We are a small group of Boston hackers who want to make gaming better through technology. Yes, there's plenty of gaming technology out there already. We look for the cracks that nobody else has spotted, even though they're right in front of you.

Planbeast is a free service that lets you find people to play your favorite Xbox 360 games with. Planbeast allows you to schedule and join new online events for any Xbox Live-compatible title. You can set up private games for your friends, or public games that anyone can join in.

You can browse the scheduled events on the Planbeast web site, or use any standard calendar application or RSS reader. You can also set Planbeast to notify you of upcoming events, either by email or Windows Messenger.

• Visit Planbeast
• The Planbeast web forums
• The Planbeast developers' blog

Our first project was the Volity Network -- an open platform for real-time, multiplayer, Internet-based games. It went online in 2006, with online versions of several card and board games (including Hearts, Werewolf, and Fluxx). The protocol is fully documented and hacker-friendly; anybody is free to develop new games and add them to the network.

We have not had the resources to develop the Volity Network as fully as it deserves. (Isn't that always the way?) Planbeast has absorbed most of our time recently. Nonethless, we keep the Volity Network running. You can play any of its games by downloading Gamut, the open-source Volity game browser.

• Visit the Volity Network
• The Volity web forums
• The Volity developers' blog (currently inactive)

The Gameshelf is Jason McIntosh's homebrew TV show about games and gaming. It's also a blog, where we all post our occasional thoughts about every and any part of the gaming world.

• Visit the Gameshelf blog
• Watch the Gameshelf episodes

In alphabetical order...

• Jason McIntosh
• Andrew Plotkin
• Andy Turner