Independent Games

The same way there are Independent Movies as opposed to Hollywood Blockbusters there is now an Independent Games scene happening.I just came across this site The Independent Gaming Source which is an introduction to the scene. This fascinates me. I guess it confirms that game design has become an art form of it's own when there are alternative's challenging the mainstream. From what I gather the indies tend to consist of smaller development teams and much smaller budgets. I'll have to find out more about this whole thing.

Gmail is in the house

I just got a gmail account after much waiting, hoping and digging around. I've been testing it out and it's the quickest web based email system I've used. I really like the fact that they only place ads when you are reading an email, not when you are looking at the inbox. This really helps speed things along. Many thanks to Steve Rubel over at the excellent marketing/pr/business/blog blog Micro Persuasion for the invite.

Peter Saville Graphic Designer

I just watched the dvd for 24 Hour Party People which is the story of Factory Records the record label of Joy Division / New Order, Happy Mondays and others. Quite an interesting movie but of more interest to me as a graphic designer was the work of Peter Saville who did the album covers, posters, tickets etc. The dvd has some great interviews where he discusses some of his work for factory and how it all came about. Here's a list of web related links :-
bbc interview with slide show, site with some work of his, portfolio and profile.

The New American Splendor Anthology

Just bought The New American Splendour Anthology from a discount bookstore in Brisbane. I've been keeping an eye out for this since I saw the movie American Splendor. It's really a great read with some real insights into everyday life. Check out Harvey Pekar's site or just rent the movie if you want more info on the author.