Support Indie Game Developers and Worthy Charities via the Humble Bundle

As I've mentioned before, my household (-christy) are big fans of Minecraft. This game is probably the most successful example of an indie game that went on to make millions. Many times we're so enamored with the big game studios that we forget that there are many talented and innovative smaller efforts in the market. One cool way to support these earnest code monkeys, is to buy bundles of their games that appear in the Humble Bundle (aka the Humble Indie Bundle)!

I'll let Wikipedia do the summary here...

The Humble Indie Bundles or Humble Bundles are a series of game bundling experiments that allow users to purchase collections of multi-platform DRM-free independently developed video gamesonline in a "Pay what you want" manner, with proceeds bypassing middlemen and going directly to the indie developers and charities. The first bundle was organized and managed by Wolfire Games. Beginning with the second bundle a separate company spun-off, Humble Bundle, Inc., with the sole purpose of making bundles. The bundles are made available for purchase during limited time frames. Purchasers are able to set how much they wish to pay for the bundles and how they want their money to be distributed between the games' developers and two charities: Child's Play and the Electronic Frontier Foundation. The games in the bundles run on Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux-based systems and are digitally distributed without digital rights management (DRM) controls.[1] Five bundle drives have been completed to date, breaking over $7 million in total sale and charitable donations.

Right now they are offering a great new version featuring some cool games:

• Voxatron - an old-school, pixelated platform shooter that has cute hip graphic styling. This game was created by Joseph White and his team at game developer Lexaloffle. The tiny pixel peashooter bullets are awesome, and so are the pixelated explosion effects. If you're old-school like me, you'll notice nods to Robotron, Diablo, game boy adventure games, and many other classics. As an added bonus, it has very cool level building tools and user generated content options.

• Blocks that Matter - Here's a very cool platform puzzler featuring a tiny driller robot named "Tetrobot". This game was created by Swing Swing Submarine - a small French game company owned by William David and Guillame Martin.  In a sly nod to creative rights, Tetrobot travels through underground puzzles to save his creators who were captured by someone trying to steal their work! It's a Tetris and Minecraft mashup that you'll really enjoy playing.

Please support the Humble Bundle! It's an excellent way to support worthy charities and the creativity of indie game developers. The latest bundle features the games above plus the game, "The Binding of Isaac". Pull out your e-wallets and buy now!

The End is Nigh!

Why go for a bike ride, when our robot overlords can ride the bike for you!?! I love this little guy, especially when he's taking a break and checking out the scenery. I kept wondering, "Where is he going?"

Good Reads for Geeks

Hey, long time no talk... Here are some good reads for you sci-fi-techno-robot-lovin'-gamer geeks out there...

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline - This is mandatory reading if you grew up in the 80s. The setting is a realistic future where most of society has entertained ourselves to death, depleted all of our natural resources, and is now addicted to a massively multiplayer online game. In this future, virtual worlds are preferred over the slum-like existence of real life. When the fabled creator of this game dies, he leaves his fortune up for grabs to his avatar-based universe. All people have to do is solve the multi-level quest that he's developed, most of which surrounds his obsessions with 80's technology, video games, and popular culture. Of course, there's the pre-requisite large corporation beating down on the rebels - but it is really well done. If you ever fallen prey to addictive MMORPGs you'll really enjoy this ride. Essentially, Cline has produced a love letter to the 80's in the form of an epic adventure quest. However, underneath the high speed chase there is a sly commentary about life online - how we make our online personas appear more interesting than they really are (ahem... facebook), the depressive qualities of comparing online skills/physique to the stereotypical obese and clumsy gamer, and ultimately the acceptance of who you are sans virtual reality.

Robopocalypse: A Novel by Daniel Wilson - This is one of those books where the plot is so tight and momentous that it is hard to put the book down once you get started. Told from the perspective of a soldier who is archiving events after the end of the ultimate humans vs. robots war, we get small interrelated stories that show the start of the robot revolt all the way through human triumph. Wilson does a great job creating robots that are both hilarious and creepy. It's not hard to imagine that we would give so much of our boring, task-focused lives over to automatons. More difficult is the notion that we are trusting machines to do so much without realizing that we're ultimately giving up control of our world. This book has larger than life characters, an evil robot overlord, and an ample serving of ass kicking revenge. It's the classic theme of a dwindling human race with their backs against the wall fighting back... Loved it.

REAMDE: A Novel by Neal Stephenson - Stephenson is one of my favorite authors. If I sound like a fanboy please forgive me. A while back I did a post about his last book, Anathem. This novel is set in the Pacific Northwest and features some of my old haunts, so it's such a joy to build an image in my mind while I read this book. REAMDE is also focused on gaming, and specifically a MMORPG named T'Rain (think of World of Warcraft on steroids). REAMDE refers to a virus that infects online players. It's primarily delivered through Microsoft Outlook (hilarious) and encrypts victim's hard drives and requires them to pay a ransom to young and brilliant Chinese (online) gold farmers which they convert into real cash.  Stephenson is the master of weaving several story lines into a huge ball of compelling madness. There are so many bizarre and wonderfully complex characters in this book, you could easily make many movies out of all the story lines. I'm 3/4 of the way through this epic 1,056 page novel and it's maddeningly intricate but hard to put down.

The Serpent's Coil Book Signing at Barnes & Noble, Wed 7/27 @ 6pm

Hey locals! Christy is doing a reading and signing at the Medford Barnes & Noble store on Wednesday night, July 27th at 6pm to celebrate the release of her new book, "The Serpent's Coil - Prophecy of Days Book II". WhiThe store is located at 1400 Biddle Road. We're handing out cool new PoD bookmarks from the series, and I'm sure there'll be a staged question from 7 year old Hank that's posed in a earnest manner. Hope to see you there!

EJCGC - Episode IX - Home Sweet Home

We pulled our last leg today... Sparks Nevada to our little burg in Ashland, Oregon. It's great to be home! On our way we stopped at Burney Falls just outside of Mount Shasta. Teddy Roosevelt once declared this the "Eighth Wonder of the World!" I think he had too many beers that day. However, it is an awesome sight...

This was an amazing trip. The kids and I are dog tired, but we saw so much and learned so many new things. Special thanks to my parents for the sweet ride, and a lot of love and patience. We created some great memories!

EJCGC - Episode VIII - Military Activity in Nevada

Whoa... More desert, and more desert, and more desert! Today's trek was a bleak look at the Nevada wilderness. Based on our alien experience at Longstreet Casino, it made sense that we were perched on the edge of a huge military reserve and the infamous Area 51. The military picked the right place, it's in the middle of nowhere and it's impossible to get to - range after range of plus 100 degree desert and mountains, no water, just death, death death!

We started today's leg in the Amargosa Valley, through Goldfield, Mina, Hawthorne, Fallon and finally stopping in Sparks - a suburb of Reno. The landscape was empty and hot and full of weird minerals and salty, shallow lakes. Here's the route, note the similarities with the pic above...

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Sadly, we went through several mining towns that are all but dying, particularly Goldfield and Mina - beautiful buildings from the 1800's that are near condemnation. We drove through Hawthorne and saw a weird set of bunkers and odd, ghostly warehouses. We slowly realized that Hawthorne Nevada is a U.S. Army Depot where ammunition is made, tested and stored. Endless rows of ammunition bunkers dot both sides of the road. According to Wikipedia, "The depot covers 147,000 acres and has 600,000 square feet of storage space in 2,427 bunkers. It is said to be the largest such facility in the world." Friendly! Here's a pic...

Just to the north of Hawthorne is Walker Lake. The East Walker river drains into it and over the past 20 years has become shallower and shallower. The lake is about 18 miles long and about 8 miles wide the longer axis running north and south. Walker lake is very salty and as of 2004 the salinity of the lake made it difficult for native fish to live. In addition, irrigation has made the water level drop over 140 feet over the past century. That said, it is a beautiful body of water. Here's a pic from the car...

The RV park we're staying in tonight is in the shadow of a large casino and on the shores of the Truckee River - a perfect end to a bizzare day in Nevada. We're on the homestretch to Ashland tomorrow. Can't wait to see my beautiful wife, and our needy cat!

EJCGC - Episode VII - Amargosa Valley

Weird day and a lot of miles in the desert... Today we traveled from Sedona, up through Kingman Arizona, on to Viva Lost Wages (Las Vegas) and eventually to the Amargosa Valley. Tonight we are staying in a border town in the middle of nowhere - Longstreet RV and Casino!

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Death Valley National Park is just around the corner, and I've got to admit that this is one of the most remote places I've ever been to. We got out of the RV to a dry 100+ degree wind, and not a cloud in the sky. Here's what greeted us...

The RV park was a madhouse of activity (wink)! Hank's reaction in this photo is a classic that I will always remember...

Thankfully one other RV showed up or we would have been robbed by ancient pioneer ghost bandits. One added bonus is that they had a massive cow... which Juliet and Hank tried to milk...

Luckily they have a car wash... just in case we needed it...

That is all...