![]() Source: Picture taken from the Obscuritory Tumblr. The idea of making something that is meant to just simulate an inhabitant in a polarized virtual void is special for how it keeps the dream alive. Some of our current, completely normalized, practices of user tracking would legitimately qualify as extreme “spyware” back then.īetween the push and pull from platform holders slowly turning the desktop into an environment that only they own, that only things licensed from them can run on, that only things that adhere to their quality guidelines can exist on, that only allows licensed software from certified developers rich enough to pay for that… contrasted against shareware creators making the space interesting with things like desktop pets, experimental software, digital pranks, or parody software… I kind of view creating a desktop pet to inhabit this polarized space as an act of rebellion against that ever impending content monopoly. I see a strange irony in how people used to say “Don’t download Bonzi Buddy! It’s adware!” when (today) our web and desktop environments are so much worst of a privacy nightmare. You could customize it and make it a home. This space belonged to you too.īefore we had what seems like an escalating nightmare of in app advertisements, heavy handed commercial branding, tracking, advertising on the desktop, notarization laws… there seemed to be a time where you felt like you truly owned your system. You get to run what you want on it, and you get to populate it with whatever absurdities you can find.Īt one point the vision for computers was more democratic. There are still icons of a “Home” that are used when pointing to your user directory. There can be character to it that counteracts the polished glossy brand of the platform holder.Īfter all, we still call it “Home”. It’s YOUR own space, and you can run things that inconvenience it a little. It wakes you up to seeing a desktop in a totally different way. Something that gets to crawl around and get in your way. So you throw in a weird little character into that mix. The laws of user experience teach us as much. The digital realm is one of extreme functionality, where maximizing productivity is king. We’re very used to interacting with a desktop a certain way. ![]() I would also like to share some history of desktop pets, why I think they’re important to the “software ecosystem” (for a lack of a better term), why I think they kind of went away, and the future they may have among indie devs today.Ĭover art of Seaman. I feel like I have a lot of experience with that, so maybe it will be of interest to people. The intention of this post is to also talk about designing these virtual friends. I recently assembled a collection of most of mine from the last few years here:Ī lot of them are open source on my github so you can install the same thing on your website to entertain visitors with. It’s like having a fireplace lit in the corner of the room. There’s something special about filling the virtual void with warm, silly, supposedly pointless simulated companionship. I make maybe one a year, and this next project I’m working on will involve one as well. I love designing them and think they are intrinsically fascinating. Here is a hugely passionate area of creative interest to me: desktop pets, screenmates, screen buddies, desktop buddies, desktop mascots, screen crawlers, virtual pets, virtual companions, screen wanderers, digital pets… (those are all the things they are called, ur welcome!) Liminal Fever Dreams & Rejecting the Player (the surrealist, strange, upsetting otherworlds of video games).“Abusing you was by the book” (documenting two years of abuse from Game Journalism, after sharing my #metoo… the whole painful story all in one place).BlueSuburbia Progress Update (screenshots of what I’m working on).When software makes you laugh! (…creativity as a mechanic, how it exists in games, and the ethics of either empowering or exploiting creation).MoMA’s “Never Alone: Video Games and Other Interactive Design” Exhibit & The Hopeful Future of Video Game Preservation.Exploring the beautiful worlds of games made with “RPG in a Box”.The open-source no-code world of GDevelop (if you miss browser Flash games, this is keeping that dream alive!).The GDevelop Game Jam #3 is here (with prizes!) and I’m honored to be a judge….A curation of beautiful thoughtful poetic silly and queer zines made with the Electric Zine Maker. ![]()
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