It's me, Pippin. I'm making things. The plan is to send out updates every two weeks and then separately any announcements of projects as they release.
004: Saddling Up for Spring
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Oh it's you... Welcome to another thrilling instalment of this thing. I'm sending it from a new email address since it turns out the newsletter finds its way into a lot of spam folders (thanks to being from a "free" Proton email address (which I pay for)). Anyway, now we have the magic of pippin@pippinbarr.com. Please don't email me there as I don't really check it, but it's a nicely official address, so let's see if that helps. LA was a great time from my perspective. Did studio visits with some very talented grad students, including Aidan Strong who is a real kindred spirit (he made a game about being Atlas holding up the sky, what's not to like?). Gave a talk that went well except for the bit where I almost choked to death on my water (I think there will be a video of that sometime and I'll share it). Ran a workshop of making variations on Go Fish (there was one variation that went unplayed where you could ask for things out of people's pockets, as well as their cards). Hung out with Eddo Stern a bunch. Took a trip in a Robot Car. Met up with cultural provocateur Brian Moore. Good times. Now that I'm back in Montréal I'm trying to get some serious traction on the book I'm writing (Playing the Variation Game). Well, I'm more trying to get some playful traction on it, because I let it get too serious. That amounts to writing some more "off the hip" shorter essays to find my way back into language and ideas that I actually enjoy. So far I'm batting about .500 on that, but that would get me a job in the major leagues! I also have my eyes on making a new v r game in Unity to continue the practice of virtual gallery spaces that turn the player's focus onto how games are made in different ways. My dream this time is to hold a solo show for the asset creator Maksim Bugrimov, whose Monsters Pack and "Dead Man in the Bag" (above) I love so dearly. Yes, this is temporarily replacing my idea of the "Auditioning Monsters for a Horror Game" project because it's simpler and easier to make. (Though it might end up costing more, since Maksim's assets aren't cheap! And nor should they be!) I'm particularly looking forward to writing a wall text in the gallery space. And that's where things sit. I'm still the Department Chair in my department, and that's still a ton of work, but I'm only in that role for another seven weeks, so we'll see what kinds of magical transformations occur after that. Ciao for now, Pippin |
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It's me, Pippin. I'm making things. The plan is to send out updates every two weeks and then separately any announcements of projects as they release.
Hi, you, I'm writing this at Gate 75 in Montréal's Pierre-Elliott Trudeau Airport, about to get onto a plane to Los Angeles. The last couple of weeks have been something of a blur of activity, notably with my department at Concordia (Design and Computation Arts) going through a hiring process that I'm leading as the chair of the department. We interviewed three really good candidates, though, so everything's going smoothly on that front. Other than the hiring thing my focus has mostly been on...
Hello you, I'm two days late with this newsletter, and full of excuses. We're currently hiring a new professor in my department at Concordia University and I'm the chair of the department and the hiring committee so I'm very implicated in that. That and other work stuff has taken up most of my time the last couple of weeks. That said, I did release Play It By Trust (Sky Blue Super Mario Bros.) last week, which you probably saw since I emailed you about it. I'm happy with how it turned out,...
Hello you, As promised, I'm letting you know that I released a game just now called Play It By Trust (Sky Blue Super Mario Bros.). You can read more on its webpage, but in a nutshell it's a "port" of Yoko Ono's Play It By Trust (White Chess Set) from 1966. That is, it's a version of good old Super Mario Bros. with all the colours set to the "sky blue" of the overworld. It looks like this: Play It By Trust (Sky Blue Super Mario Bros.) in action, also known as a purple-blue square. Yep, this...