Last June, Steam were offering the game Tell Me Why free of charge. Little did I know back then that the game was by DONTNOD, the creators of Life is Strange, one of my favourite series as you may know if you’ve followed this blog the past few years. Creating heartfelt, story-driven games that focus on giving the player meaningful choices, I was excited to dive into this having recently played a glut of action-oriented RPGs. Something calming now, right?
With my job requiring the use of PowerPoint to design deck templates for other departments, the struggle can often be achieving the balance between accessibility and visual fidelity. The decks need to look good, but they also need to be easy to use with minimal risk of items being moved or deleted in ways that go against the brand. Inserting images in PowerPoint is easy, as is creating a placeholder shape to insert them into. What becomes a little more cumbersome though is generating a custom shape brand element to fill with your photos — something that can add real impact to your slides.
Lego has the incredible power to boost your imagination and transfer you to new worlds. I think that’s why it’s had such a constant presence in my life from my youth to now — crafting Star Wars spaceships, Bionicles and, only last weekend, a traditional English telephone box. My first essay at university in fact was on Lego and its foundation, with one of my sources being this very exhibition. As you might expect then, with my sister and girlfriend in tow, we flocked to the Art of the Brick exhibition in London when it opened earlier this month.
The road to Diablo III has been a long one. Heading back nearly twenty years now to secondary school, World of Warcraft was my favourite game which I played religiously, day-in day-out, with my friends for the best part of five years. I loved the world, the characters, the freedom, but most of all the community. Fast forward to 2012 and Diablo III releases by the same developer. Despite similarities, it didn’t click, playing solo it was lacking that community I so desired. Skip to 2023 and my girlfriend gets me Diablo III: Eternal Collection for Switch. Rejoice! With her in tow, the stage was finally set – let’s kill some demons!
Tying in with my passion for gaming and technology, and all the corresponding highs and lows, comedy skit channel Viva La Dirt League offers regular laughs, often bringing me to tears, with their clever observation and re-enactment of typically recognised tropes and failings.
Time trial games seem to be all the rage now in drumming up excitement for product releases. Making use of this latest trend is Interparfums, teaming up with Merci-Michel to create a dynamic ball-steering course for their latest Montblanc Legend Blue fragrance. How does this iteration compare to so much previous competition though?
Brought to my attention by Blender Guru Andrew Price, the HoloTile, developed by Walt Disney Imagineering R&D, aims to provide the ‘multi-directional treadmill’ we have always wanted. Though still in early development, the potential is high — finally making progress on not making progress. Hmm…
Running until 25 February 2024 (so be hasty if you still wish to attend), the Battersea Light Festival offers a range of interactive and artistic light installations to discover, dotted both inside and outside the magnificent power station. My girlfriend and I ventured down that way last weekend after an all-you-can-eat sushi (possibly not our smartest move), to marvel at their spectacle and appreciate, in some cases at least, their illuminating genius.
In celebration of Valentine’s Day this year, Google presented an awesome Doodle to the world that combined literal chemistry with the dating apps by which love is so often found in this modern age. Having met my wonderful girlfriend through dating app Hinge, as a couple we are testament to their success, and thus I was excited to see how Google would combine scientific and amorous chemistry into a cohesive experience.
One of the most useful functions of Adobe Illustrator is being able to export the individual artboards as separate files. I have done this many times in the past, saving as .jpg, .png and .eps. Oddly though, one file type has always eluded me: .ai. How is it that the program can’t export individual artboards as its native file type? Turns out the option is just a little more hidden away, because why keep things simple and logical?
Brandon King Design 