Wonderland

MAKIES is alpha ...

This is why I've been so ridiculously silent around here for so long: on Friday, we put MAKIES into open alpha:

MAKIES is an action doll creator: a player/customer can design their own action doll - features, hair, clothes and everything - & we then 3D print it uniquely to them, build & dress it, and send on to them within 3 weeks of ordering.

There's more to come, too: the avatar will be able to unlock collectibles for the action doll. In the future, the action doll will be able to do the same for the avatar, using clever bits of electronica \o/.

So here we are in May, in open alpha (it's the new closed beta, only scarier :-))

Which means people will see all the string and sellotape, but everyone can also pitch in with suggestions at an early stage, too. During alpha, the doll is £99, including an outfit and taxes.

For beta, we'll have cheaper and more expensive versions available, playing with complexity of tailoring and size of print, etc. Tablet apps, too, and lastly, the all-important full battery of toy safety tests (totally confident on that last one - the doll's already passed a full series, but we still need to do USA and Japan ones too, etc. It just takes time).

3D printing! It's a future! :D

makie.me

 

Super Mario koopa shell mouse

The mat's horrible, but the MOUSE!

It's a USB ball mouse - bless - and $30.

Final Fantasy barware

I have a huge soft spot for silly drinks glasses, especially slightly frosted ones. You know the type? Bit retro. Look at these!

I like a lot. Over at NCSX.

Create your own Superhero Kit

See the theme emerging here... Here's one that involves only injection moulded parts, but is nevertheless a build-your-own. Things are getting so cheap that simply bundling lots of parts is a viable option these days.

See it here. Pretty sure I found this a few days ago via Superpunch and it's been sitting in an open tab since, ahem. Things are getting unbelievably busy over at MakieLab!

Personalised Superhero doll

Here's another use for zCorp-printed heads on bodies: usually they're bobbleheads, but in this case for £80 you get a printed version of your own head, plus a basic plastic superhero doll, a tube of superglue and a set of instructions.

Yep, you have to yank off the doll head yourself then glue on the new one...!? 

While I'm all for DIY and making, this is a little expensive for what you get: the difference in texture and resolution of the ABS injection moulded body and the sandstone-like zCorp print is going to be weird (you can tell I'm working in this stuff hey :-)), but worse, fragile too: you can't play with the end result. 

Still, who's to say what value personalisation? It's such a rare thing to be able to offer, there's not exactly a wealth of comparative data. We're certainly going to be finding out pretty soon with MAKIES; our action dolls will be in the same ballpark price range but they use probably 20 times the amount of material, will be playable with, and don't involve superglue, (with luck)...

Personalised Superhero doll (Thanks Chris!)

Defiance: the Show, the MMO

This is an old idea in the world of telly-and-games, and a really, really hard one to pull off: I'm kind of both amazed and not surprised that it's taken until 2012 to get it to happen. Enormous congrats to Syfy!

Defiance is both a TV show and a videogame with plot touchpoints that affect both:

With Battlestar Galactica and Lost now distant memories, there's a gaping hole in the "epic sci-fi" category on television. Enter Syfy's Defiance.

The television series is being developed in conjunction with a massively multiplayer online game, and the two will be launched simultaneously. They'll be connected by the same overall storyline, to the point that events from the show will play a part in the game, and vice versa.

Defiance is set on a future Earth ravaged by war, and will feature human and alien cultures attempting to rebuild civilization in a post-terraformed Earth.

Eeeeh. 

The only crossover I've experienced to date (I didn't play the Battlestar Galactica BigPoint game) was an early moment in Star Wars Galaxies where you get to find the huge dead dinosaur-bone-set that R2 & Threepio meet after their Tatooine landing. I stood there for ages, taking pictures like a tourist ;-)

It was magic.

American McGee's Red

She's actually titled Akaneiro: Demon Hunters, but it's pretty much what he did to Alice, done to Red Riding Hood.

Faaaabulous!

(SuperPunch found it.)

Snake The Planet

DIY levels for multiplayer Snake based on the furniture in the player location:

Very tidy. (Via HackADay)

GDC begins Monday, but in practice, today.

I'm in San Fran. There's that familiar, weird mouldy smell that all the houses have. The wafting smell of pot from shuffling walkers, and the legal marijuana place that our (superb) airbnb apartment is above. The bright, bright sunshine!

It's been too long, again, since I've had a chance to blog properly. GDC makes me nostalgic for times when blogging was central to my experience here; this trip is mainly about VC & funding meetings.

Raising money for an unusual startup in a recession sure ain't easy, but going by our one pitch on Friday here, it's pretty enjoyable: a sunny drive down to Menlo Park; a nice wait in a book-lined foyer with 3D printed art by Bathsheba Grossman (Lev "The Magicians" and Austin "Soon I Will Be Invincible"'s sister!) scattered about, and an immensely positive meeting with a chap who asked about life stories and who was wonderfully warm and chatty.

California definitely makes things lovely. Tonight: dinner with friends \o/

Good Things Come To Those Who Break Clay Pots

In amongst a bizarre amount of bacon-themed tees and frat style joke tees, is this:

It makes me nostalgic for good times past! Can't you just hear those pots breaking?