iamcal.com Since May 2000

A convergence of two of my interests: Tuble is a Worlde-style game where you guess Tube Stations.

Wordle got super popular and was then sold to the NYT. There have been a ton of interesting variations on the core mechanics:

• Wordle for Netscape - Wordle, but works in Netscape 1.0
• WorDOS - Wordle, but for DOS
• Worldle - Guess the country, once per day, based on outline
• Globle - Guess the country, once per day, with warmer/colder hints
• Passwordle - Guess the SHA-256 password hash (parody)
• DuoMoji - Emoji matching, once per day
• DNDle - Guess the D&D monster based on core stats
• Mathler - Guess the math equation (with a known target)
• Nerdle - Guess the math equation (including the equals)
• Mumberle - Guess the math equation (including the equals)
• Summle - Guess the (very simple) math equation
• Quordle - Guess four words at once
• Octordle - Guess eight words at once
• Semantle - Guess the semantically-similar word
• Lewdle - Guess the offensive word

I just love this story - The first streamer was a 12 year old on public access TV in 1993

I missed it at the time, but Nick Quaranto updated my 2011 Lego Carcassone post with a 5x5 version, back in 2014. Unfortunately the post now 404s, but the wayback machine has a copy.

If you liked paperclips, a dark room, etc but you only want to spend 10-15m playing then, Seedship is definitely worth checking out. More games like this please!

Internationalization, math and the way numbers make users feel. The design of Diablo 3 numbers is a really nice look at how these all interact.

If you were a fan of Chris Sawyer's Transport Tycoon Deluxe (and you should be), then OpenTTD is probably worth a try.

I'm closing out some 2014 tabs, so have a few useful links.

Want to make a game, but don't know how to get started? Sortingh.at is a great step-by-step resource.

Using Google Apps-for-business and group mail is bouncing? Follow these instructions to switch to "proper" groups.

Think you can recognize your developers from their commit messages? git-game turns it into a neat game where you try to figure out whose entire message was just "fuck" the most often.

Want a machine that make tortillas at the press of a button? I DO. flatev is the answer.

Save the date is a great little game that's a cross between a dating sim and Groundhog Day. Keep trying, and maybe it'll work out.

Buildy seems like it might be fun, in a modern City Creator sort of way, but I haven't managed to create anything cool myself (here's my effort) and there's no good directory of player-created stuff. Have any of you been playing with it?

Halfblock is a very neat sort-of-minecraft-clone written in JavaScript using WebGL. The source code is unfortunately on bitbucket instead of github, but cloning it shouldn't be too hard.

Frog Fractions is, without a doubt, the best frog-based educational fractions game.

The game is a little deeper than it first appears - make sure you get the presidential pool upgrade.

One the one hand, it looks terrible. However, London Underground Simulator (Circle Line) is so detailed in all the right ways that I just want to play it. For hours.

Watch part 2 and then buy yourself a copy.

spacechem is one of the most difficult games i've played in the last few years. what these people have managed is mind-boggling

gourmet gaming is a great concept - recreating dishes from video games

some tips for dungeon raid. so fucking addictive

having recently re-played half-life 2 (in the wake of the portal 2 release), i've been re-reading concerned, an excellent hl2 parody comic

the katamari damacy bookmarklet is the best thing i've seen so far this year. for reals

i scored 23/5 before stopping. what about you?

this weekend's project - lego carcassonne

the live-action LBP is fucking genius. if something like that ever gets made for glitch, i think we win [via dburka]

voxotron looks so awesome

chess just isn't as good as wc2

can't play coma for long, because the controls are awful, but it's beautiful

pixels is amazing. watch it now. now!

the 3.3.9 gold achievement looks pretty awesome and will probably be pretty rare. on my list for after 'insane'

colorbind has a really beautiful trailer. buy this game now

continuity is a great concept. very addictive little puzzler

cannablat has nothing on robot unicorn attack. seriously

sushi cat is a super fun little game. a little over-easy, but very cute

i have 5 invites for city of eternals. if you like that sort of thing

where we remain is a really wonderful little flash game that makes me want to start making little games. who's with me? [via joshua]

ok, ribbon hero is dumb, but awesome. however, the thing it has most taught me about the ribbon is that feature placement is essentially random and the best way to get anything done is to hunt through each tab slowly until you find what you need. and it'll probably have a dumb name.

a nice relaxing dish full of sonic

first person tetris is awesome. until you throw up. and then it's still awesome

this iphone game looks cute, and maybe even colorblind compatible. giving it a try...

an excellent interview/article with jeff kaplan from the wow team on game design stuff

wow. pacman has a maximum high score and it's been reached. that kinda makes me sad

football hero requires a lot of moving about

brickbattles is a table-top war game in lego. bogan sent this to me forever ago, but just found it again

lucidity is $10 on steam and is quite lovely

i recently re-read the whole of concerned. definitely worth it

tennis for two is a computer game. from 1958

nethax is an ajax nethack [via joshua]

fat princess looks awesome. cake for everyone!

grunk find pig. beautiful

comcast town seems like a snazzy update to citycreator, but is kinda sucks. lost all me designs with an exploratory click. menus are too deep and hidden (i want to see everything!) and the tooltips are dog slow. bah. do it right please!

openth sounds like a good idea, but how about a version in flash? seems like it could be huge if it were on facebook

a day of tweaks today - choose your own adventure had a little overhaul, removing around 5000 bad entries and improving various things to avoid it getting like that again. worth a little play

aww, poor harrison

keen to try out bunni, but still unsure how to complete fishing girl. does it involve the bird i caught? hmm

i think this time travel rts (demoed at GDC) might actually be too confusing to play. damn

i haven't played ginormo sword is ages. yay!!

asylum was ace. and twin world. need. acorn. emulator

a bunch of class changes are upcoming in wow - including no ammo for hunters? huh?

grow tower is infuriating. has anyone solved it?

warzone 2100 looks pretty cool. yay for old games under GNU

can't get into tork much. am i impatient, or is it just dull?

wow now has paid sex-changes, and they're much cheaper than the real thing. this pay-for-addons model is great for players and blizzard alike

has anyone played any of the bigpoint games? are they any good?

i know it's only a tech demo, but the unfinished swan looks like a lot of fun

virtual bacon? not as good as physical bacon, for sure [via rr]

tron versus unprotected memory. kinda awesome

in the best news since, err, ever, you can get your own @hellokitty.com email address at sanrio town. am i the only person desperately awaiting the MMO?

ok, pac-text is awesome. has anybody managed to complete a level? update: schachter has eaten all the dots. "congratulations! You have eaten ALL the dots! A rather time consuming and tedious task."

the end of this weeks' zero punctuation is genius. go watch it. now

atmosphir looks like it might be a lot of fun. can't wait to get in the beta [via schill]

ok, where can i get a copy of this game? too lazy to make it myself

"turning them into entitled twat-donkeys"

the halo 3 kid is terrifying. he's not only built all the weapons (nerdy), but learnt all the unnatural animations too [via pa]

web-based games with favicons as the play canvas? too cool

a plush merlok that talks? oh fuck yes [via wafer]

is lively supposed to be google's habbo? it doesn't work for me. and it's ugly as hell

wow + rickroll = pretty awesome [via bogan]

get lamp looks like it'll be pretty cool. i want to play the game whose map is shown in the trailer (the huge one)

too difficult. can only get to level 13 [via js]

joshua insists this is great, but i suck at it. click click click

lots of leaked lich king info here

pac-man cupcakes? tasty!

i want a ps3 laptop

ok, django mmo is too cool for words

hammond found this beautiful custom-built pirate's cove set. want!

missing GNE? try crown quest. i'm stuck on level 18

oooh, some love footage, via wafer. looks purty

prototype looks sooo beautiful [via wafer]

this gamasutra article on 3d graphics in excel is an awesome read. for the impatient, check out the videos on pages 3 and 4

the awesome stuff always happens when i'm out of town

anyone out there look like link? kinda creepy

love looks really interesting. anyone know when it'll be out? beautiful artwork

haxed is a pretty awesome flash game. nice soundtrack

halo 3 laser quest? that is seriously awesome [via jess i think]

maybe killing people in wow is a bad idea. silly americans

portal turret origami. anyone else tried making them? [via myles]

a boardgame that takes 16+ hours to play? that's AWESOME. i want world in flames so bad

the katamari site is as wonderful as the game - not sure why i'd never seen it before

sounds like someone is lapsing

take 5 minutes of your life to play passage and then read this. [via js]

figure prints are out (and look awesome) but production is highly limited. bah!

sounds like the psp got slimmer. anyone played with a new one?

weewar looks amazing - i wish i'd built it

the new wow ads featuring mr t and william shattner are awesome. well, the mr t one is. i want a night elf mohawk

the dangers of wow [via bogan]

the sadly-departed mr baio found an even better live version of still alive - nice work. the cake makes it sound better. and the song is pretty awesome

myles found a live version of 'still alive'. so awesome

is werewolf killing the conference hackfest? via hammond

and this guy seems to have even more. scary

shame i missed this auction - that's some serious gaming

just completed portal. the script towards the end is even better than at the start. just wish it were longer. portal 2 soon please

the portal gun in hl2? hell yes. looks like alot of fun

an excellent review of the orange box - portal is SO MUCH FUN

the wow rep calculator is really nicely done - click on the faction sections for zone and instance rep info

ooh - a place that sells cuboro in the US

the wow rep calculator is really nicely done

will you survive the halo-caust? [via myles]

i have a new goal in life. on second thoughts, maybe not

ninjatown looks cool - game is forthcoming [via murphy]

best. thing. ever. loco roco karaoke. i've been singing it all night

lost garden is a lovely game design weblog and the challenge tileset is inspiring

spectrum! fits right in with this week's office theme [via nj]

for future reference - a library to unpack MoPaQ archives for WoW

this would make a fairly awesome movie [via dunstan]

i gave up and level 23. gets too difficult without alot of patience. or i guess a quick bit of code to solve it for you

i can't get anyone to join my chorewars guild [via wafer]

grodon found a nice wumpus java clone

andy baio found a walkthrough for the ethan hass website

dwarf fortress looks kinda awesome in a nethack way [via js]

dosbox lets you run old dos games on windows, mac, etc. nifty [via js]

950 things mr welch can no longer do during an rpg. jokes for nerds, jokes for nerds

my guild finally has a website. alliance ftw!

ds buttons is kinda cool

monty on the run, hamster style

some nice game shirts, including a katamari/locoroco crossover [via waxy]

the WoW south park episode [3 parts] is awesome

the xbox 360 laptop is utter genius [via chubb]

portal looks awesome

there's a seqel to the murloc rpg now out - need to find some time to play through it :)

sphere looks very cool - a game engine which embeds spidermonkey for scripting. need to check that out further

i need to read the introduction to I7 when i get some spare time [via waxy]

omg - nintendo smells of wii

dathan found this awesome merloc flash rpg on newgrounds

PS3 release is delayed by 6 months. bah [via salti]

spore looks utterly amazing

google maps meets world of warcraft? awesome

escapist is a wonderful online gaming mag. well worth a read [via grim]

via kakul - an awesome japanese 80's advert for zelda on the super famicom

doom on an ipod. doom on an ipod. doom. on. an. ipod. don't you see? [via matts]

salty points out this lovely article interviewing some original japanese game creators. "q: how difficult was it to make the game back then? a: it was very a difficult process. the hardest part was the development of a microcomputer."

a c boardgame. sooooo awesome

leeeeeroy jenkins!!! what an awesome battlecry [via matts]

new psp firmware is out (in japan only, but works on US PSPs). now includes a web browser. woo! [via rob]

more psp goodness - vnc for the psp. seriously. that's just too cool.

aaron points out pspware - looks like it might be time to dust off the old ibook.

real life counter strike, via yoz and some others. great fun - the movements are spot on, and suitably ridiculous.

this games manifesto has many excellent points and makes me want to start playing HL2 again. mmmm

perplex city is a new mass-game. could be fun. $200,000 prize

the xbox360 is fancy looking; much better than its ugly predecessor. and with impressive specs too.

ooh ooh ooh - there's going to be a sequel to katamari damacy, my favorite game i've never played. launch it on the psp already. or else i'm going to have to get a ps2.

this flash animation goes on forever (20 minutes and still going), but is a fantastic final fantasy 6 pastiche on the browser wars (featuring psp as the evil super villan). via p-a [update - 40 minutes!]

physical tetris - rich calls it "a futuristic connect 4". i kinda want it. or the tertis shelves from these guys [stupid flash, no direct links]. all via the lovely b4ta.

forget gaming - the psp is mainly a flickr appliance

matt smith is writing games again. awesome. though it might turn out to be a big dissapointment. i'm working on a spectrum games myself at the moment (though porting it from spectrum to php :)

gah. tom's got me playing freenet again. 107/104 on the largest size. i need some practice.

via lealea: the blind pianist has released a free album or mario and ff themes.

everyvideogame.com is super-fun for playing sonic. who needs consoles. how long before the latest xbox games are running in a java applet over the web?

i'm stuck on stage 8 of the imagepuz. i am lame

a nice flash version of bubble bobble [via lealea]

and while i'm on the thinkgeek toy kick, i want these lovely space invaders stickers. awesome

why is geomag (and it's precursor, supermag) so expensive? i need this stuff.

some photos from under tokyo of the flood systems. looks like an awesome counter-strike level. [via coates]

the nintendo ds looks pretty powerfull - now how can we use this power for evil instead of for playing with puppies?

12many is a great game. i got 244 - what about you?

salt points out the tetris cosplay photos. awesome. i wish i'd thought of that.

striatic pointed me at this love xbox scale graphic - yes, it really is that big.

half life 2 is amazing. i have a feeling i'm going to hear things in real life and think "that's almost as realistic as half life 2". fuck yeah

i have halo 2. i have half life 2. who wants to touch me?

jason just reminded me about progress quest, probably the best game in existance.

my newest solver for roadblocks can handle one-ways and teleporters. seems to be able to cope with advanced levels easily.

[roadblocks](http://www.freeaddictinggames.com/?id=340&req=givegame ) is pretty fun, but trying to [build a solver](http://code.iamcal.com/pl/games/roadblocks-solver_pl.txt) is more fun. patches to support one ways and teleporters are welcomed (you'd need to extend the find_stop_*) functions to return an x,y pair for the teleporters. one ways are easy - just add to the blocks list for each direction). :)

you know what time crisis was missing? yes, kittens.

gne is dead. it's a sad day.

sim torture looks like fun.

a fancy flash version of the hhgttg text adventure. nice.

this little game is a lot of fun. striatic took about 75 rolls to get it. i got it straight away. what about you?

oooh - getting a valve tourament license is free. now that's a sensible approach.

the ship looks like an interesting an original half-life mod

plurp's description of gne is beautiful: "It's like the musty smell in a library full of old books written by comical adventurers. No ... wait. That's not right. It's like laying in new-mown hay, on the very edge of sleep in the late August afternoon. Nope. That's not it. Oh! I know! It's like a fish."

mina reveals why gne isn't out yet. very cute.

tom found some interesting mmorpg stats for the last 7 years, showing the recent surge for RO and FFXI. bigger numbers than i imagined.

woah - the penny arcade omega collection looks well worth winning.

lea's been going mad over tales of symphonia, a multiplayer rpg for the game cube. now all i need is to get some friends to play it with :/

doom as a sysadmin tool is a great idea. the pros and cons section is elightening.

a discussion today involved use of the word quandry which reminded me of this excellent piece of fiction from whelk.

just bookmarking wank words bingo for later use. excellent game.

one of the best things i've heard in ages is this guy playing the mario theme on a ukulele. awesome.

could the future of online and offline gaming possibly be monopolabble? only time will tell, but jc has a knack for slightly insane ideas.