The Five Beats of Successful Storytelling & How They Can Help You Land Your Next Job Author Philip Pullman wrote, “After nourishment, shelter and companionship, stories are the thing we need most in the world.” Whether we’re talking about life, business, or art, storytelling is an essential skill. Maybe even THE most essential skill. But that doesn’t mean it comes naturally. Whether it’s your own personal bio, a summary for your company’s “about” page, or a pitch to a major client, fitting everything important into a concise yet engaging narrative is a challenging task. For example, let’s say you’re a business major-turned-illustrator who’s jumped from finance to freelance and is now seeking an in-house position. Beat 1: The introduction Where you set the scene and tell your readers everything they need to know to understand why what you’re about to say is important. Example: Although my formal education is in business, I’ve always been infatuated with illustration. Beat 2: The inciting incident Beat 3: Raising the stakes Beat 4: The main event Beat 5: The resolution
Designing An Awesome Video Game One of the most common questions we’re asked is: “How surprised were you at Velocity‘s success?” And the answer is: “Not surprised at all, but relieved.” That is to say that we knew Velocity was an awesome game, and we worked hard to get it noticed. Subsequently we were relieved when it received the attention we knew it deserved. You might ask how could we be so confident? It’s because we focused on all the aspects of game design that are essential to success, putting time in to make them as good as possible whilst spending little time on the aspects that don’t matter so much. In short, we stuck to an essential checklist. Essential Checklist This checklist is our special sauce. So why share our secrets with the world? We believe in sharing knowledge to make the world a better place. Yes there has been a democratisation of game development with free tools and new platforms with lower barriers to entry, but what is the use of having all the gear and no idea? Egg Suck Alert Essence Not Nuance 1. 1.1.
Vem är Veronika? Hon kallade sig TheIneffableSwede. Det är ett lättgooglat namn, och det är något jag ser en alldeles särskild charm i. Visst, de flesta journalister tycker att det är roligt att vrida och vända på varenda sten i sin research och så även jag, men ska det granskas fotspår på nätet väljer jag vilken dag som helst att jaga en, säg, af Praat framför en Svensson. Mindre tid till felaktiga spår innebär mer tid till de spännande. Det var därför jag var glad att hon kallade sig TheIneffableSwede. ”Ungefär 978 resultat”. Den brittiska dagstidningen hade tidigare skrivit en artikel om den hotfulla sexismen som riktats mot en aktivist på Twitter, och i dess kommentarsfält dök TheIneffableSwede upp. ”När jag spelade och vann, vilket jag nästan alltid gjorde, brukade vissa av de manliga spelarna hota med att våldta, lemlästa, eller till och med döda mig”, skrev hon i Guardianartikelns kommentarsfält (detta och alla svenska citat i texten som följer är i min översättning). Jakten börjar ”HEY! – Hello?
Joss Whedon’s Top 10 Writing Tips « Aerogramme Writers' Studio Film critic Catherine Bray interviewed Joss Whedon in 2006 for UK movie magazine Hotdog to find out his top ten screenwriting tips. Catherine has kindly given us permission to reproduce the article here. Photo: Joss Whedon at San Diego Comic Con - courtesy of Gage Skidmore. Joss Whedon is most famous for creating Buffy the Vampire Slayer, its spin-off Angel and the short-lived but much-loved Firefly series. But the writer and director has also worked unseen as a script doctor on movies ranging from Speed to Toy Story. Here, he shares his tips on the art of screenwriting. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10.
A programmer's guide to creating art for your game One man game development studios are becoming more and more common these days and plenty of them are having success. That said, what do you do when that one man doesn't happen to be an artist? This post looks at some of the options the Indie game developer has for creating or acquiring art for their game. Pixel Art Big chunky pixels that look like they jumped out of the 1980s are becoming more and more common and there is a good reason for it. Pixel Art Example: Realm of the Mad God Realm of the Mad God is probably one of the most successful pixel art titles. If I am honest, far too many Indie titles are pixel art based… because it is probably the most accessible art style. Pixel Art Tools At the end of the day, any image manipulation tool that supports a "fat grid" can be used. Additionally a number of Pixel Art focused tools have been developed over the years as well. Pyxel Edit -- in beta, written in Air aseprite -- Allegro Sprite Editor. PD Pro -- commercial software. Tutorials Voxels Rez
How to Write a Creative Brief - 9 Steps to Writing a Good Creative Brief The creative brief is the foundation of any advertising or marketing campaign. It's the treasure map that creatives follow, and it tells them where to start digging for those golden ideas. Or at least, it should, if it's any good. A good creative brief is hard to come by. A combination of lack of knowledge, increasingly tighter deadlines, bad habits, laziness, poor account management, bad creative direction, or all of the above, contribute to this document becoming an afterthought in many agencies. But done right, everyone benefits. So, although it would take a book to explain how to write a great brief, here is a step-by-step guide to getting on the right track. Start With The Client A creative brief is an interpretation of the client's wishes.
A Brief History of Children's Picturebooks and the Art of Visual Storytelling by Maria Popova From cave paintings to Maurice Sendak, or what modern ebooks can learn from mid-century design icons. Back in the fifteenth century, Leonardo da Vinci made the following remark about visual storytelling: And you who wish to represent by words the form of man and all the aspects of his membrification, relinquish that idea. Finished artwork for Ajubel's Robinson Crusoe. From very early on, we both intuit and learn the language of pictorial representation, and most modern adults, the picturebook was our first dictionary of this visual vocabulary. Though pictorial storytelling dates back to the earliest cave wall paintings, the true picturebook harks back to a mere 130 years ago, when artist and illustrator Randolph Caldecott (1846-1886) first began to elevate the image into a storytelling vehicle rather than mere decoration for text. Caldecott’s work heralds the beginning of the modern picture book. (Sound familiar?) So where is this ever-evolving medium headed? Share on Tumblr
How Android Tablets have Surpassed the Apple Legacy Global branded tablet shipments reached 36.2 million units in Q2 2013 — that’s up by 47% from Q2 2012, according to the latest study by Strategy Analytics. Apple’s market shared dipped to its lower figure ever as it faced strong challenges from the Android ecosystem — and several vendors, like Asus, Google, Amazon and Samsung together with a thriving White-Box community, are starting to make steady progress. via Strategy Analytics Like this: Like Loading... Tags: android, apple, Google, mobile, tablet, trends About David H Deans Principal Consultant and Founder of GeoActive Group USA - - follow @dhdeans
Norrland måste rädda sig själv - Ledare - op.se Ingen statlig samordnare i världen kommer till undsättning och vänder på trenden mot ett glesare Stockholm och ett tätareJämtlands län. Jobb skapas via etablerade och nya företag.Det är där stötarna måste sättas in ännu hårdare. När Norrlandsförbundet därför ropar på hjälp från storebror staten för att stoppa avfolkningen i Norrland, känns ordinationen inte alldeles riktig. Visserligen är larmklockan både ädel och angelägen – Norrland behöver fler människor och fler företag. Men det är knappast via statliga utlokaliseringar eller försök att politiskt bromsa in urbaniseringen mot Stockholm, som Norrland kan räddas. Nej här gäller att rädda sig själv först och främst, ställa en diagnos och utifrån den intensifiera ett aktivt tillväxtarbete. Ingen politisk konstellation, oavsett partifärg, kommer rycka ut till allmän undsättning. En nationell insats krävs. Delar av Norrlandsförbundets inlägg på DN-debatt i lördags går förstås ändå att hålla med om. per.hansson@op.se
DEVHRmx : Tutorial: Software para Game... How to Talk to Little Girls I went to a dinner party at a friend’s home last weekend, and met her five-year-old daughter for the first time. Little Maya was all curly brown hair, doe-like dark eyes, and adorable in her shiny pink nightgown. I wanted to squeal, “Maya, you’re so cute! But I didn’t. What’s wrong with that? Hold that thought for just a moment. This week ABC news reported that nearly half of all three- to six-year-old girls worry about being fat. Teaching girls that their appearance is the first thing you notice tells them that looks are more important than anything. That’s why I force myself to talk to little girls as follows. “Maya,” I said, crouching down at her level, looking into her eyes, “very nice to meet you.” “Nice to meet you too,” she said, in that trained, polite, talking-to-adults good girl voice. “Hey, what are you reading?” Her eyes got bigger, and the practiced, polite facial expression gave way to genuine excitement over this topic. “I LOVE books,” I said. Most kids do. “YES,” she said.
gdevnet : Open Source and the Gaming... Marknadsförare prioriterar innehåll i år « Jajja Magazine Innehållsmarknadsföring har högsta prioritet för marknadsförare under 2013, enligt rapporten Quarterly Digital: Digital Trends för 2013 från analysföretaget Econsultancy. Att sprida sitt varumärke och göra konsumenterna engagerade med hjälp av bra innehåll är högsta prioritet under 2013 bland de 700 digitala professionella som analysföretaget Econsultancy frågade ut i slutet av 2012 för rapporten Quarterly Digital: Digital Trends for 2013. Hela 39 procent ansåg att innehållsmarknadsföring är den högsta prioriteten under 2013. Det är tio procentenheter mer än för ett år sedan. Det är en stor utmaning att planera, skapa och publicera stora mängder innehåll. ”Oftast skapar företag innehåll med ett specifikt syfte eller kampanj för ögonen. ”Skjut och glöm” är taktiken. Läs mer: success.adobe.com