Category: LookingOutwards

One of my favorite video game series from my childhood is Riddle School, a point-and-click game where you have to solve little puzzles (or, I suppose, riddles) to break out of school.

I admire it so much— not just for the nostalgia— but for its ability to take such simple artwork and (in the grand scheme of modern gaming) simple code and make something really memorable and rich with lore. This is exactly the kind of game I want to be able to make.

The art, animation, and programming is done entirely by JonBro (now Jonochrome), and music is by Pepsileo and Cheshyre. Jonochrome was inspired by Pico’s School by Tom Fulp, and he created this game as a non-violent spoof of it. It was made with Adobe Flash (rest in sweet peace).

You can play the first game in the series here. If you continue with it, there are some really crazy plot-twists.

One interactive art piece I admire is Nikolas Diamant’s MoCap Head.

This project sticks out to me because I think it is an example of the perfect mix of fine art + computer science that is appealing to audiences including and beyond the fields of art and of computer science. It is visually very charming and satisfying and is very computationally impressive, but it is not so distant and unappealing to the average person. Additionally, I am drawn to this piece because it is made with programs and languages I am somewhat comfortable with (Blender, blender python). It inspires me to take my interest in 3D rendering a step further by learning bpy.

I think Nik made the project himself with perhaps some help from Golan. I am assuming it was made for a class, so it probably took a week or two to make.