Say Hello to my Little Friend, Mr. Rubik

Posted on May 30, 2011 by joe | Permalink 0

No, I’ve never had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Erno Rubik. I’m just being slightly poetic here in that picking up my first Rubik’s Cube was like meeting a new best friend.

Some of what I’ll say here will sound like bragging, but keep reading, there is always someone better to put my humble accomplishments to shame.

I had heard about the Rubik’s Cube in early 1980 (I think from a Martin Gardner article but not the big cover story in March of 1981). I knew I wanted one, but the only way to get one was to send out of the country for one. Sometime in the spring of 1981, I picked up my first Rubik’s Cube. I picked it up at about 8 PM. I had to work at 4AM for UPS, loading trucks. I got home around 9-ish and started working on it. I worked on it until around 3 AM and then went to work. I returned from work at about 9AM and tried to go to sleep but the unsolved cube sat on my desk in it’s scrambled state, mocking me. I got back up, and solved it with another 4 hours or so of working on it. It would have gone quicker if I knew I could just pop-it apart and do “experiments” from a pristine state, but I didn’t know that at the time. For a while, I was very impressed with my 10-hour first solution especially when I read that most people never solve it on their own, and that those who do take between 2 days and 2 weeks to solve it. I thought I was pretty sharp, until I read about a Mathematician in England that has solved it in just 5 hours…without actually having a physical Rubik’s Cube on hand. He worked out the solution with just pencil and paper.

To be fair, I also solved it a 2nd time in just about 30 minutes…but then…I realized there was one thing I hadn’t really learned yet…(two-edge-flip)…and it would take me 10 more hours to find that operator. Once I did, I was down to solving it within 5 minutes always.

Within two weeks, I was down to a minute or so…and then I went to a contest at SUNY Albany. I was one of the fastest there, but my cube “blew apart on the curve” and it wasn’t a real contest (everyone used their own cubes). I met a kid there (about 6 years younger than me) and we hit it off. He was also about a minute or so…and when I showed him my method, he switched to it, and got down to 45 seconds easily. I figured, if he could learn my method…then I could learn to move my fingers more quickly. In about a week, I was down to 45 seconds, and then I started carrying the cube everywhere.

I finally settled on about a 33 second average (with no look ahead time). I could have been on That’s Incredible but I got talked out of traveling 4 hours for a contest in Buffalo N. Y. I later learned that my 33 would have easily won that regional contest (barring any slip ups on my part) and that would have landed me a spot on the 6 finalist on That’s Incredible. I would have come in last there…but…I would have been the oldest contestant too.

I was happy with the 33 and I used to think I was in the top 100-200 people in the U.S. in speed. But times change, and now the new method has most speed cubers under 20 seconds. In fact, I lived in Binghamton NY from 1997-2010 and wouldn’t you know it…the lady who created the method that all the really fast cubers use…lives in Binghamton. Her name is Jessica Fridrich and she does the cube in about 16-17 seconds on average. So I’m twice as slow as a person in the place I lived for 13 years.

As I look up from writing this, I see 15 variations of the Rubik’s cube that I own. In addition to the 7×7, 6×6, 3 5x5s and a couple of 4x4s variations; I own a Mirror Cube (one color – depth of a piece replaces the color…it’s awesome, and I can do it blindfolded), Homer Simpson (2×2), The Skewb, Square One, The Bandage Cube (one of my favorites), The Crazy Cube and a super Square One (not sure what that one’s really called)…and an awesome thing called The Latch Cube (for people who didn’t think the Rubik’s Cube was hard enough).

I’m sure I have another 30 or so cubes lying around in other areas.

I’m out of practice and can only do it in about 40 seconds (under pressure)…but I can also do it in 6-8 looks behind my back (but that’s not impressive anymore since other people can do it with just one look).

I’ve used the Rubik’s Cube to win bar bets. I’ve used it doing stand-up comedy. (If you ask, I’ll tell you two very specific, and very funny Rubik Cube based jokes). I met a gorgeous blond in a bar once…and she ended up being a Physics major who loved listening to me ramble on about the cube (especially a think called “Quarking the cube”).

And just this last year, I discoverd PuzzleMasters.ca which sells many, many, many Rubik Cube variations (it’s where I got the Bandaged, Latch, and Crazy ones mentioned above) and I’m sure I’ll find some more that I don’t have, that seem interesting.

This is really the tip of the iceberg…In some ways, the Cube is the ultimate puzzle. It’s the puzzle that never ends. There is always more to say about it. I’ll explain why that’s true, next time. I’ll try to write about the Cube at least once a week for a while.

 

The Cube

Minigames Coming Soon.

Posted on May 27, 2011 by joe | Permalink 5

I’ve decided to release minigames old and new about once every a couple of weeks.

The first one will be Rack’Em. The interface will be just like being in the Clutter game (but bypassing the main menu). I’m going to try to keep it simple, but here is the basic plan.

Five variations with five levels of difficulty each and either 3 or 5 randomly generated puzzles in each. There will be no time limit and anyone can play those 75 or 125 puzzles as much as they want. For just $5.00, anyone who wants to, will be able to unlock the randomness in the game for virtually millions of different puzzles.

Rack’Em will have 5 variations. Three levels will be like my original Rack’Em game. Another variation will be a mahjong-like brain teaser, and the final variation will be more luck-based, solitaire game.

After Rack’Em, I think I will release the venetian blinds game from Clutter-I with a few pictures and then a way to add groups of additional pictures easily (since that’s been requested). After that, maybe the Clock with another 25 variations not in the original game.

In case I haven’t mentioned it, Clutter is now on sold on Amazon.com.

Click here to check it out on Amazon.

 

 

 

 

Games

Scotty, Lauren, Rachel and Tosh.

Posted on May 25, 2011 by joe | Permalink 1

As I get older, it’s harder and harder to be a true pop-culture junky.

Not to be a curmudgeon, but Movies have been slowly going down hill since Hollywood discovered that 13-25 year have tons of disposable cash. And the next big target is parents with kids in the 5-12 range. I don’t automatically hate a movie targeted to that audience, but how about adding a little depth and style to a glorified 88-minute sitcom. Where is the next John Hughes or Stephen Spielberg hiding? (Ok, my apologies to Apatow, Nolan, and a few others that still make me happy at the movies…but I’m trying to make a point here…the really good movies are few and far between)

Musically, I take refuge in the 80′s, before Rap, Hip-Hop and Britney Spears sucked most of the life out a thing called melody. I’m a piano player myself but there seems to be a qualitative difference between Elton John’s antics and Lady Gaga’s. Elton wrote some timeless melodies to go along with Bernie’s surreal yet usually touching lyrics. I can’t even bring myself to type any lyrics to “Caught in a Bad Romance”.

Fashion I never really cared about, so I can’t say there. Sports used to be about sports, myths and legends. Now, sports is about entertainment and celebrity.

When I grew up, pop-culture wasn’t quite a word yet and there was so little of it, you could actually keep up with it all. Now, it’s just overwhelming how much of it there really is. And I don’t think that’s necessarily a bad thing. In fact, in one area it’s a huge plus that there is so much of it. In case you haven’t guess it, that area is TV.

We are in the true Golden Age of Television, but this blog/rant isn’t about that. This blog is about one semi-perfect night/day of TV, that wasn’t even possible when I was a kid.

While cooking dinner I caught up on two Showtime dramas; Nurse Jackie and U. S. of Tara. I won’t defend those shows or tell you how good they might be. I will tell you that they are different…which is why I enjoy them. At 8 PM, Idol began, but we didn’t start watching it until 8:30-ish (but yeah, we watched it from the beginning, didn’t miss a minute of the actual show). (and did I mention I watched Nurse Jackie and U. S. of Tara from my kitchen a good 30-feet from the 60-inch HD TV in the living room).

I’ve been a Scotty fan all season and he didn’t disappoint. He didn’t wow like he’s done in the past, but he did very well. I haven’t been a Lauren fan, and I’ve hated the judges constantly reminding her to grow some self-esteem. She seemed less tentative last night and she actually killed with her final number. Song selection, as the judges will tell you, is so important and the Idol Engine managed to give her a much better song than Scotty. Idol always tries to make it a horse-race, and this year was no different. As it gets closer and closer to the finals, the judges are nicer and nicer to the underdog.

But…Lauren killed and Scotty didn’t. I still voted for Scotty and ran into many busy signals (a rant for another day about how retarded Idol’s voting system is). But back to perfection.

Following Idol, we went directly to Glee. Glee is definitely a guilty pleasure for me. I’m just entertained by it. Kurt wasn’t as annoying as he usually is. Rachel wasn’t either. Musical numbers didn’t seem as drawn out, missed Sue but not that much, not too much real drama, just mostly fun. Yes, it’s liberal agenda is always there…but at the heart of Glee is this. Just about any two people can meet and fall-in-love and I’m not sure that’s such a bad message.

And at the end of Glee…we moved on to another very, very Guilty Pleasure. Mr. Daniel Tosh. Always shocking, always silly, often stupid, always fun. I laugh and clap often when I watch Mr. Tosh (even when I don’t have a Tequila Sunrise or Glass of Wine in me).

But here’s the nice part. I watched all that TV with absolutely no commercials. Sure, I had to fast-forward through them, but I didn’t watch them. George Carlin had a list called “The 7 words you can’t say on TV”. Those 7 words are all over TV now (sometimes bleeped out, sometimes not, depending on which channel you’re on). But there were 7 other words I never wanted to hear as a kid while watching TV and I now I don’t have to hear them anymore. Those 7 words were…

“And now, a word from our sponsor”

 

 

Life

The Joys of Rack’Em.

Posted on May 23, 2011 by joe | Permalink 0

My Rack’Em game is one of my favorite puzzle creations. First, I believe it’s 100% original. I don’t even remember how I got the gem of the idea, but I know it didn’t come from an existing puzzle. As a contrast, here is a quick list of where most of my other game ideas came from.

  • Recon Battle Ships: Based on pencil and paper version of the game in Games Magazine. It’s been around for years.
  • GapWar: Based on 9 little square tiles that I got when I was in 3′rd grade. It was marketing for a company that still exists called Pel-Freez which makes Rabbit Meat. Also, versions of this puzzle have existed that use pictures instead of colors (usually in thin wood-blocks).
  • FitTris: Inspired by Tetris, Pentominoes, Soma Cube and a host of others.
  • Noah’s Arc: Based on a Random-Walk problem in a Recreational Mathematics book of puzzles.
  • Math-Wheels: Based on a hand-held puzzle.
  • Lab-16: Based on Number-15 Puzzle (that Sam Loyd falsely claimed credit for).
  • Clock Puzzle: Base on concepts from Lab-16 (but this is fairly original).
  • Gem Shot: Arcade style 3-ball shooter (not much original there).

So, one of the joys in Rack’Em is that it’s original. Another joy is that it’s quite flexible as a puzzle medium. The original game was purely a logic puzzle that had the feel of a challenging Free Cell game.  I created a variation later that was much more of an activity than a puzzle and that was sort of fun. I’ve played with that variation a bit, but I’m returning to the original puzzle for inclusion in Clutter-II. The original puzzle had Straight Pool, Rotation and Double Trouble as it’s variations. I’ll most likely add one or two more for Clutter-II.

I didn’t do a great job with the original puzzle at explaining what the goal was. The tutorial was weak but I already know how that will be improved in Clutter-II. There will be some simpler puzzles to start off with (in the old days…even my easy puzzles weren’t so easy).

Lastly, I didn’t really have to tweak the level creation with Rack’Em. It’s a very pure game and just the basic rules coupled with a true random creation are enough to guarantee an interesting puzzle.

My goal is to finish off Rack’Em functionally by Memorial day and then I just have two more mini-game engines to write before the mini-games are done.

Rack’Em also has a touch of the Sudoku feel to it, but…it’s not a guaranteed single solution so it’s slightly different than the mathematical maze that is Sudoku.

 

Clutter

Randomness, Robustness and Engines Oh My!!!

Posted on May 21, 2011 by joe | Permalink 0

This is going to be a mishmash of things that bug me about most games, things I do slightly differently, things I didn’t do right and things I’ve learned along the way.

In addition to Randomness, Robustness, and Engines; let’s add Activities vs. Puzzles vs. Entertainment, Story, Replayability and Variations. Okay, you talked me into it. I’ll also mention Training Levels, Help Systems and Gamification in general.

I was lucky enough to be hired by iWin in 2004 to create their 2nd entry into the Casual Games Market. It was called Mah Jong Quest and I ended up doing 3 versions of it. One reason I was lucky is that I really wasn’t qualified to do the job that I was hired to do. They hired me because of my Puzzle and Windows experience. In the first 7 months at iWin, I would learn and do many things I had never done before.

  • Start coding real C++ instead of just using it as “A Better C”.
  • Use a full blown and complex and buggy framework with Cast Members (Sprites).
  • Use mostly external Data Driven through Configuration files.
  • Be part of a Large Scope Game project managing many Art resources (and dealing with art deliverables from the Artist).
  • Working with a Producer.

But I was the Puzzle Guy and I learn quickly. Another time, I’ll tell the full story of Mah Jong Quest was designed/created. For now, I want to focus on what bugged me about other games and how I used this opportunity to address some of those issues.

First, I hate almost any game that just “ends” and has no replay value. If you love/like a game and/or a particular puzzle, there should be enough randomness in it to let you replay it as much as you want. Physical puzzles, often have one solution and when you’re done, you’re done.   This Frog puzzle is a great example. If you have the 9 physical objects, then when you’ve solved this puzzle once, you’re done with it. I liked it so much that I created my GapWar puzzles from it and have used it in 3 different games now (to reach three different audiences).

The version I did, just uses Color Triangles because all I cared about at the time was the pure math and challenge of the puzzle. I missed the need for it to have an aesthetic quality apart from the puzzle. I will eventually do this puzzle one last time with the aesthetic quality added to it. What I did get right, and this is what I feel I can do to almost any puzzle is…I created variations (both obvious and not so obvious) and in each variation I was able to create all levels of difficulty that I wanted.

One problem I had with setting difficulty levels is that I always made even the easy puzzles a bit too hard for most people. I ignored the fact that I’ve been doing puzzles my entire life and that what’s obvious and too easy for me…isn’t necessarily obvious and too easy for everyone. And as I created more and more puzzles of different type, I learned that the fault of this was entirely mine. I have some really smart friends that have been stumped by what I thought were easy puzzles. Even writing tutorials that walk a player through a puzzle didn’t work the way I thought and stumped a lot of bright testers.

To me, any game or puzzle that has a tutorial level has not done it’s job. A good game will present challenges in such a way that the game will teach you as you solve those first few levels. In Clutter, I think I got that part right (in the main game, but not in all of the mini-games). Even in the main game, I probably used Pop-up Help a bit too much.

Clutter is more activity than puzzles and certain people found it too easy. In the sequel, in the options screen, there will be a difficulty setting for anyone who wants to challenge themselves beyond the set pace of the game.

One thing, I also learned while doing Mah Jong that is missing from my old Puzzles By Joe puzzles is that a Casual game is first and foremost Entertainment. Even if I think that very few players really read the story within a game, the story still has to be Entertaining on whatever level it’s aiming at. I tried to make it real easy for anyone to ignore the story portions of Clutter. I also tried to make it easy for them to decide to read the story later in the game. I absolutely hate games that make you watch every frame of animation or read every line of dialog telling “the story” that really doesn’t have anything to do with the actual game.

Lastly, I hate unwinnable games. I don’t even play Klondike solitaire because it’s less than a 50% win percentage even if you play the game perfectly. At least 10% of the time, a Klondike layout is unwinnable regardless of the choices made. In Mah Jong, it’s possible to play some games that when you get stuck you can prove it wasn’t winnable.  Some Mah Jong games give the lame cheat of a “shuffle” to save you at that point. (that just seems wrong to me).

The thing I’m proudest of with my iWin Mah Jong games is that all layouts have guaranteed solutions. A good game should never beat you…a good game is one that when you lose, you have no one to blame except yourself.

I didn’t get to all my topics, but that’s enough for now. I think I’ll have to do a sequel to this topic in the very near future.

 

 

Games

Why I love progamming (since then)

Posted on May 19, 2011 by joe | Permalink 0

Power, immediacy and correctness. As we learned in my Why I love programming (then); those were the three critical ingredients that caused me to fall in love with programming.

It took me a couple of months but I landed my first programming job with Albany Savings Bank and I immediately lost one of the critical ingredients. Yep, back to keypunch. The bank was too afraid of OLPD (On-line Program Development) to allow us to use it. We did it all by keypunch cards, handed them in to an operator who would then run it (eventually) and give us back our output (along with the keypunch cards).

I learned NCR’s (formerly National Cash Register)  mainframe language called NEAT/3 and there was 2 levels to it. Neat/3 Level 1 was like cryptic COBOL with only 8 character names. Level 2 was basically NCR’s assembler.

I used Neat/3 for my first 3 years of programming. For the bank I did mostly report generation, for Victory Markets it was mostly inventory tracking and for Shoney’s South it was mostly General Ledger and Tax Tracking and Payroll. I’ve always enjoyed meeting new people so moving once a year into a new situation was part of the fun.

In each job, I quickly became the main debugging expert because I’ve been doing puzzles since I was in kindergarten and debugging is just puzzle solving. While in Memphis, I also started leaning Basic and I wrote my first little game that allowed to people to play Othello easily. It was crude but fun. I also did some consulting on the side in Memphis (for Peachtree Software, again mostly debugging other people’s programs).

Moving to California and working for Triad Systems; I became the only non-COBOL programmer in a COBOL group. I learned some COBOL but mostly learned Texas Instruments JCL (called “procs”). I ended up becoming a data conversion expert and eventually wiped-out Triad’s field service organization by making installation and maintenance of it’s systems so easily.

I was just starting to get bored with the COBOL and non-COBOL stuff when Unix appeared on the horizon. Unix, Pipes, Awk, Vi, E-mail, Grep; it was all an amazing new way of computing. Shortly thereafter I started hearing about C and realized that was the language I needed to learn.

In my spare time from about 87 to 91 – I decided to learn C on my own and I wrote my first shareware game called Modern Problems. In the middle of that, I switched jobs from Triad Systems to Tandem Computers, working in their TMF QA department. Writing programs to test and break their Transaction Monitoring Facility.

With Modern Problems, I got my first taste of Graphics Programming but it was Dos based and their weren’t a lot of helpful libraries. As much as I resisted the Windows trend, that was the next big paradigm shift for me.

And that’s a good place to get to the point of this blog. There is always something new to learn, especially new languages, new libraries, new paradigms, etc…etc…

And that’s why I’ve continued to love programming for these past 30 years.

I’ll close with a bullet list of things I’ve left out.

  • Direct-X and Full Screen game development.
  • SDL and iWin’s Framework of CastMembers (almost like sprites) running around.
  • Fake C++ (just used as “A Better C”).
  • Real C++
  • Upper Memory DOS (can’t even remember what we called it).
  • MASM
  • Interactive Network’s proprietary C masquerading as Pop-Code/Assembler.
  • The joy of Sockets
  • Creating Mah Jong from scracth.
  • Creating Small Games.
  • Creating larger Casual Games.
  • Designing a complete User Experience.
  • The Joy of creating my own Art – especially the Joys of Bevel in Paint Shop Pro.
  • Front Page 2000
  • Java + Java Beans
  • Word Press
  • Word, Excel, VPN, SVN, CVS, Vim, MKS Toolkit, etc…etc…

I’m sure I’m missing stuff here. On the horizon is Unity, Android, iPhone, iPad or all of the above. Working with real 3-D instead of 2.5D (I will enjoy the day I start doing Camera tricks with real textured surfaces).

Still to come – Why I love programming (now) (only hinted at here) and What have I learned about non-programming business related stuff in the last 30 years.

 

 

Programming

Nerdvana

Posted on May 18, 2011 by joe | Permalink 2

The monthly Atlanta games meet-up is held…yeah monthly…at Thrust Interactive. It’s one of my favorite places to visit each month and it’s my fourth encounter with Nerdvana. I thought I’d chat a bit about my other encounters and then you’ll know why I love it there.

In case you haven’t guessed it, I’m a nerd. I’m a social nerd because I have three jocks for brothers and a father that’s been a passionate sports fan his whole life. Besides a love of Comic Books, Science Fiction, Chess, Magic and T-Shirts with slogans on them – I also do the Rubik’s Cube in 35 seconds, solved it on my own way back in 81 and…I own at least 50 different Cubes of one sort or the other. I’m somewhere between Leonard and Sheldon in  nerdiness and if you don’t know who they are, then you’re not a nerd yourself (possibly).

My first encounter with Nerdvana came in the summer of 1974. I was one of the lucky 200 who got to attend that year’s St. Paul’s Advanced Studies Program. It was one of the best six weeks of my life. I met kids from all over New Hampshire and they were all really, really smart. In addition to being smart, some were funny, some were athletic, some were gorgeous, some were cool/popular, some were tall, some were thin, some were fat. And only a few of them looked like the Earnie Douglas type of nerd that I was (thin, glasses, a little gawky looking). I learned that nerds came in all shapes and sizes and I learned what it felt like to be surrounded by really bright people. I was in Nerdvana for the first time.

My second visit to Nerdvana was my four years at RPI in Troy, New York. Not quite as prestigious as M.I.T. or Cal. Tech. but it’s no safety school either. Again, lots and lots of really bright people, mostly nerds but also some new classes of nerds. There were burn-out nerds, militant nerds, racist nerds, myopic nerds, and even some angry and mean nerds. And, of course there were quite a few brilliant nerds and nice nerds and funny nerds too. It was a great four years but it was a much different Nerdvana than St. Paul’s School. It was highly competitive and a much less relaxed place. I think that’s why, I spent a lot of my time hanging out with friends at the College of St. Rose in Albany. The nicest bunch of mostly Catholic girls (and some guys) that I’ve ever had the pleasure of knowing. If RPI was my second Nerdvana experience, then St. Rose was a little piece of heaven on earth.

In 1981, I started programming. I worked for Albany Savings Bank, Victory Markets and Shoney South – each for about a year. A bank, a supermarket and a restaurant chain. I wasn’t always the smartest guy in the room but I was almost always the biggest nerd. I also had to wear a suit (a very non-nerdy kind of attire). In August or 1984, I got lucky again. I flew out to Sunnyvale CA, interviewed with Triad Systems, offered a job and took it. I lived in the heart of Silicon Valley for over 13 years and it’s the biggest Nerdvana on the planet. There was a store there that sold nothing but computer parts and junk food 24 hours a day. It’s where Apple, HP, Netscape, Xerox Parc, Adobe, Sun, Facebook, and Google all started (just to name a few). Al gore wasn’t there, but it’s really where the internet started (ok, some poetic license there).

Shortly after moving to CA, I attended an RPI alumni gathering at the Tied House (a micro-brewery) in Mt. View. I showed up, thinking that I could easily spot the RPI group. Nope, it was like trying to find a nerdle in a haystack, or worse…trying to find a nerdle in a nerdle stack. It was wall to wall nerds.

Anyway, I loved my13 years in California. In 1997, I moved back to upstate New York, to be near my Son. Although I was lucky enough to meet a few nerds here and there, there was no Nerdvana to be found.

In 2010, I moved to Atlanta. In January (I think), I attended my third meet-up, but the first held at Thrust Interactive. It’s a great group of really smart and funny people. Jesse, Chris, Andrew, Roger, Ed…just to name a few. I look forward to spending an hour or two every month. Whether it’s playing Ping-Pong (classic Nerd sport), sucking down a brewski or two (yeah, I threw that in – I don’t believe I’ve ever known a nerd that actually uses that expression), showing off with the cube, eating excellent semi-Hawaiian pizza (the ham is replaced with BBQ-Chicken) or just chit-chatting about the games industry, or just rambling on-and-on with no real point (like I’m doing right now)…I always have a great time.

It’s not the Valley. It’s not every day…but it is Nerdvana at least for 2 hours once a month.

 

 

Life

Reviews – the Good, the Bad and the Beautiful

Posted on May 17, 2011 by joe | Permalink 0

I truly loved reading all the reviews for Clutter. The ones that hated the game the most seemed to have no sense of humor at all. Some people really loved the game, some people said that the game actually motivated them positively to effect change in the real clutter of their lives. And a few people thought I was actually Leon Poncelette. So, for posterity, I give you the Good, the Bad and the Beautiful of the Clutter Reviews!!!

The Good:

  • I’m so glad I bought it! It’s very long, colorful, relaxing but sometimes quite challenging. I love that you can play the mini-games from the menu icons once you have completed certain portions of the game. This will stay on the desktop for quite a while, play it in-between others.
  • Very cute game and one that the entire family can play. Kudo’s to the developers on this one.
  • I wasn’t sure if I would like this game or not. It caught my attention and soon I found myself enjoying the ‘break’ from traditional hidden object/adventure games.
  • The game held my attention, but isn’t so complicated that I’ll have to reread the instructions or create a new profile every time I play because I’ve forgotten critical information since my last interruption. Thanks to the developer for a delightful, creative addition to my airport distractions collection.
  • At first I thought this was just silly, but by the time the demo ended I could not hit the “buy” button fast enough!! Graphics are very nice and clear, like the mini games and I really appreciate the clutter advise Maybe there’s hope for me with the help of this game! Thank you as always BF
  • I recently played all the way through for a second time. Skipped the family history, but reread all of the decluttering tips. When I have a few minutes and wish to play a game for a short while, this is the one I play. I keep the icon to it on my desktop. My favorite of the games in the attic to play is the Windowblinds game. Set to the challenging level, it really gives my eyes and brain a workout. I would just like to repeat that this is a very enjoyable game; one you can easily (or often) replay.
  • I LOVE this game and am still loving it every time I play it. I did not find it boring or simple. Don’t know all the big terms, but it’s FUN!!!!!!!!!!!!
  • Extremely addictive – find myself thinking of MY clutter (not extreme, but still have some stockpiles)- and telling friends about this game. Not easy after awhile – I’m struggling with the third clock puzzle (second set) – giving it a rest before tackling it again. I like different, and this fits the bill. It’s funny (Leon) yet thought provoking…
  • Joe – great game! I can’t tell you how many people I’ve told about this game – and the great advice on getting rid of clutter. Very clever game. I must admit I’m about ready to skip the last (I hope, as I’m up to the last rock, I think) clock puzzle – which I hate! But I can’t make any sense out of it. But I LOVE the concept and sifting through all the clutter (I remember many things shown here). Good job!
  • different… beautiful scenes in international cities makes this a better than average junk pile find ‘em all… the mini-games are also quirky and a nice addition to the overall play…
  • This game is very addictive. It has a TON of variety and while it is “self-help” in terms of advice and tips throughout the game on the importance of reducing clutter in one’s life, it is done in a thought-provoking versus a “gag me already” way.The quotes are nice, the tips are helpful, and it adds purpose to the game. If you don’t give a hoot about the advice, you can skip it. It’s just there if you want to read it.
  • I didn’t expect too but really liked this game. It’s a secret little gem. I find it very relaxing ****.
  • I bought it after playing for 10 minutes. For some reason it really appeals to me. I like the beautiful location shots, LOVE the music, and am amused by all the de-cluttering suggestions. Plus, the placement of Scrabble tiles into the mix is another cool thing, as I’m a huge Scrabble fan/player.
  • All in all, a very enjoyable game. Thanks to the devs and BFG!
  • I love this game – totally addictive and an enormous time waster, I’m spending hours playing when I ought to be doing other things – like housework!! Ah well, the dust will still be there tomorrow – back to the hunt!
  • I really liked this unusual game! It was fun, challenging, and very creative! The messages about de-cluttering your life were good, timely reminders for me. There were several options to play to gain more hints. I tended to go to the ones I could get the most hints the fastest. Collecting the various “rocks” reinforced the message of de-cluttering one’s life. There are several tasks that were suggested that I’ve already begun. It feels really good to rid my life of some of the clutter. I found it easier to match up objects the longer I played the game. At first, my mind was “cluttered” with finding the matching objects. Later, I rarely needed a hint.
  • I thought there was a glitch on the mini placing the coins in the squares, one was way off the right hand border and wouldn’t take. Started over, my goof, funny because it was so simple first try on the other pc screen this time I was placing them on wrong grid squares. Then I got hooked on it again, didn’t want to stop while talking myself out of buying another game for my To Be Played folder. How do I keep my pc and laptop so organized, efficient, clean, defragged and orderly while my apt is a wanna be hidden object pile? Self-defeating playing this game while everything else piles up. Is there any way to buy this game guilt free?? Oh, maybe I should get to the end to learn the secrets of declutter philosophy. More fun than culling 2 file drawers to finally make room for 2 years of paper. I DID let go of an old kitchen table, didn’t need 2, and coffee table gone to thrift shop, no more broken toes on those curvy legs. Unfortunately all the clutter on both tables is now on the floor I definately need a program ($6.99? is all?) or a gamers support group, whichever comes first.
  • Hey JoeKazz–Thank you very much for creating such a fun game, and for sharing your insights in this forum! It means a lot to gamers to know that developers are listening. “Clutter” has me looking around the house and thinking “Where do I start”? The “surprise location” photography is great, the mini-games are fun, the hint system is generous, and the sound effects remind me of the service bay at a car dealership! Spot on! For a lone developer, you ROCK!

The Bad:

  • Hits too close to my pet peeves about people telling me to get rid of my stuff. I’ve tried living sparsely, and I’ve tried living cluttered, and my mood is better with the clutter – so it stays, thank you very much. And I love *my* rock collection too, lol…
  • Agreed. This was more like a self-help book pretending to be a game.
  • Again, sorry, but I wouldn´t even play this game if I got it gifted.
  • Oh boy, does Leon Poncelette love himself or what? I got tired of his face looming in and out. I’ve never seen a game before where the designer features himself throughout the entire game. Very weird. The game was initially entertaining but became repetative and boring after a couple of rounds. Not for me.
  • Awful!! One of the WORST games I have encountered on what is otherwise a site which is a plethora of gaming fun. The pictures were hokey, the commentary totally cheesy and annoying. Maybe because I am already one of those type-A super organized persons, I could not stand being preached too during the game. I can see the game creator had the best of intentions, and it seems to be a game some people have enjoyed so that’s great – but “no thanks” for me!
  • Wow. What a BORING game. I don’t think I have ever deleted a game midplay in the 3+ years I have been playing games.
  • Oh dear, it sounded so interesting, but I’m just not a fast enough clicker for this game. I lasted 10 minutes, before frustration set in. OTOH, I’m sure that those who like faster paced games might like this very much.
  • The philosophy? Well, when someone asks, “If you have more than one item, do you need the extras?” I have to say, “Yes. I want more than one towel, dish, chair, set of underwear, coat, sweater, table, DVD, CD and definitely books!”
  • So, the game is not for me, but I can see where it would have appeal for others.
  • I thought it was going to be lighthearted and easy, but instead it turned out to be tedious and preachy.
  • I don’t think it knows exactly what it wants to be, and it looks like a student project.

The Beautiful:

This was from a lady named quarlesqueen on Big Fish.

Thank you Leon Poncelette, you are much needed in my life, and I really enjoyed your tips, along with a very unique game, that I have so enjoyed playing .

The clutter of the mind is like handcuffs on the soul..SO TRUE, being the gaming addict that I am, my once clutter free apartment, is showing signs of neglect, with little piles that are growing at an alarming rate, turning into clutter..YIKES..lol!

Instead of doing something about it, I continue playing my games everyday, but those pesky clutter piles, are always on my mind (handcuffs on the soul ).

Being some what of a perfectionist, this is driving me crazy, so its time to take action..thanks for the reminder, and guilt trip.

Who would of ever thought, that a game would be of so much help, in ones life .

I didn’t expect to like this game as much as I did, there where a few times of frustration, like when your trying to pair, the almost clear items, but all in all, I found the rest a sort of release, and very gratifying when completed.

There is a fine line with me, when it comes to being timed, in games, not a huge fan, because than relaxation turns into frantic nerves.

A few times it almost crossed the line, so I am glad that the developers did give a skip option, if needed, although I never used it, I felt better knowing it was there.

I loved collecting the coins and letter tiles, my favorite mini was the wisdom shuffle challenge, and I thought finding the secret spots with the numbers, was original and interesting.

I also enjoyed finding the picture peices, in the post cards, so this game had a lot of different things to do in it.

I don’t know if any of you shop on QVC, but Leon Poncelette could be twins with this guy that does cooking in the kitchen with Dave, on QVC.

I highly reccomend trying this game, for anyone who wants something different, it does get more challenging, as you progress through the levels.

I thought it was a very well thought out, interesting game, that has a very good length to it, so well worth the money and one that I enjoyed reading, which isn’t always the case, in games.

Thanks to BF and the developers, for bring us something different, which was a nice change, and a much needed breath of fresh air !

And one last one from admatin on Big Fish. This was after I had posted as the developer of the game.

Oh my, so glad to find the founder of this game.

Believe me it has been so much more than just a game for me.

After watching the horrors of “Hourders” more than ever before I became of my own words of 20 years ago, if I have to move out of this house it will take 2 bulldozers. Now I have lived here 24 years. If I had not found this Clutter game I would have probably become a hourder 2-3 before my retirement in 4 years, as to the 1-2 of now.

This game, although fun, does very much help when looking around and feeling overwhelmed…get you refocused and realize just one thing, day, hour, area at a time. “YOu didn’t put the “Stuff” there overnight, so will take more than overnight to relinquish it, both mindwise and physically wise. The only other alernative is a stranger (got forbid) come in and just “whisk” it all away, tada. When I am working on an area or task and feel anxious, tired, dismayed I come and play Clutter for a bit, and it defuses my anxieties, tiredness, and feeling of futility, quite quickly.

Somehow it puts me back in control.

Thank you for so much help.

Clutter

Why I love programming (then).

Posted on May 15, 2011 by joe | Permalink 0

I was exposed to programming many times in my life before I was truly bit by the programming bug. There were two key ingredients that were missing from my early exposures to programming.

When I was in 3rd or 4th grade, I got a plastic computer called Digi Comp I. It had a 3-digit binary output, and it was mostly plastic (and some wire rods). You performed a clock-cycle by pulling and then pushing a horizontal plastic piece that was connected to the little plastic logic rods. I never understood it, but I could get it to play Elevator, Count Up, Count Down and play a simple game of “What Number am I thinking of?”. It didn’t excite me too much, because it wasn’t that useful and you were limited by the programs in the book.

In between 11th and 12th grade, I went to St. Paul’s School Advanced Studies Program and took a college course in Linear Algebra. I don’t remember the details, but Mike Lynch and I used the computer terminal (hooked up remotely to the Dartmouth mainframe), to print out prime numbers (using a very basic program (in Basic no less)). We let it run all weekend, and I think it almost made it to 1,000,000. (This is a very fuzzy memory). Yes, it was much more powerful than the plastic computer, but although we were impressed with the list of Primes, we didn’t sit there and actually watch the program run (after it hit the first 1000 primes). It was very, very slow compared to today’s computers.

So, jumping forward to college. I thought I wanted to be a teacher, but I wanted to get a real math degree and not go to a teaching college. I chose Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, an excellent engineering school in upstate N.Y., and graduated with a B.S. in Mathematics with a minor in Psychology (in 1979). Along the way, I took one computer course using Fortran (with Watfor and Watfiv). Some of the upper level students got to use a teletype machine, but we had to use keypunch cards. We had to wait 1-3 days to get our results after handing in our keypunch deck to operators that ran the programs for us. I aced the  course, but was mostly bored. Computers seemed to be a thing you either understood or you didn’t, and I seemed to understand them…but was not excited by them. Waiting 3 days to find out you missed a period or finding some other syntax mistake was not exactly fun. That ended up being the one and only computer course I took at RPI.

So, I managed to graduate college without finding my true passion or true calling. All that changed in the summer of 1981. I worked for UPS, 20 hours a week, my last 2 years of college. I had friends that were a year behind me at the College of St. Rose in Albany and I decided to hang around, continue working at UPS and watch them graduate. In 1980, I went back for my master’s in Education at SUNY-Albany but didn’t finish.  In the summer of 81, I was helping a friend that was still in school at Russell Sage who was taking a computer course at RPI. RPI had just transformed the Chapel into a state-of-the-art student computing center. It was beautiful. All the stain glassed remained and there were rows and rows of CRT’s (one step above teletypes…because no paper was involved…just a great green-on-black glowing characters (no real graphics yet)).

Instead of keypunch cards, you worked right on a keyboard and you saw what you typed on the screen in front of you. I didn’t understand the specific Job Control Language needed to compile and run, but luckily she had that part written down and it was pretty simple. I don’t remember what her program was trying to do (I think it was something simple like find the sum of numbers 1 to N or factorials). What I do remember, was the rush of adrenaline I got, seeing the results happen immediately in front of us. You change the code, run it again, and something different happens…right then and there. No three day wait if you missed a semi-colon or typed an extra bracket. I was hooked. I also could see that you could get the computer to do just about anything (at least anything I imagined at the time that had to do with math).

So, what were the two key ingredients. The first was power, the feeling that I could make the computer do something interesting. The second was immediacy. You do something, you run it…and you know immediately whether it was right or wrong.

And I’ll add a third thing: correctness. Although you may want the computer to do what you want it to do, a computer will only really do what you tell it to do. If there is a mistake to be made, 99.9999% of the time, it’s your mistake. People think I love to argue, but you can’t really argue with a computer. It’s right, it does what you tell it, even when you tell it wrong.

Sometime soon, I’ll write about why I still love programming 30 years later.

 

Programming

The Joy of Mini-Puzzles…

Posted on May 13, 2011 by joe | Permalink 2

…or You can’t please everyone.

I had a little a-ha moment the other day while thinking about the mini-games. No matter how much fun or interesting I make them, some people will skip them. No matter how much I try to make them easy to understand, some people won’t figure them out. No matter how much work I put into them, they won’t ever please everyone.

In general, I tried to make the games within the main “quest” easier than the mini-games you can get to from the main menu. I don’t think I did a great job at explaining how all the mini-games open up and have 25 variations (most of which are not seen in the main game).

Some people have figured it out and have commented on that feature, but I don’t know how many people finish the main game and just stop. It’s so difficult to judge how many people even bother to read any of the “story elements” in the game and if they don’t, then it’s possible for them not to notice that the games are reachable from the main menu.

Anyway, the a-ha moment I had was this. It’s okay if the depth of the mini-games are ignored or even skipped by a lot of players. That means that I don’t have to always go “easy” on the Mini-games. An example of this is the decision I finally made with Rack’Em.

I make a distinction between activities and puzzles. Puzzles have a solution and getting the solution is what matters. The Coin game and the Clock game are true puzzles. The venetian blind puzzle (Wisdom Shuffle Challenge) is both a puzzle (with a very specific goal) and an activity (mostly because the solution isn’t hidden but it does take time and energy to achieve). The main game is definitely activity based even though the goal is obvious.

Rack’Em is a game that’s played on a pool table grid. I have one version that’s definitely a pure logic puzzle. I have another version that is more activity based and sometimes luck is involved. The first version feels a little like Free Cell and the other version feels more like Solitaire. For me, the logic puzzle version is much more satisfying but it’s harder to explain and it will appeal to less people (I think).

I may put both versions in the game, but I decided that I’m definitely putting in the logic puzzle variation because it’s the better puzzle even if less people decide to play and enjoy it.

Bottom line is, I worried a lot in Clutter, trying to please the most people but I think what helped Clutter be successful was making it different enough to stand out from the crowd.

I don’t have enough feedback yet, but I suspect that most people who played Clutter either loved it or hated it. I’ll share some of the specific reviews next time.

I think that people who loved Clutter will love Clutter II more. The people that hated Clutter will probably hate Clutter II more. I will be adding a difficulty setting and make both the Timer and Treadmills optional but that’s about it for the changes planned to address some of the negative feedback.

To quote the Ricky Nelson song Garden Party: “But it’s all right now, I learned my lesson well. You see, ya can’t please everyone, so ya got to please yourself.”

If you’re reading this; tell me what you liked, loved, disliked or hated about Clutter.

Clutter