John Voorhees

5806 posts on MacStories since November 2015

John is MacStories' Managing Editor, has been writing about Apple and apps since joining the team in 2015, and today, runs the site alongside Federico. John also co-hosts four MacStories podcasts: AppStories, which covers the world of apps, MacStories Unwind, which explores the fun differences between American and Italian culture and recommends media to listeners, Ruminate, a show about the weird web and unusual snacks, and NPC: Next Portable Console, a show about the games we take with us.
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@johnvoorhees.macstories.net
voorhees@macstories.net

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Panic to Publish Untitled Goose Game by House House in Early 2019 on Switch, Mac, and PC

Panic, well-known in the Apple community for its beautifully-designed Mac and iOS apps, announced today that it is teaming up with Melbourne-based House House to release Untitled Goose Game, which made a splash last fall when it released pre-alpha gameplay footage on YouTube. The game will be published by Panic in early 2019 and be available as a Nintendo Switch exclusive and on the Mac and PC.

This is how Panic describes the game in its press release:

In Untitled Goose Game, it’s a lovely morning in the village and you are a horrible goose. Combining sandbox-style experimentation with slapstick-style schtick, it’s beautiful, puzzling, somewhat stressful, and above all else, funny as heck.

As the trailer below hints, Untitled Goose Game requires players to use a combination of stealth and puzzle-solving skills to complete tasks, while aggravating the humans around them.

Untitled Goose Game was featured by Nintendo today in one of its periodic Nintendo Direct livestreams that highlighted several new indie titles coming to its Switch console in the upcoming months. The game will also be available to Mac and PC users via Steam.

This is House House’s second game, but its first Switch title. In 2016, the studio released Push Me Pull You, on Sony’s PS4 and PCs.

Panic got its start as an indie game publisher with Firewatch, a critically-acclaimed game from Campo Santo that was released in 2016. Cabel Sasser, co-founder of Panic, said of today’s announcement:

We’re crazy excited to work with House House to bring this funny, good-feeling game into a sometimes bad-feeling world. There’s something so nice about the simple joy of laughing and causing mischief that we know will delight video game-playing families everywhere.

Untitled Goose Game has been highly-anticipated since House House released pre-alpha footage late last year. Interest in the game has continued to build throughout 2018. According to Polygon:

…its simple gameplay and undeniably charming style made it one of the standout titles at the Day of the Devs showcase at GDC 2018.

Panic is will be showing off a playable early version of the game this weekend at PAX West in Seattle.

The announcement of Untitled Goose Game as a Switch exclusive further demonstrates the console’s popularity among indie game developers. I’ve been eagerly awaiting Panic’s next move as a game publisher, and the humor and charm of Untitled Goose Game make it feel like a perfect fit for the company.

Google Introduces YouTube Digital Wellbeing Features

If you’ve ever wondered how long you spend watching YouTube, now you can find out. With an update that hit the App Store today, Google has added ‘Time watched’ statistics to the iOS app’s Account view. Tap your avatar in the upper right-hand corner, then ‘Time watched’ for your total viewing time today, yesterday, and the past week, plus your daily average. The statistics are based on your YouTube Watch History, so they don’t include anything deleted from your Watch History or watched in Incognito mode. Nor does Google include YouTube Music listening statistics.

The new ‘Time watched’ section also includes the ability to set up reminders to take a break periodically, which can be set in 5-minute increments between 5 minutes and 24 hours. There’s also a toggle for batching the notifications YouTube sends. There are 10 categories of notifications available in the YouTube app, so batching them if you have several turned on is a welcome addition. Notification digests can also be accessed from the app’s settings. From ‘Time watched,’ you can turn off Autoplay and disable sounds and vibrations too.

Originally announced at Google I/O earlier this year, it’s nice to see watch time statistics added at the app level, even though similar information will be available from the Screen Time feature coming soon with iOS 12. If you haven’t been running the iOS 12 beta, taking a peek at your YouTube usage statistics now is an excellent way to get a feel for the utility of having an objective measure of how long you spend on the service.

AppStories - Ep. 76 - 34 minutes

Our Favorite Share Sheet Extensions

FedericoJohn
AppStories+ Deeper into the world of apps

AppStories Episode 76 - Our Favorite Share Sheet Extensions

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33:48

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AppStories+ Deeper into the world of apps

Federico returns from vacation to discuss the share sheet extensions that he and John use on their iOS devices.

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Game Day: Donut County

Tomorrow, Donut County by developer Ben Esposito will be published by Annapurna Interactive, which also backed the critically-acclaimed Florence. The game, which was announced in 2014, but has been in development since 2012, tells the story of a raccoon named BK, his friend Mira and an assortment of other characters from Donut County who are trapped 999 feet beneath the surface of the Earth. You play by manipulating a hole that grows as you move it across the landscape swallowing objects. If the premise sounds strange, that’s because it is, but it also works through a combination of a clever game mechanic, funny writing, and engaging sound design and artwork.

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Q&A

Question: As a lawyer, I need a database to store legal documents for future reference (case law, notes, web clippings, PDFs, etc.) that allows me to add notes, annotate, and retrieve PDFs using search. (Moadenildo Freire, @mjuniorr2)

John

I used to be a lawyer and have a couple of suggestions for you. Probably the best...

Recording Audio on Macs and iOS

John

There are all sorts of Mac and iOS apps for capturing audio. Today, I want to focus on two use cases: capturing thoughts and ideas and podcasting, which are the two ways I use audio recording apps most often. Capturing Thoughts and Ideas Besides the shower, the place I probably have the most...

Creating Quick Lists In Reminders

John

Shared lists in Reminders are a good way to create a family grocery list. Everyone can add to the list and when someone has time to go shopping it’s all right there in one place where you can check off items as you shop. The trouble is, it’s hard to change habits. Fortunately, if...

App Debuts

John

Spark Spark continues to receive regular updates. Since our last issue of Weekly, Readdle added the ability to allow someone else to send a draft message on your behalf. There’s a new notification setting for team comments too. You can receive all team notifications, grouped notifications that group team notifications together, except messages where...