As much as the back and forth is fun, at times insightful, I rarely consider NeoGAF as a the first source to turn to for deeply researched gaming news. But in terms of Xbox’s controversial indie parity clause, you can’t do better than user chubigans’s well researched piece on the subject. It’s a great explanation of what the clause is and why it’s ultimately hurting Microsoft on the indie front.
Some universally excellent bundles to add on to Sublime Text as a front end developer on CSS Tricks. It’s a short article but touches on importance of extra syntax highlighting along with Emmet for shortcuts, and that’s a great set of tools to kick work off.
Jason Bailey, writing for Flavorwire:
Back in the 1980s and 1990s, when Waters and Lynch were doing their most commercially successful work, it was possible to finance — either independently or via or the studio system — mid-budget films (anywhere from $5 million to $60 million) with an adult sensibility. But slowly, quietly, over roughly the decade and a half since the turn of the century, the paradigm shifted. Studios began to make fewer films, betting big on would-be blockbusters, operating under the assumption that large investments equal large returns. Movies that don’t fit into that box (thoughtful dramas, dark comedies, oddball thrillers, experimental efforts) were relegated to the indies, where freedom is greater, but resources are far more limited.
Normally I don’t post about yet another Photoshop and Sketch friendly iOS UI set. But this is different; it’s made by the UI8 team, which already has a reputation and history around well done icons, wireframes, and general UI work (I own two paid web wireframe sets from them – the quality holds up.) Most importantly, it’s completely free as long as you provide an email address; it runs normally $78 on UI8’s own web site.
The Froont blog strikes again with a wonderful set of animated gifs that explain where web design started way back in the early 90s and where it’s going. The responsive web design animation is especially gorgeous.
Fascinating look into the Web Animation API over at Smashing Magazine. Unfortunate to see we’re at very early stages:
It will be some time before this API is supported across the board. With half of browser makers waiting to see how developers will use it and most developers refusing to use a tool that isn’t widely supported, the API faces a chicken-and-egg scenario. However, in an on-stage conversation with Google’s Paul Kinlan at Fronteers, I suggested that, were the API to be fully supported in a closed and monetizable system for web apps, such as Google Play, developers would be able to safely use it in a walled garden until it reaches maturity and fuller support.
I found these tips on the InVision blog a bit more centered around general productivity apps with Sketch more than centered to just prototyping. But the recommendations are all useful, especially those centered on duplicating and measurement (a.k.a. the option key is your best friend.)
The Tomorrow Lab’s Derek Johnson writes one of the smartest pieces I’ve read on why sudden interruptions (or last minute, poorly planned meetings) can wreck such havoc on a developer’s workflow:
Developers don’t wear headphones because we enjoy music more than anyone else, it’s because headphones shut everything out and give us the mental space we need to build a very complicated model…
…If you’re an interrupter and you get a terser response than you might have expected please don’t take it personally. We’re just aware of the model starting to loosen at the more precarious points and are getting frantic about the need to get back at work.
The smart slate of this post by Nicolas Bevacqua is how many different ways – YSlow, Webpagetest, Google PageSpeed – he tackles the same common problem: how do we automate our web performance measurements? Nicolas provides Gulp and Grunt plugins along with command line tools. The point here is simplification. Just start automating baseline performance in any way possible, as soon as possible. You’ll see a noticeable benefit for your web projects going forward.
Type Worship’s Jamie Clarke:
Over four years and across eight issues we interviewed 64 world-renowned designers1, including; Erik Spiekermann, Jessica Hische, Michael Bierut, Nina Stössinger, Mark Simonson & Seb Lester, plus owners of respected type foundries such as, Font Smith, Type Together and Process Type.
We’ve counted the number of times each typeface was selected and found consensus with the top 25.