The Tetris Effect

“The art challenges the technology, and the technology inspires the art.” John Lasseter.

Video games are everywhere today. It has transitioned from arcades, into our phones, and now into our pockets. It is a time when developers are looking back at our short history in the industry (since the 70s and 80s) and have asked themselves what made those games so enjoyable. Hell, a lot of them, grew up with the arcade and first few console cycles - Atari, Comodore 64, NES, Sega Genesis are the most popular. But one game is surviving the test of time since it’s creation more than two decades ago; it has spear headed this new market of casual games that has reached out to more people than the core market of console and PC games. This game is Tetris and I call this: The Tetris Effect.

So why is Tetris such an influential game and why is it’s influence still being felt even today?

Announcements From The Channel Four News Team: ATBI, Summer Edition

forever summer.

Howdy there! It's been awhile, hasn't it? Time flies when you choose for it to as time is merely a human construct! Anywho, some things. I must tell you them. 

I have a job now! This job awesome. On a scale of Duplo to Lego, it's Star Wars Lego. However because of said job my summer duties are not possible here on ABTI. So instead of the site going dark, it's being handed over to some folks I know I can trust to supply you with a steady stream of geekery. This will begin shortly, and the content will be far more diverse than anything I could ever give ya'll. So enjoy! Oh and make sure to check the new Meet The Crew page, where your new contributors will be introducing themselves.

That's it! Well...

Okay, that was it. See you on the other side!

Amazon Debuts Kindle Worlds, Triggers All The Feels

So in case you were buried under a rock or communing with squirrels yesterday, here’s the low-down on this ho-down. Amazon debuted a new section of Kindle publishing called Kindle Worlds. Despite sounding like a crappy RPG it was revealed to be something ever more divisive than a weird literary version of Farmville that annoys your friends with status updates. It was revealed to be an attempt to monetize fan-fiction. 

You Need To Learn Something! Affordable Classes Through Udemy

Here at A Thousand Bad Ideas, we're all about free knowledge. Free is great! Especially when you're super broke. However you can't have everything for free.

How To Create A Compelling Ensemble With Minimal Psychological Trauma

Also known as "How to assemble for the non-Avenger".

   Say you’re a glutton for punishment. You're like the author of this article. You don’t want just one main character for your story, nooooo, you want a shit ton of characters all taking the same journey together. Like seven (that’s a lot in writer numbers). Ok maybe not seven the first time around, but five. Five characters. Five characters that all need different personalities, backgrounds, wants, needs, underwear and need to easily be defined by the reader. That's a lot of underwear.

Script To Panel: DMZ #1

Script to Panel is a segment on A Thousand Bad Ideas where script pages of a comic are posted alongside the corresponding art. This allows writers and illustrators alike to see the varying techniques, translations, and relationships that bring comics to life.

Happy Friday, everyone! So for today's Script to Panel we're doing the first three pages of DMZ. Script by Brian Wood, illustration by Ricardo Burchielli. 

Sexy Resource Pron: The Elements Of Style

Today we're going to do a super fast Resource Pron. While I was surfing the net a few days ago I found a link to a free PDF of Strunk & White's Elements of Style; Fourth Edition. Which you could use! I mean it's only one of the most influential writing books of all time and with it in PDF format you can read it anywhere. So no excuses here.