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Once I realized that I had a 3 week break after the end of my Contract and before the start of a contract renewal or another round of interviews I quickly jumped at the chance to travel abroad and salvage some adventure from what little was left of a semi-disappointing 2009. The question was where to go that was not too far away, too expensive and with tolerable weather. As a long time traveler I always have 5 or 6 trips floating around in my head and when given the opportunity I make a last minute decision on which to take based on length of travel, the latitude/geography/season and cost. For this time of year Russia was out, and Morocco was way too expensive and far so I opted for Central America. Since I have traveled through every country there but Panama I had my sights set on seeing it but the costs of a direct flight to Panama City at Christmas were prohibitive and so I ended up with a $450 cheaper flight to Costa Rica and had a mental plan to make my way down overland to Panama. Although Costa Rica is not my favorite destination in Central America due to it being very touristy and expensive in the most popular destinations I felt the savings were more than worth it and I could spend my Christmas in Manuel Antionio which I had not visited on my previous visit two years ago.

I have had a few people ask me lately about my favorite iPhone apps, knowing that I have downloaded 200+ and keep up to date on the latest entries. So I though I would post this information on my Top 15 Favorite iPhone Apps (non-gaming) for future reference.

• 15. Craigsphone (Free) – An adequate but useful Craigslist app.
• 14. Free RSS (Free) – A good free RSS Feed Reader.
• 13. Ambiance ($2.99 – New Version; Free – Old Version) – Relaxing sounds like ocean waves and lake side to lull you to sleep.
• 12. ShapeWriter (Free – Light; $9.99 Pro) – A great input alternative for much quicker and more accurate typing of longer messages. The free Light version does not have a landscape keyboard. The $10 Pro version has the landscape keyboard and is worth it if you frequently type longer emails or SMS. Even with the soon to be built in landscape keyboard with the new 3.0 OS this app will still be valuable for long messages.

I just noticed that along with a new release of their web software the Microsoft Live Labs team behind Photosynth selected My Lalibela, Ethiopia collection of photos as one of their top 20 featured sets on the
Photosynth Front Page. For now the PhotoSynth web applet works best from Internet Explorer although they just released a beta version of a cross browser viewer called Silverlight. From the front page, scroll left or right until you see the cross-shaped monastery from Lalibela (same photos as in this post) and click Go, or jump right to the collection with the first link. If you have not already installed the web software it will request that you do so (it is Microsoft product so signed and safe).

If you have a Mac you can try the experimental browser Here. Go Here to read about the update and Silverlight cross-browser beta release. I have not tried it but it seems to be working, though at a lower level of functionality than in IE.

To see all ten or so of my Photo Synths (3D viewing collections), go Here.

I had an advanced 2-part article on game design published on Game Industry site www.Gamasutra.com in November. For the full versions, see Part I of 2 and Part 2 of 2.

Part I Excerpt:
My initial Gameplay Fundamentals article was oriented towards the macro concept of gameplay progression in a campaign or career and how environmental content should be planned and structured from level to level to support such a progression in all areas (mechanics, duration, ancillary awards, practical rewards and difficulty). But the need to plan and structure environmental content does not only support the concept of progression; the structured environment plan is also very critical to the concepts of game intensity and pacing at both the mission and campaign level.