The Book Ritual

So this is one of the things I've been working on recently! The Book Ritual is a story told using a physical book, in the real world. The player is given writing and drawing tasks that get them to interact with the book in different ways. They write in it, draw maps, and tell it about their thoughts and feelings.

The player also needs to tear out pages, and shred them, to progress.

It's very much more of an interactive art piece than a game in the traditional sense, and talks about ideas of accepting loss and change.

Having worked with physical games and props for so long I've felt that the emotional weight we apply to physical objects is ripe for exploration. People don't want to shred books. Why is that?

I'll admit that showing this work for the first time is scary, so I'm focusing on small trials with small groups of people, before releasing anything into a more public space. When a game is about emotional subject matter, it exposes a side of the creator that games made primarily to entertain don't. So even as I've spent many years extolling the virtues of showing your work in public regardless of its state, I must admit to this being a slightly terrifying prospect!

In spite of the trepidation I'm looking forward to seeing where this project takes me. Even if this particular version of the idea is only a step along the way, I'm keen to see how the lessons I've learned from doing installation games and interactive performance can be used to explore more emotional subject matter.

And don't

SOMA - Two Years Later

It's over two years since we released SOMA, so it's time for another update on how things have been going.

First of all, let's talk about sales. As I've said many times before, sales are not straightforward to count, and the number you come up with is reliant on many different factors. For instance, SOMA was part of the Humble Monthly Bundle, which meant that everybody subscribing to that service was able to download a copy of SOMA. These are not really "sales", so should we count them? It's also worth noting that pricing differs a lot between different sales. A single unit sold at full price means more than one sold when the game is 75% off. I think it's important to think about these things, and remember you can't directly compare the sales of two games.

With all that said, what I'm going to do here is to basically take every single download of the game as a sale. Doing so gives us a total of 650 000 units, a 200 000 units increase since the the same time last year. This is a very good result.

It's interesting to compare how sales have changed across the two years for SOMA. The normal day-to-day income, when there are no discounts or anything, is 33% of what it was the same time last year. However, when the game is at a discount (such as a Steam summer sale), the generated income is about 75% of what similar events generated last year. This means that discount events are extra important this year.

Taken as a whole, the sales that we make from all our games will cover all our expenses every month, and even make us a profit. This is quite amazing. Given that we currently have about 16 people working with us full time, we have a pretty high burn rate, and to still be able to support all that on your ongoing sales is great.

This means that we still have a good buffer from our launch sales. While it will by no means last forever, it gives us peace of mind and lets us take the time we need. While we'll continue to generate income next year too, I'm not so sure it'll be enough to cover all our costs. This is when that initial buffer comes in handy, and will let us continue working on our projects without any monetary worries. To put things in perspective, it is worth noting that most companies start using up their buffer just a few months after release, so we are in no ways in a dire situation right now - quite the opposite!

However, this also makes it very clear that we need to be able to release games at a more regular rate. We were lucky that SOMA was a hit, and that the money is easily able to sustain us for the time we need to complete our next project. Had SOMA been a flop, the situation would have been a lot worse now. That's why we are focusing on becoming a two project studio, and the goal is to be able to release a game every two years. Had we managed to set that up prior to SOMA, we would be in the process of releasing a game right now. Needless to say, it would makes us a lot more financially stable, and able to handle a less successful release. In turn this should allow us to take greater risks, which I think is a key element in being able to create great games.

This leads me to another thing that's been on my mind. A few months back someone asked me: "How do you get people to buy your game?". This is a fairly basic question, but it really made me think. When it comes to sales made during launch, the answer feels quite self-evident. We generate a lot of buzz, there are reviews, let's plays and so on. There are a number of fairly obvious ways that people learn about our game.

But what about the customers that buy our game two years after release - why do they do it? That's a much harder question. I think most of this is via word-of-mouth recommendation. When the right circumstances arise (e.g.: "I feel like playing a game tonight") and when external influence (e.g.: "your friends said they liked our game") is strong enough, that's when a sale happens. I know that Steam and other stores have some forms of discovery tools, but I don't think they play a major factor. What really matters is not a single source, but the slow build-up of good will around a game - eventually this will make a player consider buying it. Discovery tools, such as "you might also like"-adverts, surely help, but they are just part of a much larger process [1].

Because of this, and considering the sheer number of games that are currently being released, I think the best strategy is to focus on unique experiences. You want to create the type of experience that is not only hard to get elsewhere, but also leaves a mark on those who play it. This is now a core philosophy here at Frictional. I guess we sort of always had it unconsciously, but we have now made it official. Our goal is to create games that are more than forgettable escapism. We want people to come out of their experiences feeling changed. A lofty goal? You bet. While it'll be impossible to make sure every single player has this type of experience, it feels like the perfect thing to strive for.

Now I will round of this post with a brief discussion on the status of our current projects.

The first project is in full production, and about 80% of the team is currently working on it. The focus for most of this year has been on creating the first few maps of the game to create a solid vertical slice based on our experiments last year. However, we recently came up with some new avenues that we wanted to explore. The stuff that has come out of this recent detour is feeling really great and I am certain it'll make the game feel very special. All of this came out of what I just discussed: our focus on making games that leaves a mark on the player. I'm not sure we would have gone down this route if we hadn't explicitly stated that goal, which makes me confident it's a really good way of thinking. I'm afraid I can't go into any details on this, other than to say that the project will be horrific in nature. There will be no release this year, but we hope to announce something during the first six months of next year.

As for the other project, that's also going well. We've been a bit delayed due to new tech taking longer than anticipated to develop [2]. The upside of that has been that the game has had  more time in pre-production than any of our previous games. This has been incredibly valuable, as the things we aim to tackle in this game are quite difficult, and allowing it all to brew for a bit has meant many of the basic aspects are clearer for us. This game will be less about direct, visceral horror, and more about the player gaining an understanding of different concepts. This can, as we know from working on SOMA, be quite tricky to get right and requires a slightly different approach than when working on a more direct horror game. Release for this game is quite far off though, so don't expect to hear any concrete details in the near future.

That's it for this update. I'm incredibly excited about the things that we have planned, and I'm very eager to give you all more updates. I also want to thank everybody for the support over the years, and rest assured that while we might not reply to every single mail, tweet, etc. that you send us, we make sure to read every single one!


Notes:
1) For games that are heavily based around online communities, such as a Rocket League, I think things work slightly differently. There is still a word-of-mouth zeitgeist going on, but a lot of it comes from your game become a habit for your players, something that they participate in on a daily basis. This forms a feedback loop that helps drives new buyers, which I think is quite different from how our games work.

2) We are currently working on the fourth iteration of our HPL engine for this game, and due to some of the things we need to be able to do for the game, we've been required to make some major adjustments. These things take time, but luckily we have most of it done now.

Another Take On The Power Rangers

I am sure that most of you have seen the short film of the Power Rangers Bootleg Universe that seemed to get some pretty strong reactions from some people that viewed it.  I definitely dig it and this film is pretty much in line with the tone I would want to see for the Power Rangers.  If you have not seen it yet then check it out.

The New And Probably Coolest Tattoo Trend Ever

Taking the Tattoo World By Storm:

Believe it or not, tattoos and the gaming community go hand in hand. Years ago many thought of gamers as the "nerds" of the century. Now with the growth of the gaming community and the culture of some of today's games, gaming is one of the most trendy and up to speed communities in our culture. Its a world wide community. One of those trends is the growing popularity of tattoos. Once

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ouo.io - Make short links and earn the biggest money

Shrink and Share

Signup for an account in just 2 minutes. Once you've completed your registration just start creating short URLs and sharing the links with your family and friends.

You'll be paid for any views outside of your account.

Save you time and effort

ouo.io have a simple and convenient user interface, and a variety of utilities.

We also provides full mobile supports, you can even shorten the URL and view the stats on a mobile device.

Singup FREE

23 Best URL Shortener to Earn Money 2018

1. Petty Link

   Shorten URLs and earn money with Petty Link which is one of the best URL Shortening for earning money online.
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   You get to make money from home when managing and protecting your link. Using the Petty Link tool, you can create short links. What's best, you get paid. It's a completely free tool.
   You have to create an account, create a link, and post it. For every visit, you earn money. The payout is as much as $12 per 1000 views. Plus, you can get 21% Referral Bonus.
   It has the Petty Link Referral Program. Refer friends and receive 21% of their earnings for life.
   Its featured Administration Panel allows you to control all of the features with a click of a button. It offers detailed stats. You get to know your audience.
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2. CPMlink

   CPMlink is one of the most legit URL shortener sites.You can sign up for free.It works like other shortener sites.You just have to shorten your link and paste that link into the internet.When someone will click on your link.
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   • The payout for 1000 views-$5
   • Minimum payout-$5
   • Referral commission-10%
   • Payment methods-Paypal, Payza, and Skrill
   • Payment time-daily
   
   

3. LINK.TL

   LINK.TL is one of the best and highest URL shortener website.It pays up to $16 for every 1000 views.You just have to sign up for free.You can earn by shortening your long URL into short and you can paste that URL into your website, blogs or social media networking sites, like facebook, twitter, and google plus etc.
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   • Payout for 1000 views-$16
   • Minimum payout-$5
   • Referral commission-10%
   • Payout methods-Paypal, Payza, and Skrill
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4. CLICKSFLY

   CLICKSFLY is a new URL shortener website.It pays high CPM rate.You just have to sign up and then you can shorten URL and can earn money when visitors will click on your URL link.You can earn $15 for 1000 views.One of the best thing about this website is that you can withdraw your amount when it reaches $3.
   You can earn 35% commission by referring other people to this website.If your visitors are from developing countries like Pakistan India etc then I will suggest you that you should open an account in CLICKSFLY because it pays $2.5 minimum for 1000 views.
   
   • The payout for 1000 views-$15
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5. BIT-URL

   It is a new URL shortener website.Its CPM rate is good.You can sign up for free and shorten your URL and that shortener URL can be paste on your websites, blogs or social media networking sites.bit-url.com pays $8.10 for 1000 views.
   You can withdraw your amount when it reaches $3.bit-url.com offers 20% commission for your referral link.Payment methods are PayPal, Payza, Payeer, and Flexy etc.
   
   • The payout for 1000 views-$8.10
   • Minimum payout-$3
   • Referral commission-20%
   • Payment methods- Paypal, Payza, and Payeer
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6. BLV.ME

   BLV.ME is one of the most trusted URL shortener sites.It pays high CPM rate.You can earn $10 for every 1000 views.One worst thing about blv.me is its referral system.
   They only offer 5% referral commission which is very much low.You can withdraw your amount when it reaches $10.You can claim your amount through Payza, Bank Transfer or Skrill.
   
   • The payout for 1000 views-$10
   • Minimum payout-$10
   • Referral commission-5%
   • Payout options-Payza, Skrill, and bank transfer
   • Payment time-at the end of the month
   
   

7. Shorte.st

   Shorte.st is another very popular and most trusted URL Shortening Company. Shorte.st comes as a user-friendly URL Shortener Service with many creative options for making money by monetizing the links you share. Shorte.st provides you an opportunity to earn from $5 to $15 per 1000 views for promoting their shortened links.
   For WordPress Bloggers, Shorte.st brings its WordPress Plugin which will help you greatly to boost your earnings. Shorte.st has a low minimum payout of $5.
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8. Short.pe

   Short.pe is one of the most trusted sites from our top 30 highest paying URL shorteners.It pays on time.intrusting thing is that same visitor can click on your shorten link multiple times.You can earn by sign up and shorten your long URL.You just have to paste that URL to somewhere.
   You can paste it into your website, blog, or social media networking sites.They offer $5 for every 1000 views.You can also earn 20% referral commission from this site.Their minimum payout amount is only $1.You can withdraw from Paypal, Payza, and Payoneer.
   
   • The payout for 1000 views-$5
   • Minimum payout-$1
   • Referral commission-20% for lifetime
   • Payment methods-Paypal, Payza, and Payoneer
   • Payment time-on daily basis
   
   

9. Linkbucks

   Linkbucks is another best and one of the most popular sites for shortening URLs and earning money. It boasts of high Google Page Rank as well as very high Alexa rankings. Linkbucks is paying $0.5 to $7 per 1000 views, and it depends on country to country.
   The minimum payout is $10, and payment method is PayPal. It also provides the opportunity of referral earnings wherein you can earn 20% commission for a lifetime. Linkbucks runs advertising programs as well.
   
   • The payout for 1000 views-$3-9
   • Minimum payout-$10
   • Referral commission-20%
   • Payment options-PayPal,Payza,and Payoneer
   • Payment-on the daily basis
   
   

10. Shink.me

    Shink.me is one of the old URL shortener sites.It is a legit site.You just have open an account free.You can earn from this like other URL shortener companies.It offers the good CPM rate for all countries traffic.
    You can earn $4.65 for every 1000 views.The minimum payout rate is $5.ther offer 10% referral commission.PayPal and Payza are payment methods of shink.me.
    
    • The payout for 1000 views-$4.65
    • Minimum payout-$5
    • Referral commission-10%
    • Payout methods-Payza and Paypal
    • Payment time-Biweekly
    
    

11. Cut-win

    Cut-win is a new URL shortener website.It is paying at the time and you can trust it.You just have to sign up for an account and then you can shorten your URL and put that URL anywhere.You can paste it into your site, blog or even social media networking sites.It pays high CPM rate.
    You can earn $10 for 1000 views.You can earn 22% commission through the referral system.The most important thing is that you can withdraw your amount when it reaches $1.
    
    • The payout for 1000 views-$10
    • Minimum payout-$1
    • Referral commission-22%
    • Payment methods-PayPal, Payza, Bitcoin, Skrill, Western Union and Moneygram etc.
    • Payment time-daily
    
    

12. SHRINKPE.COM

    SHRINKPE.COM is also one of the best and most trusted shortener websites.It is also one of the fastest growing URL shortener sites.It is paying high for 1000 views.One of the best things about this site is that one visitor can click 15 times on your link and you will be paid for that clicks.
    You can withdraw your amount when it reaches $5.You can earn $9 for 1000 views.These rates are not permanent they change every time.They also depend on the advertisements currently available for the visitor's country.
    
    • The payout for 1000 views-$15
    • Minimum withdraw-$5 PayPal
    • Referral commission-20%
    • Payment methods-PayPal
    • Payment-instantly
    
    

13. Short.am

    Short.am provides a big opportunity for earning money by shortening links. It is a rapidly growing URL Shortening Service. You simply need to sign up and start shrinking links. You can share the shortened links across the web, on your webpage, Twitter, Facebook, and more. Short.am provides detailed statistics and easy-to-use API.
    It even provides add-ons and plugins so that you can monetize your WordPress site. The minimum payout is $5 before you will be paid. It pays users via PayPal or Payoneer. It has the best market payout rates, offering unparalleled revenue. Short.am also run a referral program wherein you can earn 20% extra commission for life.
    

14. Adf.ly

    Adf.ly is the oldest and one of the most trusted URL Shortener Service for making money by shrinking your links. Adf.ly provides you an opportunity to earn up to $5 per 1000 views. However, the earnings depend upon the demographics of users who go on to click the shortened link by Adf.ly.
    It offers a very comprehensive reporting system for tracking the performance of your each shortened URL. The minimum payout is kept low, and it is $5. It pays on 10th of every month. You can receive your earnings via PayPal, Payza, or AlertPay. Adf.ly also runs a referral program wherein you can earn a flat 20% commission for each referral for a lifetime.
    

15. ADmy.link

    ADmy.link is also one of the best URL sites.It is a trusted site.You can earn simply by registering for an account.It's fast and free!then you can Find URLs you would like to monetize and shorten your links.You just have to Share your shortened links and drive traffic to your content.
    Then Earn money by sharing in the advertising revenues for each real visit to your links!You can earn $5 for 1000 views.Minimum payout is $5.You can earn extra money by their referral system.They offer 15% as a referral program.
    
    • Payout for 1000-$5
    • Minimum payout-$5
    • Referral commission-15%
    • Payment method-PayPal
    • Payment time-start of every month.
    
    

16. Linkshrink

    Linkshrink URL Shortener Service provides you an opportunity to monetize links that you go on the Internet. Linkshrink comes as one of the most trusted URL Shortener Service. It provides an advanced reporting system so that you can easily track the performance of your shortened links. You can use Linkshrink to shorten your long URL. With Linkshrink, you can earn anywhere from $3 to $10 per 1000 views.
    Linkshrink provides lots of customization options. For example, you can change URL or have some custom message other than the usual "Skip this Ad" message for increasing your link clicks and views on the ad. Linkshrink also offers a flat $25 commission on your referrals. The minimum payout with Linkshrink is $5. It pays you through PayPal, Payza, or Bitcoin.
    

17. Ouo.io

    Ouo.io is one of the fastest growing URL Shortener Service. Its pretty domain name is helpful in generating more clicks than other URL Shortener Services, and so you get a good opportunity for earning more money out of your shortened link. Ouo.io comes with several advanced features as well as customization options.
    With Ouo.io you can earn up to $8 per 1000 views. It also counts multiple views from same IP or person. With Ouo.io is becomes easy to earn money using its URL Shortener Service. The minimum payout is $5. Your earnings are automatically credited to your PayPal or Payoneer account on 1st or 15th of the month.
    
    • Payout for every 1000 views-$5
    • Minimum payout-$5
    • Referral commission-20%
    • Payout time-1st and 15th date of the month
    • Payout options-PayPal and Payza
    
    

18. Linkrex.net

    Linkrex.net is one of the new URL shortener sites.You can trust it.It is paying and is a legit site.It offers high CPM rate.You can earn money by sing up to linkrex and shorten your URL link and paste it anywhere.You can paste it in your website or blog.You can paste it into social media networking sites like facebook, twitter or google plus etc.
    You will be paid whenever anyone will click on that shorten a link.You can earn more than $15 for 1000 views.You can withdraw your amount when it reaches $5.Another way of earning from this site is to refer other people.You can earn 25% as a referral commission.
    
    • The payout for 1000 views-$14
    • Minimum payout-$5
    • Referral commission-25%
    • Payment Options-Paypal,Bitcoin,Skrill and Paytm,etc
    • Payment time-daily
    
    

19. Clk.sh

    Clk.sh is a newly launched trusted link shortener network, it is a sister site of shrinkearn.com. I like ClkSh because it accepts multiple views from same visitors. If any one searching for Top and best url shortener service then i recommend this url shortener to our users. Clk.sh accepts advertisers and publishers from all over the world. It offers an opportunity to all its publishers to earn money and advertisers will get their targeted audience for cheapest rate. While writing ClkSh was offering up to $8 per 1000 visits and its minimum cpm rate is $1.4. Like Shrinkearn, Shorte.st url shorteners Clk.sh also offers some best features to all its users, including Good customer support, multiple views counting, decent cpm rates, good referral rate, multiple tools, quick payments etc. ClkSh offers 30% referral commission to its publishers. It uses 6 payment methods to all its users.
    • Payout for 1000 Views: Upto $8
    • Minimum Withdrawal: $5
    • Referral Commission: 30%
    • Payment Methods: PayPal, Payza, Skrill etc.
    • Payment Time: Daily
    
    

20. Link4.me

    Link4.me is another trusted and fast growing site.You can earn by creating an account for free.You have to shorten your long URL into the short one.Then you can paste it into websites, blog, and social networking sites.You can earn $9 for 1000 views.they offer 20% referral commission for the lifetime.
    When your earning will reach $5 then you can claim your earning.Paypal is the only method through which you can withdraw your earnings.
    
    • Payout for 1000 views-$9
    • Minimum payout-$5
    • Referral commission-20%
    • Payment method-Paypal
    
    

21. Shrinkearn.com

    Shrinkearn.com is one of the best and most trusted sites from our 30 highest paying URL shortener list.It is also one of the old URL shortener sites.You just have to sign up in the shrinkearn.com website. Then you can shorten your URL and can put that URL to your website, blog or any other social networking sites.
    Whenever any visitor will click your shortener URL link you will get some amount for that click.The payout rates from Shrinkearn.com is very high.You can earn $20 for 1000 views.Visitor has to stay only for 5 seconds on the publisher site and then can click on skip button to go to the requesting site.
    
    • The payout for 1000 views- up to $20
    • Minimum payout-$1
    • Referral commission-25%
    • Payment methods-PayPal
    • Payment date-10th day of every month
    
    

22. Getsurl

    Getsurl is one of the best and high paying URL shortener website.If you are not getting high CPM rate from other websites then you should open an account on this website.It offers good CPM rate for all countries.You can earn $11 for 1000 views.
    You can withdraw your amount when it reaches $5.Referral commission is about 10%.You can withdraw your amount from lots of sources.
    
    • The payout for 1000 views-$11
    • Minimum payout amount-$5
    • Referral commission-10%
    • Payment methods-Paypal, Payoneer, Bitcoin, Vodafone cash etc
    • Payment time-net 25
    
    

23. Wi.cr

    Wi.cr is also one of the 30 highest paying URL sites.You can earn through shortening links.When someone will click on your link.You will be paid.They offer $7 for 1000 views.Minimum payout is $5.
    You can earn through its referral program.When someone will open the account through your link you will get 10% commission.Payment option is PayPal.
    
    • Payout for 1000 views-$7
    • Minimum payout-$5
    • Referral commission-10%
    • Payout method-Paypal
    • Payout time-daily
    
    

Top 18 Hacking Websites 2018

1. Packet Storm: Information Security Services, News, Files, Tools, Exploits, Advisories and Whitepapers.
2. Hakin9: E-magazine offering in-depth looks at both attack and defense techniques and concentrates on difficult technical issues.
3. The Hacker News: The Hacker News — most trusted and widely-acknowledged online cyber security news magazine with in-depth technical coverage for cybersecurity.
4. HackRead: HackRead is a News Platform that centers on InfoSec, Cyber Crime, Privacy, Surveillance, and Hacking News with full-scale reviews on Social Media Platforms.
5. Black Hat: The Black Hat Briefings have become the biggest and the most important security conference series in the world by sticking to our core value: serving the information security community by delivering timely, actionable security information in a friendly, vendor-neutral environment.
6. Phrack Magazine: Digital hacking magazine.
7. Hack Forums: Emphasis on white hat, with categories for hacking, coding and computer security.
8. Makezine: Magazine that celebrates your right to tweak, hack, and bend any technology to your own will.
9. Offensive Security Training: Developers of Kali Linux and Exploit DB, and the creators of the Metasploit Unleashed and Penetration Testing with Kali Linux course.
10. KitPloit: Leading source of Security Tools, Hacking Tools, CyberSecurity and Network Security.
11. Hacked Gadgets: A resource for DIY project documentation as well as general gadget and technology news.
12. SecTools.Org: List of 75 security tools based on a 2003 vote by hackers.
13. Exploit DB: An archive of exploits and vulnerable software by Offensive Security. The site collects exploits from submissions and mailing lists and concentrates them in a single database.
14. DEFCON: Information about the largest annual hacker convention in the US, including past speeches, video, archives, and updates on the next upcoming show as well as links and other details.
15. Metasploit: Find security issues, verify vulnerability mitigations & manage security assessments with Metasploit. Get the worlds best penetration testing software now.
16. NFOHump: Offers up-to-date .NFO files and reviews on the latest pirate software releases.
17. Hackaday: A hardware hack every day.
18. SecurityFocus: Provides security information to all members of the security community, from end users, security hobbyists and network administrators to security consultants, IT Managers, CIOs and CSOs.