DeathMath - T.A. McCann

Huge thanks to T.A. for his insight and time given to the DeathMath team during Startup Weekend Edu! Over the course of TechStars and various startup events, I've heard hundreds of talks with incredible brain dollops of wisdom, yet am still inspired and educated when people like T.A. just continue to dish the good stuff. You can't be around these people and not understand why they are successful in life.

Oh yeah, watch this and get inspired! (Shot by the one and only Mike Folden)

 

DeathMath

This weekend was my 9th Startup Weekend and it never fails to re-energize! I was invited to mentor teams in helping them get the most out of the weekend, which can only be learned from experience. (It is indeed where Giant Thinkwell was birthed!)

Shortly after coming in on Saturday, I sat down to hear a pitch and was instantly visualizing its potential. Getting kids to learn through compelling gameplay. They called their app "DeathMath", where you go head to head with another player, represented as figures of history, and you kick each others asses through quickly solving math equations. The idea was intended to reach the kids that would rather engage in fun video games and not through boring academic content. 

The story and aesthetic wrapper that was told around the initial prototype was one of battle and violence. It was clear that this was an idea that would make some people uneasy, which I happen to favor myself. They had a super talented team too that understood mobile, gaming, fun and education (what more could you ask for?!) A great designer from Ubermind, working on mobile experiences for large brands, as well as a developer from the Microsoft X-Box team, another developer from Teachstreet and of course the man with the idea and business guy, also from Teachstreet. The only thing I felt they were lacking was some flavorful avatars to represent the historical figures and especially in their brutalized state. I saw an opportunity to help them out and make some noise.

Check out the weekend demo at www.DeathMath.com - we'll definitely polish it up and get it native to the iPad with more avatars, more violence, and more academic development. 

Oh, did I mention it was posted to Reddit, and within a couple of hours made the front page with almost 2,000 upvotes and 200 comments? Tons of great feedback and tons of great hating! (told you there'd be uneasiness...)

Here are some screenshots: (Design is Joe Shoop / Avatars by me)

Here was our awesome team:

And lastly, this is an extra little something to say thanks to Mike Arrington for not only coming out to support and judge Startup Weekend EDU, which meant a lot to the Seattle community, but also a thank-you from team DeathMath for showing enthusiasm and support during the demo. Thanks Mike!

 

 

Daily 11: Jan 2-8

I can't begin to tell you how productive 2011 has been! 5/3 of my days were spent working on Giant Thinkwell's new game, or doodling. Great start with lots of content for my blog to come this year..

You can see my daily submissions or view everyone's daily submissions here at The Daily 11.

 

Jan 8th

 

 

Jan 7th

 

Jan 6th

Jan 5th


 

Jan 4th

Jan 3rd


Jan 2nd

 

The Daily 11

Banner by Adam Laurie

A resolution for 2011 was to doodle every single day. It turns out that 4 of my friends had that same resolution, so we decided to put together a blog called 'The Daily 11'.

In the past, it's been known that us creatives claim that we will do a daily contribution and keep up with it, but alas life gets in the way and we fail.

We need some accountability, harassment & encouragement!

That's why Dan Savage, Adam Laurie, Mihai Cernusca, Bryan Perozo and myself have made a blood oath that we will indeed do at least one doodle, zombie or take one new picture and post it here each day. 3 strikes and we fail. Last man standing gets everlasting life.

Please feel free to harass, encourage and crit to give us the juices to follow through to the end of the year!

 

I will post all of my week's submissions at the end of each week here, but you can see all of ours posted daily on the other blog.

Check it out at TheDaily11.com

Here was my Jan 1st doodle of the 4 of them haunting me to DRAW!

Thanks!

Kevin Leneway and I have been busting our asses on our new startup 'Giant Thinkwell' since March. It has been such an incredible journey up to this point and it's only gaining momentum. We've been blessed with the energy and support of our spouses, families, friends and the tech/investor communities in Seattle, LA and San Francisco. We truly appreciate each meeting, insight, introduction, investment, and support that each of them has given. Without it, Giant Thinkwell would not be doing close to what we're doing today. We have huge things on the horizon and are cranking away until our ideas are fully realized!

Thanks again for all of the love and support! Happy Thanksgiving.

Macbug doodle

Haven't updated in ages, as I've been inundated with awesome projects (and somewhat lazy with hitting submit). Can't wait to divulge what I've been up to! Definitely the best chapters of my creative life thus far.

This was a quick doodle this evening on my default Mac wallpaper.