| "Writing is a kind of magic or deep-frozen speech, which the writer can use, day after day, to say to everyone who looks at it whatever he wants to say." |
| -- John Holt, Atlantic Monthly, 1971 |
Jason Rohrer
Currently parenting and making video games somewhere in New Hampshire.[worklog] [release log] [support my work]
Want to know when I release something?
You'll get a few brief emails a year, at most.
Real-World Games
Project Skydrop-- a real-world treasure hunt in a shrinking circle. Starting soon.A Game for Someone [video]-- a titanium board game that won't be played by anyone for at least 2000 years. Available now, somewhere in the Nevada Desert.
Artificial Intelligence Projects
Project December-- Talk to the world's most sophisticated AI. Simulate the dead. Available now.Video Games
One Hour One Life-- my twelfth game. A multiplayer survival game of parenting and civilization building. Available now.Cordial Minuet-- my eleventh game. A two-player online strategy game played for real money.
The Castle Doctrine-- my tenth game. A massively-multiplayer game of burglary and home defense.
Diamond Trust of London-- my ninth game. A two-player strategy game about deception.
Inside a Star-filled Sky-- my eighth game. An infinite, recursive, tactical shooter for one player.
Sleep Is Death-- my seventh game. A two-player storytelling game.
Primrose-- my sixth game. A compelling tile-placement puzzle game. Designed with the iPhone in mind.
Between-- my fifth game, about consciousness and isolation. Hosted by Esquire magazine as part of their December 2008 Best and Brightest feature (see my profile in Esquire).
Gravitation-- my fourth game, about mania, melancholia, and the creative process.
Passage-- my third game, shown at Kokoromi's curated GAMMA 256 event (at MIGS 2007).
Cultivation-- my second game, a social simulation about a community of gardeners that explores the balance between conflict and compromise (no shooting, but plenty of angry looks).
Transcend-- my first game, an abstract 2D shooting game that doubles as a multimedia sculpture.
Arthouse Games-- my artgame journalism site, featuring news, reviews, and interviews.
Game Design Sketchbook
A monthly series of game prototypes commissioned by The Escapist.NOTE: Downloads hosted by The Escapist no longer work.
A mirror has been posted here.
Perfectionism-- about the trap of perfectionism.
Idealism-- about learning ideals from others.
Police Brutality-- how can you thwart unreasonable police escalation?
Immortality-- If you could become immortal, would you?
Regret-- about leaving the past behind you.
i45hg-- testing the limits of single-player.
Crude Oil-- my first two-player game.
Events
Mary Johnson, Give Us a Sign-- An elaborate happening that I orchestrated for my neighbor's Halloween party.Books
Saturday with Mez-- A board book for children that depicts a day in the life of a breastfeeding toddler. Co-authored with my spouse Lauren Serafin.Writings
Fiction
six and a half seconds-- a story in hypertext (May 15, 2002). Authored with hyperlit.Two Turtles-- a story (January 18, 2002).
Non-Fiction
Free Distribution-- an essay (September 27, 2004).The case for labectomy-- a pamphlet (March 6, 2002).
Post-Academic Manifesto-- a flyer (January 15, 2002, Revised March 27, 2002)[ps.gz (23 KiB)][pdf (57 KiB)].
The Game Design of Art-- an essay published by The Escapist(June 24, 2008).
Journal Publications
"Scalable Web Page Entanglement." New Review of Hypermedia and Multimedia, Volume 8, 2002. [ps.gz (277 KiB)][pdf (270 KiB)]Other Papers
1. "Timing-Based Neural Networks to Play Go." May 11, 2000. TimingBasedGo.ps (1.7 MiB)2. "Stochastically Selected Edge-Bounded Windows: A Local Stereo Method." May 19, 2000. EdgeBoundedWindows.ps (1.1 MiB)
3. "Crossbreeding Fixed-Architecture Neural Networks." December 15, 2000. Crossbreeding.ps (258 KiB)
4. "Kinship Face Matching Games" January 2, 2002. KinshipFaceMatchingGames.ps.gz (209 KiB)
Presentations
1. "Kinship Face Matching Games" December 3, 2001. KinshipFaceMatchingGamesSlides.ps.gz (188 KiB)2. "Scalable Web Page Entanglement" May 28, 2002. [ps.gz (25 KiB)][pdf (42 KiB)]
Software Research Projects
Reprojector-- an equirectangular map reprojection tool.MUTE-- an anonymous file sharing system. Downloaded over one million times as of October 28, 2008.
seedBlogs-- a tool for building dynamic websites
silk-- a web-based hypertext system with frictionless linking.
Monolith-- a thought experiment that might be relevant to digital copyright.
konspire2b-- a peer-to-peer content distribution system.
token_word-- an experimental online literature system.
tangle-- web page entanglement.
hyperlit-- a literary hypertext authoring system.
CTF-- a multi-agent capture-the-flag framework for undergraduate AI education.
minorGems-- an ever-growing repository of useful, multi-platform code objects.
Dalek-Zero-- a mobile robotics project
Community Projects
Nature On Trial-- my mini-blog about our natural landscape and our resulting legal troubles. We went to trial on December 15, 2005. We won.Musical Endeavors
APN records-- a not-for-profit record label that sought to promote interesting music. I co-founded APN with Tom Bailey in 1995.Monolith-- my personal music project. My album, "a curved geometry", is available for download from the Internet Archive.
New Recording (October 2005)
This is not part of the Monolith project, and it is my first recording on which I'm playing guitar (albeit slightly sampled). I also performed the SH-101 baseline, SH-101 solo, and lead vocals. Lauren sang the harmony and closing vocals. It's a bit rough---think of it as a demo. Two formats, MP3 or OGG. If you're not sure what those formats mean, try the MP3 file.
Frost.mp3 -- Frost.ogg -- lyrics: Frost.txt
Contact Information
Email (as a robot-proof image):
Web: http://hcsoftware.sf.net/jason-rohrer
A mirror of the Eldred vs. Ashcroft hearing transcript
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