The first episode is finally out.

It was designed to be part of Superme, the resilience system of content for teens to help them understand that it’s ok just to be ok.

The Supermes was part labour of love for Robin Burkinshaw, the genius crafter behind Alice and Kev, and part Massive Headache. In the best possible way.

The reason why it was a headache was simple: apart from stuff I can’t really talk about, there was the very fact that the characters were uncontrollable in a sense. These were not actors you could direct. Nor was this machinima. This was something entirely different and tricky because they were essentially robots. To cut what they did while Robin played them was no easy task, and the crafting of the story was a massive challenge, but it has worked.

Even the voice over was hard to get right. We originally wanted a Carl Pilkington-esque tone, but quickly realised it would not work. We did however want to make sure the narration nodded to some of the odd things our characters would do, because they were Sims. We wanted the narrator to balance those humorous observations with the more serious messages coming through, dealing with loss for example.

I am really proud of it, and some of the episodes made me cry.*

This post explains the whole process rather well, and you can also check out the blog on Facebook which involved the audience throughout the production process.

There were a lot of people who came and went over the course of this project, and they did a stunning job imho.

*Although still disappointed there was no cat in any of the episodes. The Sims 3 doesn’t have pets.

Bleeding Cool did a lovely write up today trailing the event and showing off the first exclusive cover art – one of my favourites (although they are all magnificent, and by different very well know comic artists). I think it really is going to live up to expectations: almost a year in production. W00t. Well done to Hat Trick, Littleloud, John and Leah, Emma, and the wonderful Windflower.

App will follow soon after launch too!

Not about ethical fashion, but more about sustainable fashion, the site feeds off your Facebook social graph and lets you swap clothes for points (the more sustainable, the more points you get) with your mates. There are leaderboards too.

The iPhone buddy app which launches soon, lets you snap a wanted item while you are out and about and post it to your FB wall as a fashion SOS. It also tells you all about sustainable designers to look out for in the shops, and tells you where your nearest charity and vintage shops are.

I expect to see some really interesting stories coming out of this, and it’s already been nominated for a Bima Award!

Paulina Bozek, the mastermind behind Singstar, is a creative genius and a pleasure to work with. I shall be eagerly trying to borrow ALL HER CLOTHES too.

Some coverage:

Singstar creator sets sights on ethical fashion

Channel 4 Education announces Closet Swap

Grab the trailer. Or just watch it.

I love the darkness of the Boss, the comedy of the references and scripting, the Gary Lucken art, and the 8 bit soundtrack. But most of all, I love the guilt of players and that many of the blog review comments have been about the politics of sweatshops, not whether people love or hate the music. And this is the point: *this* is why we do what we do,with the people we do it with.*

It is also our first game out of the door from the 2011 stable. More to come, including The End, a game about death, by the fantastic Preloaded and commissioned by Alice. Watch this space.

* And they squeezed in a cat for me (scroll to the end of this piece!)

Google’s recent move to insist that all +1 accounts be registered under “real names” made me very angry. Over the weekend, the monolith started to wipe accounts out of existence if they appeared to be using a pseudonym, or as most of us would understand it, the names we go by in our digital lives and, often, in meatspace too.*

Three years ago, I was booted out of Facebook for “failing to use my real name”. And I still haven’t forgiven FB for its lack of understanding about on/offline/thereisnodifference identity and the right to exert any name (read, side of an identity) one wishes. It affords some semblance of boundedness between public, private, and semi public selves – yes, perhaps only conceptually, but still. Three years ago, I think I was more angry about the issue itself than the *real* issue which was that FB and others alike wanted to compel me to use my “real name” so that they could pin me down, and “productise” me more.

It prompted me to start thinking again about how much we the people have become (and have always been I suppose) the product, not the products that are advertised to us through FB etc, and not the services that purport to offer us something. They are buying *us*: they buy *our*  attention and activities. We are the products.  @ianbetteridge tweeted earlier today (which in turn prompted me to write this post):

If you’re not paying for a service, you’re being sold by it.

My response was that we are all products, and that “all our actions, musings, clickings, chattings, playings, voicings: all being harvested to make the fuel for money.“

We know why Google has done this. Google has since “revised” its policy but it goes no way far enough for me, and many others still maintain the right to use other handles. My online name is part of my identity. An identity. Of course, nowadays, you can still find what other names any given name of mine is linked to. But by choosing which name to go under, to connect to, in a particular context, I also actively assert and give you permission make assumptions about me, to know what my boundaries are.

I think it is my right. As is my right not to tell FB any other details about me than my online handle.** And it is my right continue to make it hard for the market to make me any more of a product than I already am. I have the right to have some control over how I syndicate my selves. I know I may be naive about whether this makes a true difference, but it is the principle I stand by.

* I have just bought an Etsy necklace of my online handle.

** yes, this does mean than FB thinks I am 76 and so the ads I get served are… well…weird.

It is written by Leah Moore and John Reppion, the fabulous married comic super duo. They were teamed with fresh out of college illustrators Windflower (who I love on DeviantArt) and lead character designer Emma Vieceli. I remember being really shocked hearing that as writers, they rarely had a choice of illustrators to work with and they didn’t really co-create with them. That was something we wanted to do differently in this production and I really think it has been an incredibly co-creative, collaborative effort.

With Hat Trick at the production helm and Littleloud on the “reinventing online comic readers”* and animation job, it truly is an all-star team, and they are all absolutely fantastically fun to work with.

We had a great time at the MCM Expo last weekend talking about it and ramming leaflets down teenagers’ throats**. We hope to be there again in the Autumn in time for it to go live.

And this time: we dress up.

Check out the very much work in progress teaser above…

*We are using Unity and some snazzy animation and camera work. It is the first time Unity has been used for a comic, apparently.

**It is aimed at 14-16 year olds.

Yay Sissy and her education fund.

I *will* possibly get a chance to do this kind of thing, come to think if it, without actually having to go through the agony of childbirth, as I have just had my induction to be a Ministry of Stories Minister in Training. I might even get to work in the Monster Shop. Check out the history and inspiration here.

They do writing mentor workshops with primary school age and will be working  with older excluded kids soon too. Can’t wait. Bring on the Mortal Terror.

The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads Wow.

Crunchy numbers

A Boeing 747-400 passenger jet can hold 416 passengers. This blog was viewed about 11,000 times in 2010. That’s about 26 full 747s.

In 2010, there were 15 new posts, growing the total archive of this blog to 712 posts. There were 10 pictures uploaded, taking up a total of 511kb. That’s about a picture per month.

The busiest day of the year was October 4th with 260 views. The most popular post that day was games, metaphor, empathy… .

Where did they come from?

The top referring sites in 2010 were twitter.com, kittenfluff.blogspot.com, danhon.com, facebook.com, and mydogminton.wordpress.com.

Some visitors came searching, mostly for cats, hitler cats, rent a cat, stupid people, and screen licker.

Attractions in 2010

These are the posts and pages that got the most views in 2010.

games, metaphor, empathy… October 2010
1 comment

Cats that look like Hitler June 2006
7 comments

Rent-a-cat at Cat cafe April 2008
4 comments

About February 2007

Screen Licker March 2005
6 comments

*Apart from the fainting kittehs.