Misplaced Pages

#327672

67-533: Action Button Entertainment is a video game development studio consisting of Tim Rogers , Brent Porter, Michael Kerwin, and Nicholas Wasilewski that has produced five games: Ziggurat (2012), TNNS (2013), Ten by Eight (2013), Tuffy the Corgi (2014), and Videoball (2016). The group convened in 2010 as Rogers worked on Ziggurat based on an idea he had while playing Angry Birds that he could not complete on his own. Porter joined Action Button after responding to

134-460: A Destructoid Editors' Choice Award, and Time magazine picked the game as one of the best for the then new high-resolution third generation iPad . TNNS , pronounced "tennis", is a brick-breaking action game released in November 2012 for iOS . As a universal app, it is playable on iPhones , iPads , and iPods . It was developed by Action Button Entertainment and produced by Rabbx. Players use

201-597: A ziggurat , the player uses simple touch controls to charge and shoot the enemies away, and dies if hit by an enemy. The game has 16-bit graphics style and an 8-bit chiptune soundtrack. Action Button designer Tim Rogers developed the game idea based on his experience with Angry Birds , which later led to the formation of Action Button as a company with Ziggurat as its first release on February 17, 2012. The game received "generally favorable" reviews, according to video game review score aggregator Metacritic . Reviewers praised Ziggurat 's controls and minimalism. It won

268-453: A "Retina HD display", which is a 5.5-inch 1080p screen with 401 PPI. Aside from resolution, all generations of iPhone Retina displays receive high ratings for other aspects such as brightness and color accuracy, compared to those of contemporary smartphones, while some Android devices such as the LG G3 have sacrificed screen quality and battery life for high resolution. Ars Technica has suggested

335-529: A "telekinetic power" to alter the ball's direction apart from the panel (as in Shatter ). Ten by Eight , stylized as 10×8 , is a puzzle video game where players match tiles. Players align similarly colored blocks and trace the path they create when aligned. Star blocks act as power-ups that extend combos. Rogers produced an " infomercial -style trailer" for the game, which VG247 called one of his signature moves and that IndieGames.com called "glorious". It

402-526: A 3GS are completely readable on the iPhone 4, though the text is beyond microscopic." Former Microsoft employee Bill Hill, an expert on font rendering, offered similar comments: That much resolution is stunning. To see it on a mainstream device like the iPad—rather than a $ 13,000 exotic monitor—is truly amazing, and something I've been waiting more than a decade to see. It will set a bar for future resolution that every other manufacturer of devices and PCs will have to jump. Writer John Gruber suggested that

469-657: A 400+ PPI which surpassed the Retina density on the iPhone 5 . The second major redesign of the iPhone, the iPhone 6 , has a 1334 × 750 resolution on a 4.7-inch screen, while rivals such as the Samsung Galaxy S6 have a QHD display of 2560 × 1440 resolution, close to four times the number of pixels found in the iPhone 6, giving the S6 a 577 PPI that is almost twice that of the iPhone 6's 326 PPI. The Sony Xperia Z5 Premium launched in late 2015 had 806 PPI. The larger iPhone 6 Plus features

536-451: A break from a larger project. Rogers said the team was convinced by his design document—this game would become Ziggurat . Rogers contacted an Internet acquaintance who had previously mocked up a design idea from Rogers's Kotaku column, programmer Michael Kerwin, who came through with a rough draft within a week. Andrew Toups converted a soundtrack created by Rogers's rock band into an 8-bit soundtrack. After six months of hiatus and working at

603-521: A call for artists Rogers made via Twitter , and Kerwin joined based on a connection he had with Rogers from producing a mockup of a game concept Rogers outlined in his Kotaku column. Action Button Entertainment was founded by Tim Rogers . The studio consists of Tim Rogers, Brent Porter, Michael Kerwin, and Nicholas Wasilewski, who have built all of the studio's four games from Ziggurat through Videoball . Their games are consistently "simple" in their aesthetics and controls. The team formed during

670-512: A certain purity" and mentioned the strong role of strategy in playing the game. Rogers noted basketball-like strategy in prototype games, with players positioned as center or forward positions or playing zone defense . He livestreams prerelease sessions of Videoball via Twitch . The game is expected for release in 2014 with cross-platform multiplayer and support for more than six simultaneous players. Reviewers all cited Videoball 's minimalism both in aesthetics and gameplay, and compared

737-677: A defense of Metal Gear Solid 2 ". Gaming journalist Kieron Gillen called the article "highly discussed and fairly brilliant". Jim Rossignol of Rock, Paper, Shotgun recommended "Who Killed Videogames?", a new Rogers essay, as another standout work. Simon Carless , remarking on an 80,000-word Rogers essay, described the author as "the Lester Bangs of video games" for his "disruptive and iconoclastic" approach to games writing. As an originator of New Games Journalism, Carless wrote of Rogers, online communities were both fascinated with and dismissive of his work. Rogers started ActionButton.net ,

SECTION 10

#1733104943328

804-491: A degree in East Asian languages and cultures. He is a guitarist in his rock band, Large Prime Numbers. Retina Display The Retina display debuted in 2010 with the iPhone 4 and the iPod Touch (4th Generation) , and later the iPad (3rd generation) where each screen pixel of the iPhone 3GS , iPod touch (3rd generation), and iPad 2 was replaced by four smaller pixels, and the user interface scaled up to fill in

871-484: A descendant of his hobbies: Ibara: Black Label and the Rubik's Cube . Rogers has continued to use the "Action Button" brand name for his YouTube channel, on which he publishes long-form games criticism video essays . Ziggurat , stylized as ZiGGURAT , is a retro-style arcade shooter video game developed by Action Button Entertainment for iOS platforms. As the world's last human fighting off incoming aliens from atop

938-468: A few weeks as a break from a larger project. Rogers said the team was convinced by his design document—this game would become Ziggurat . Rogers contacted an Internet acquaintance who had previously mocked up a design idea from Rogers's Kotaku column, programmer Michael Kerwin, who came through with a rough draft within a week. Andrew Toups converted a soundtrack created by Rogers's rock band into an 8-bit soundtrack. After six months of hiatus and working at

1005-538: A paddle along the screen's left side to bounce a ball towards breakable objects on the right side of the screen, and to avoid getting the ball in their goal. It was released with little advanced notice in November 2012 for iOS as a universal app playable on iPhones , iPads , and iPods . Danny Cowan of IndieGames.com compared it with Sidhe Interactive's Shatter and VG247 called it a rendition of Breakout . Pocket Gamer likened it to both and further compared it with Alleyway , Arkanoid , and Super Hexagon with

1072-496: A paddle along the screen's left side to bounce a ball towards breakable objects on the right side of the screen, and to avoid getting the ball in their goal. A star box ends the level . The game's over 500 stages are built as puzzles and played at random. Level features include wormholes that move the ball from one part of the screen to another and arrows that change the ball's trajectory. Power-ups include "multi-ball", which puts multiple balls into play. TNNS also includes objectives,

1139-558: A projectile, which charges the longer the button is held, such that a charged "slam" shot can sail across the full screen. Rogers, the game's designer, describes the game as "an abstract minimalist electronic sport". Its development began as a dare from QWOP developer Bennett Foddy , Rogers's friend, to make a "one-button StarCraft ". Rogers compared the game's design process to Gordon Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares , where Ramsay convinces failing restaurants to provide fewer menu options and to make those dishes well. Rogers acknowledged

1206-428: A reason, and concluded that he "never warmed to Tuffy " despite his interest in "punishing retro platformers like Spelunky and Super Meat Boy ". Tim Rogers (journalist) William Timothy Rogers Jr. (born June 7, 1979) is an American video game journalist , developer , and video essayist . His work is associated with mid-2000s New Games Journalism , a style of video game journalism that emphasizes

1273-453: A rendition of Breakout . Pocket Gamer 's Mark Brown likened it to both and further compared it with Alleyway , Arkanoid , and Super Hexagon with a "telekinetic power" to alter the ball's direction apart from the panel (as in Shatter ). He found the game frustrating at times when unable to control the ball. Though Brown found TNNS fun, different, and addictive, it had "not quite won [him] over". Ten by Eight , stylized as 10×8 ,

1340-415: A same-device two-player mode, objectives, in-app purchases, and Facebook and Twitter integration. Action Button later released an Android version. The game Action Button described as "about keeping your eyes on balls" was inspired by tennis . It was released with little advanced notice in early November 2012. Danny Cowan of IndieGames.com compared it with Sidhe Interactive's Shatter and VG247 called it

1407-540: A social games company, Rogers rekindled development and the team finished the Ziggurat , which was released in February 2012 for iOS platforms. Edge related the "unexpectedly poignant" red screen and sound effect that flashes upon the player's death to Rogers's personal interest in noise rock . They called it a "beguiling personal signature". TNNS , pronounced "tennis", is a brick-breaking action game where players use

SECTION 20

#1733104943328

1474-427: A social games company, Rogers rekindled development and the team finished the Ziggurat , which was released in February 2012. Rogers has said that he aspires for Action Button Entertainment to make games that share his preferred gaming styles and his hobbies. Realizing that the common link between his top 25 video games (including Panzer Dragoon , Cave Story , Canabalt , and his favorite, Out of This World )

1541-657: A spartan few great dishes. Rogers also felt simple games were "less work". Rogers has said that he aspires for Action Button Entertainment to make games that share his preferred gaming styles and his hobbies. In finding that the common link between his top 25 video games (including Panzer Dragoon , Cave Story , Canabalt , and his favorite, Out of This World ) was minimalist aesthetics with no overt story to tell other than through game mechanics, Rogers wanted Ziggurat and future games to live up to those expectations and used his gut to fine-tune design decisions. The games also reflect aspects of Rogers's personality, such as in

1608-462: A swarm of bats by shooting projectiles at them. He decided that he could not make the game alone. Rogers put out a call for artists on Twitter with a submissions request of "fan art of the Japanese box art of Phantasy Star II ", and Action Button artist Brent Porter replied in under an hour with an entry Rogers called "incredible". In mid 2011, Rogers decided to work on an iPhone game for a few weeks as

1675-575: A video games reviews website, in early 2007 as an outgrowth from Insert Credit and its forums, SelectButton. At the time of its launch, Simon Carless praised its "great writing" and signature "self-conscious metacommentary" style. GamesRadar called Tim Rogers "loquacious" and "a character" as profiled in Cara Ellison's "Embed With..." profile series, where they discussed "sticktion" as the role of "sticky friction" in Super Mario Bros. 3 and how it

1742-534: Is a puzzle video game by Action Button Entertainment where players match tiles. It was released on July 31, 2013 in North America for PlayStation Mobile —the PlayStation Vita and compatible devices. International editions followed. Players align similarly colored blocks and trace the path they create when aligned. The goal is to make the longest path possible, and bonus points are awarded for paths that connect

1809-412: Is a minimalist sports video game by Action Button Entertainment. Using solely one analog stick and one button, players control triangles that shoot projectiles to knock a circular ball into the opposing team's endzone. Holding the button creates a projectile (a "unit") that fires upon release. The projectile can propel the ball, nullify other projectiles, or incapacitate opponents. The projectile charges

1876-517: Is a video games journalist known for his verbosity. Danny Cowan of IndieGames.com described him as "infamous" in New Games Journalism , a style of subjective video game journalism in which authors emphasize their personal experiences in relation to the game world. The Guardian cited Rogers as one of the "unmissable examples of New Games Journalism" in 2005 for his Insert Credit piece on Metal Gear Solid 2 , "Dreaming in an empty room:

1943-554: Is actually much better than 20/20" when in truth the majority have worse than 20/20 vision, and the WHO considers average vision as 20/40. Brownlee also stated that people do not always view displays at a constant distance, and claimed a close-viewed display could no longer be classed as Retina. However, near visual acuity is usually poor due to presbyopia in nearly everyone over 40, such that decreasing reading distance can actually reduce perceivable resolution. The first smartphone following

2010-409: Is known as Liquid Retina display for the iPhone XR , iPad Air 4th Generation , iPad Mini 6th Generation , iPad Pro 3rd Generation and later versions, and Retina 4.5K display for the iMac. Apple's Retina displays do not have a fixed minimum pixel density, but vary depending on and at what distance the user would typically be viewing the screen. Where on smaller devices held or worn closer to

2077-420: Is not an intrinsic property of a display but is dependent on the distance from which it is observed; moving the eye closer to the display reduces the angular pixel density of the image (i.e. it’s easier to see detail up close), and moving away increases the angular pixel density, in direct proportion to the distance. Angular pixel density can be calculated by the formula where d {\displaystyle d}

Action Button Entertainment - Misplaced Pages Continue

2144-441: Is the distance between the screen and observer, and r {\displaystyle r} is the absolute pixel density of the screen in pixels per unit length. In practice, thus far Apple has converted a device's display to Retina by doubling the number of pixels in each direction, quadrupling the total resolution. This increase creates a sharper interface at the same physical dimensions. The only exceptions to this have been

2211-643: Is to make the text and images being displayed crisper. The Retina display has since expanded to most Apple product lines, such as Apple Watch , iPhone , iPod Touch , iPad , iPad Mini , iPad Air , iPad Pro , MacBook , MacBook Air , MacBook Pro , iMac , and Apple's computer monitors such as the Studio Display and Pro Display XDR , some of which have never had non-Retina displays. Apple uses various marketing terms to differentiate between its LCD and OLED displays having various resolutions , contrast levels, color reproduction , or refresh rates . It

2278-644: The iPhone 4 models in June 2010. Apple markets the following devices as having Retina, Retina HD, Liquid Retina, Liquid Retina XDR, Super Retina HD, Super Retina XDR, Ultra Retina XDR or Retina 4K, 5K or 6K displays: Reviews of Apple devices with Retina displays have generally been positive on technical grounds, with comments describing it as a considerable improvement on earlier screens and praising Apple for driving third-party application support for high-resolution displays more effectively than on Windows. While high-dpi displays such as IBM's T220 and T221 had been sold in

2345-474: The iPhone 4 , Steve Jobs said the density of pixels needed for a Retina display is about 300 PPI (120 dot/cm) for a device held 10 to 12 inches (25 to 30 cm) from the eye. One way of expressing this angular pixel density is in units of pixels per degree ( PPD ) which takes into account both the pixel density of a screen and the distance from the screen to the observer. Based on Jobs' stated angular density of 300 DPI at 10–12 inches,

2412-425: The "scream sound effect" on Ziggurat made and distorted from his guitar and based on sounds made by eccentric Japanese musicians whose records he owned. He also called Ziggurat a descendant of his hobbies: the video game Ibara: Black Label and the Rubik's Cube . Rogers also became known for producing promotional " infomercial -style trailers". Ziggurat is a retro-style arcade shooter video game where

2479-527: The 1997 PlayStation game Moon: Remix RPG Adventure into English for its 2020 re-release on the Nintendo Switch . In February 2020, Rogers announced via Twitter that he was resigning from his position at Kotaku . He currently creates long-form video reviews under his Action Button channel as an independent YouTuber , such as a six-hour video review of Tokimeki Memorial , which has been credited by games journalists with generating greater interest for

2546-433: The arrival of Retina displays on computers would trigger a need to redesign interfaces and designs for the new displays: The sort of rich, data-dense information design espoused by Edward Tufte can now not only be made on the computer screen but also enjoyed on one. Regarding font choices, you not only need not choose a font optimized for rendering on screen, but should not. Fonts optimized for screen rendering look cheap on

2613-500: The author's subjective and personal experiences in relation to the game world. The Guardian cited his 2005 opinion piece "Dreaming in an Empty Room: A Defense of Metal Gear Solid 2 " as a core example of the genre. Rogers is additionally known for his verbose writing style and his video game reviews website ActionButton.net . He has also written for Next Generation , GamesTM , Play , Game Developer , and Kotaku . He later edited videos for Kotaku before resigning from

2680-550: The best puzzle game mode, he found Ten by Eight 's endless and zen modes "problematic", citing the difficulty and frustration in removing the endless mode's rocks and the dearth of urgency in the zen mode. Martin found the timed mode's length to be "perfect", but suggested that the Vita's screen was less so, recommending a tablet release. He compared the minimalist soundtrack to Kraftwerk , and noted that players uninterested in high scores would not stay interested for long. Videoball

2747-511: The development of Ziggurat , which began with an idea Rogers had while playing Angry Birds about pushing back a swarm of bats by shooting projectiles at them. He decided that he could not make the game alone. Rogers put out a call for artists on Twitter with a submissions request of "fan art of the Japanese box art of Phantasy Star II ", and Action Button artist Brent Porter replied in under an hour with an entry Rogers called "incredible". In mid 2011, Rogers decided to work on an iPhone game for

Action Button Entertainment - Misplaced Pages Continue

2814-574: The extra pixels. Apple calls this mode HiDPI mode . In simpler words, it is one logical pixel that corresponds to four physical pixels. The scale factor is tripled for devices with even higher pixel densities, such as the iPhone 6 Plus and iPhone X . The advantage of this equation is that the CPU "sees" a small portion of the data and calculates the relative positions of each element, and the GPU renders these elements with high quality assets. The goal of Retina displays

2881-414: The game with the skill and strategy of football and basketball. Before its release, PC Gamer 's Wes Fenlon wrote that he thought about Videoball daily after last playing two weeks prior due to its "addictive sort of fun" and his excitement for local multiplayer on PC following Hokra and TowerFall . He felt that the game's tagline of being appropriate for both a child's birthday party and prison

2948-414: The human eye can perceive." Apple fan website CultOfMac hosts an article by John Brownlee who incorrectly stated that the resolution the human eye can discern at 12 inches is 900 PPI, concluding "Apple's Retina Displays are only about 33% of the way there." On the topic of 20/20 vision, Brownlee misrepresented visual acuity in the population saying "most research suggests that normal vision

3015-515: The iPhone 4 to ship with a display of a comparable pixel density was the Nokia E6 , running Symbian Anna, with a resolution of 640 × 480 at a screen size of 62.5mm. This was an isolated case for the platform however, as all other Symbian-based devices had larger displays with lower resolutions. Some older Symbian smartphones, including the Nokia N80 and N90 , featured a 2.1 inch display at 259 ppi, which

3082-405: The iPhone 4S's pixels are resolved. The picture will look pixelated. If you have average eyesight [20/20 vision], the picture will look just fine... So in my opinion, what Jobs said was fine. Soneira, while technically correct, was being picky." The retinal neuroscientist Bryan Jones offers a similar analysis of more detail and comes to a similar conclusion: "I'd find Apple's claims stand up to what

3149-586: The iPhone 6 Plus, 6S Plus, 7 Plus, and 8 Plus, which render their images at triple the number of pixels in each direction, before down-sampling to 1080p resolution. The displays are manufactured worldwide by different suppliers. Currently, the iPad's display comes from Samsung , while the MacBook Pro and iPod Touch displays are made by LG Display and Japan Display Inc. There was a shift of display technology from twisted nematic (TN) liquid-crystal displays (LCDs) to in-plane switching (IPS) LCDs starting with

3216-616: The longer the button is held, such that a charged "slam" shot can sail across the full screen. Games last an average of four minutes. Videoball designer Tim Rogers describes the game as "an abstract minimalist electronic sport". Its development began as a dare from QWOP developer Bennett Foddy , Rogers's friend, to make a "one-button StarCraft ". Rogers compared the game's design process to Gordon Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares , where Ramsay convinces failing restaurants to provide fewer menu options and to make those dishes well. Polygon 's Tracey Lien discussed their process as "chasing

3283-415: The past, they had seen little take-up due to their cost of around $ 8400. Reviewing the iPhone 4 in 2010, Joshua Topolsky commented: "to our eyes, there has never been a more detailed, clear, or viewable screen on any mobile device. Not only are the colors and blacks deep and rich, but you simply cannot see pixels on the screen…webpages that would be line after line of pixelated content when zoomed out on

3350-429: The platformer was "hopelessly difficult", as it required a "level of perfectionism only speedrunners possess". He added that Tuffy was both what he "loved and hated" about the video games of his youth, between its 16-bit era art, tight platforming controls, "unforgiving" gameplay, and "reliance on rote memorization" of path through the level. Marchiafava added that gameplay trends had forgotten these types of games for

3417-425: The player fights off incoming aliens as the world's last human from atop a ziggurat. The player uses simple touch controls to charge and shoot the enemies away, and dies if hit by an enemy. The game has 16-bit graphics style and an 8-bit chiptune soundtrack. Rogers co-founded Action Button Entertainment while working on Ziggurat , which began with an idea Rogers had while playing Angry Birds about pushing back

SECTION 50

#1733104943328

3484-557: The retina MacBook Pro—sometimes downright cheesy—in the same way they do when printed in a glossy magazine. Raymond Soneira, president of DisplayMate Technologies, has challenged Apple's claim. He says that the physiology of the human retina is such that there must be at least 477 pixels per inch in a pixelated display for the pixels to become imperceptible to the human eye at a distance of 12 inches (305 mm). Astronomer and science blogger Phil Plait notes, however, that, "if you have [better than 20/20 ] eyesight, then at one foot away

3551-453: The rocks. The game ends if a rock fully crosses the grid. The zen mode has no rocks or time limit. The timed mode sets a several-minute restriction on gameplay and has no rocks. Rogers produced an " infomercial -style trailer" for the game, which VG247 called one of his signature moves and that IndieGames.com called "glorious". Paste 's Garrett Martin rated the game 8.0 of 10. Though he acknowledged untimed "endless" modes as usually

3618-466: The role of noted basketball-like strategy in its playtests , and the difficulty in crafting a minimalist game with a high importance on nuanced detail. He livestreamed prerelease sessions of Videoball via Twitch and broadcast gameplay from Twitch's booth at PAX East 2014 with indie publisher Midnight City. The game released in 2016. William Timothy Rogers Jr. was born on June 7, 1979. He graduated from Indiana University Bloomington in 2001 with

3685-419: The screen's edges. Star blocks act as power-ups that extend combos, such that a chain of green tiles can link to a chain of red tiles using a star block. Points can be spent on new character unlocks, including some from Ziggurat , that have no gameplay function. Ten by Eight has three modes of play. In endless mode, rocks around the grid block possible paths and can only be cleared by making paths that envelop

3752-415: The screen. When the player touches a spike or enemy, they must restart the game from the beginning. It features a counter that shows how many times the player has died. Rogers produced a video trailer for the game. The game was designed by Rogers, programmed by Kerwin, and illustrated by Porter. Ken "Coda" Snyder made the music. It was released in June 2014. Game Informer 's Jeff Marchiafava wrote that

3819-446: The site and becoming an independent YouTuber . Rogers co-founded Action Button Entertainment , where he designed games including Ziggurat and Videoball . The four-person studio specializes in simple aesthetics and controls, following from Rogers's own video game aesthetic and minimalist esports interests. He compared the studio's design philosophy to the spartan menu selections of Gordon Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares . Rogers

3886-498: The strong role of strategy in playing the game, she compared the array of projectiles fired to military strategy or a football play. Tuffy the Corgi and the Tower of Bones is a 2D platform adventure game for PlayStation Mobile where the player attempts to collect all 108 bones about a single, long level. As the player-character Tuffy is constantly running, the player can only jump and change direction by pressing any button on either side of

3953-434: The studio's four games from Ziggurat through Videoball . Their games are consistently simple in their aesthetics and controls, following from Rogers's own video game aesthetic interests. His interest in minimalist esports and simple games parlays into his design philosophy, which he compared to Gordon Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares , a show in which Ramsay advises failing restaurants to improve by trimming their menus to

4020-453: The threshold for a Retina display is an angular pixel density of 52–63 PPD. 58 PPD , the value at 11 in (28 cm), means that a tall skinny triangle with a height equal to the viewing distance and a top angle of one degree will have a base on the device's screen that covers 58 pixels. Note that, unlike absolute linear or planar resolution (e.g. 1920×1080 pixels) or linear pixel density (e.g. 401 PPI), angular pixel density

4087-486: The title in the West. In October 2022, The Guardian described Rogers' 2022 video review of Boku no Natsuyasumi as "a meditation on art’s capacity to give meaning to life," praising the narration and animation commissioned for the video. Rogers is a co-founder of Action Button Entertainment , a four-person studio that consists of Rogers, Brent Porter, Michael Kerwin, and Nicholas Wasilewski, who together have built all of

SECTION 60

#1733104943328

4154-635: The user’s eyes, such as watches and phones, the displays must have very high pixel density for the pixels to be indiscernible to the user, for displays viewed from farther away, such as those of notebook or desktop computers, slightly less pixel density is required in order to achieve the same angular resolution. Later products have had additional improvements, such as an increase in the screen size, contrast ratio, or pixel density. Apple has used names such as Retina HD display , Retina 5K display , Super Retina HD display , Super Retina XDR display , and Liquid Retina display for various iterations. When introducing

4221-417: Was correct albeit silly. Fenlon praised the game's minimalist visuals, "peppy music, and chirpy sound effects". He compared the player's controls to that of Asteroids and contrasted its simplicity with the 100-hour onboarding process for League of Legends , having learned Videoball after "a couple minutes". Polygon 's Tracey Lien compared the game's feel to basketball, football, and hockey. Citing

4288-455: Was minimalist aesthetics with no overt story to tell other than through game mechanics, Rogers wanted Ziggurat and future games to live up to those expectations and used his gut to fine-tune design decisions. The games also reflect aspects of Rogers's personality, such as in the "scream sound effect" on Ziggurat made and distorted from his guitar based on sounds made by eccentric Japanese musicians whose records he owned. He also called Ziggurat

4355-582: Was one of the sharpest at the time. The first Android smartphones with the same display - Meizu M9 was launched a few months later in beginning of 2011. In October of the same year Galaxy Nexus was announced, which had a display with a better resolution. By 2013 the 300+ ppimark was found on midrange phones such as the Moto G . From 2013 to 2014, many flagship devices such as the Samsung Galaxy S4 and HTC One (M8) had 1080p (FHD) screens around 5-inches for

4422-485: Was released on July 31, 2013, in North America for PlayStation Mobile —the PlayStation Vita and compatible devices. Around the same time, Rogers presented at the GDC 2013 Indie Soapbox, where he told the story of how he "went indie". In Videoball , players use solely one analog stick and one button to control triangles that shoot projectiles to knock a circular ball into the opposing team's endzone. The triangle shoots

4489-635: Was used in Rogers' own Ziggurat and Videoball . Edge described Rogers as a "polarizing author of so much 'publish-now-edit-never' brain spew". In 2013, Rogers was selected to publish in the first round of digital books on games criticism published by Press Select. Rogers has also written for Insert Credit , Next Generation , GamesTM , Play , N-Revolution , Kotaku , Atomix , and Game Developer magazine . He later edited videos for Kotaku . As of June 2016, Rock, Paper, Shotgun reported ActionButton.net to be "dormant". Rogers translated

#327672