Apr

28

Jacob Garbe

Artist Interviews / Gamers on Game / Podcast

Graduating DANMite, Digital Artist, augmented reality app developer and story-teller, Jacob Garbe came onto Artist on Art, April 22, 2013 to talk about his work, XMPLAR, a mobile app and data visualizations for Integrated Security Automation.

Jacob’s thesis work has two main components. First is XMPLAR, a mobile app that you can download for your smartphone that allows people to sign up as “field agents” who are directed by artificial intelligences to take pictures of things around them. The second aspect is the data visualizations, which take the data from the AIs on the company mainframe and map it.

The data visualizations generated by XMPLAR players will be on display at the 2013 Digital Arts and New Media MFA exhibition, ground(cntrl) at the Digital Arts Research Center, UCSC, April 27-28 + May 2-5, 2013.

To hear our interview, please click on the grey button below:

Listen to Jacob Garbe

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Mar

30

Phoenix Toews

Gamers on Game / Podcast

On March 25th, DANMite Alumnus, Artist and Augmented Reality Guru, Phoenix Toews came onto the radio show to talk about his current work developing open source programming for location aware augmented reality for art generation, virtual gallery spaces and games applications.

Since graduating, along with fellow DANMite Meredith Drum and Mitch Miller, Phoenix , the three began the company Augmented Mountain. They are currently in the throes of a kickstarter campaign, Open Source Palimpsest: Your Imagination, Any Place. They are looking for help to improve user interface, test and finish for use the open source program, Palimpsest.

For two years, Augmented Mountain has been developing Augmented Reality (AR) apps. The team does this using a powerful and unique programming language called Palimpsest, developed by Phoenix. The name pays homage to Archimedes’ manuscript which contains hundreds of pages of math and theories explaining and questioning reality. Palimpsest enables the building of dynamic interactive computer generated environments which transform real world geographies.

Augmented Reality is a new frontier in digital media. With your help, Palimpsest can lead the way.

To hear Phoenix and Nada’s interview, click the gray ‘play’ button below. 

Listen to Phoenix Toews

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Mar

18

Steve Whittaker

Gamers on Game / Podcast

On March 11, 2013, UCSC Professor, Steve Whittaker spoke with Nada Miljkovic about his work and collaborations at the cross-section between psychology & computer science.

Screen shot 2013-03-18 at 5.16.51 PMWe talked about the concept of Technology Meditated Reflection, and how digital tools may be used for psychological well-being by helping us understand ourselves and change our emotions. Steve c0-created an android app entitled Echo: a mobile system that helps you remember and record your past to regulate your emotions.

Steve discussed negotiating/managing our online personality and personal information, the challenges of online platforms that allow us to document our lives online, and the digital breakup. For instance, Steve explained that studies show that many people make multiple mistakes when they dispose of digital possessions: some immediately delete too impulsively but later regret not keeping stuff. What are the ethics of trolling?

To hear our Artist on Art broadcast in entirety, please click the gray ‘play’ button below. 
Listen to Steve Whittaker
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Oct

30

Kathleen Kralowec on Gamers on Game

Artist Interviews / Gamers on Game

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Oct

16

Dance Trapeze

Gamers on Game

Tonight, this week’s Gamers on Game will feature Lisa Christensen of Santa Cruz Aerial Playground to talk about Dance Trapeze Workshops with Elizabeth Ng happening Saturday and Sunday, Oct 20 and 21 3-5pm at the Aerial Playground in the Ow Building on Mission Extension on the Westside formerly known as  ”Wrigley Building”.

The low-flying trapeze is a very mobile trapeze hung from a single point so that the bar and ropes form a triangle. A swivel at the point allows a person to spin, spiral, sail and fly in circles or straight lines. Beginners can enjoy the sensation of flying right away. As dancers gain skills and strength they learn to interchange tone and tricks with flow and release while moving between the bar, ropes and floor allowing for a dynamic dance-flying experience.

Saturday workshop is an introduction to single-point low-flying trapeze. Open to all experience levels. $30

Sunday workshop is a lab to expand on material from Saturday workshop and to explore the dynamic movement of the low-flying trapeze through short dance sequences. Open to those with some aerial experience and anyone who took the Saturday workshop. $30

To register or for more information contact elizabeth.ng2008@gmail.com. Elizabeth thought quite a bit about maximum of pleasure for the least amount of pain.

To hear our Gamers on Game broadcast, please click the gray ‘play’ button below:

Listen to Consuelo Alba

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Oct

11

Wes Modes on Gamers on Game 10/11/12

Artist Interviews / Gamers on Game / Podcast

Tonight on Gamers on Game will be a talk w/ local game provocateur, thinker and educator, Wes Modes, about Games as a Strategy for Living & Liberation.

Wes Modes is an artist activist who cofounded FreeSkool Santa Cruz, SubRosa, Guerilla Drive-In, & founded The Spoon, an international storyteller’s group. Wes is a radio star and writer among many other accomplishments.

Wes has been thinking about the question, what is games, for a long time.

In a couple of weeks, through Free Skool Santa Cruz , Wes will be teaching a class at UCSC’s Stevenson Cafe, entitled, “Games as a Strategy for Living (and Liberation)” from 4:45-6pm for four Wednesdays in row. The class begins November 14th and continues November 21st, 28th, and December 5th.

This is your antidote to the winter blahs. A class for people who take serious matters lightly and for people who take their play seriously. We create games to help us play the bigger game of life which is itself a playful dance. This is an intellectual & philosophical exploration of games. We’ll talk about games and play, learn game theory, share DIY games, and design our own. Requirements: Bring your playful spirit and intellectual curiosity. This class will build on each session, so try to commit to all of them.

You can hear his radio show,  Night Ride, at his Archives.

If you missed any part of our Gamers on Game broadcast, please click the gray ‘play’ button below:

Listen to Wes Modes

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May

23

Chris Lewis on Gamers on Game

Gamers on Game / Podcast

On May 14, 2012, PhD candidate in Computer Science at UCSC, database developer and gamification expert, Chris Lewis came onto Gamers on Game to talk about his studies in the Software Introspection Group and his thesis on “Retention Engineering”.

“Retention Engineering” the software designs that motivate users to return to software again and again. This is a concept invented by Chris and his PhD adviser, Jim Whitehead. Chris researches what it is about certain pieces of software that cause you to return to them over and over, using video games as the prototypical example. Why is it so easy to put off work — which pays you real, tangible money — to head off to a virtual world and spend hours making fake money, instead? Why can we not avoid checking our email incessantly, or popping on to Facebook “just for five minutes”, instead of writing that essay due tomorrow? Why do we keep playing Farmville, even though it doesn’t seem all that fun?

Chris’ research delves into the psychology literature of motivation theory, to try and find the answers to these questions, and help software designers to make more engaging software. In the process, he’s learning about when “gamification” works and when it doesn’t, and what it means to create software where getting a task done is less important than ensuring that the user comes back tomorrow.

Previously, Chris has interned at Google, and worked as a database developer in New Zealand.

If you missed any part of our Gamers on Game broadcast, please click the gray ‘play’ button below:

Listen to Chris Lewis

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May

22

Henry & David Hoffman

Artist Interviews / Gamers on Game / Podcast
Screen shot 2012-05-22 at 12.13.01 PM

On May 21, 2012, Father and Son Team, professional videographer David and Henry Hoffman came onto KZSC’s Gamers on Game to talk about their homeschooling and using video games as a tool for education.

If you missed any part of our Gamers on Game broadcast, please click the gray ‘play’ button below:

Listen to Henry & David Hoffman

Here’s a review of Saints Row the Third by Henry on their All In A Day YouTube Channel:

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May

11

Andrew Mueller

Gamers on Game / Podcast
andrew

Founding Organizer of TechRaising, Strategist, Critical Thinker, and Change Agent, Andrew Mueller came on to Gamers on Gamer on April 30, 2012 to talk about the recent second annual event TechRaising Santa Cruz Spring 2012.

This year’s TechRaising began Friday, April 20, at 6:00 PM with a gathering to pitch ideas and ended Sunday, April 22, at 6:00 PM with the demonstration of prototypes built over the course of the weekend. It is a weekend startup blitz designed to take ideas for new web-based businesses and bringing them to reality. Most teams include a designer, developer and a business developer. Volunteer mentors help by roaming the event and injecting knowledge and sage advice wherever needed.

During the show, Andrew explained that he and co-founders Mathew Swinnerton and Margaret Rosas, began TechRaising in an effort to help create a friendly environment for tech startups in Santa Cruz. Their mission it to “provide the space and support for individuals to gather, collaborate, build, promote, and gain momentum for their ideas.” The collaborations created at this annual event have lead to several successful new application creations.

If you missed any part of our Gamers on Game broadcast, please click the gray ‘play’ button below:

Listen to Andrew Mueller

Here is the video from our interview:

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Apr

27

Ken Hullett

Gamers on Game / Podcast
KenHullett

On April 16, 2012, graduating Ph.D. candidate in Computer Science at UC Santa Cruz, Ken Hullett came into KZSC and onto Gamers on Game to talk about his research in game design.
Ken spoke in length about his dissertation, The Science of Level Design: Design Patterns and Player Behavior in FPS Levels. Ken’s research is in the Center for Games and Playable Media Department and in the Augmented Design Lab with Jim Whitehead as his advisor.

We started the conversation with defining what level design which is level designers create gameplay through geometry, AI scripting, and item placement. Designers draw from their experience, design lore, and rules of thumb rather than a formal understanding of how the construction of a level creates gameplay for a player. To improve this understanding, Ken and his research group have taken a first by identifying design patterns in game levels, primarily in single player first-person shooters (FPS) and studying the cause-effect relationships between these level design elements and gameplay. To test these relationships, they are gathering data from a series of user tests. Analysis of this data will improve our understanding and provide level designers with scientifically verified tools for creating gameplay.

We explored Ken’s other research interests concerning Design in Games: Level Design, Design Patterns in Games, Game Data Analysis, Player Modeling, and Procedural Content  Generation.

Ken is a part of the first cohort to graduate from the  Department of Computer Science (CS) with Ph.D. degrees.  This program is considered one of the top ten graduate schools in video game design.

If you missed any part of our Gamers on Game broadcast, please click the gray ‘play’ button below:

Listen to Ken Hullett

Here’s the video of our interview:

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