I recently came across a blog post that talked about non-developers using Git and GitHub to do some pretty cool things. It got me thinking about other cool and unsual things possible with GitHub.

Then I started thinking about games and wondered what it would look like to have a game with Git at the center. Not something as lame as "who can create the most branches with the most inappropriate names in the shortest amount of time?" More like a family of two-player, head-to-head, text-based, turn-based games with Git as the transfer protocol.

So I made one, and I did it all in BASH.

The games are built using a "platform" called Gitwar. It's a shared utility that takes care of adding, committing, pushing, and pulling to/from the shared repo.

The first game is called Gitfight and it's an incredibly simple/corny game where you tell the game what kind of punch you'd like to throw at your opponent and basically roll a virtual die to see how much damage you deal. After you submit your punch, Gitwar takes over and commits that action to your repo and your opponent can have a chance to punch back.

The second game was an obvious choice. It's called Gitchess. This is where I had the most fun. Creating a more complex game in BASH proved to be a difficult but satisfying challenge.

It was really fun to make, and I'm eager to find out what other types of command-line games can be built on top of a pattern like this. Be sure to check out the Gitwar repo here. And give me a shoutout on Twitter if you have comments.

Recently I was looking for a designer to collaborate with on a project called Code Armory. I started looking for online resources to meet some talented designers. I discovered a site called CollabFinder and immediately realized I had discovered something of extraordinary value.

CollabFinder allows you to search for designers, developers, artists, writers, and scientists by physical location, skills, and interests. You can pitch them a project you'd like to "collaborate" on (collaboration in this context, means non-monetary help).

So I started looking for designers in the San Francisco area, found some really talented people, sent them a note about the project I needed help on, and within an hour I had my replies. I quickly started emailing back and forth with a designer named Lain Lee. He told me he needed some help coding his new design site, and asked if I'd be interested in trading services. We actually met at Starbucks down the road from my office that same day, and started talking about our ideas and life in general. We just clicked. Our interests and passions line up so well. It's been a great partnership. Today, I'm happy to say we launched Lain's new site. The site was put together with KirbyCMS, a few jQuery plugins, and some good ol' fashioned elbow grease.

Quick word about Lain as a designer/illustrator: this guy is one heck of an artist. Since we've started working together I've started to follow his work, and honestly, every thing the guy creates is pure gold. Check out this timelapse of his mad illustration skills! The stuff he's designed for Code Armory is absolutely perfect. Excellent illustration, web design, and it totally lines up with my vision for this new project. I'll be sure to write more as I move further along with it.

Make sure you head over and check out his new site (http://lainlee3design.com). Check out his portfolio and see what you think. I'd highly recommend him for any of your design needs.

I ported walkie to run as a hubot* script! What does that mean? It means basecamp notifications in your chat room!

Go to walkie's hubot page for more info: http://walkie.tybenz.com/hubot

* http://hubot.github.com

Introducing the coolest way to stay in sync with Basecamp. That's right. It's a node.js script that will send you updates via Mountain Lion's Notification Center whenever something's going down at HQ.

Check out Walkie's project page for more info: http://walkie.tybenz.com