Google Hangout – Face Arcade

Respect to Kiwi agency Resn for creating some pretty funny hack experiments using the Google Hangout technology. Check out their mind-boggling trailer for the ‘Face Arcade’.

You can enter the Face Arcade here to join the fun.

And remember: you only need a face to play! If you enjoyed it, please show the guys some vote love on FWA.

Draw Something – Hits 20 Million Downloads & Generates 6-Figures a day

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Insane growth numbers surfacing on the latest and very addictive social game.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A bit of a “seize the day lesson” to us all in digital agency land. If I had a dollar for every app / social game that I have pitched or said I was going to make…..

 

Reference link:

http://www.businessinsider.com/omg-5-week-old-app-draw-something-hits-20-million-downloads-and-generates-6-figures-per-day-2012-3

Facebook Video Chat… World Takeover Strategy

Now that facebook has not only dominated the social network space, launched a successful advertising platform, launched geo location offline business integration(facebook places), why not just jump into another market ? video chat ?

The facebook+skype integration allows users to connect with their online friends via skype

video chat

Step 1 seen above is selecting the person you want to start a video chat with.

installing facebook video chat

Next thing we need to do is download and install the software that makes the video chat possible, this is a simple 2 click process(Tell google to keep it simple). Are you excited yet ?

video chat installer

Now you run the file and within seconds you can be chatting away with people all over the globe. Without having to invite them into circles(out the box functionality, now way!) Yes way.

video chat away

A simple web call authentication that installs the program

video chat call request

What you see above is what it looks like when requesting a video chat call(if you are the person requesting it).

recieving calls on facebook

A simple call request before a call launch is seen above and the grand finale, the peice de resistance is seen below.. Drumroll please

And below is my little cousin who never wants to use any new technology(we all know someone like her)

arguing with late adopters

Presto.

Since none of my friends have video calls and the 1 person I called was unlcothed, it will be a while before you see the actual video call image

The Heist: An awesome puzzle game with a tangible reward

Two things I love: slick puzzle games and discounted software. MacHeist, providers of the biggest and best of the charity-contributing Mac software bundles is giving you both with their new iOS game, The Heist.

The Heist is a fantastic collection of increasingly difficult challenges, spread amongst four different puzzle types. The twist with this game is the promise of a real reward at the end. What is it? In their words: “You’ll have to beat The Heist to find out… but it’s fun, and it’s worth much more than the price of entry.”

OK, you’ve got me. Back to it, then.

The Heist is on the AppStore for 99c in the US and $1.19 in Australia.

You might want to check this out.

Angry Birds – for Chrome.

Don’t have a smartphone, iPad or Android tablet? But you do want to play this “Angry Birds” thing that people keep talking about?

Chrome to the rescue!

The folk over at Rovio have ported their smashingly popular game to the Chrome browser, and it’s 100% built in HTML5. Very, very neat.

If you haven’t given this simple physics based bird-hurler a whirl, why not see what all the fuss is about? Won’t cost you a dime, and is playable in both standard and high definition.

Either click the picture above, or this link, and you’ll go straight there. Enjoy!

~@tali3sin

SpaceChem: Better Living Through Chemistry

Rock Paper Shotgun already took the headline “My Chemical Romance” so that one will have to do.

If I look a little tired today, it’s because I was extremely late last night. It wasn’t my fault, however. It was already pretty late when I decided to retire for the evening, but before I could hang up my smoking jacket and pipe, SpaceChem kicked my door down and forced me to party til 2:30am. Indie games, man. Those guys can be @#$%s.

But I did have a hell of a time. SpaceChem from Zachtronics Industries is design-based puzzle game that has you combining elements into complex molecules and loading them onto awaiting spaceships. It’s pretty hard to explain so maybe you should just check out the trailer.

Pretty crazy looking, sure. The trailer can make it look pretty daunting, but be assured that the game takes you gently by the hand for the first half a dozen levels and explains the mechanics clearly before leaving you to it. I found that in no time I was making stupidly complex machines in multiple factories in order to fill waiting spaceships with sulphuric acid. Hang on. That doesn’t sound like a great idea to me now.

There’s an extremely lengthy demo to get you hooked and then it’s $20 for the full game.

It’s also worth checking out a great interview with the game’s creator, Zach Barth, over at Rock Paper Shotgun.

Legally stream (almost) all the music you want in Australia – for free.

We all like music, right? I mean, some of us profess to enjoy it more properly, appropriately or adequately than others – this here Superior Hipster for example:

…but when you get down to it, pretty much everybody likes it.

So, we all want more of it, right? Thus the dawn and success of the iPod, and various other MP3 players. We could carry our thousands of tunes with us everywhere we went, beautiful.

Read on through my rambles to find out what I think the best music streaming service available to Australians is (so far).

Super Mario Crossover – Your Friday Afternoon Fun

First off, you’re going to need to look at this picture, and think about how awesome it is. If only for having one of the best old school Nintendo super teams ever formed, lined up there at the bottom.

Now consider this, you’re about to play through some good ol’ Super Mario Bros – which of those characters would you choose to play through with? Honestly, I need look no further than Mega Man (or Rockman for you purists) – but you might have a different opinion.

The final step here, is to find Super Mario Crossover (which I have helpfully provided a link to) and then go fulfil your nerdy dreams.

The developer has done a really fantastic job here, with Mushrooms and Fireflowers providing perfectly adapted powers for each character. Can’t recommend this enough as a nostalgic, Friday afternoon time waster.

@tali3sin

[Source: Buzzfeed]

Enter the Jelli

The clever music nerds over at http://www.jelli.net have just made internet radio a wee bit more interesting.

You sign up, pick a tuner, there’s a ridiculously long list of tracks (and you can place suggestions to add more) that each have a vote count. Cast your vote, and move your favourite tracks up the playlist.

Need to hear something ASAP? Use a precious power-up (a Rocket) and shoot that tune into the public view, call for votes, team up with other listeners, and get it on the air. See something you desperately need to never hear again? Use a Bomb, send that garbage to the very bottom of the list.

It gets a little more interesting than that, if you Rocket a song into the player, for all to hear – and The Majority are loving your choice, they’ll click the “Rocks” button, should the rock metre fill up, you’ll get your Rocket back, giving you the power to choose again. If not, too bad, at least you got to hear your song.

If the track is filling the listeners with bile and rage, they’ll hit “Sucks” – enough suckage and that track is pulled off the air, immediately.

After a week or so of testing, Jelli has proven to be addictive through the game-ish aspect, but also excellent for discovering new music through the choices of fellow listeners. Honestly, I can’t recommend it enough.

That should be reason enough to take it for a spin, but there’s one more tidbit that bears mentioning. They’ve managed to ally themselves with 2dayFM via http://www.choosethehits.com.au – and this occasionally leads to Jelli voters controlling the 2dayFM radio waves for various timeslots.

So if you like the idea of having a say in what the radio plays, and forcing everyone to listen to the music you like… then you probably want to head on over and exercise your right to vote.

Going Viral Now…

What do you get if you take a ukulele, a 6 year old and the most popular song of 2008?
Forget kittens & unicorns, this video is pretty much one of the cutest things we’ve ever seen.
At over 540,000 views in 5 days, we predict he’ll be at well over two million by mid next week!

Got a recipe for a better viral video? We’d love to hear it!
The song is I’m Yours, by Jason Mraz.

Fantastic Contraption

This is an oldie, but a goodie. Fantastic contraption lets you build contraptions from wheels and support structures in order to reach your goal of getting the pink ball inside the pink rectangle.

We recently rediscovered this game, and spent an obscene amount of time trying outdo each other creating the most poorly designed machines possible. It’s also available on the iPhone. Here are a few of our attempts:

• http://fantasticcontraption.com/?designId=9262461
• http://fantasticcontraption.com/?designId=9262530
• http://fantasticcontraption.com/?designId=9262549
• http://fantasticcontraption.com/?designId=9262461
• http://fantasticcontraption.com/?designId=9262500
• http://fantasticcontraption.com/?designId=9262512
• http://fantasticcontraption.com/?designId=9262641

Time to play: Cheese or Font

This one is for all the cheese and font connoisseurs (cause there are so many out there). Cheese or Font is simply a game to challenge your knowledge of cheese and fonts.

 

Hours of fun and a nice way to test your designer friends and laugh at/with them if they get it wrong. Maybe also a nice team building exercise.

Check it out: Cheese or Font or Steak House or Gay Bar.

@danKrause

Ghostly Discovery – Music discovery based on your mood!

This is awesome! Great music, great UX. Check it out.

A streaming radio station and mood-based music discovery tool, Ghostly Discovery is a free app for the iPhone and iPod Touch that lets you listen to the Ghostly International and Spectral Sound catalogs (full songs, nothing less) and share your favorites with friends.

New way to get softdrink

Saw this new Coke Machine – thought it was amazing – check it out!

I wonder how far you could push this from a personalised perspective? or from a visual perspective when not in use?!

Eliss – Multitouch Game for iphone

Eliss is a multitouch game for iPhone and iPod touch (available at iTunes store).

Keep up harmony in an odd universe made of blendable planets. Touch-control multiple planets at once, join them together into giant orbs or split them up into countless dwarf planets, and match their size with the squeesars.

Via Computerlove

I haven’t played it yet, but if the video is anything to go by it’s a must.
Nominated for an IGF Award ‘Innovation in Mobile Game Design’

The Petaminx

Perhaps the Rubix Cube just wasn’t quite brain-frying enough for you. If that’s the case, perhaps you should get your Petaminx on back-order.

Touted as the Rubix Cube^3 (cubed), the Petaminx will surely fry your brain after just the first few rotations.

Enjoy.

11 plug-ins and scripts that will change the way you use Twitter. No technical ability required.

I wrote a few weeks ago about how anyone can easily change the Twitter web interface with Firefox and the GreaseMonkey plug-in (here). The great news is that this process is so easy that there’s little reason not to give this a go – you really are only a few clicks away from what’s shown below. Here’s some power UI enhancements I have chosen – and yes, this list goes to eleven.

Have fun, @Eunmac

Setup:

1. You’ll need Firefox. (here)
2. You’ll need to install the GreaseMonkey Addon (here)
3. Now click the links below to add new features to change your Twitter interface.

1. Nested Replies in Twitter: (install here)
This is by far the most useful script for me. It collates a threaded conversation of replies inside the twitter page. Without this it is very hard to see what conversation took place.

2. Add Bio’s to Friend Following/Followers page (install here)

When you’re checking out someone’s ‘following’ page you get no information other than a picture and a name. Useless! Anyway, if you add this script and you’ll see all their details including a bio, follower info and even last tweet. Here’s me checking out who Guy Kawasaki is following:

3. Sidebar Replies Panel (install here)
See all other replies sent to another Twitter user.

4. Auto shortening of URL (install here)

5. Mentions and unread replies: (install here)

6. Add Friend Name Helper (install here)
Auto suggests names from your following list.

7. Add Retweet Button (install here)

 

8. Power Twitter. (install here)
This is plug-in for Firefox. It displays videos and images nested inside conversations.

9. Expand Short URLs (install here)
Don’t get fooled by those short bit.ly urls anymore, this plugin will reveal the full url inside the web interface.

10. Endless Tweets (install here)
This is pretty cool, as you get to the bottom of the page, the page simply gets longer so you never have to move back and forth between pages.

11. Add search and Tools to sidebar (install here)
 

Other useful scripts:
Hide All re-tweets. (install here)
Block tweets with specific words (install here)
Reveal followers. Places icon over those following you (install here)
Shrink tweets with Tweetshrink (install here)

Want to see all the twitter scripts? There are over 300 on userscripts.org (here)

Found any more great tools? Add them to the comments please 🙂

Auditorium. Pretty. Addictive. Pretty addictive.

Tripped over this sweet Flash game this morning. The idea behind Auditorium is to move these things around that… actually, I’m going to let you figure that out yourself. The game encourages jumping in and playing around to see what’s going on.

In the creator’s words:

Auditorium is about the process of discovery and play. There are no right or wrong answers; there are many ways to solve every puzzle. To get started, fill up the first audio level. We hope you enjoy the demo of Auditorium.

Demo? I’ll pay for an iPhone version if there’s one going.

This really is a very cool game. Best played in fullscreen mode which is defaults to. Hit f to force it.