Holden
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Posts by Holden
Thoughts on Limbo
Jul 30th
I haven’t been away from the game long enough to write a formal deconstruction, but I’ve been talking to a lot of friends about Playdead’s Limbo recently. My opinion differs from the majority (not to say I’m on my own), and I think writing it in the blog is the best way to articulate the angle I’m coming from. In doing so, I hope I’ll be able to get some feedback on why the things that bothered me made the game better for everyone else.
Game Deconstruction: Robot Unicorn Attack
Jun 28th
Open your eyes, I see. Your eyes are open.
Wear no disguise for me, come into the open.
When it’s cold (when it’s cold), outside (outside), am I here in vain?
Hold on, to the night, there will be no shame.
When I was trying to decide which game to deconstruct next, I listed the games I’ve been playing the most recently. Then I pulled out my phone to send a text message and Robot Unicorn Attack stared back at me. I stopped playing just long enough to write this article. More >
Only at Tech Hacked
Mar 31st
Around 11:30 PM last night, the Only at Tech team became aware of malicious code that was being served through our website. It does NOT appear that this code downloaded any sort of malware to our users’ computers (our virus scans have turned up negative), but we have reason for concern because one of the affected files contained the login information for the site’s database. This means the attacker(s) could have gained access to a list of our registered users’ email addresses and hashed passwords.
The offending code has been removed. We believe this was an automated attack, and in most cases the attackers do not do anything with the users’ data. It was likely targeted at multiple sites running the same backend as Only at Tech. That doesn’t mean you should be careless if you use your Only at Tech password on other sites with sensitive data. To be on the safe side, we would recommend you change your passwords on Only at Tech and any other sites where you use the same email/password combination.
We apologize for our failure to secure your information on our side, and for any inconvenience this causes you. We’re currently in the process of upgrading to a more secure backend as part of a major site update, but in the meantime, we’ve taken some precautions to prevent this from happening again.
Technical details on the attack are below for those of you who are interested. This is Tech, after all. More >
Game Deconstruction: PixelJunk Shooter
Mar 29th
Back in August, I committed to doing one decon per month. It only took two months for me to fall off track. Now I have to play catch up…but better late than never, right?
This month I take a look at another downloadable title, this time for the PlayStation 3. I briefly played PixelJunk Shooter at E3, and although I was impressed with its visual style and ease of use, I didn’t know how long the game would be able to keep my attention with its simple mechanics. I picked it up based on the developer’s reputation for quality, and although it was a bit on the short side, it does a lot of things very well. More >
New Game: SUPÉR MATADOR 3
Jan 31st
This weekend, I participated in the Global Game Jam at the SCAD Atlanta / Georgia Tech site. We were tasked with making a game that included the themes of “deception” and “rain, plains, or Spain.” 48 hours later, we made SUPÉR MATADOR 3.
Click the image to go to the GGJ site and play!
I was responsible for game design and audio. My team won first place!
The contest also had “achievements” we could get by sticking to certain constraints. We were rewarded for having no text, using less than 16 colors, and being playable in a browser. Check it out and let me know what you think!
What I Played: 2009 Edition
Jan 13th
For all the time I spent working, I still managed to play a lot of games in 2009. I’m late on the decons, but in the meantime I’ve put together a list of (almost) every game I played this year with a couple thoughts on things that stuck out to me about each of them. More >
Only at U(sic)GA Rejects
Dec 1st
Rivalry week is past, and UGA played the better game and won. Hats off to them.
We turned “Only at Tech” into “Only at U(sic)GA” as a way to poke fun at our rival prior to the game. We had hundreds of hilarious stories submitted by Tech students, but some folks from UGA also used the site to express their displeasure. Here are some of the funnier hate posts that we rejected: More >
Only at Tech hits the Technique
Nov 19th
The Technique, Georgia Tech’s student newspaper, has an article on Only at Tech in the Focus section this week. Check it out!
There are a few typos (and some misquotes – I promise my grammar isn’t that bad) but it’s full of praise for the website and the way it has been embraced by the Georgia Tech community. We’re rolling out some major updates to the site on Saturday – can’t say what just yet, but hopefully it will give Tech students yet another reason to visit.
Only at Tech – The First Day
Nov 4th
Today’s website launch went better than any of us could have imagined. We launched the site around 12:15 EST. Below are some general stats about the site’s traffic for those who are interested. Assuming 90%+ of our traffic came from Georgia Tech students, it’s somewhat revealing…
Hits: 383,691
Page Views: 281,952
Unique Visitors: 8,770
Average Page Views per Visitor: 32.15
Fans on Facebook: 1258
Bandwidth Used: 8.96 GB
The page view ratio is extremely high. That means people are getting onto the site and staying to read pages upon pages of content. Great news for us!
And some graphs:
Site Activity by Hour of Day
In typical Tech fashion, the website’s popularity was highest from 11 to midnight. Will with 12AM-1AM slot be even better? It looks like we still haven’t peaked.
Top Referring Sites
Behold the power of Facebook! We didn’t do any advertising for the site other than mentioning it in front of our CS class.
Most Used Browsers
Georgia Tech is probably the only place where Google Chrome users outnumber IE 6, 7, and 8 users combined. The “Others” category was dominated by Blackberry and Opera, but there were also a few hacking tools in there from people who tried (unsuccessfully) to hack the site. At one point, someone did run a script that voted for their post every 30 seconds to raise it to the top of the ratings.
Most Used Operating Systems
Windows Vista narrowly edged out Windows XP for the title of “most used OS.” There were roughly half as many iPhone users as Windows 7 users, and three times as many Mac OS X users as Windows 7 users. To break one Tech stereotype, only 182 people accessed the site from Linux, and 11 poor users were still running Windows 98.
New Website – “Only at Tech”
Nov 4th
Announcing “Only at Tech,” a website for Georgia Tech students to share their stories of love and hate about their school. I’m the website’s designer. It’s very comparable to websites like FMyLife or Texts from Last Night. Check it out!
Update: The site’s launch went better than we could have ever imagined. We’ve had over 200 submissions and over 400 people add us as fans on Facebook in a period of seven hours. Keep spreading the word!
