It's been nearly a year since I played Act 1 of DoubleFine's point-and-click adventure game, Broken Age for iOS. All the while, I've anxiously awaited the second act to drop so I could complete this wonderful story.
Now that Act 2 is finally here, I may have to clear my schedule for the rest of the day.
[PSA: I've only ever played the iOS version, but if you're more of a Mac gamer, Broken Age for Mac is currently on sale for $18 (down from $25).]
Cameron Moll, who you may know as the founder of Authentic Jobs and the guy who designed those "Structures in Type" letterpress posters a while back, spent a couple days recording this episode of Envato's "Made By" interview series.
Here's a good quote, on the difficulty of creating the letterpress posters:
I think that's defined who I've been up to this point in my career. Trying stuff that I was totally unqualified for and trying to make it work, and make it look good, and make it perform.
The interview is nicely shot and I liked getting a peek at how Cameron manages to balance his work with being a family man. (On that note: Five sons?! I only have one son and he's already a handful at 3 years old. Props to Cameron and his wife for keeping their sanity.)
Update: Cameron wrote a little behind-the-scenes post (with photos) about the video on the Authentic Jobs Tumblr.
Over at The Sweet Setup, we've chosen Overcast as our new favorite podcast app for iOS, edging out Pocket Casts as our previous top pick.
Once we have a top app pick—in any category—it's very rare that we switch to anything else. In fact, as of this writing we've only done it one other time. So, trust me when I say it was a tough decision, especially because we still love Pocket Casts to death. In the end however, it was the right call.
As of today, Brian Capps of iOS app development studio Lickability is officially becoming the first full-time member of the team.
One thing that we’ve always done at Lickability is take our time and do things the “right way.” We take our time to ship releases because we want them to be up to our standards and make sure that they’ve got the features and polish that they deserve. We’re taking the same approach with our company. For the past two years we’ve worked on app releases and client projects that have allowed us to save enough money to pay me full time for more than half a year. Without taking any external investment, we’re funding this experiment entirely from the proceeds generated so far by Lickability. While the initial outside funding approach has worked for many, we’re proud to be responsible to no one but ourselves for our future.
They're giving themselves six months to see if the business can become profitable while paying Brian a full-time salary. I'm super excited for them, and hope to see them pull it off. Congratulations guys!
(On a more selfish note, I'm also excited that Quotebook for iOS will be getting some love. It's long been a favorite app of mine.)
In part 2 of his “How I Became a Minor Celebrity in China” story (if you haven't read it yet, do it now, it's nuts), BuzzFeed's Matt Stopera actually ends up going to China to meet "Brother Orange", the guy who ended up with his stolen phone.
But that's even not the crazy part. I don't want to spoil anything, you should go read the whole thing for yourself. This quote is apt though:
I’m realizing the language and cultural barriers aren’t such a big thing anymore. It’s 2015 and this is the world we live in. I am so happy.
I almost can't believe BuzzFeed is home to one of the best stories I've ever read on the web. I was smiling the entire way through.