Notgames Forum

Thanks, Josh, for the invitation to Notgames--the goings-on here look fascinating.

My name's Erik Loyer, I'm an interactive designer with longtime interests in combining storytelling, music, tactile interface, and aspects of games. I released an iPhone game about a year ago called "Ruben & Lullaby" -- an attempt to make a wordless story you could play like a musical instrument. More here: http://opertoon.com.

Games, however, are not typically what I do--lately I've been developing a lot of projects for academia, and before that did some personal work that had connections to the Net.Art and e-lit worlds. You can get a sense of the range of these projects at my personal site: http://erikloyer.com.

These days I'm really interested in adaptations of the visual language of comics for interactive... especially as the burgeoning e-reader scene shows some interesting potential as a space where people are expecting variations on a reading experience, rather than a playing one, which could have happy implications for the things we like to make.

Looking forward to the discussions.

Cheers,
Erik

Welcome, Erik. Nice to meet somebody form the "old school" here! :)

I really enjoy Ruben & Lullaby. I prefer my books on paper. But Ruben & Lullaby is simply wonderful as an interactive experience.

With Tale of Tales, we've also always had a strong interest in wordless communication. It's a powerful way to avoid the "stupid AI" problem that language brings. A way to engage the imagination of the player to fill the gaps.

Looking forward to your new projects.
Hope you'll join in one of the contests (http://notgames.org/forum/index.php?board=13.0) here at some point.

Thanks for the kind words, fellow "old school"-er! Thanks for your work as well—"The Graveyard" was like a breath of fresh air for me—it seemed to elude all the typical categorizations of both "art" and "game" that I had been chafing against.

I'm curious to see if the semantic web standards that are coming up will help with some of that "stupid AI" problem you mention. I love wordless experiences, but wouldn't be opposed to a few well-chosen words! I find D. Fox Harrell's research really fascinating in this regard, you may be familiar with it: http://silver.skiles.gatech.edu/~dharrell3/icelab/ (http://silver.skiles.gatech.edu/~dharrell3/icelab/) (click Gallery)

I will keep an eye on the contests; great idea. Now to find the time...

Welcome!  I don't have an iPhone/iPod Touch, but I really hope to get the chance to play Ruben & Lullaby sometime soon.

And I can totally relate to the playing like a musical instrument thing. :D