3D Printing Minecraft

It was Mozilla Festival on Oct 26 2013, halfterm weekend.  My children were very excited to create and then 3D print models using Minecraft as the development tool. 

The person running the PRINTCRAFT server is Paul Harter, who used to work with my old colleague Simon Schofield on Simon's art algorithms.

Clyde created an elephant which was then saved and exported as an STL file.  The original Minecraft blocks were reduced to 2mm cubes for printing on a Makerbot 2.

We snapped off the strands holding up the trunk, cleaned out his ears and he was ready to play.

XX GameJam 2012

Brainstorming in Mind Candy office

The first XX GameJam, in association with Ada Lovelace Day and London Games Festival, took place in Mind Candy offices on Oct 26 and 27, 2012, sponsored by UKIE. The theme was "Clockwork".

Second year BSc Computer Games Programming student Nikki Gordon’s team came second with "The Dastardly Carillon" developed in Unity … Nikki created all the sound effects using Reason.
Fiona French mentored one of the other teams, helping to develop  "Tick Tock Terror".

Links: http://www.thinkmakeplay.co.uk/blog/?p=189

Press: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-20186937

Penguin catches fish

Knitted glove puppet with hand-made sensors in flippers, controlling its on-screen avatar. 

See http://www.itknit.com for details: early prototype glove puppet used as game controller.

icould - choosing a games degree

http://icould.com/article/choosing-a-games-degree/

icould - career in video games

http://icould.com/talk/are-you-considering-a-career-in-video-gaming/

Questions answered by Laura Weir, the HR Manager for Jagex and Fiona French, Course Leader for BSc Computer Games at London Metropolitan University.

Why do girls avoid us?

French, F. (2009) Why do girls avoid us? 
Presentation for British Computer Society on Feb 12th, Southampton Street, London

Here's a brief synopsis of some of the points:


1. Consuming not creating
Although women seem to be using computers as much as men, they tend to be utilising software rather than actively developing it. 
2. Back to school
Problem - we don't recruit as many women as men into computing at higher level.  Distance from technology kicks in around age of 12 - why?  Peer pressure, angst, snobbery (technical not professional), lack of role models.
3. Teaching
The ICT curriculum...
4. Poor image
Games programmers can't win - they're either too "geeky" or too "macho" - either way they're all men, aren't they?  Crunch time!  But industry is maturing, isn't it?
5. The nature of games
Look at what's predominant, check out the characters and the action.  Who designed it?
6. What do girls like?
Same as what boys like + social stuff (chatting, dating) + girly stuff (hair? handbags? you tell me) + personalisation (stretch to fit)
7. Media representation of women
Say no more...