Yahoo! Cool Thing of the Day

Ok, so this isn't really something to go play with, but instead a bit of Yahoo! Lore.

Quite some years ago, I used to work with the folks in Yahoo! Games. They're were (and still are) a fairly interesting bunch of guys, and were continually looking for new games to bring to Yahoo! During that time someone had brought in a sliding block game that was set up in one of the producer's cubes. (Producers are like Directors, they get to make decisions about how products should work.)

Across from the games group sat another producer for the Yahoo! Astrology. Mind you, one of the nice things about Yahoo! is that everyone talks to each other. If you've got an idea or suggestion, it's always welcomed. Anyway, since she came in pretty early, most of her work was done by early afternoon and she'd stick around to help out the games folks. Soon after it was set up, she discovered that sliding block game.

We'd rack our brains for ideas. She'd play the blocks.
We'd toss around concepts and strategies. She'd play the blocks.

It wasn't too long before we noticed that pretty much every free chance she got we'd find her quietly playing that block game (and racking up some DAMN impressive scores).

That's when one of the game designers sat with her for a few hours and watched her play, then asked about ideas that she'd like to see.

And the game that came out of it was named for her, Ms. Julia T., or as you know it, JT's Blocks.

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