doug nelson: DISENGAGE!

Mr. Show
It just never interested me, and the clips I’d seen seemed tired and aged, like, well, the entire Ben Stiller show. BUT: Mr. Show is actually totally incredible. Now I know.

Sly Cooper
Sly Cooper is a game where you are an animated raccoon that steals things. It is also one of the most complete PS2 games I’ve played; a labor of love in which even the simplest interactions and animations seem carefully considered and executed. Sly carries items in his mouth while climbing, towns are beautifully laid out, and sneaking activates a step-based bassline that’s both tense and right out of A Ducktales Movie (I’m not sure why that’s a compliment, but it is).

Dog Bites Man
Cursory viewing led me to complain about this show, and loudly. But upon second viewing, I have upgraded its status to “Good.” I wonder if characters will develop more with time.

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Thought about designing for the new job:
Until now, I tended to treat photographs as grey boxes to be worked around. After all, I come from a job where photographs would be swapped and chopped at the drop of a hat by a picky editor. There was no room to integrate text, effects, or illustrations with them…it simply wasn’t worth the effort, if the photo got pulled. Here, though, the box is the context for each piece: Work for six hours on a tasteful display of text, and your feedback is “I like the red you put in behind the map.”

And: Rightly so. The Big Image is the first thing a user sees, and it gives context to everything after this point. I’ve been designing it last, but my fellow designers have been putting it first (foolishly, I thought!). But: They’re totally right.

Anyhow, tomorrow is crazy stress day. I have: No design. I need: A design. I should have it by: Mid-afternoon. I hope there are no interruptions.