to the strangeness of having all these “friends” if the relationships never becomes something more than a Twitter-notch.

Today I find myself on the road for a business trip in SoCal and since I had a free evening I decided to float it out there and see where the spirit would lead. Three text messages later and I have an invite to crash at Mark’s house in Costa Mesa. I met Mark about 6 months ago when we were looking for speakers for CGDC. Introduced over Facebook we eventually got on the phone and I foundation kindred spirit. Not only does Mark’s professional resume read like a list of gaming’s greatest hits but he’s a fired up kingdom warrior and he’s a ball of contagious energy. He was an awesome addition to the CGDC line up and now – he’s a genuine friend.

He represents that kind of relationship that is the BEST of what social media can offer- the unfettered and world-wide ability to make friends in ways that never existed before, but like most technophiles I’m only partly talking about the tools. Humanity hasn’t changed since the flood, we still long for significance, security, and e desire to be known. All technologies are measured ultimately by their ability to help us meet those universal and ancient needs.

Tonight I have a place to crash partly because of Facebook – but only partly. If Mark and I hadn’t both taken the opportunity to move past likes and tweets, I’d be sleeping at some Comfort Inn.

Flurry Friday Episode 5- Nov 11th: WUR Bug Hunting

There is an old Spanish saying, “You can’t have more bed-bugs than a blanket-full”.  We are not even sure what that means but we sure feel like we have our share of bugs as we near launch for Wind Up Robots.  In any final stages of a game project it sure seems like you can.  We are bug hunting and often fixing one bug can lead to several more.  The trick is to keep looking.  A tendency as we hunt has also been to add in cool things that we either had wanted originally or have thought of late in the game.  But we have to ship and ship is what we do.  Chris and Gavin took a moment late last night to discuss this stage for this weeks Flurry Friday Update.  See our past updates as well to view more of our development process. Have a great Veterans Day and here is a shout out to all the service men and women that have endured wars for our countries sake.  Thank you for sacrificing and fighting for us.  We are so grateful for what you did.

A Return to Beauty

As I was driving to work this morning I looked out and saw a wetland. The rising sun was reflecting off the surface and little islands and peninsulas of reeds broke the water up into seas, rivers and tributaries. As I watched, a massive flock of birds took to the air, leaving the earth in a harmonious dissonance of motion, their bearings set for South. I turned and saw the sky was already dotted with several snaking V formations and clouds of their kin, and could only assume they were intent on joining them. It was beautiful. In that moment, something resonated within me, welled up like music filling up forgotten empty places, echoing off the walls.

We’re all searching for beauty, aren’t we? Everyday, in the clothes we wear, the movies we watch, the cars we drive and homes we live in, we go out of our way in search of it. On my morning commute, I will often take back roads, adding time to my already hour long trip, just to experience the beauty that I’ve discovered there. I trade time for the chance to see old oak trees standing in plowed fields, century old farmhouses and sheep out to pasture in the morning fog. There’s a nostalgia, a longing that takes place when we experience beauty, and not only are we constantly in search of it, we are also constantly trying to create it.

Every animal on the planet produces something. Worms produce clean soil, birds build nests, beavers build dams, but only humans, being made in the imago dei can create something from nothing. A spark in the darkness. I’m not speaking literally of course, not in a physical sense, but we have been given the gift of abstract thought, the ability to form ideas, conceptualize and then materialize those creations with the resources of our world. Our creativity is a reflection of the creator, and we do love to create.

We’ve taken the world we live on and covered it in a layer, a shell, of our own making. Cities, and roads, sprawling suburbs, manicured parks and monuments sit overtop the natural beauty they replace. And it’s not solely functional by any stretch. This is evident in walking through downtown Portland and seeing the meticulous design that has gone into some of the buildings. Ornate stone carvings, pillars and brickwork aren’t necessary for a building’s structure, but for its beauty. But this beauty is ever changing across time and cultures.

Our perception of what is beautiful, as defined by what we create, is always evolving, devolving, growing more complex and then embracing simplicity. Yet, our perception of the natural world, a rushing river, snow peaked mountain, or ancient forest, remains constant. It’s as if in our attempt to create beauty of our own, we always fall short of doing what a simple walk through the woods can do, perhaps most effectively when unspoiled by our adding to it. It’s a return to beauty we’re after. The greatest achievement our own art can have, is when it speaks across time, culture and generations, the very thing the natural world does simply by existing.

The work of our hands is created, then decays. Great pains are taken at museums to preserve those works of art that ring most true for us, but time is always working against them. But when we look out over a valley, we’re not seeing decay, we’re seeing life, growth, a reflection of something greater and more lasting than ourselves. Perhaps our unending search for beauty is really a return.