Last year I was invited to be a teaching artist at HOLA, a charter school in Hoboken. I developed a comic-book curriculum for children from K-2. Through 5 weekly classes we reviewed the concepts of character, setting and storyline and each student finished the class with a complete storybook. I've been invited again this year and I'm planning to teach game design. Here is my proposal.
More →
The NY Times has a short compendium of small illustrations by Tom Gauld, a London artist who has a regular feature in the Guardian. His work has a spare and simple look while combining literary and video game references. See his blog here, and his flickr stream here.
Touch-screen technology has changed the face of gaming by moving the player interface beyond button mashing into the nuance of sliding, flicking and multi finger gestures. The shape game "Cross Fingers" brings these developments to traditional tangram puzzles by having users slide small pieces of simulated wood on a flat board to match an underlying design. Developer Mobigame has put together an array of over 300 designs to work towards, ranging in complexity from two simple shapes to large constructions involving sliding bricks and chain reactions. The more difficult levels of the game force the user to visualize the consequences of moving interlocking pieces and are a fun challenge to the mind. The name "Cross Fingers" is derived from the touch-screen interaction on the iPod/iPad. In some puzzles the player has to move springs with one hand while shifting blocks with the other, leaving the fingers in a tangle like a tiny set of limbs in a game of Twister. Sample gameplay can be viewed in the video below. This game is great for all ages.
It's hard not to think of sculptures by Alberto Giacometti when watching this video of marching, trembling, anonymized men in this French music video.
Louise Attaque - Du monde tout autour
A recent study by the American Academy of Pediatrics found that 4 year olds who watched fast-paced cartoons, such as Sponge Bob Square Pants, had significantly less executive function than their control groups. They used 2 control groups; one that watched slower paced shows, and one that were given pencils and crayons to draw with.
From the study:
In addition to the pacing, we speculate that the onslaught of fantastical events that was also present in the fast-paced show might have further exacerbated EF (Executive Function). Whereas familiar events are en-coded by established neural circuitry, there is no such circuitry for new and unexpected events, which fantastical events often are. Encoding new events is likely to be particularly depleting of cognitive resources, as orienting responses are repeatedly engaged in response to novel events.41 Because cognitive depletion taxes self- regulation, we hypothesize that the fantastical aspect of the fast-paced show could also be partly responsible for the EF effects seen here. This hypothesis will be tested in further research.
Aaron Stewart is fortunate to have friendly little monsters accompany him and his kids in their daily adventures, and we're pleased that he shares them with us at Plaid Oranges.
"Sugar Sugar" is a quick, mesmerizing game where you draw the path of a slowly trickling line of sugar. As you ascend the levels the screens demand a bit of planning, as an oddly placed line can keep you from completing your task. The game-play is slow and meditative, like turning an hourglass and reminds me of sand-art pieces they sold at Spencer Gifts in the early 80's. The interplay of the sugar with the text with thrill any typophile.
More →
Last year I was invited to be a teaching artist at HOLA, a charter school in Hoboken. I developed a comic-book curriculum for children from K-2. Through 5 weekly classes we reviewed the concepts of character, setting and storyline and each student finished the class with a complete storybook. I've been invited again this year and I'm planning to teach game design. Here is my proposal.
More 
A recent study by the 
