March 2, 2022

128 - Brainstorming VIII 🎮🧠

Hey there, ! Did you know that ‘128’ in Cantonese is a synonym for ‘keep getting more fortune’? Hope you’re out there gettin’ that BREAD.

Previous posts:

• here (initial idea post),
• here (businesses I want to see that don’t exist yet),
• here (absurd products bought in pairs)
• here (businesses that take advantage of things you don’t use at home)
• here (stupid businesses that can help you get rich)
• here (businesses for Asian-Australian kids)
• here (new sci-fi concepts)

What are we doing this time around? Inspired by Wordle, I wanted to think of some games (video, tabletop, online) that might be the next best thing! And to be honest I’m just trying to copy so old games, but who cares? Sometimes we can’t be super creative :D

1. Fruity Bird: Can we bring Flappy Bird back? Except this time it’s different fruits that you can choose, and they have different shapes / animations that make it harder / easier to get through. I’m thinking you start with oranges, and then move towards something like bananas, then pineapples? A starfruit! Different collision boxes would make for more difficulty / fun, right?

2. Untitled Cat Game: I would love to have a game like Untitled Goose Game except you have to be the most annoying cat possible. Go to different houses and mess with everything they have, and the more destruction you make (but also hidden) the more points you get. Or maybe you have certain objectives that you have to do in the neighbourhood! AHHH it’s so cute I wanna play it already.

3. Office Space: Okay so we’ve got Sims for the home - do we have Sims for the office? A simulator game of setting up an office and trying to get clients, build interior design, work through frustrations and incidents that happen to the office, and any unruly people who try to get in. More points for keeping people happy!

4. The Librarians: So this one is a bit of mish-mash - I was playing this color gradient game which made you try and pick the most ‘off-colour’ circle, and it got more and more difficult as they put more circles on the screen, and less difference in gradient. What about a game that does that, except that you do it with library books on shelves? You could do the ‘kids section’ first, with really colourful, different gradients, and then move to different genres, fiction / non-fiction and bestsellers. You’d be picking not only the colour difference but maybe also the genre difference / ‘which is the most different out of this set’. Niche, but fun?

5. Picture Match: Google has this wonderful ‘simulation’ on the Oculus called Tilt Brush, which allows you to do some really arty stuff in a 3d space. People can build some really wonderful illustrations - with brushes that can do ‘fire’, ‘smoke’, ‘highlights’, ‘glowing’, ‘patterns’, ‘christmas lights’ etc. When I was using it it reminded me of those games where you have to try and trace a line drawing and be as close as possible to it.

   Thus, the game is where you have to try and copy a Tilt Brush illustration as closely as possible, and then you could be graded on how close you were to it - try and get the highest score. Alternatively if you’re playing with friends, you can set a challenge (maybe 4 or 5 strokes) and see how well your friends can match it.

Chat soon :)

Let me know if you have any feedback for the newsletter!

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✔️Real Life Recommendations

1. GoBoat - went GoBoating a few weeks ago - it was a lot of fun! Didn’t expect it to be good - you’re just going up and down the Yara River - but it’s just nice to be away from things and enjoy the company of your friends down the river. Bring some food, bring some drinks - make a time of it! Can heavily recommend :D

2. The Copper Pot - it’s a premium / gourmet nut place in Salamanca Market down in Hobart - it makes these wonderfully tasty Wakame nuts, and Honey nuts that are just so damn good. Every time I go down there I grab a few because they’re just so tasty. Perfect snacks that I just finished up eating (which is why it’s on my mind). Recommended if you make it down to Tassie!

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🚌 Adventures on the Information Super-Highway

1. Semantle - Wordle, but based on meaning, rather than 5 letter words. You’re ranked on how close in meaning you are to the target word. I have found that it’s SUPER hard - you have unlimited guesses, and on some days it’s harder because you’ll sit in some area of meaning (like computers or something) when the actual word is spy and you have to think many layers laterally to get there. Infuriating, but extremely fun as a puzzle. Par (for me) is like 100 guesses - good luck!

2. Never Use Text Pixelation To Redact Sensitive Information - always on that niche shit - not that you’d ever do this, but don’t redact sensitive information with text pixelation. Real shit.

3. Nearly a third of TV ads play to empty rooms - this…kinda makes sense? Not only that, but also…

   viewers are four times more likely to leave the room than change the channel

   and

   Among other results, the team found that ad viewing behaviors vary depending on channel, time of day, program genre, age and gender. For example, older viewers are more likely to avoid ads by changing channels; younger viewers are more likely to avoid ads by leaving the room or diverting their visual attention – likely due to multitasking with a second screen.