Aubrie Johnson

WORDMONGER // PHOTOJOURNALIST All these articles and you still can't read me. SUMMONER NAME: Daughter Phoenix

[aubriejohnson]

Haven’t heard about the Good Game Convention in a minute. In 2013, GG Con held a League of Legends tournament at Laney College in Oakland, California. Participating teams could choose whatever team name they wished, and I had the supreme pleasure of being able to write this headline for the school paper: “Underwear Models Beat Nerds at Their Own Game.”

Papers flew off the shelves that week.

[aubriejohnson]

Is It Harder to Find Black Women in Suburban Japan, or in the San Francisco Tech Industry?

On being the “right person” for the job.

It all started this past January, when my boyfriend and I hopped on a plane from foggy San Francisco to Japan. Our first night in Tokyo, my boyfriend, black like me, professed to do the only* thing I openly express my hatred for, which involves putting on tight, undance-able pants and shoes, and flailing our arms among drunk Americans in Tokyo’s most popular “gaijin club” while shouting over obnoxious music. Yay, clubbing!

After that night, I wouldn’t see another black person for days. Once we realized “black people spotting” could become a game, we took to it right away.

Let’s play “Count the Black People!”

At first I found this absence of blackness exciting. This is Japan, after all; I wanted to speak Japanese, with Japanese people, and talk about Japanese things, like where to get the best haibooru in town, or how to find clothes that fit.

Between my mediocre command of the language and my boyfriend’s extensive traveling experience, we managed to have a pretty good time in between getting lost on various metros. We had beers with salarymen in Osaka, hung out with wild deer in Nara, and had the BEST RAMEN EVER in Kyoto. (My favorite part was when some high school girls riffed on my hair in Japanese, then looked embarrassed when I called them rude…in Japanese.)

But when I saw the first black person outside of Tokyo, I was stunned. A rush of elation washed over me. I managed to contain a scream usually reserved for Welsh Corgi sightings. Black people! In Japan!

We did the Nod, of course.

(For all the white people joining us today: when a black person nods at any other black person, the other one almost always nods back, whether they’re acquainted with each other or not. It’s like saying, “Hello. I see that you are black. I, too, happen to be black. Your unexpected blackness in this location is like a refreshing breeze on a summer’s day. Rock on.”)

Over three weeks, we visited Nara, Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka, and Sapporo, and counted 38 black people, 12 of them women. Then we returned to San Francisco.

At first I thought I was continuing to count black people out of nostalgia for Japan. I was wrong.

I saw more black people 3,000 miles away in Japan than I do on an average workday here in Startupland.

Seriously. At least Nara, Japan is something of a tourist trap, so I knew where to find them. Here, I’m digging. Actively searching for black people. I leave my house in the morning and I count dozens of non-techies — housemates, neighbors, that guy who hangs out at the corner store…

In SoMa, San Francisco’s startup district, the count slows to a standstill. Today, I counted two black people over the course of nine hours. Four hours in Otaru, Hokkaido yielded far more blackness than this.

Just so we’re clear, Otaru looked like this in January:

I met one black couple, a mom, and two kids in Otaru, on their way from the Hokkaido Snow Festival. My people aren’t known for loving cold weather, and Japan isn’t actively incentivizing tourism for black people, yet there we were.

San Francisco and its neighbor, Silicon Valley, claim to have a deep, vested interest in hiring and retaining a diverse staff. Yet here we aren’t.

I hope your startup is different, but I’ve been visiting an average of five startups a week for work, and during these visits in offices of 50–100 people, I count one, maybe two black dudes.

Here we aren’t.

You know where we are, though? We’re at mixers, and networking events, and conferences. We’re interning for the third year in a row while searching for mentors and jobs. We’re contracting part-time for less than we’re worth, despite shipping exemplary work on the daily. And we’re definitely in recruiters’ inboxes.

Sure. Maybe they’re just picking the “best person for the job.” And maybe, 9 times out of 10, the best person for the job is a 20-something white dude who buys $6 coffees and calls himself a “ninja” on his LinkedIn profile.

Just putting it out there, guys: black people like ninjas too.

Now Hiring: Diversities!

Some of you may be thinking, “Hey Aubrie, aren’t you reaching kinda hard here? Finding work is the exact opposite of taking a vacation!” I’d agree with that, if I wasn’t meeting engineers, software developers, writers, and researchers of color looking for work every day in the places I frequent. I meet black women in tech mixers and lobbies, but most often on trains and planes—two black women hitting it off while on their way to another job interview, another meeting, another marketing opportunity.

Some of us who get a great job, keep it! The rest end up quitting, or being “let go” for a host of preventable situations relating to company culture. Amélie Lamont’s “Not a Black Chair” springs to mind.

Without women of color chronicling our negative experiences on Medium, I’d probably write this off as an overreaction. But if I didn’t know better, I’d think that some hiring managers were going about this whole diversity thing the wrong way, perhaps by unconsciously switching gears from “Let’s find the best person for the job” to “Let’s find us some Diversities,” ticking a box when the deed is done, and moving on, thinking less and less of our professional development until the topic becomes unavoidable.

It’s almost as if our role in the average company culture is to be, I dunno, a token, instead of an autonomous, competent employee deserving of responsibilities and challenges!

I’m less likely to find black techies in one of America’s most multicultural locales than a Japanese tundra because there are significantly fewer barriers of entry into Japan. To survive Narita Airport, you need money, a passport, and to not have marijuana on you.

What do WOC need to find a tech job?

Money, of course.

You can easily spend at least a vacation’s worth of money during your first month of job hunting. The average one-bedroom in San Francisco costs upwards of $2,500. If you can’t afford the rent (yet), you could wrangle up five or six roommates, rent across the bridge in Oakland, or you can live somewhere else entirely and fly in to interviews until you find a job, which is going to cost you lots and lots of—wait for it—money! And don’t forget that larger companies these days can take anywhere from one to four months to make a hiring decision.

Be a wizard, ninja, or guru.

Even if you don’t code, any member of the tech industry must profess to have achieved some mythical level of awesomeness. Are you a Drupal ninja yet? Do your eat shards for breakfast? Do your blog posts “CRUSH IT?” Good. You’ll fit in nicely here.

You also need to be a good “culture fit.”

The average brogrammer is a 20-something cis white dude, steeped in pop culture and always looking out for the next B2B on-demand organic free-range food delivery service app. You should probably also like drinking, and be willing to surrender your work-life balance for the good of the ship.

If you meet most “culture fit” prerequisites AND tick a Diversity Box, you’re in.

Employees get hired for being awesome, not for being black, female, or gay. That said, startups promoting themselves online with just photos of white dudes high-fiving in front of Macbooks will get noticed for all the wrong reasons. (Most) hiring managers are aware of this as they compare top candidates to their current staff.

(Pretending managers who “don’t see race” are invisible once a week is a part of my self-care practice, by the way.)

If your particular Diversity Box has been ticked recently, you’re probably out.

If, say, the average small company hires me, a black woman, and then interviews you, another black woman, the Black Woman role has already been filled, so you’re probably not going to make the cut. Gotta protect that “company culture,” you know.

And that is why suburban Japan, one of the most racially homogeneous countries in the entire world, is more diverse than San Francisco’s tech industry.

Some startups give the term “company culture” a bad rap.

If a startup or young business is having trouble retaining women or people of color, that’s a company culture issue. Exclusively pursuing employees who think and act like the CEO strengthens a culture that ostracizes uniqueness while glorifying similarity as the ideal. Even though what worked for you in high school rarely translates into real life.

An office full of white male extroverts from the same fraternity, for example, may not comprehend why the introverted black girl who worked retail through college never wants to stick around for movie night. The more alike the group is, the harder it is for anyone different to acclimate into your team, forcing “different” employees to perform fake personas just to fit in, rather than feel comfortable as they are. Or worse: good employees who value their dignity will quit while they’re ahead.

Feeling ostracized isn’t very fetch at all, is it?

It doesn’t have to be this way, bros.

Other young-ish companies are doing an excellent job of not making their employees feel like foreigners on the Tokyo Metro. Couldn’t you be more like your older brother, Slack? Women of color make up nine percent of their staff, and if multibillion-dollar valuations are how we measure success, they seem to be doing all right.

How about your cousin in L.A., Riot Games? Their workplace is 23% female, and no one even makes a big deal about it. They seem to be doing quite well, too. Or VMWare, which employs 47% people of color. They’re not losing any success over that decision.

Can you imagine walking through your job’s campus without feeling culturally disconnected from 98% of your peers? Feeling professionally challenged each day, instead of personally confronted? Looking forward to what lies ahead in your day, your career, and your life?

Rethinking what “culture fit” means to a company would give current and future employees what we all deserve: the opportunity to love what we do. For diversity and success, imagine factoring merit and potential over friendability, striving for transparency in hiring practices, and giving new recruits the opportunity to bring their best selves to the table.

I can imagine the outcome, and frankly, I can’t wait to get started.

This article originally appeared on Medium. I swore a lot less than usual. You’re welcome.

[zodiaccity]

[aubriejohnson]

Three tips for fighting a surprise appearance from depression

How to manage broketime sadness

How do you react when you’re consistently failing to get what you want out of life? I tend to want to curl up into a little ball of sadness with a glass of cheap champagne …

[aubriejohnson]

Booker, catch!

[aubriejohnson]

How 12-year-olds on League of Legends tell stories

This one goes out to all the ragey little shits.

“Oh my GOD you won’t BELIEVE this match I just played!”

Prepare yourself for the embellishment of ages.

”Okay, get this: I’m support bottom against Annie and Maokai.

I forgot to call mid, so I spent the first 30 seconds QQ’ing until everyone muted me.

”I’m keeping Gangplank alive left and right.”

I’m new to Lux, so I’m making myself useful as a meat shield and last-hitting all the creep.

”Then suddenly Nidalee comes out to gank us! I’m like, nah.”

I screamed like a bitch and almost died.

“And then I was like, Stun! Snare! Heal! Q! Stun!”

Then I button-mashed.

”I totally carried the first team fight!”

I didn’t kill anyone, but I did heal my teammates at least once!

”Annie kept blocking me out.”

I’m shit at positioning and didn’t bring Flash.

”So I pushed top and took down the first turret!”

When top was almost finished destroying the turret I teleported up and last-hit it. Now I feel important!

”Then the WHOLE TEAM rushed me!”

Feeling zesty, I soloed top and Nidalee murdered me under the second turret. Now my feelings are hurt.

”They fucking raped me, and my team didn’t help at all!”

My team was halfway across the board with no visibility, so I brought this on myself. Also I think it’s funny to equate video game violence to sexual assault, because I’m 12.

”But I turned things around!”

I wasn’t warding, so everyone else did. My teammates strategized without me, while I ALL-CAPS’D INSULTS INTO THE VOID OF ALLCHAT.

”We took down half their turrets and forced them to surrender!”

A 12-year-old on the other team left for dinner so they quit.

”I carried that team SO HARD. Fucking NEWBS.”

My mom doesn’t know I used her credit card to buy this fancy skin.

”My other account is plat.”

I don’t know what “plat” means.

[aubriejohnson]

Permalance: A freelance position that turns into a full-time job without benefits.

Hell, where permalancing came from

[aubriejohnson]

2015’s been a rough year, y’all. Police brutality, Kim Davis, Republican debates...if you’re feeling depressed, just think about Batkid and smile.

[aubriejohnson]

This virtual reality game could cure lazy eye

Scientists believed lazy eye couldn't be treated after seven years of age, but Vivid Vision is helping patients of all ages regain their depth perception.

Amblyopia, better known as "lazy eye," happens when one eye is weaker than the other. Over time, the brain learns to "ignore" the other eye, which all but disables your depth perception. Around 20 million people are living with all the other lovely symptoms lazy eye brings, from double vision to a jarring, "wandering" eye.

Playing Vivid Vision's virtual reality game regularly can supposedly help assess and drastically improve lazy eye symptoms, re-training your brain to acknowledge that poor, forsaken eye. Their at-home version will be a fully-featured game with a storyline, and is to be released next year. Everything you need to play will be priced at less than $100.

So, does it work? Or nah?

How it works — the "explain it like I'm five" version

There's nothing physically wrong with a lazy eye, says Vivid Vision CEO James Blaha. It's actually not even "lazy," just bashful and shy; your eye has been trying to communicate with your brain all this time, but brain-kun just doesn't seem to notice it.

My non-optometrist anime fangirl explanation is thus: Vivid is slowly but surely convincing brain-kun that eye-chan is pretty kawaii.

And, it multitasks. The game tracks your progress and improvement over time. If your doctor is using the clinical version of Vivid, your at-home data syncs with theirs. While you're at home having a blast on your doctor-prescribed virtual reality space game and bragging to your friends about it, Doc's keeping tabs on how well your eyes have been getting along. So, if this were an anime, Vivid would be your high school wingman and your attractive English teacher, simultaneously.

Do you have to play it with a clinician?

Blaha said in this March 2015 interview that with a practice regimen of 30-60 minutes a day, at least 5 days a week, a player would "start noticing changes inside of virtual reality within the first week or two, and then those changes start to have persist outside of virtual reality after 3-4 weeks."

So, a noticeable improvement in eye function in less than a month? Not too shabby. I look forward to chatting with someone who's tried out the system in the future, when the home version comes out.

On that note, the home bundle includes a VR headset, desktop computer, gesture tracker. And, because waving at screens for a half-hour a day is kinda weird, they're throwing in an Xbox controller.

The home bundle doesn't need to be used in tandem with a clinician's help, however. That's actually why it exists.

"Our goal still is and has always been to help the most people with amblyopia and strabismus as possible," Blaha said in a blog post. The home version was created to better serve those who might not have frequent access to a clinician.

About the Startup

Vivid Vision, previously Diplopia, is a San Francisco-based startup. Vivid's Indiegogo campaign in January 2014 shot for $2,000 in hopes of buying a legit Unity license, and walked with a whopping $20,535 in a single month.

[aubriejohnson]

3 reasons not to use game design torrents

I admit it; I’ve done some shady software installs in the past. And I’m willing to bet that if you haven’t already done the same, you’re here because you’re thinking about doing it, too.

Cracked, easy-to-install copies of just about any Nintendo DS title flow freely throughout the interwebs. You can play any game you want, from The Sims 4 to Skyrim, without ever opening your wallet. An aspiring game designer may have a harder time cracking Unity 3D or Photoshop CS5 but, with a little perseverance, any exorbitantly-priced software can be yours for the taking.

A Unity Pro license—an industry standard and therefore a requirement—costs as much as a jacuzzi, a used dirt bike, a round-trip ticket to Japan, or, if you’re lucky, a couple month’s rent. Why wouldn’t a starving student be tempted to snatch up a copy for free?

Sure, the government will get mad at you (if they find out.) Adobe will send you angry cease and desist letters (if they know your real address.) And Autodesk will absolutely sue, which will absolutely suck (I’ve got no workaround on that one, sorry.) Also, you’d be stealing food from the developers’ mouths. People with lives and families, who probably need the money just as much as you do. [Wait, no, maybe not.]

But what if none of that mattered to you? What if you were young, and broke, and needed the software in a last-ditch effort to chase your dreams and pray to who-the-fuck-ever that the money follows? What if the idea of working a desk for the rest of your life filled you with dread for the future, and you knew what you really wanted to do but couldn’t afford the $5,000+ price tag to start doing it?

What if Mom and Dad can’t/won’t pay for your absurdly expensive, possibly unaccredited game design degree because they don’t believe in your passion/work 80 hours a week to keep the lights on/aren’t around? What if you had every good excuse in the world justifying your need for game design software torrents?

I was 18 when I majored in animation, with 70% of my income draining into rent and another 20% to tuition, I kid you not. There were days I couldn’t even afford the commute to school. Back then in 2008, most of the cloud-based subscription services available today didn’t exist, but even if they did, that still would’ve been a monthly $300 bill I simply couldn’t afford.

I may have possibly torrented software that I needed for class. I might maybe have also torrented other stuff I didn’t need, maybe.

So I’ll forever be the last person to judge anyone for torrenting pirated software. Do what you gotta do. Whether you were born into your financial situation or fell into it, it’s up to you to make it work. “The end justifies the means,” right?

Forget your moral obligations, if you haven’t already. Here are some reasons why you still shouldn’t torrent…and some alternatives to pirated software that can help you get ahead without stealing.

5) INSTALLING CRACKED COPIES IS A PAIN

Yes, Reddit. We all know you’re smart. You can crack any software you put your mind to. I believe in the hivemind.

But, having already bricked two smartphones, a desktop and a laptop over pirated goods, this one may only apply to a *cough* certain kind of tinkerer. The type that breaks things.

Sometimes hackers will make the install process easy, with splash pages and TXT files explaining how to implement each step. A lot of the time, though, the hacker will assume you already know how to do the thing, and you’ll be left scrounging YouTube in search of an explainer video to help you install it. And then you’ll feel stupid.

4) THE LEGIT VERSION MIGHT ACTUALLY SAVE YOU MONEY

Even if the software installs successfully, though, not all PCs are built the same. The methods your hacker used to crack the copy may harm or deactivate other files in your computer. And if they do, you may not notice or realize that what’s causing the problem is your shiny new software. If you’re lucky and didn’t pay someone to diagnose your computer, there’s still the (very, very likely) chance that the awesome torrent you just downloaded is also carrying a bug.

Hopefully you didn’t pirate your antivirus, too.

3) FREE ALTERNATIVES EXIST

For students of the craft, Unity has their own free, fully featured Personal edition. GET IT.

There are also dozens of free/cheap Photoshop alternatives to choose from. My personal favorite is GIMP (Gnu Image Manipulation Program) which is absolutely free.

In fact, this website is keeping track of every alternative to everything. LOOK AT IT.

2) ONE FREE TRIAL. 1,000 FREE EMAIL ADDRESSES.

…Don’t judge me. You don’t know my life.

You know you’re jonesing for something when you’ve created 10 different email address just to get another free trial of it. It’s not delivery, it’s destruggle.

1) MAKING FRIENDS IS EASIER

My first copy of Adobe CS3 Student Edition cost me $400. I remember the unshakable fear as I handed the cashier my debit card, grinning wildly and thinking, Dear sweet baby Jesus this is all the money I have, please please please let it be worth it.

It turned out to be one of the few worthwhile purchases I would make during my tenure as a student. I could’ve downloaded it, and logically, with very little money left for food, I should have. But owning Adobe CS3 made college a lot more useful and fun, in more ways than you’d think. One way is that I made friends. Friends who share.

Most people don’t have a conscious for nameless developers they’ll likely never meet. (I sure don’t.) But your friend Mike has a legit copy of Photoshop and you want to learn texture mapping. What’ll it take to get the password? At best, nothing at all.

I’m not saying you should mooch off your friends to get ahead, but that you could be looking out for each other, symbiotically.  Designers and developers have to network dozens, if not hundreds of times in their career. Getting started now could ease your financial agony down the road, whether you’re doing the college thing or not.

Do you agree with this stance on pirating, or am I full of shit? Please leave me feedback in the comments; I’d love to hear what you think.

[zodiaccity]

Trust that you can make it before you trust someone to take you there.

ZodiacCity (via zodiaccity)

[aubriejohnson]

What’s the scariest five-letter word in game dev?

ACCORDING TO WILL DUBÉ OF THUNDER LOTUS GAMES, THE SCARIEST WORD FOR YOUR GAME PROJECT IS “SCOPE.”

When you’re just beginning to build and design your characters, environments, and functions, it’s easy to pile on every awesome, mind-blowing concept you can imagine. When you’re working by yourself to make a game happen, the long list of features you’re hoping to add will keep getting longer and, depending on the type of person you are, that list will either excite or discourage you. How will you get everything done within any kind of timeframe?

If you’re working with a team to conquer that behemoth list of concepts and ideas, that team might hit you with the words “scoping exercise.”

“If you hear this word, you know your vision is about to be cut short,” said Will in a blog post. “Your idea will not reach it’s full potential. All the amazing features you’re planning will not get made.”

Sound a bit dire? It is. But Will and I both agree that addressing your game’s scope is a good thing. Simply Frankensteining every cool feature, concept and idea you can think of into your game can water down a golden story and well-rounded characters, leaving you with a sad, empty collection of mini-games and unmanageable controls.

“Good scoping is about asking the right questions and if you’re making a game, especially if it’s your first game, you need to be asking the right questions.”

What do you think about paring down your game for the good of the story?

Check out the Jotun blog here.

[aubriejohnson]

Where Clickbait Came From, And Why It's Here to Stay

Online publishers are changing the game of content engagement with strategies prioritizing social sharing over SEO, clicks over pageview durations, and page upon page of quirky animated GIFs over walls of text. Find out what clickbait is, where it came from, and why it’s so successful in the age of lightning-fast media distribution.

I wrote this thing about clickbait, because my permalance employer thinks it’s the bee’s knees.

When the manager told me to remove all instances and variations of “clickbait is garbage,” the word count boiled down to less than half.

[aubriejohnson]

3 reasons not to use game design torrents

I admit it; I’ve done some shady software installs in the past. And I’m willing to bet that if you haven’t already done the same, you’re here because you’re thinking about doing it, too.

Cracked, easy-to-install copies of just about any Nintendo DS title flow freely throughout the interwebs. You can play any game you want, from The Sims 4 to Skyrim, without ever opening your wallet. An aspiring game designer may have a harder time cracking Unity 3D or Photoshop CS5 but, with a little perseverance, any exorbitantly-priced software can be yours for the taking.

A Unity Pro license—an industry standard and therefore a requirement—costs as much as a jacuzzi, a used dirt bike, a round-trip ticket to Japan, or, if you’re lucky, a couple month’s rent. Why wouldn’t a starving student be tempted to snatch up a copy for free?

Sure, the government will get mad at you (if they find out.) Adobe will send you angry cease and desist letters (if they know your real address.) And Autodesk will absolutely sue, which will absolutely suck (I’ve got no workaround on that one, sorry.) Also, you’d be stealing food from the developers’ mouths. People with lives and families, who probably need the money just as much as you do. [Wait, no, maybe not.]

But what if none of that mattered to you? What if you were young, and broke, and needed the software in a last-ditch effort to chase your dreams and pray to who-the-fuck-ever that the money follows? What if the idea of working a desk for the rest of your life filled you with dread for the future, and you knew what you really wanted to do but couldn’t afford the $5,000+ price tag to start doing it?

What if Mom and Dad can’t/won’t pay for your absurdly expensive, possibly unaccredited game design degree because they don’t believe in your passion/work 80 hours a week to keep the lights on/aren’t around? What if you had every good excuse in the world justifying your need for game design software torrents?

I was 18 when I majored in animation, with 70% of my income draining into rent and another 20% to tuition, I kid you not. There were days I couldn’t even afford the commute to school. Back then in 2008, most of the cloud-based subscription services available today didn’t exist, but even if they did, that still would’ve been a monthly $300 bill I simply couldn’t afford.

I may have possibly torrented software that I needed for class. I might maybe have also torrented other stuff I didn’t need, maybe.

So I’ll forever be the last person to judge anyone for torrenting pirated software. Do what you gotta do. Whether you were born into your financial situation or fell into it, it’s up to you to make it work. “The end justifies the means,” right?

Forget your moral obligations, if you haven’t already. Here are some reasons why you still shouldn’t torrent…and some alternatives to pirated software that can help you get ahead without stealing.

5) INSTALLING CRACKED COPIES IS A PAIN

Yes, Reddit. We all know you’re smart. You can crack any software you put your mind to. I believe in the hivemind.

But, having already bricked two smartphones, a desktop and a laptop over pirated goods, this one may only apply to a *cough* certain kind of tinkerer. The type that breaks things.

Sometimes hackers will make the install process easy, with splash pages and TXT files explaining how to implement each step. A lot of the time, though, the hacker will assume you already know how to do the thing, and you’ll be left scrounging YouTube in search of an explainer video to help you install it. And then you’ll feel stupid.

4) THE LEGIT VERSION MIGHT ACTUALLY SAVE YOU MONEY

Even if the software installs successfully, though, not all PCs are built the same. The methods your hacker used to crack the copy may harm or deactivate other files in your computer. And if they do, you may not notice or realize that what’s causing the problem is your shiny new software. If you’re lucky and didn’t pay someone to diagnose your computer, there’s still the (very, very likely) chance that the awesome torrent you just downloaded is also carrying a bug.

Hopefully you didn’t pirate your antivirus, too.

3) FREE ALTERNATIVES EXIST

For students of the craft, Unity has their own free, fully featured Personal edition. GET IT.

There are also dozens of free/cheap Photoshop alternatives to choose from. My personal favorite is GIMP (Gnu Image Manipulation Program) which is absolutely free.

In fact, this website is keeping track of every alternative to everything. LOOK AT IT.

2) ONE FREE TRIAL. 1,000 FREE EMAIL ADDRESSES.

…Don’t judge me. You don’t know my life.

You know you’re jonesing for something when you’ve created 10 different email address just to get another free trial of it. It’s not delivery, it’s destruggle.

1) MAKING FRIENDS IS EASIER

My first copy of Adobe CS3 Student Edition cost me $400. I remember the unshakable fear as I handed the cashier my debit card, grinning wildly and thinking, Dear sweet baby Jesus this is all the money I have, please please please let it be worth it.

It turned out to be one of the few worthwhile purchases I would make during my tenure as a student. I could’ve downloaded it, and logically, with very little money left for food, I should have. But owning Adobe CS3 made college a lot more useful and fun, in more ways than you’d think. One way is that I made friends. Friends who share.

Most people don’t have a conscious for nameless developers they’ll likely never meet. (I sure don’t.) But your friend Mike has a legit copy of Photoshop and you want to learn texture mapping. What’ll it take to get the password? At best, nothing at all.

I’m not saying you should mooch off your friends to get ahead, but that you could be looking out for each other, symbiotically.  Designers and developers have to network dozens, if not hundreds of times in their career. Getting started now could ease your financial agony down the road, whether you’re doing the college thing or not.

Do you agree with this stance on pirating, or am I full of shit? Please leave me feedback in the comments; I’d love to hear what you think.

[aubriejohnson]

Cepheid is raising $9K for a virtual reality shooter

Cepheid Games is releasing a Oculus virtual reality arcade rail shooter controlled by the tilt of your head.

V.E.C.T. stands for Virtual Equilibrioception Cancellation Trainer. Simple, purportedly not sickness-inducing head tilts like you maneuver your ship to avoid obstacles, pick up objects, and destroy stuff. You're only moving your head from side to side though, so no headbutting required.

The Dallas-based company's "combining older game ideas with new technology to create a completely unique VR experience." You can unlock level and special content, no matter what version you're using. And tf the campaign wins big, V.E.C.T. will even be compatible with Google Cardboard, iOS, Android, and Morpheus.

The virtual reality game's Kickstarter launched June 12th.

The (completely free) demo beta is available right now, played the old-fashioned way with a mouse and keyboard. However, it comes with a disclaimer; because the game was developed specifically for Oculus, it's impossible to get the same unique experience the developers want you to have.

The funding campaign ends July 12. Rewards include a 3D-printed, and-painted V.E.C.T. logo figurine, t-shirts, and the full game soundtrack.

Want to see V.E.C.T. on Steam? Vote for it on Steam Greenlight today.

[aubriejohnson]

Sekai Project is raising $22K for a sci-fi visual novel

Sekai Project and Alienworks just launched a Kickstarter campaign for $22,000 to release their newest sci-fi/romance visual novel, The Human Reignition Project.

As of right now they're already over $6,000 in pledges, with 29 days to go. Wait...Nevermind. I just switched tabs to double-check, and now they're at $6,700. I looked away from the campaign for three minutes, and they made another $700. Tell me your secrets, Sekai!

The visual novel takes place in Japan about two decades in the future, when many occupations have been taken over by technological advancements. Human reliance of smartphones and other devices have rendered face-to-face conversations obsolete. 

A tiny faction of resistance looms in the background, and "a shadowy organization on the outside begins to make their presence known," promising to inject some suspense and action into the mix.

Amidst all this, our cast of characters is struggling to meet and connect with each other, away from the computer screen.

For such an absurdly strong reception, their launch announcement wasn't much more than a couple of haphazard tweets by the developers, one of which is Josh. Seems he's almost as shocked as I am on Twitter.

The game's demo version should be out soon, and will cover the entire first act of the visual novel. While the HRP demo hasn't been released yet—their tentative release date was May 2015 on their subreddit, but I guess it was tentative for a reason—the developers are also pushing to get the title greenlit for Steam.

"The funding goal of 22,000 is what we anticipate it'll cost to complete the game to our minimum standards. That's about 60 unique backgrounds and roughly 15 CG's per route, once fees and reward fulfillment have been accounted for."

Rewards for backing the project include early-bird digital copies of the game and soundtrack, among others. The campaign is scheduled to close July 12, 2015.

Check out the trailer! (Or don't. S'up to you.)

[aubriejohnson]

The Formula for a Perfect Social Share Message

What if I told you that your social share message is all that’s keeping your content from thousands of new readers? I see this firsthand at Naytev where we automatically test thousands of alternate share messages for dozens of major publishers.

I wrote a blog post optimized social media share messages, because I am a “content strategist” at a tech startup, and buzzword combo-breakers tend to earn me bonuses.

(That’s startup for “keyboard monkey.”)