Throughout my entire life, I’ve always found a great deal of comfort in the interactivity afforded by the existence of video games. There’s the overwhelming (and obvious) theme of escapism in the act of gaming, but more and more, I think there’s little doubt in most minds that mere engagement in gaming — within reason and moderation, of course — expands and exercises a part of your brain that [most] other daily rituals leave relatively untouched. Alongside the rapid proliferation of affordable, able graphics processing systems in console and home computer alike, immersive, seamless worlds can be developed and explored. Textures are more detailed, moments more cinematic and realistic. Video gaming has become positively epic.

Developing — albeit in a much different regard — alongside the graphical insanity, seems to be the amazing promise of true conceptual progression. Where a game like Portal — based off the DigiPen Institute-developed Narbacular Drop (a senior project of some of the students) — made me completely re-imagine how a first-person shooter environment could be interacted with and manipulated to form entertaining, oft-challenging puzzles, other games, much more abstract than this (and many of which will go nameless for the sake of delineation), beg a similar focus.

I’m excited by games like Dyson, currently independently-developed (and available for free on the game site), in its faithfulness to true abstract style. It’s a real-time mining strategy game with beautiful, simple graphic aesthetic and ambient music (of which my good friend and co-hort Brian Grainger, aka Milieu/Coppice Halifax/etc., has composed). The dialog that projects like this birth is interesting, too; to be actively engaged in the discussion (via the site’s forums) and improvement of what is ultimately a form of entertainment seems to me a marvel in and of itself. As stated, it’s available for free for both PC and Linux with a Mac build apparently on its way.

The developers have submitted the game for various competitions, including a rather large one – so, in closing, good luck to them, and ultimately (having not yet even played the game itself!), thanks to them for inspiring some moments of late, late-night (or is it morning?) video game pontification.

For our wedding, my now-wife Katie and I collaborated on a Bauhaus/modernist-inspired aesthetic — above are the invitation, RSVP, map, and various envelope components; not shown are our save the dates and takeaway bags containing 1″ buttons, magnets, and mint tins. The wedding was held in Central Park in Manhattan on October 18, 2008 and presided over by our good friend and neighbor Marcus. Following, an aesthetically-pleasing line of fourteen assembled pedicabs transported our close friends and family (twenty-eight attended, in total) to Candle 79 Restaurant for a vegan reception. Photos to follow.