January 24, 2013
It’s time to break the long silence in my blog. The reason for no posts is that I’ve been busy building something new. And today it’s being launched.
The new thing is Moves. It’s an activity-tracking app for iPhone. It’s a bit like Nike+ Fuelband or Fitbit, but in your phone: no need to charge and carry another gadget. It’s also an automatic diary of your life. It shows where and how you move and the places you visit.
The project has kept me busy for the past year. We founded the company in January 2012 and now there are of eight of us working on it. It’s a fascinating project with interesting technology and design challenges, and if we’re successful, it will have a positive effect on people’s well-being.
Moves is a free app and it’s now available from the App Store. Learn more about it at moves-app.com.
Update: TechCrunch, The Next Web, AllThingsD, Pandodaily and The Verge write about Moves.
November 30, 2011
Imagine a TV show like Project Runway (Muodin huipulle in Finland), but with game development. In each episode the contestants, let’s say programmer–designer pairs, design and develop a simple mobile or web game, in a limited time, based on a given brief. After each episode the created games would be played immediately by the audience. The audience would decide which games get the most plays and best ratings.
It could be good entertainment, and even better education. It would be most interesting to focus on game design: the mysterious art and craft of creating and tuning game ideas and mechanics. It’d be fun to show the different approaches and talk about some best practices, for example along the lines of Jesse Schell’s great book The Art of Game Design with clarifying infographics. The production could be executed in the context of a game design education programme. The more reputable the coaches and judges, the better.
I came up with the idea together with Mikko Köykkä earlier this year, and we’ve been talking to some TV production companies and games business people here in Finland. However, right now we are quite busy with other projects. So we decided to blog about this to see if someone else could do it, because we’d like to watch the show. :) Take the idea and run! Or let’s discuss it in comments or face-to-face.
Would you watch this show?
November 2, 2011
I gave a short talk at Slush 2011 startup conference. It’s about one way of looking at games and their value to people.
Here are the slides, with subtitles. (Full screen view recommended)
