Dan Zen Talk – Creativity and New Forms of Mobile Games

Dan Zen will give a talk at the Arnie Student Pub on December 5th 2011 at 6:30 as the keynote to the Software Hamilton DemoCamp.

The talk will go over using Hierarchies as a creative framework. So rather than approaching the subject philosophically, it will be a more practical guide with an explanation of terms and isomorphisms of hierarchies.

The talk will include a set of 20 hand illustrated and colored examples with similar style to the poster except done in black with white.

Dan Zen will connect everyone at the event physically and use this experience to explore creating new forms of mobile games and apps.

For more information and to register for free…

http://danzen.com/create

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Swoodle, Wavy, Tada!

Dan Zen has just launched three mobile apps on iOS, Android and Playbook. The apps were made efficiently with Adobe Flash and Flash Builder. Just search the stores for the apps by Dan Zen.

	TITLE: SWOODLE BUILD: 2 Nights DESC: Swoodle to hone your finger tai chi!
	TITLE: WAVY! BUILD: 1 Night DESC: Wave your device to make sounds!
	TITLE: TADA! BUILD: 10 Nights DESC: Decision and Faves tool.

The apps were uploaded to the three stores in one hour. This is amazing cross device efficiency from Adobe Flash and Flash Builder.

Dan Zen is the creator of TOUCHY the mobile app where players try to touch each others’ devices.

The Truth about Flash on Mobile

There has been a lot of buzz about how Adobe has “Killed Flash on Mobile”.  This is not true.

1. Flash on mobile is being focused to make APPS.  Adobe will focus on HCJ (HTML, CSS and JavaScript) for mobile browsers.
2. The current Flash plugin is still supported on mobile including security updates so any legacy content on mobile devices will continue to work.  Adobe will not be developing future plugin versions on mobile.

BACKGROUND

In general, the mobile browser is for looking at things and mobile apps are for doing things.  Flash is great for making apps.  HCJ is fine for presentation and animation on the browser.  Flash would have been fine as well if you discount legacy pages that were not designed for mobile and of course if all platforms supported it.

If you would like to read more of a background on the split between browsers and apps on mobile and the differences between Flash and HCJ, then please read my earlier post:
https://danzen.wordpress.com/2011/10/24/flash-and-hcj-html-css-and-javascript/

ADOBE

Adobe has clearly stated that it is focusing Flash-on-mobile for making APPS in articles such as these:
http://blogs.adobe.com/flashplayer/2011/11/focusing.html
http://mikechambers.com/blog/2011/11/11/clarifications-on-flash…

EXAMPLES

Here is a recent post about three mobile apps that Dan Zen has just launched that are made with Flash and Flash Builder:
https://danzen.wordpress.com/2011/11/12/swoodle-wavy-tada/

SOME COOL FLASH SITES

Flash remains on browsers on desktop and if indeed the plugin architecture fades on desktop, there is AIR for desktop apps which will support Flash.  Also, there are experiments in streaming Flash interactive content to browsers without the use of plugins  which would be ready I am sure by any demise of desktop/laptop browser plugins.  Below is a link to some excellent Flash experiences should you need a more positive reminder of what we can build.

http://www.thefwa.com/article/30-flash-sites-that-school-html5

Or click the icons below (thanks FWA for the compilation!):

Tapoll Gets Bigger!

Tapoll at http://tapoll.com has received over 100,000 views.  In honor, we have made it bigger!  We took the 980 pixel width of Facebook, Google+. flickr, etc. to make Tapoll easier to see and operate!

TWIST

Tapoll polls have a unique twist:

Tapoll lets you predict and vote on a poll at the same time.

The results then show the predictions which often vary quite a bit from the actual votes.  Using the graph feature, you can see over and under predictions as well as the percent of user who voted for their own prediction.  This is often in the 50% range.

SHARING

Just recently, we added share buttons for Facebook, Twitter and Google+.

VIDEO DEMO

The top left corner is redesigned and now includes a link to a video demo on YouTube.

INTERACTIVE VIDEO AD

On the right hand side you will see a video ad for the Touchy game at http://touchy.mobi.  It shows up every once in a while and relates the ad to the keywords of the poll you are viewing.

INSPIRATION!

Tapoll also shows related news and social links in the inspiration column at right.  If you press the TAPOLL button next to any of these, it will start you off creating a poll with this link, picture, video, etc. cited as a reference.  You can also make a poll based on another Tapoll poll as well using the TAPOLL button under any poll.

Please come on by and share a few polls on your social sites!

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TADA! Make Decisions or Discover Your True Favourites With the TADA! Mobile App for Android and Playbook

A few taps and Tada! Decision!

Quickly and easily rank options with Tada! Enter items to rank like sites, apps, people, food and rate them on factors such as usability, fun, nose, taste, etc. When you are done rating press to reveal the results!

Save multiple files, do secret rankings, and get tips if you are stuck. Helps solve dilemmas in a real way as opposed to a random way.  A few presses and Tada!

Available on the Android Market and soon for Playbook and iPad.

Have fun!  Tada! was used to come up with the name for the product.

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Opartica II TUNNEL Launches with 3D Op Art Creation and Animation

Opartica II TUNNEL the online op art making tool where you create and fly through 3D optical art has launched on the Dan Zen site!

Please check out the Opartica Facebook page for postings and discussion. “Likes” are greatly appreciated!

Opartica II makes use of HummingBird the open source Parallax code for Flash written by Inventor, Dan Zen, and part of the Flash Feathers series of advanced interfaces.

Opartica II lets you create a wide variety of op art in two basic formats, tiled with rows and columns and radial with segments.  There are a variety of shapes including free form curves.  Layers, backgrounds, distances between layers and a unique fill mode and more can be controlled from the left hand panel.

You can save works (Tunnels) with the right hand panel.  You can automate a slide show through your Tunnels and animate in 3D at various speed settings.  There is an import and export feature to share and save Tunnels.

The original Opartica was launched in 2005 and has received over 200,000 views.  It is still available at the bottom of the Opartica site.

Dan Zen used the current Opartica was used to create hundreds of Op Art holiday cards which can be viewed on Flickr at http://www.flickr.com/photos/danzen/sets/72157625558618858/ the collection – perhaps one of the largest collection of hand made Op Art, shows the diversity available in Opartica.  Please have fun exploring!

-2011-

PRIMALS – Facebook Game to Try to Sort Friends by When They Joined Facebook

Can you detect PRIMALS? Order your friends by which ones joined facebook first. Drop yourself in the mix and keep score! The surprising game of social adoption.

http://www.facebook.com/apps/application.php?id=168568266519035

Try it out and pass it around with a “like” or a “tweet”.

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