The Playstation Megasode that I worked on with Playstation and presented at FITC 2007 and the Atlanta Adobe Users Group, was mentioned in the NY Times.

“The Ben 10 prototype, the first game to use the PlayStation 3’s built-in browser, was such a hit that the network expects to commercialize the technology, which it calls a “megaseries,” for some yet-unnamed assets by year-end. “We look at this as an amazing new content window for distribution,” said Ross Cox, senior director for entertainment products at Cartoon Network New Media.”

Though the article calls it a game, it’s better to think of it as an experience. You can play a pure game, watch a show, or “play” a show. There is a reinforcement loop that exists between your actions in the game and the show.Thanks Leif for point the article out.

I’m a little late posting my thoughts on FITC2007, but it’s probably better to post late than to never post at all. That said, the conference was only my second Flash related conference, the first being MAX 2003. I tend to be more drawn to scholastic style, theory based lectures, so FITC seemed to bridge a gap there. It let me pursue my usual interests as well as attend a conference devoted to the community that my work revolves around. I give it a thumbs up.The kicker for me was that I was presenting, after coming off a brutal schedule, that left no time to prepare how I wanted to. I ended up crashing for a little bit the first day when I got in, attending a few presentations the next day, then practicing the night before and the day of my presentation. You see, to be brutally honest, in the past public speaking was a major fear of mine. Everyone is bewildered by this given my personality, but it’s true. Practicing can sometimes be a way of becoming comfortable and confident, and in this case it helped. When I presented, I felt extremely comfortable and was able to get everything across how I wanted. The presentation was really well received, even to the point that someone mentioned it changed their perspective on media. That was my aim, and even if it’s not solving homelessness, I do think the message is important. I want to change entertainment so that it’s more accommodating, engaging, and less intrusive to our lives. To that note, the reason I’ve made myself present over the years is based on constantly trying to push beyond my bounds and the bounds around me. You have to do that if you want to be more than you are or change the things around you. It comes a lot easier now, but I’m always honored and humbled when given the chance to let others hear what I have to say. Without that I can only effect myself. Thanks Shawn, Naomi, and their crew for giving me that privilege.Given that I was pretty wrapped up in preparing, I didn’t get to attend everything I wanted. However I did manage to catch John Grden’s, North Kingdom’s, and Maeda’s presentations. All of them were quite brilliant in their own way. Though with my scholastic affinities, Maeda’s stuck with me the most. He did a wonderful job of stepping back and looking at how digital elements effect our lives and how those same elements can reflect life. His commentaries were quite poetic and profound.Overall, I had a good time at the conference. My highlights were giving my friend’s Stacey and Mathew a hard time, chilling with my friend Lawrence, getting reactions from my presentation, and just reflecting on things with my boy Eric. Conferences really provide a medium for those types of interactions, and it’s what I value from them the most. Needless to say, I’m happy I decided to go.

Anyone that knows me knows that I am extremely critical of design, usability, and application interaction in general. I am not a designer, so I don’t pretend to be a master of those disciplines, yet I hold a strong appreciation and need for them. You see, I take great pride in developing applications. Therefore, the success of what I do is directly tied to the success of those elements. One can not exist without the other.

I have worked with many of designers who are all brilliant in some respect. However, as in sports you rarely get a Michael Jordon. Todd Dominey is a Jordon of design. For those not familiar with Todd, he recently served as Creative Director for Super Deluxe and is widely known for his product SlideShowPro. His work attest that he is brilliant in all aspects of design, going far beyond knowing how to “make it pretty”. Personally, working and talking with Todd is a true pleasure.

With that said, I am very happy to announce, as Todd has, we will be partnering up on future projects in hopes of bringing some of our ideas to life. Look forward to great things!

January 23, Sony released the 1.5 firmware update for the PS3. After the release, the Flash player in it’s browser dramatically changed.

PERFORMANCE

In tests with the original player the performance was not consistent across resolutions. At 480p, it averaged around 30fps, where at 1080i it dropped to around 2fps. With the update, the player now runs consistently at around 50-60fps. It is a noticeable change, because video and sound both had cracking before, where now it is smooth playback.

INPUTS

In addition, the key inputs have been updated. Before, directional buttons only produced down events. Now they produce both up and down events. In the old version, there was a Key event for the X button which mapped to ENTER which seemed to be inconsistent in being triggered. It has been removed. Instead of using the Key event for X, you use MouseDown and MouseUp.

DEVELOPING AN INPUT STRATEGY

What is interesting is the PS3 controller is used for what traditionally would be split into two input devices. It has a joystick which acts as a mouse, but the directionals act as keys. The oddball is X, because it acts as a Mouse event. That being said, you have to ask your self how you want to navigate, either by mouse or key. The reason being is that if you try to create a dual input interface (one that works with both mouse and keys), you get conflicts. In typical Key driven interfaces on a PC you can use directionals or tabbing to move around the interface, but to execute a focused item you click ENTER. With the PS3 you can use directionals to get around the interface, but your execute is a mouse click. A conflict would arise when you can click items or use X to execute a focused item. At that point, how can you distinguish between the two. This is especially the case, if you leave your mouse in a place, your UI shifts and now your mouse is over a button. Are you clicking the button or are you trying to use it as a hot key? I would say this is mainly an issue for interfaces and not for games. Personal opinion would be go with Key based strategy as that is what the platform lends itself too.Overall, the improvement to the PS3’s Flash player is encouraging. With it and the Wii, new opportunities are starting to look hopeful for Flash developers. Personally, I’m excited. Especially considering, I’m headed out to Hollywood next week to present the prototype application, I have been working on with Sony and friends. If anyone is interested, I plan on modifying my presentation at FITC to include the prototype.

Today is a great day, it is MLK day. It’s a day marked to honor someone that changed our society for the better. In honor of this day, CNN had me do the programming for a small tribute piece about Martin Luther King. It’s just a simple sliding timeline with imagery, audio, and bullet points. Though it took me only a few hours to code, its a beautiful piece for a beautiful person. Its always feels good to contribute to small educational piece like this.

I had some suspicions earlier, but didn’t feel like spreading a rumor mill before an announcement of the actual device itself. Now they definitely seem grounded to say, given the announcement and spec release. The fact that the IPhone uses OSX, Apollo is also based on WebKit (Safari’s engine), it seems like Adobe’s target to handhelds may be released sooner than later.