who is the salty droid?

I occasionally come across things that make no sense to me. Okay, let me revisit that statement...change occasionally to constantly. But this one is perplexing to me. It stems from the following question, "who is the salty droid?"

One of the most important skills required for a game designer is "listening" which in my view requires constant observation and critical analysis of all of human experience, including my own. This is a big, impossible task, but something we strive to do as game developers to inform our activities. It comes in handy when making games that are "problem-solving activities which bring people pleasure" and creating the right ingredients to be effective in this process.

Coming back to the title of this blog entry...I came across this phrase "who is the salty droid?" from a tweet a friend of mine made. I did not ask them what it meant (which I will shortly correct). I wanted to figure it out myself. Google revealed no immediate answers from what I could tell, although some "Salty Droid" references are out there on Google. Then I decided, spontaneously, to essentially retweet the phrase. I posted a facebook status update with the phrase. Impulsive is the best word to describe this action. My skills as a game designer, in listening to my inner monologue, seemed to come to the following conclusion. I am transmitting an idea virus. There is nothing new to this in human communication, and in particular in today's age. An electronically transmitted idea virus can be gold to the right entrepreneur. But never have I so swiftly been involved in forwarding something that I didn't understand AT ALL to perpetuate this unanswered question. I want to know who the salty droid is. I want to know who made it up. I want to know why this sequence of words seems to be suddenly appearing to me.

As a game designer, I've spent a lot of time studying the human compulsion to explore and resolve unknowns in the world. Place a big button in the middle of the screen. Write text that says, "DO NOT PRESS BUTTON" and see what happens to the majority of people involved in that interactive experience. Right now, my personal button reads "WHO IS THE SALTY DROID?"

As I am writing about this, one thing has just occurred to me. I have embedded myself into the perpetual online timeline of this idea by posting information about my reflection on this thing I know nothing about within my blog. My blog is frequently indexed by search engines. It will be a part of this craziness...or perhaps even help launch this phrase even further out in the intertube ether.

Who is the salty droid? I have become the salty droid. And so will you. And doing your best to shake those five words will lead to only one thing...perpetuating it yourself.

I have a way to resolve it for you however if you are of a certain age. Read the following lyrics...

"...As cold as ice..."

"...love is a battlefield..."

or, perhaps nearly the worst of all...Hanson...

"Mmmbop....mmmbop"

Did that help? It helped me.

Bad music saves the day. Always. Trust me.

Take care Salty Droids out there!

Graduates of Flashpoint Academy's game development program launch featured iPhone game, bitFLIP

From the president of Metamoorephosis games...

"So it finally happened. The big dream that started at Flashpoint Academy launches its first game as a featured app on the worlds fastest growing video game platform.

Critics have been amazing as well and with 29 consecutive 5 star scores from players we expect the game to catch like wildfire:

App Store Link: http://bit.ly/4r1yoA

IGN - 8.0 - "bitFLIP is a great surprise. At first, it looked like a basic match-three game with a great soundtrack. But flipping the tiles as well as swapping them adds a needed wrinkle to the genre."

1up.com - "Is it worth $2.99? Unequivocally yes. Hell, the soundtrack is practically worth that much by itself! bitFLIP is a game with a great premise and a great aestetic, and is yet another one of those apps that leaves you wondering where the time went."

Aeropause.com - 4/5 - "The soundtrack, gameplay visuals and iComplishments prove that bitFLIP is far from a no-frills iPhone puzzle game."

Joystiq.com - Justin McElroy - "[bitFLIP] is a puzzle game thats really well suited to the iPhone .. it's a trip. Nice one to sorta zone out and not think for a while."

On behalf of Justin, the team and myself we would like to give you our warmest thanks for believing in Metamoorephosis Games.

--
Joshua Hernandez
CEO & Founder
Metamoorephosis.Games!"