Xeni Jardin

Global Game Jam Continues! Here's live video (without kittens)

Boing Boing Video, Offworld, and Boing Boing Gadgets have been on the scene at the Global Game Jam in various cities around the world, and we'll be bringing you some fun post-Jam documentary LOLs next week. For now, check out this meta Flickr photoset, which contains lots of sleepy developers, half-consumed energy drinks, and funny things people think up when they're hyperconnected and under-slept -- international dance-offs, for example.

Above, Boing Boing Video colleague Jolon Bankey is also organizing the Global Game Jam Costa Rica, and this is the live stream for CR. Pura Vida, guys! Below, Jolon writes:

Hey Xeni! We're at the site of the Global Game Jam in Costa Rica, and all the teams are going strong! We have a few casualties curled up in a corner behind me, but for the most part people haven't slept, or did so for 15 minutes sitting in front of their chairs before jerking awake and getting back to rocking their virtual world in the short time left.

With only 27 short sleepless hours ahead of them, everyone is surprisingly energized. We have had continuous communication with the other locations around the world via webcams and projectors everywhere, which has been a lot of fun. There have been Macarena dance-offs between Costa Rica and the rest of the world, we lost a dance contest with Brazil, but Scotland gave us a 10 for our efforts.

We polished off some giant tubs of Gallo Pinto and huevos revueltos earlier, and now people are just trying to push through with an unending stream of Sobe Adrenalin Rush (*cough* sponsors Thank you Sobe!)

-jgb 12.04.29 pm Saturday January 31st, 2009
Offices of Schematic, Costa Rica
PLaza Roble, Escazu, Costa Rica

Xeni Jardin

Interactive Photo-Hunt Game on YouTube

Boing Boing reader Joe Sabia says he's created the first ever interactive photo hunt on YouTube. "There are 30 levels to the game, recapping all the big nominees for the oscars. 64 videos in all. i made use of youtube's annotations... thought you would enjoy." The subject matter may or may not be something that interests you, but I loved this clever and effective use of a mass-market web service feature (annotations) for a purpose other than the one for which that feature was originally developed.

Start here.

Brandon Boyer

The Fever pitch: first images of Space Invaders Extreme 2

As predicted, Famitsu has uploaded its full preview of Taito's March surprise, the second DS installment of Space Invaders Extreme, and its still half-puzzling Bingo Fever mode, in which you match panel colors in any direction by shooting down invaders of the corresponding hue.

The preview also details a number of the other new features, some more easily understood than others: I get the panel view and how it corresponds to power-ups (similar to the first game), but I'm still slightly ashamed to admit to feeling a bit dense about the workings of its multiplayer mode shown at bottom, which appears to involve sending super-sized UFOs to stymie your opponent's game, but isn't explained in much more depth.

I'm cautiously optimistic: while the new arcade-cab monster Necker Cube backgrounds have certainly properly woo-ed me, I'm not entirely convinced the game is actually necessary given the richness of the first, and bingo does not an instant seller make. But there's still time for Taito to pull a few more cards from up its sleeve, and its entirely possible that letting it dazzle me in motion will make all the difference in the world.

Space Invaders Extreme 2, another classic reborn [Famitsu, spotty Google translation]

Previously:
Space Invaders Extreme 2 gets.. invader bingo? - Offworld
Space Invaders getting even more Extreme? - Offworld

Brandon Boyer

What's it going to build then, eh: 'A Lego Orange' imagined

Corvus Elrod's imagined version of A Clockwork Orange done up Lego-game-style makes me as uncomfortable to read as I imagine Elrod wanted it to: it's a bit heavy handed at times (as, I suppose, it should be), but the post-Ludovico twist at the end was a nice touch, as is its deliberately destructive design:

Unlike you’d expect from a LEGO game, however, the majority of the game features absolutely no building. None at all. It’s all destruction and ultra-violence. The closest thing to a constructive action is in the Milk Bar, where pouring and drinking milk mixers from different taps slightly alters your interactions with the game. One drink slightly speeds up your movement, another makes you a bit stronger, yet another alters the coloration of the lighting in the levels, casting everything in a ghastly purplish hue.

A LEGO Orange [Man Bytes Blog, via Infovore]

Brandon Boyer

Beat connection: Gaijin send us on a second video Bit.Trip

Games blog Joystiq got their hands on a new trailer for Gaijin Games' upcoming WiiWare game Bit.Trip: Beat, and this one does a fantastic job of allaying any fears that the Beat would be a walk through the 4-bit park.

It also gives an even stronger sensation of how tightly integrated the music will be with the gameplay: the first used its dot-reflections as flourishes over the underlying melody, but this better conjures a feeling of making the music with skilled play.

Also, Gaijin, if you're listening (and if you are, can you drop me a note via the upper right link?), this is a long shot, but I promise to gift the game to each and every one of my Wii-owning friends if you can manage to shoehorn in DS connectivity that lets me use Taito's add-on paddle controller.

Bit.Trip: Beat Joystiq

Previously:
Beat: My god, it's full of bits - Offworld
Gaijin Games taking the Wii on a Bit.Trip - Offworld

Brandon Boyer

Behemoth show how to build a better Undead Cyclops

Ever wonder how Behemoth designer Dan Paladin creates the gorgeous vector art that adorns Alien Hominid and Castle Crashers? Wonder no more: here's 19 minutes of Paladin drawing and animating Crashers' Undead Cyclops boss and its adorable little death knight minions.

Undead Cyclops Boss [Vimeo, The Behemoth]

Previously:
The Behemoth talk Castle Crashers balance, ladies - Offworld
Castle Crashers gets Kinged - Offworld
The Offworld 20: 2008's Best Indie and Overlooked - Offworld

Brandon Boyer

Pixel porn: the brilliantly honest Yar's Revenge, Asteroids, Star Raiders ad

The most amazing thing about this Atari 2600 ad which purportedly ran in theaters in 1982 is that it doesn't try to upsell any of the action you'd end up getting at home: no 8x8 sprites turned magically into full-color cartoons or live-action heroes, it simply demonstrates and sexes up the gameplay in all its low-bit glory.

That, and it's sinister as hell.

Atari 2600 commercial - The Fly (Yars' Revenge, Asteroids, etc., 1982) [YouTube, thanks, Alex!]

Brandon Boyer

How Gridplane helped the Xbox 360 drop its blades

You may have already seen these data visualization concepts Portland design team Gridplane did for Google which made the rounds earlier this week via the tech/design blog set, but hiding one project over (as I never thought to click away to) was a project making waves on the games blogs today.

The company, it turns out, was involved in doing concept work for Microsoft's New Xbox Experience, and the image set is a fascinating look at the evolution of their thought process, still showing a visual reliance on the original Xbox 360's blades before blowing them out completely into a far more nebulous and spacious area, actually quite similar to the one we ended up with (particularly its new friends list).

The list of participants was just as surprising -- Gridplane creative director JD Hooge and motion designer Nando Costa were both key players in the early days of the Flash art/design scene (when Flash MX was an exciting blip on the distant horizon). The former was involved in the excellent Flash Math Creativity book, while the latter was part of a burgeoning tech/design scene that popped up briefly in Chicago, one that would also spawn Iminlikewithyou founder Charles Forman, who's managed to transform his original hepcat faux-dating site into a hotspot for casual multiplayer games.

XBOX Experience [Gridplane]

Offworld Crew

Global Game Jam has begun! (live video stream)

Global Game Jam is under way. Live stream above (looking quite fluffy and adorable -- check the GGJ site for more locations with actual development happening), and more about the event here and in this previous Boing Boing blog post. Boing Boing Video, Boing Boing Gadgets, and Offworld will be popping up in various cities, give us a shout in the comments if you'd like to give us a shout-out from your location, and send us a video! We'll reach out with upload info.

(Thanks, Ustream, Jolon Bankey, and Global Game Jam Costa Rica crew!)

Previously:
World of Goo's Kyle Gabler gives top 7 Global Game Jam tips - Offworld
Global Game Jam (48 hour videogame dev marathon) this weekend ...

Brandon Boyer

Savory new details of Edmund McMillen's Meat Boy

And finally, one that you actually can get your meaty paws on: as progress on the commercial WiiWare/PC version of Edmund McMillen's Super Meat Boy moves forward, he updates to say that partner-in-plush Danielle White has created the first ever Meat Boy toys, the first 15 of which come with limited Meat Boy buttons. Race you.

And, as I missed it at the time, his new Meat Boy blog lists some of the features we can expect from the enhanced version of the game: a "100% remade graphics and engine," over a hundred levels across five chapters, boss fights, a versus mode, and -- though "it's still too early to tell" -- possible co-op play and a level editor.

While I've got the wish-list open, I'd also like to sincerely request a line of Aether toys, perhaps with retractable tongue (and an eye-hook for hanging) and velcro-removable Boy rider? It is to dream.

Meat Boy plush! [Edmund McMillen]

Previously:
Edmund McMillen's Meat Boy getting revamped for Wii, PC - Offworld
Edmund McMillen gives us No Quarter - Offworld
Gimme Indie Game: Glaiel and Schubbe give us Closure - Offworld

Brandon Boyer

Contrapposto: John Mallamas's intricate toy customs

More shoulda, coulda toys that aren't yet: John 'Jin Saotome' Mallamas made a name for himself earlier last year with a spread in Wired on his various comic book custom toys, but his custom twin Contra figures are particularly notable because get a load of that fantastic (and magnet-swappable, apparently) spread shot.

Mallamas's Flickr stream is a treasure trove of other spot on customs: Gordon Freeman and his gravity gun (or, alternately, blood-spattered crowbar), God of War's Kratos, and a free-hanging Bionic Commando.

Jin Saotome's Dangerous Toys [John Mallamas]

Brandon Boyer

What the world needs now: Elaine Bradford unintentionally prototypes Noby toys

Currently on display at Houston gallery Art League Houston, Elaine Bradford's 'Museum of UnNatural History' exhibit, which makes as good a case for eventual Noby Noby Boy toys as anything: take note, Namco!

Fiber Arts: Freaks of Nurture [Lime & Violet, via .tiff!]

Previously:
It's a stretch: Explaining Katamari creator's new Noby Noby Boy ...
Noby Noby Boy stretches further into February - Offworld
Another new look at Noby Noby Boy - Offworld
Happy Holidays from Offworld (feat. Keita Takahashi) - Offworld

Brandon Boyer

World of Goo's Kyle Gabler gives top 7 Global Game Jam tips

In the Global Game Jam's first ever (and ridiculously awesome) keynote, 2D Boy co-founder and World of Goo creator Kyle Gabler -- an expert on rapid dev, having helped found Carnegie Mellon's Experimental Gameplay project -- gives his top tips for fresh-faced indie devs, covering the importance of audio, originality, and (channeling... Tyra Banks) looking your best for the media.

You also get bonus cameos by IGDA's Jason Della Rocca and Susan Gold, as well as Crayon Physics creator Petri Purho and Audiosurf's Dylan Fitterer! It's a must-watch.

As we noted yesterday, 5pm on Friday marks the beginning of the inaugural jam (supported by IGDA, cross platform engine Unity, and Mekensleep, creators of DS Offworld-favorite Soul Bubbles), and will see 2,000 participants at 53 locations in 23 countries taking 48 hours to create a game.

We here will be making the rounds covering our respective local jams: I'll be doing my damndest to make it to Austin Community College over the weekend to see how things progress, Gadgets' Rob Beschizza will be at Carnegie Mellon (where the 2D Boys are said to be dropping by), and the Mother Boing crew will be on West Coast duty. Looking forward to seeing what everyone comes up with!

Global Game Jam

Previously:
Global Game Jam (48 hour videogame dev marathon) this weekend ...

Brandon Boyer

Pixelz are so small: Deerhoof's new 'Buck and Judy' video

While there aren't any Game Boys or otherwise 8-bit chips anywhere to be found, I'm letting the chunky pixels of C Spencer Yeh's wonderfully meaty new video for Offworld fave Deerhoof stand as the main reason why you're seeing it here. Get a little musical peanut butter in your games chocolate!

Unfortunately, Blurt apparently doesn't allow for embedding, so head over there for the full thing

Kill Rock Stars has now officially released the video to YouTube, but after watching above, head here and here, where you'll then understand why Deerhoof are Twin Peaks deputy Andy Brennan's favorite band.

Deerhoof "Buck and Judy" premiere [Blurt Online, via Robin]

Brandon Boyer

A quick look at Marvelous's even quicker Hero for 30Sec

2009 doesn't seem to have too much in store for Sony's PSP at the moment (though I'm currently quite amped to try the just-released demo of Irem's portable Disaster Report/Raw Danger sequel, the PS2 games being amongst my top 10 for the console), but one game destined to become an Offworld favorite is Marvelous' Hero for 30Sec.

Thanks to this just-released trailer uploaded by Tiny Cartridge, we can get somewhat of a closer look, though the actual gameplay remains cloudy. What we know is this: the game follows four different characters in a traditional (and retro-pixel) RPG quest, but only allows each character 30 seconds at a time to do their deeds via quick-burst minigames.

The 'hero' plays a sidescrolling level-up quest, the 'princess's game is a top-down shooter, the 'knight's quest is a bird's-eye action game, and the 'demon lord's game plays as a real time strategy to defeat knights trying to attack it.

The game has been announced for Western release (but not yet an American one), and is one I'm anxiously awaiting more details on: check Famitsu for more screens of the game's gloriously 16-bit look and feel.

Hero for 30Sec [Marvelous, via Tiny Cartridge]

Brandon Boyer

Ico creator looks back at Colossus development

1UP's just-published interview with Ico creator Fumito Ueda looking back at spiritual sequel Shadow of the Colossus some three years later was interesting not so much at what it revealed about the game, but about the practicality of Ueda in his approach to its creation.

Both games are heralded as some of the high-water-marks of games as art, and Ueda wins points for his approach the narrative debate ("there should be game design first and a story that suits the design, not the other way around"), and commercial intentions ("if I were to choose between something that sells for a moment and is forgotten, and something that doesn't sell much but is remembered, I would choose the latter").

His response to the hero dynamic was interesting, though:

Making a lead character female seems to be fascinating cinematically, but I picked a male character since most game players are male, and they need to become emotionally involved with the lead character. However, recently there have been many female gamers, so it is possible to have a female leading character, I guess.

And it was interesting to see that in both games, unlike most other adventures which are built on the very foundation (see: Zelda), Ueda deliberately left out unlockable weapons that would operate as "skill changes" -- keeping the player on an even keel throughout.

As for what the team is doing now, nothing much has been said other than the above teaser image used for a recruitment ad, and a comically unhelpful appearance on the PS3's Mainichi Issyo channel (aka, where those Sony cats come from), where he showed up and parted with nothing more than a drawing of the cats being chased by a colosso-feline.

Shadow of the Colossus Postmortem Interview [1UP]

Brandon Boyer

BAFTA to honor Pong/Atari head Nolan Bushnell

Though the Academy hasn't yet announced its official lineup for this year's BAFTA Game Awards, it has sent a release noting that 'Pong pioneer' Nolan Bushnell will be this year's Fellowship award winner. The honor is "presented for outstanding achievement through a body of work," and last year (its inaugural year for a games-related award) was presented to Spore/SimCity creator Will Wright.

Academy Chairman David Parfitt said Bushnell's contribution "is nothing short of remarkable; he ushered in an era, the legacy of which is the vibrant, evolving industry we see before us today.”

Bushnell is, of course, the entrepreneur behind both Pong and Atari's foray into home consoles, who now spends his time heading uWink, the touchscreen enhanced 'social entertainment restaurant,' as well as chairman of Austin's GameWager, which lets players compete in online games for prizes.

The full list of nominees for this year's BAFTAs will be released on February 10th.

British Academy Video Games Awards

Previously:
Miyamoto, Spore awarded Jim Henson Honors - Offworld
Wii Fit tops 2008 Japan Media Arts Festival games entrants - Offworld
Getting crafty with Foldskool and Cubecraft - Offworld
What Does Your Soul Look Like (Part 2600) - Offworld

Brandon Boyer

Surly Hate Machine: Dance to everything Left 4 Dead's Francis can't stand

Every good game needs its accompanying dance mix, and GCIDogmeat and GCITherewolf oblige with this ode to the things Left 4 Dead's Francis hates. We all know Bill's favorite thing is, of course, stairs (why??), but that's just one of the myriad objects of Francis's derision, which also includes doctors, lawyers, and.. The Fountainhead?

Francis Hates Left 4 Dead [YouTube, via Destructoid]

Previously:
Fallout 3: Everybody Dance! edition - Offworld
Left 4 Dead: Savage beyond belief - Offworld
Left 4 Dead: the twits don't stand a chance - Offworld
Better left unsaid: scraps from Left 4 Dead's cutting room floor ...

Brandon Boyer

Aether, Peggle, Auditorium, World of Goo top 2008 JayIs casual list

Casual web/downloadable powerhouse JayIsGames has announced the winners of its fifth annual 2008 best game feature it opened for public voting in early January, with a fantastic selection of indie hits.

Many winners are already familiar/oft-blogged names, like 2D Boy's World of Goo and PopCap's perennially awesome Peggle series (here, its latest, Peggle Nights), as well as a number of titles that made the scene well before Offworld's launch.

Among those: Kongregate's internal viral strategy card game Kongai, retro-classic meta-mashup Rom Check Fail, gorgeous symphony-of-light puzzler Auditorium, and Aether, Tyler Glaiel and Edmund McMillen's dreamily melancholy other-worldly adventure I recommended just yesterday.

There's a week's worth of other gems hiding out across the feature as well: as before, making your way through the list should keep you happily occupied for quite some time.

Best of 2008 Results! [Jay is Games]

Previously:
JayIs Opens Voting For 2008 Best of Casual Gameplay - Offworld

Brandon Boyer

New towers loom: Fieldrunners update imminent

Offworld broke news of new maps and modes coming soon to iPhone hit tower defense game Fieldrunners in late December, and now, via the studio's new Twitter feed, Subatomic says the update's been submitted to Apple and should be available in a matter of days.

Some of the new changes detailed in the feed: apart from a new branched-path 'Drylands' map, a new 'P-47 Thunderbolt' runner, new flame tower that can 'incinerate multiple fieldrunners in a single fiery swoop,' and, more technically, faster load times and a new each-round autosave feature to guard against persistent crashes and freezes.

Fieldrunners home [Subatomic, via Twitter]

Previously:
Fieldrunners update coming "very soon", includes new maps and more ...

Brandon Boyer

Spielberg/EA's new Boom Blox goes underwater, zero-g

Continuing a streak of happy EA news that follows our ongoing coverage of DS fave Henry Hatsworth and Spore's potential to grow as a platform, the publisher has announced Boom Blox Bash Party, a followup to its Steven Spielberg co-produced Wii title that was one of our most played on the console last year.

The company promises 400 new levels "under water, in zero gravity, and beyond," and further expansions of its multiplayer challenges (the true lifeblood of the franchise) with new team-based play, as well as "new block types, including: virus and conveyor blox, new blox shapes, such as: cylinders and wedges," and new cannon, paint ball and slingshot tools."

Even better, EA says an online level sharing system will be going friend-code-less, and its Create Mode has expanded to include the full tool set the developers themselves use to create the game's included levels: all signs are pointing to one of the first essential Wii games of 2009.

Previously:
Boom Blox does Mario, Galaga, Duck Hunt - Offworld
Ragdoll Metaphysics: Ten Things That Made Me Glad To Be A Gamer In ...
Steven Spielberg gets games - Offworld

Brandon Boyer

Gimme Indie Game: Glaiel and Schubbe give us Closure

This one's been on my to-do list for several days now, but I've only just got around to it, and now comes as highly recommended as I imagined it would. Developed by Tyler Glaiel and artist Jon Schubbe, Closure is, like Gravity Bone, a game where the less explained the better, other than to say that it's a sort of a playable version of the WYSIWYG rule, topped off with an ambient 'Eraserhead' soundscape that leaves you dreading the dark as much as you ever have.

If you haven't already, also try Glaiel's Aether, the plaintively nostalgic game he co-created with Edmund McMillen in late 2008. The initial learning curve is fairly steep and will take some adjusting to, but feeling my entire body relax once I understood I'd broken through gravity's bonds was a bit of a magical moment, and its universe is fantastically realized.

Closure [Newgrounds, via TIGSource]

Previously:
Edmund McMillen gives us No Quarter - Offworld
Edmund McMillen's Meat Boy getting revamped for Wii, PC - Offworld

Brandon Boyer

Space Invaders Extreme 2 gets.. invader bingo?

The latest in my ongoing Space Invaders Extreme watch: as it turns out, of course, the earlier retail rumors were correct, and the latest issue of Japanese weekly games mag Famitsu confirms that Taito is bringing a new DS version of the retro-futurist remake to Japan in just two months time.

Just what changes are in the cards is less clear: no online reports have been filed from the mag or the developer (which should change by early next week), and IGN's translation only mentions "new gameplay systems [and] a deeper score attack system," along with the return of WiFi multiplayer.

But, via import house NCSX we learn that one of those new systems reportedly is a "Bingo System" (naturally), where "a grid is lit up during the course of a stage as invaders are shot. To win at Bingo, key spots on the grid must light up horizontally, vertically, or diagonally."

Space Invaders Extreme 2 import description [NCSX]

Previously:
Space Invaders getting even more Extreme? - Offworld

Brandon Boyer

Make a Mii of your friends and family with Miittens

For the latest in our Offworld craft-corner, the latest online knitting quarterly mag Knitty features these Miittens, which, as you'll have spotted with the clever pun, turn your hands (or the hands of your loved ones) into the bulbous graspers of the Nintendo Wii's Miis.

Knitty is also the source, as you may have spotted in 2007, of these amazing Space Invaders socks which, bafflingly, none of my needle-happy friends have yet seen fit to make me.

Previously:
Intangibuild training 'knitting heroes' with Wii-mote enhanced ...
LittleBigWatch: Free instructions for your Sackboy stitch-up ...

Brandon Boyer

Faith chaser: a look at Mirror's Edge Synesthesia

But let's clear up that third-person horrorshow with footage as it was meant to be: Sony and DICE have uploaded video of Synesthesia, the time trial level coming exclusively to the PlayStation 3 version as part of Sony's regular Thursday PSN update, ahead of the full DLC pack coming to all platforms in February (delayed slightly from its original release).

It'll be a taste of the 'void' levels the DLC will bring, and, says producer Tom Farrer, was the product of very Majesty of Colors-esque inspiration:

“Synesthesia” was actually inspired by balloons of all things. However, we did decide to settle on an overriding theme — If Faith was having a dream, what would she be dreaming about?

As it turns out, she apparently dreams about enormous abstract sculptures floating above an endless sea!

Mirror’s Edge Exclusive (and free) Time Trial Map Available Tomorrow [us.PlayStation]

Previously:
Mirror's Edge, running the void - Offworld

Brandon Boyer

Because They Could, though they shouldn't: third-person Mirror's Edge

I can't imagine this does anything but pain every last dev at DICE who worked tirelessly to maintain the sanctity of lead character Faith (though I did enjoy her terse expression in some of the screenshots in the accompanying thread), but the rapidly spreading video of a recently discovered third-person hack for Mirror's Edge does prove just how quickly the mirage dissipates with just a little change in perspective.

3rd person view in mirror's edge [On-Mirror's-Edge, via Shacknews]

Previously:
On the momentum in Mirror's Edge - Offworld

Brandon Boyer

Because He Co-oo-hoo-uld: Asteroids, Diamond Dave edition

Today's 60 second diversion: The current wave of David Lee Roth fever -- from soundboard to Songsmith -- seems to be leaving no corner of net culture unscathed, and now Flash gaming is no exception. To wit: As(s)teroidz: Diamond Dave Edition, which is basically precisely what it says on the tin.

Just mind the Hagar.

David Lee Roth Asteroids [via WFMU, via Gus]

Jim Rossignol

Ragdoll Metaphysics: Memories of 2003, or Why We Need Planetside Mk2

During a few quiet moments during the battle of blog-reading gentlemen that is our Planetside war, I found myself thinking back to 2003, otherwise known as The Bravest Year of the MMO.

It was the year that I spent the summer in a rented upper bedroom, playing both Planetside and Eve Online 'til dawn each day. Here, at last, were two massively multiplayer games that stretched the model to breaking point. My memories of Everquest awkwardness had been been swept away and replaced with what I assumed were just the first in a succession of brilliant new uses of MMO technology.

Neither game seemed particularly finished or well bug-tested, and they were nevertheless magnificent in their scope and ambition, and in their real-time combat. I began to extol the virtues of their genre-busting nature to anyone who would listen, and I recall a journalist colleague telling me that "both those games will be gone by next year, you mark my words."

READ THE REST

Brandon Boyer

Super Mario Extreme: the corrupt edition

Cory Arcangel, eat your heart out: YouTube user LightningWolf3 is coming after the 8-bit art-glitch crown with a playlist 39 videos strong that consist of little more than Game Genie super corrupted versions of the various NES Marios.

The one above is his "most violent corruption" and the most curiously mesmerizing to watch, and surprising in that it appears still quite playable. Nintendo's been fairly forward in playing off its legacy with different SMB subversions (the circular tiltable version in WarioWare: Twisted springs to mind), but this makes me crave a remake as mindmelting as Space Invaders Extreme.

Super Mario Corrupted Zone [YouTube, via n0wak]

Previously:
Super Mario Land: the drunken edition - Offworld
Super Mario in real life - Offworld

Brandon Boyer

Olly Moss's Man With The Golden Gear

As long as he keeps making them, I'll keep posting them: the latest in Olly Moss's Videogame Classics mines Solid Snake by way of Saul Bass, adding a sly visual wink that crosses Snake's nasty (but practical) habit with the franchise's exclamatory trademark.

That's four down and five to go -- I'm really going to be gutted to see the series end.

Olly Moss's Videogame Classics [Flickr]

Previously:
Olly Moss brings a touch of class to Black Mesa - Offworld
Olly Moss's Penguin-inspired Videogame Classics covers - Offworld

Rob Beschizza

Squall, cross-stitched

By Geekologie reader Anat.

Xeni Jardin

Global Game Jam (48 hour videogame dev marathon) this weekend!

This weekend, game-lovers will gather in cities around the world to participate in Global Game Jam, in which participants have exactly two days to build a game. Here's a snip from the press release:

From 5:00pm Friday January 30th through 5:00 pm Sunday, February 1, over a thousand college students, faculty and industry members will join together for a 48 hour game building marathon popularly known as a Game Jam. Participants will be given the details of the game design theme, constraints and mechanics allowed when the clock hits 5:00 p.m. in their local time zone. As the time zones change, so will those constraints, to mitigate any advantage global location might give one team over the other. While individual and regional Game Jams have been held wherever gamers congregate in the last few years, never has there been one of such size and scope as the Global Game Jam (GGJ).


[Keynote Speaker] 
Kyle Gabler (...) indie Developer of the popular game “World of Goo,” said, “The next big transformation in gaming won't come from a large game studio with million dollar teams and marketing budgets, it will come from some kid in their bedroom with a few pieces of free software and a never ending supply of caffeine and motivation. I can't wait to see the scraggly, brilliantly hacked together beginnings of some of the next great games crawl out of these 48 hours.”

Here is an overview on how it works. Snip:

The theme and constraints for participants in the Global Game Jam will be announced at 5:00PM on Friday, January 30, 2009 in your time zone. Each local jam is allowed to manage things the way the see fit, but we hope that everyone will follow our recommendations so we share a common experience and everyone is working from a level playing field. Please show up to the jam on time. Below is a typical set-up for a game jam, each jam will vary, please check with each jam to see their schedule. Do not come to the Jam with a team. Everyone will have some time to think and pitch an idea. Collaborate with new friends or peers you admire.

(Thanks, Jolon and Global Game Jam Costa Rica crew!)

Brandon Boyer

False idols: canine shamus & hyperkinetic rabbity thing in resin

I've made a promise to myself to willfully ignore the fact that Symbiote Studios has apparently created the first officially licensed anime-and-vampire-fang-styled statuette of infamous and now IGN-employed PSP-licker Jessica Chobot, because their new resin statue of LucasArts/Telltale adventure superstars Sam & Max is so gorgeously done that there's nothing that should rightfully spoil this moment.

More photo details of the toy here and Symbiote's order page is over here. The company has apparently flown under my radar but still sold out of a superdeformed six inch toy set of the gumshoe-duo as well, but promises a re-up in Q2 of 2009.

Sam and Max Statue [via Plastic and Plush]

Brandon Boyer

React bringing EA classic Archon to iPhone, make M.U.L.E. next?

As Raph Koster noted in December, there are good things afoot for fans of Electronic Arts' classic C64/8-bit computer chess-like board/strategy game Archon, with a resurgence planned for PC, consoles (likely Xbox Live Arcade), and now, React! Games has announced, a new version planned for the iPhone.

React says the game won't be a simple port of the original computer version, but will include wifi multiplayer, worldwide leaderboards, selectable AI difficulty, and "an additional surprise game mode" for its single player game, and hints at further accelerometer functionality.

The dev hasn't shown off any full-screen mockups of the iPhone game in action apart from a title screen (the above image is from a 2003 PC mockup, and from the developer's blog, it appears work has only really been underway since the start of the new year), but the site's gallery shows some promising work done in converting all of its game-piece characters into full 3D.

Now, if anyone else is willing to snatch up long-forgotten classic EA designs, no matter what anyone says, I do think a console/portable/iPhone re-up of Dani Bunten's landmark multiplayer game M.U.L.E., particularly one using Niklas Jansson's ridiculously well done concept art, would be an instant contender for game of the year.

REACT! GAMES ANNOUNCES ARCHON FOR THE IPHONE [Archon Classic]

Brandon Boyer

Listen: Pause offers free indie game soundtrack downloads

New musical awesomeness spotted via 'Dong's excellent EngRish Games blog: Pause, the "music label and community with a focus on unorthodox forms of 8-bit music yet prone to various other styles," has started a separate section called +PLUS, dedicated solely to releasing free soundtracks from a variety of indie games.

The five-strong list includes not only 'Dong's own soundtrack to his excellent abstract freeware shooter Nanosmiles, but an orchestral album for Studio Eres' similarly abstract tower defense game Immortal Defense (one of my favorites of the genre), EMH Soft's Endgame: Singularity, Arue's Another Bound Neo, and, best of all, Disasterpeace's short EP for Offworld favorite Rescue: The Beagles.

All are top quality releases well worth a download, as is most of the rest of the Pause catalog, which together should tide you over for a good long while.

+PLUS [Pause, via EngRish Games]

Previously:
Gimme Indie Game: Rescue: The Beagles - Offworld
Listen: 2D Boy's free World of Goo soundtrack - Offworld
Listen: Pixelmod Records' Merry Pixmas Compilation - Offworld
Listen: Bizarre give us 46860 Choices - Offworld
Listen: Leeni's 8-bit kabuki 'Underworld' - Offworld
Listen: The Doyouinvert's 'A Happy New Gear' - Offworld

Brandon Boyer

Nintendo photo printing service moving to Europe?

And more potential Wii channel jealousy: Though trawling trademark/patent databases is never a sure bet for anything, Siliconera notes that a recent check netted the site a new 'Wii Photo Print Channel' trademark filed in Europe, and speculates that the company is considering a local service on par with the Digital Camera Print Service it launched in Japan last July.

The Digital Camera channel offers individual photo prints, two types of bound photo books, and, most fantastically, a set of 30 business cards that I've been coveting for nearly a year now, so hope's obviously running high that plans are steadily moving westward.

A Picture Points To Nintendo Opening A Photo Print Service Channel [Siliconera]

Previously:
State your business (and your friend code) with Mii cards - Offworld

Brandon Boyer

Fitter, happier: Nintendo extends Wii Fit service to health professionals

Though I honestly find its exercise routine too broken up to feel genuinely satisfying (and have for some time instead been recommending -- in all seriousness! -- Respondesign's PC/PS2/Xbox app Yourself Fitness), there's great potential for harnessing and expanding on Wii Fit's connectedness to push it into essential territory (competing against friends? local/national challenges?) that to date has gone underserved.

But it appears in Japan, at least, Nintendo's making good -- andriasang files a translated story saying the company is partnering with NEC, Panasonic and Hitachi with a new Wii channel that will send a user's Wii Fit data to the professional health industry to receive 'health instruction' and connect with a recently launched NEC 'mobile health service.'

The site also says the new 'Wii Fit Body Check Channel' will connect with DS pedometer-enabled health app Aruite Wakaru Seikatsu Rhythm DS (which already has been used to transfer Miis for portable personality) to share mobile and local exercise data -- here's hoping all this interconnectivity makes its way stateside soon.

Nintendo teams with electronics makers for Wii Fit health services [andriasang]

Previously:
Wii Fit tops 2008 Japan Media Arts Festival games entrants - Offworld
Miyamoto, Spore awarded Jim Henson Honors - Offworld
Expose the Wii's hidden Mii-transfer menu. - Offworld

Brandon Boyer

More Banjo headed to XBLA in April

One of 2008's most pleasant surprises was just how approachable and engrossing Rare's N64 original Banjo Kazooie felt on its Xbox Live Arcade release -- it ended up being one of my year's most played XBLA games.

Now, in an expected but still surprise announcement, Rare has updated their 'Banjo Blog' with news that a similarly hi-rez version of its sequel, Banjo Tooie, is headed to the service in April, "appropriate since Easter is the designated time for hunting multi-coloured eggs."

Fans of the original will also be happy to hear that, finally, the game's original "Stop ‘n’ Swop" feature will be properly implemented, saying "the Stop ’n’ Swop items collected in Banjo-Kazooie will ‘magically’ appear in Tooie, resulting in... well, you'll just have to find out."

Banjo-Tooie Release Date & Screens + Top 7 Custom Contraptions Award Info [Rare]

Previously:
Qu'est-ce que c'est Banjo? - Offworld

Brandon Boyer

Mother 3 musical toe-dip into Bach, Vivaldi, Satie... Batman, Space Invaders

Following on his earlier excellent breakdown of cult Game Boy RPG Mother 3's battle music time signature trickery, Dan 'Cruise Elroy' Bruno has posted another deep look at the game's musical selections from a historian's perspective, spotting allusions, lifted selections, and other peculiar references.

Particularly notable is the game's “Ode to Ancestors: 8th Movement,” a medley of parts of Beethoven’s 5th, Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D minor, “Hallelujah” from Handel’s Messiah, and “Spring” from Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons, which Bruno calls "such an absurd juxtaposition that I can’t help but laugh at it every time I listen," its overt references to Neal Hefti's Batman theme, and an 8-bit subversion of the Pig Mask Army's leitmotif.

As before, it's fantastic, MP3-supported stuff -- Bruno's one of the few that seems both qualified and passionate enough to take us on these smart sonic journeys.

Mother 3’s musical allusions [Cruise Elroy]

Previously:

• Mother 3: Behind the Music - Offworld


• Mother 3 translators start Earthbound Central blog - Offworld
2
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Brandon Boyer

Painting Varrigan City red: fan-made MadWorld ad

It's apparently been too long since I last checked in with NeoGAF's ongoing challenge collecting fan-made magazine ads for Sega/Platinum Games' upcoming duo-tone Wii brawler MadWorld -- I'd missed 'geek's fantastic paint-by-number photoshoppery that says everything an ad needs to say about the game (check back to my first half of 2009 Wii/DS outlook for more MadWorld specifics).

MadWorld "magazine ad" challenge [NeoGAF, via GamOvr]

Previously:
Nintendo's Wii/DS outlook: The Offworld view - Offworld MS Paint the games of 2008 - Offworld
Treasure hunt: m0dus/orotio's HD Gunstar Heroes PS3 theme - Offworld
Ye olde anagram game challenge - Offworld

Brandon Boyer

Olly Moss brings a touch of class to Black Mesa

The latest in Olly Moss's Penguin-inspired Videogame Classics series distills Freeman's essence, rightly, as a game about "crowbars and teleporting." My favorite part (having briefly moved away from the N64 now) is the top-left iconography showing the platform where the game originated.

One of my most heartfelt 2009 wishes: that Moss continue this as a regularly updated set.

Half-Life [Olly Moss's Flickr Videogame Classics]

Previously:
Olly Moss's Penguin-inspired Videogame Classics covers - Offworld

Brandon Boyer

Gimme Indie Game: Konjak's Legend of Princess

There's been one game tearing breakneck across the blogs throughout the day, and it's for very good reason. Joakim 'Konjak' Sandberg, the indie dev whose creations have consistently hit that sweet spot of "retro with modern processing power," has dropped PC freeware Legend of Princess, his take on where Legend of Zelda could have gone, "for no reason but being a big damn nerd."

Like his earlier games, notably his 2008 IGF grand prize finalist Noitu Love 2 [YouTube trailer], a beat-em-up shooter which is almost more Treasure than a good number of that developer's own games, Princess does Zelda by way of Capcom's cult action arcade title Magic Sword and the deep-impact of Treasure's rock-solid melee mechanics [YouTube].

As such, it feels like the parallel-universe Zelda we never got -- the game Miyamoto might've made if he hadn't cold-feet reversed his move after sidescrolling with Zelda II, and had given the SNES's all to an action game. And, to our pleasant surprise, it feels brilliant: Konjak's interpreted all of the series' best enemy tactics and the best of Link's item-bag of tricks to 2D, and topped it off with as memorable a boss fight as has come from Nintendo's own.

The hitch: it's not a full game by any means (done "to take a break from having little motivation with Solar Plexus"), but Sandberg's added depth by making your two secondary items selectable from the start, each set making the game more challenging than the original -- expect speed-run videos to invade YouTube in short order.

If you don't mind spoiling some of its best kept secrets (and for non-PC users burning to have a look), IndieGames' playthrough video showcases the game well, otherwise grab the game directly here, and give us your best Zora-thrashing tactics via the comments below.

home of stuff by Joakim Sandberg [via IndieGames]

Previously:
Gimme Indie Game: Gravity Bone - Offworld
Gimme Indie Game: Minotaur China Shop, happiness in shattery ...
Gimme Indie Game: Daniel Benmergui's I wish I were the Moon - Offworld
Gimme Indie Game: Derek Yu's Spelunky - Offworld
Gimme Indie Game: I Fell In Love With The Majesty Of Colors - Offworld
Gimme Indie Game: Rescue: The Beagles - Offworld

Brandon Boyer

Housecleaning: Offworld RSS feed no longer an uninterrupted jumble of words

Unless it's my own over-dense prose, that is. As you may or may not have been experiencing, since launch our RSS feed has had a bit of a rough time properly converting line breaks, resulting in a single, near-unreadable mashed-up paragraph.

But no more: our own resident renaissance man Rob has finally kicked out the last of the feed gremlins and restored order, so you can now (re-)subscribe with confidence. Thanks to everyone who stuck that out.

I've also been getting an increasing number of emails and anonymous comments that some of you are having problems logging in to leave comments -- we're currently working on issues there and will let you know when those wrinkles have been ironed.

Let me know if you're experiencing any other issues putting a damper on your stay here via the comments (you know, if you can) or that send-a-tip email at top right.

Brandon Boyer

DSi getting more downloadable Art Style, Tetris Attack

As I mentioned earlier last month, one of the highlights of this Christmas was Nintendo dropping a free 1000 points on every DSi owner as they debuted Japan's selection of downloadable DS games.

As predicted, I ended up picking up DSi animation app UgokuMemoChou, Utsusu Made in Wario (which I admittedly found a bit incomprehensible [I blame my bedroom's poor lighting]), and Art Style: Aquario -- the latest in developer Skip's Offworld-favorite series of low-bit art games that's extended back to the GBA's bit Generations series as well as onto the Wii. As I'd hoped, Aquario duly delivered on the series' promise of fantastically obtuse puzzling mixed with gorgeous plinging/acoustic music.

Now Nintendo has revealed the newest batch of DSiWare coming this Wednesday, and Tiny Cartridge does an excellent job rounding up the selection. Again it's an Art Style game that's singing its siren song, this time PiCOPiCT (seen above), a curious mix of classic Nintendo imagery and block/pixel puzzling vaguely reminiscent of Konami's Quarth.

I'm not 100 percent sold on its mechanics: the seemingly staccato rhythm of the first bits looks like it'll preclude falling into any kind of proper puzzle flow, but the Bowser boss (?) stage at the end seems to make up for it, and, best of all, music's being provided by effortlessly charming chiptune group YMCK (who, coincidentally, have just released their latest album in Japan, Family Cooking).

Elsewhere, the service is getting a lite versions of Tetris Attack/Planet Puzzle League, and various other puzzle games, Solitaire, a metro/train map pack for a number of Japan's major cities, and a cheap alarm clock that displays slide shows of your locally stored photos, which you can browse via the link below.

Full DSiWare catalog [Nintendo.jp, via Tiny Cartridge]

Brandon Boyer

Pikilipita's ultra-hypnotic PlayStation 2, Game Boy Advance VJ kits

My shameful admission: I have wasted more time today than I'll willingly fess up to watching this video on repeat, completely transfixed by nothing more than: pulsing circle, moving checkerboard, strobing Hello Kitty, shifting rainbow bar, strobing Hello Kitty backward, file browser, sunburst heart. And again, and again.

The video is a 2-player live demo of Clément 'Pikilipita' Cordier's PS24VJ, a custom-coded homebrew kit for 'video jockeys' to import their own graphics and video via a USB stick, and cut and manipulate from each to each using the standard DualShock controller, and -- in the hands of its creator, at least -- it's way more mesmerizing than it should be.

Interestingly, PS24VJ is the third iteration of Cordier's tools that span back to both a Game Boy Advance version, where you're limited to his built-in graphics but freed up by its pocket size, and Pikix, a later version for the Linux-based Korean handheld GP2X.

Cordier is selling PS24VJ as donation-ware (contact him with an offer), and custom-flashed GBA carts appear to still be available alongside standalone ROM files (Pikix is available as a free download), and, just as I'd hoped, he notes that he's eager to work on an iPhone version with networking capabilities for multiple VJs to mix at once.

PS24VJ: VJ software for Playstation 2 [PIKILIPITA, via Digital Tools, the best blog I've discovered in weeks]

Brandon Boyer

Super Mario Land: the drunken edition

This is how I picture it: it's 3:30am and you've just got off the express train back to your cramped flat after a long drunken night at a secret Kiiiiiii show or Delaware exhibi+ion, where you down a few more beers to keep the buzz alive, and that's when your friend, er, 'Steve' (apparently) breaks out the Super Game Boy.

Knowing full well that his grasp of English is even more tenuous than yours with Japanese, he gives you the full play-by-play anyway, because he knows that's what makes it so funny, and it is.

I have to imagine it this way because it's almost impossible to get your head around otherwise. I still don't understand why the Goomba broke the house windows to bite the pizza.

Possibly drunk japanese guy rambles over Mario Land (in English) [sp0rsk's niconico re-upload, same guy/same schtick to Super Ghouls'n Ghosts in Japanese]

Previously:
Revolvingdork's Super Mario Land etched Eee PC - Offworld

Brandon Boyer

Fieldrunners, Edge top 2009 IGF Mobile finalists

In its final spin-off awards announcement, the Independent Games Festival has named its finalists in the IGF Mobile competition, covering the best in games for the DS, mobile phones and, in partnership with oft-blogged publisher ngmoco, the iPhone.

The list, happily, reads like a who's-who of some of Offworld's favorites over the past several months (and indeed I took an earlier look at the full list of entrants in December): iPhone tower defense hit Fieldrunners, musical lover's quarrel art-piece Ruben and Lullaby, Secret Exit's rope-tied Zen Bound, and recent Offworld favorite cubist platformer Edge.

The Mobile competition this year is offering $30,000 in prize money, and the winners, as with its sister competitions, will be announced at the awards ceremony this March 25th (with a special Mobile conference awards show the night prior) during the 2009 Game Developers Conference.

Hit the jump for the full list of finalists and links to our previous coverage on the entrants.

READ THE REST

Brandon Boyer

Metal Gear Ac!d coming to mobile phones

When Metal Gear makers Kojima Productions threw together their December teaser for a new game in the franchise, speculation ran rampant and hit about every possible outcome, but among the most logical was that the team might port its strategy card-game spinoff Metal Gear Ac!d to the iPhone.

In the end, while Kojima did make a move to the iPhone, it was instead with an original game based on the latest PS3 chapter in the franchise. But, Pocket Gamer are reporting, Ac!d still is going mobile with a new port by mobile games giant Glu, along with a new graphic re-design.

This shouldn't be too much of a surprise -- the franchise recently made a move onto Nokia's N-Gage service, and a port of Ac!d is probably not too far behind. Whether this also means -- based on the performance of fellow iPhone versions of Dance Dance Revolution and Silent Hill -- that an iPhone update is on the way as well is anyone's guess, but its gameplay would be perfectly serviced by a touch interface, and it remains high on our crossed-finger list.

Metal Gear Acid 2 snaking its way toward the mobile [Pocket Gamer]

Previously:
A Metal Gear you can touch - Offworld
Metal Gear's December Surprise - Offworld

Brandon Boyer

Champion of Guitars: text adventure Guitar Hero gets real

The current management of this rather seedy venue doesn't much care about appearances, apparently. Nonetheless, it's become one of the hottest spots in the area, attracting surly alcoholics from all around. A variety of local acts, the vast majority unrelentingly terrible, play here every Tuesday night. Coincidentally, it's Tuesday night.

A host of unsavory-looking people makes up your audience for the night. They're all staring at you expectantly.

A fake plastic guitar lies on the ground in front of you.

Bolted to the wall is a television screen, dark and foreboding.

I take back everything I said: moments after after clicking my tongue at the internet for not turning ianwarren's Guitar Hero 1.0 concept into a playable text adventure, real ultimate hero Bill Meltsner emailed to let me know that his Champion of Guitars is, in fact, playable online.

It's everything I'd hoped it would be, particularly its wry version of the audience enthusiasm/performance meter, and though I haven't had the time yet to make it all the way through my first gig, Meltsner says the game does let you play the song to completion. He also hints that there are other audience-related and item manipulation easter eggs that I've yet to discover: let us know what you find via the comments below.

Play Champion of Guitars online, or grab his Zcode here for use in any interpreter -- create the most fumbly version of an iPhone Rock Band imaginable!

Image via DeGraeve's IMG2TXT.

Brandon Boyer

Hack, boy, hack: a Fallout 3 codebreaker

As single use sites go, it doesn't get much more useful than this, and just in time for the imminent arrival of Operation Anchorage: HACK-BOY takes a list of Fallout 3 terminal words and -- with a bit of codemagic and a touch of in-game guidance -- susses out the correct answer .

A cheap cheat, to be sure, but much more efficient than my preferred method of "keep guessing until you're one attempt away from a logout -> exit -> login and try again," or, like, using actual logic.

HACK-BOY

Previously:
Fallout 3's cold war - Offworld
Bethesda releases Fallout 3's Garden of Eden Creation Kit - Offworld The Wasteland gets a little wider - Offworld

Brandon Boyer

Pac-Man, the text adventure

The air is painfully infused with a whizzing sound as the ghost comes down on you. The last you feel, are the ghost's sharp teeth in your neck. As you regain consciousness you are in the exact place, where you entered the maze first.

Even older (but more playable) than the similar Pac-TXT, but due for a resurgence in this post-Guitar Hero 1.0 world (which to my knowledge still isn't playable -- you disappoint me, internet) is mass:werk's Pac-Man Dungeons, mixing all the thrills of a breakneck ghost chase with the joy of typing 'e' repeatedly.

Pac-Man Dungeons [mass:werk, via InfiniteLives]

Previously:
Guitar Hero 1.0 begging for real-life remake - Offworld

Brandon Boyer

Rave City: The corner of D.A.N.C.E. and Main

A little Monday morning epileptic error to get the week started right: I'm not sure which game this screenshot will end up being part of, but I'm almost positive it won't be as excellent as this bug could've made it. For best results, mix with this.

The Error Party Shader [I Get Your Fail]

Previously:
I Get About 55 Percent Of These Fails - Offworld

Brandon Boyer

Would You Like To Play A Game? One Point Is Rubbish Edition

For this weekend's Would You Like To Play A Game, my whole hearted suggestion goes to London indie dev Beatnik Games' Plain Sight, which has just entered into public beta for PC users and, unfortunately, seems to be getting not enough love to maintain a healthy list of open and available public servers (consider this a half-selfish request, then).

As the Beatnik team puts it:

Plain Sight is a 3D multiplayer arcade game with robots; robots who bounce around cityscapes on mini planetoids and wield swords which are used to destroy one another.

That says about all you should need to hear, but, in fuller detail: the game takes Mario Galaxy's up-ended flirtatious approach to gravity and world design, and brings it into a modern robot arena setting with fantastic aerial acrobatics. Most uniquely, its multi-faceted score-by-suicide approach sees you more vulnerable the more points you rack up, as you're only able to bank those points by killing yourself, keeping each individual's tension high throughout.

Beatnik plan on keeping the beta running until February 8th, and releasing the full version shortly thereafter for PC, with an Xbox 360 version in the works after that. Check their website for more info on the ongoing beta updates, and the poster and T-shirt wares in the store, which I covet already.

Plain Sight [Beatnik Games]

Brandon Boyer

Wrestle Jam: Randy 'The Ram' goes next-gen

While it may lack that hardened mournful pall that says 'determination in the face of a life of regret,' kudos to Create-a-Wrestler forum-goer 'Mani-Man' for doing his eager best to recreate Randy Robinson -- Mickey Rourke's just-Oscar-nominated lead in The Wrestler -- (without having seen the film!) and bringing 'The Ram' home from the 8-bit roots we saw on-screen.

Randy „The Ram“ Robinson (the Wrestler) [CAWs.ws Forum, via branduponthebrain]

Brandon Boyer

Sega sets its WiiWare Pole in motion

With the veil finally lifted on Sega's WiiWare title Pole's Big Adventure, it's clear producer Takao Miyoshi (Phantasy Star Universe) is going for a deeper retro feel than even recent revivals like Mega Man 9, harkening back to the NES's earliest days.

The initial clip shows the basics of jumping and shooting, before delving into its more obvious gags, as above, including the most obvious Super Mario parody -- the previously mentioned super-hyper mushroom grow -- and a suddenly a cappella version of its chip-happy theme song.

The game also seems to be reveling in the discrepancy between the gritty realism of its comic-inspired character portraits and their ridiculously over-simple pixellated counterparts, capped off with a perfectly pitched faux cover art inspired by the best of the Famicom-era.

Pole's Big Adventure [via Siliconera]

Previously:
Sega taking WiiWare on Pole's Big Adventure - Offworld

Brandon Boyer

The game-cake champion might be Settled

Say what you will about the game-cake meme, but it's not often that the cakes themselves are playable, as with quintanaroo's Cupcakes of Catan. Plus, it's not often that you discover that they're not the only edible versions of the game, competing against the Pizza of Catan and the Gingerbread of Catan.

Initial Set-up for Cupcakes of Catan [Flickr, via Wonderland]

Brandon Boyer

Polytron affirm essential awesomeness

Normally the simple opening of a website wouldn't be much in the way of newsworthy, but Fez creator Polytron's new site offers too much to not mention.

Apart from the new Fez images -- looking fantastically more intricate than its last IGF-winning showing -- and a link to a more conceptual look behind the making of the Offworld-debuted super HYPERCUBE, the site earns my new latest What're They Building In There Award for the cropped shot of their upcoming iPhone game (abbreviated 'PP,' it seems), and the super hyper lens-flared project 'Z'.

All in due time, I suppose: it seems focus #1 is pushing Fez into our hot hands in 2009, and I'm equally excited to see what sort of futurist design ephemera might come out of its currently greyed-out store.

Polytron Corporation

Previously:
Only on Offworld: Polytron/Kokoromi's Anaglyphic super HYPERCUBE ...
Bringing Gamma home to you - Offworld

Brandon Boyer

The love that dare not execute its algorithm

Via the deviant art of deviantart user peganthytus, Code Sharing, one of two (genuinely quite lovely) images of the forbidden love between gaming's two most maniacal AI: Portal's GlaDOS and System Shock's Shodan.

Available as a $16/$45 print.

Code Sharing by peganthyrus [deviantart, via ShawnElliott]

Brandon Boyer

Requiem for a Republic: Wipeout design group folds

Sad news via design blogs this morning, as Creative Review confirms earlier speculation that Sheffield, UK design group The Designers Republic has officially folded as of this past Tuesday. The group is, of course, most recognized in the games sphere as the visual identity group behind Psygnosis/Studio Liverpool's Wipeout series.

Its bold, flat fields of color and laser-cut sharp lines helped define not only the future-feel of the racing franchise but to an extent the PlayStation 'experience' itself, as it would do again -- in spirit -- at the launch of the PlayStation Portable, and its influence could be felt elsewhere in places like the early output of Harmonix, particularly Frequency's thick-vector 'FreQs'.

The original Wipeout is available for download on the PlayStation Network (as well as the PSP's Pure and the PSN exclusive HD remake), and, of course, as revealed earlier this week, cutout costumes will be available in February for LittleBigPlanet for your own Republic memorial levels.

The Designers Republic Is Dead; Long Live The Designers Republic [Creative Review, mitDR home, pho-ku archive, wip3out home]

Brandon Boyer

Space Invaders getting even more Extreme?

I'm not usually one to get taken in by retail conjecture, but Siliconera updates this morning with speculation that Taito might be returning to the DS with more Space Invader Extreme via a listing from import house Play-Asia.

The site gives credence to the rumor based on Play-Asia's past record, but it's not just the importer that's listing the game: amazon.jp and the Eastern wing of HMV also have entries for the game, all with the same inexplicably imminent March 26th release date (which may indeed even pre-date its Xbox Live Arcade release).

It's not too much of a stretch: Taito clearly has its sights set on continuing to evolve the franchise, and as one of the best games of last year, we would certainly not be complaining.

Space Invaders Extreme [via Siliconera]

Previously:
Space Invaders evolve on Japan's mobiles - Offworld
Space Invaders Extreme for XBLA comes with retro extra - Offworld
PlayStation Network getting besieged by Space Invaders Extreme ...

Brandon Boyer

Sceene-age Kicks: NES inspired footwear

Nike's NES-schemed shoes a bit too subtle for your tastes? Consider Etsy seller SceeneShoes' wares, which are custom printed canvas slipons made to order. The site lists Zelda, Mario, and Mega Man examples, but none better than these bejeweled Tetris kicks.

Sceene Shoes [via GamOvr]

Brandon Boyer

Touch me I'm slick: Persuasive Games' experimental Jetset

It would have been enough for Ian Bogost and his Persuasive Games outfit to simply port their 2006 "news game" Airport Security to the iPhone for a quick cash in. That game wickedly parodied the TSA's ever-shifting carry-on rules, turning the ridiculous regulations into a brilliant hectic mini-game formula.

In it, you play as a security gate checker who has to strip every disallowed item from a growing line of impatient passengers -- bottled water, shoes, Arabic-printed T-shirts, snakes (get it?) and hemorrhoid cream -- but the rules are constantly changing, sometimes in mid-frisk, and rejecting an item that's allowed smacks you with a civil liberties penalty as harsh as allowing through each forbidden toothbrush and pudding cup.

With its clickable interface correlating smoothly to the iPhone's touchscreen, an easy port would have been enough, but instead Persuasive has very smartly turned it into one of the most socially- and feature-rich games the iPhone's yet seen.

Billing itself now as "the first mobile game for business travelers," Jetset (as it's now known) uses the iPhone's location-awareness to link fliers to whichever airport they're currently in to unlock special local souvenirs (your guess as to which have to be in to unlock the 'poutine' and 'Greek coffee-cup'), which can then be sent to friends via its interconnected Facebook app.

It's a gimmick to be sure, but one that brings the out-and-about mobile game much closer to home-base, and one ripe for impromptu competitions between the weariest travelers, as the game keeps track of local, global and per-airport high scores. It was always smart social parody from the start, but in making it this much smarter, Jetset has quickly earned its wings in the top tier of App Store output.

Jetset: A Game for Airports [Persuasive Games, iTunes Phobos link]

Brandon Boyer

Puzzle Quest: Galactrix PC demo sucker-punches productivity

Showing no signs of letting schedules return to normal, publisher D3 and Infinite Interactive have followed directly on the heels of their initial online Flash demo of sci-fi puzzler and Real Ultimate Timesink Puzzle Quest: Galactrix with an even more extensive PC demo, available via Big Download.

Unlike the Flash version's battle-mode only limitations, the PC demo lets you play the first good hour or two (by my watch) of the game, and get a feel for its overworld, mission structure, and ancillary activities like asteroid mining, warpgate hacking and item crafting.

The verdict? Everything feels comfortably as if it was in the same spot as you last left it despite the galactic overhaul, from the frantic time-based challenges of its hacking minigame (here scoring matches in a set sequence rather than against an opponent) and familiarity of crafting and mining -- it certainly earns the Puzzle Quest in its title.

But it also hints at much greater complexity to unfold: shuttling mined ore to the outposts that pay the highest price, your eventual bank of three ships with configurable weaponry (Galactrix's versions of PQ's spells) and crew that can be recruited throughout the quest.

And that's just the overworld window dressing. As I noted in the last look, Galactrix's battles (particularly its shield and mine mechanics) push it well beyond simple tile-swaps, and both its shape and its omni-direction lack of gravity light up an entirely different part of your brain. It's as fresh and initially baffling as it was to move from Tetris to Lumines -- the language is the same, but the syntax is incompatible.

D3 also announced today that the game will be coming to the DS on February 24th, with a still-nebulous "early 2009" for its PC, Xbox Live Arcade, and PlayStation Network release, good news for a wait that's already felt too long.

Download Puzzle Quest: Galactrix [Big Download, game site]

Previously:
You're my obsession: Puzzle Quest: Galactrix demo goes live - Offworld
Things We Lost In The Snow, pt 1: PuzzleQuest hit the iPhone ...
Nintendo's Wii/DS outlook: The Offworld view - Offworld

Brandon Boyer

Digital Chocolate's Tower Bloxx coming to iPhone?

Does IGN know something everyone else doesn't know? Innocuously appearing in the site's Wireless section
yesterday was a handful of screenshots labeled as a new forthcoming port of Digital Chocolate's Tower Bloxx Deluxe for the iPhone, though a game page doesn't yet exist and the publisher itself hasn't yet given word to that effect.

The move wouldn't be a surprising one: Digital Chocolate's already familiar with the platform, having recently ported their Crazy Penguin Catapult (that was the penguin you continually saw when browsing the on-phone App Store) and Chocolate Shop Frenzy, and Tower Bloxx is one of their most successful and award winning franchises.

As much a strategic city-builder as it was an action game, Bloxx's central mechanic is releasing units of housing swaying from side to side on a construction yard crane, hoping to hit each successive unit dead center on the one below it. Do so and you maintain stability, but miss and your entire tower begins to sway, making dead-on hits that much harder.

The game was single-handedly my biggest regret in upgrading from a Sidekick II to 3 back when the latter launched, and the sole reason I kept my SKII on hand -- Bloxx was the master of mobile gaming's elusive 'compelling one-button play.'

This is one I'll be keeping a watchful eye on, then, it could be that the media leak was Digital Chocolate's hand being forced: a budget version of eSoft's suspiciously similar but decidedly inferior Totem hit the App Store just a few weeks prior and could steal some of Chocolate's thunder.

In the meantime, you can get a taste of the Tower via its PC version, or DC's first foray into social gaming with the Facebook version.

[via IGN]

Brandon Boyer

Touma sharpens Animal Crossing's claws

It's been since Christmas since I've properly flushed out my vinyl toy feeds, and parsing through it today, I came across more fantastic razor-sharp Touma crossovers. As first mentioned in early December, the Japan based designer has been working almost exclusively with Capcom and reshaping the game's Felynes into these more malevolent counterparts.

In the meantime, Touma's both shrunk the originals down into cellphone straps and is preparing a second round of the full-size beasts, this time all more properly armed.

Even more wonderfully, on display in an undisclosed location in Japan, a series of customs including not only a fantastically stylized Mario, but two one-off models of the black sheep of the Animal Crossing world.

[all via the delightfully named 'luciferjackass's Taiwanese blog]

Previously:
A Felyne of your very own - Offworld
Reactor-88's Dig Dug Dunnys - Offworld
The Munny shot: Earthworm Jim edition - Offworld

Brandon Boyer

Anita Fontaine and Mike Pelletier's CuteXdoom II

Today's sinister art overload and currently on view in Amsterdam's Maxalot gallery, the second installment of Anita Fontaine and Mike Pelletier's playable art installation, CuteXdoom II. In this version, created as an Unreal Tournament 3 mod:

Sally Sanrio wakes up from her paroxysm to find herself in a familiar, yet changed, environment. Upon drinking a liquid nearby, she notices that the cute environment she once sought to enter is becoming increasingly strange and distorted. She realises that she has been poisoned. Once sweet characters now appear malevolent, predatory; the landscape becomes surreal and sinister, graphic forms are elegant, and almost cruel. In this altered state of perception she realises that the cult of CuteXDoom was not what she thought it would be, and that she must fight the effects of the poison to find the antidote and escape.

The project is an updated version of their 2005 original (and slightly more cuddly) Cute X Doom, done in the first UT engine, in which Sally had to "join a supermodern religious cult who believes the worship of cute material objects will lead to happiness and enlightenment," by collecting plush mascots to please the cult's robotic panda guru (!).

See more game/art crossovers via Fontaine's site, or via a secondary Cute X Doom page. [via Creative Review]

Brandon Boyer

Imperial Junkie & Kiser: pixel fashionistas

Found via a trip through online fashion outlet Karma Loop, this set of games-brut Ts and hoodies from Imperial Junkie and Kiser doing Space Invaders and Galaga chic.

From L to R: The Spaced Invaders Tee, The Galaga Junkie Tee, The Space Junkie Hoodie, The Space Invaders Tee.

Karma Loop [Thanks, Aaron!]

Margaret Robertson

One More Go: Disgaea's quest for numerical orgasm

This American Life, Ira Glass’ impeccable radio show, always urbane and humane in equal measure, opened the year by re-broadcasting one of its classic episodes, Numbers. Catching up, it introduced me to the story of Andrea, who as a young temp more than a decade ago taught herself Microsoft Excel by making a spreadsheet called My Love Life: A Ten Year Span.

The years were plotted along the bottom, and the Y-axis recorded the number of people Andrea had got lucky with each year - hitting a total of seven in her luckiest of years. Seeing her life laid out in stark statistics like this was somehow reassuring, she confided: “It is just numbers. Looking at it this way, the people totally go away... So many of these things on their own I would normally classify as failures, they were were rejections or something painful, but when I look at it in the context of all this, these are all my scores, my successes.”

Scores! That simple piece of abstractional magic that can turn failure into success, that assigns you a clear place in a world which can otherwise seem oblivious to your efforts. Life is full of unquantifiable mysteries - rewards you don’t quite feel you’ve earned, punishments you know for sure you haven’t, equations that can’t be solved about whether people who are richer, fitter and prettier, but also ruder, stupider and lonelier are actually better than you or not.

It is from these pains that I take refuge in Disgaea.This time it’s the DS version, but I’ve retreated to the the first two often enough, as well as to stable-mates La Pucelle and Phantom Brave over the years. They’re all made by Nippon Ichi, a company who specialise in producing games for people who like numbers, grids and jokes. Or, to put it another way, me.

READ THE REST

Brandon Boyer

What Does Your Soul Look Like (Part 2600)

I'm getting to this apparently at least four years too late, but it's too wonderful not to mention: Rich Grillotti, half of the excellent indie dev PixelJam, put together this 2005 game tech art piece, sub2600.

It's a simple idea: Grillotti photographed off-screen images of the colorbar patterns that result from incorrectly inserting Atari 2600 cartridges, and compiled them in this Flash gallery labeled as the console's "subconscious."

But the result, cross-faded from image to image, is nothing if not a low-bit version of the late Jeremy Blake's digital video work (you know him best as the title sequence artist for PT Anderson's Punch Drunk Love or his artwork for Beck's Sea Change) and is strikingly beautiful for all the same reasons.

If you haven't already, get more familiar with PixelJam via their debut shooter Gamma Bros, then move on to their 2008 long distance runner Dino Run. Also see: the output of PJ's other half, Miles Tilmann, particularly his slow-corroded analog-synth musical output, recommended for fans of Boards of Canada and their ilk.

Sub2600 [Rich Grillotti, thanks .tiff!]

Previously:
Update on Jeremy Blake, Theresa Duncan: body found + CoS claims ...

Brandon Boyer

Noby Noby Boy stretches further into February

As you can see from the awesomely hastily scribbled out and corrected dates on Noby Noby Boy's official site o--o, the arrival of the game, which was previously due in just one week from today (which would have explained the involuntary heart palpitations that'd been growing over the past few days) has now been pushed back by three weeks to just after Valentine's Day: Thursday, February 19th.

The reason, Namco Bandai politely explained, is simply "in order to provide better quality."

Still confused as to what Katamari creator Keita Takahashi is trying to accomplish with his PS3 downloadable game and non-game? Have a look at my first writeup from mid-December, where I tried to weave all the loose threads Takahashi laid down in 2007 at the game's first live debut at Nottingham's GameCity festival -- I think, bolstered by subsequent video footage and details that have been released since, that I might've been onto something.

Previously:
It's a stretch: Explaining Katamari creator's new Noby Noby Boy ...
Another new look at Noby Noby Boy - Offworld
Happy Holidays from Offworld (feat. Keita Takahashi) - Offworld

Brandon Boyer

EA details Spore's 2009 PC, Wii, DS expansions

EA has laid out four different ways it plans to expand its Spore platform this year (and co-opted LittleBigPlanet's 'create, play, share' mantra in so doing) with two new PC games and a new Wii and DS game announced that will let players interact with their creatures in new ways in 2009.

The first (and shown above) is Spore Galactic Adventures, which it says will add "a tremendous amount of variety and depth to the original 'space game'" by letting your creatures beam down to planets and take part in and create new mission-based adventures with unique rewards doled out for each ("from an Energy Blade and Stunning Charm to a Jump Jet"). Created adventures can be shared, as with all things in Spore, with friends.

Targeted toward a younger crowd, the PC's Spore Creature Keeper is something of Spore gone Tamagotchi, with players "nurturing, training and playing with" their creatures, giving them toys and setting up online play-dates to meet with creatures from your friends.

Finally, for its first console outing, Spore will be coming to the Wii as Spore Hero, an adventure game "focusing on creativity and evolution," and utilizing the console's signature controls, and the game will also be returning to the DS with Spore Hero Arena, which, as the name implies, will let players battle their creatures, as with both the Pokemon arena titles and EA's own iPod version of Spore. In this version, unlike the current Spore Creatures DS game, the creatures will be full 3D rather than Creatures' paper-cut creations.

On the whole then: a good shot at expanding the limits of what Spore can be, given the limits of its scope as first released last year.

Brandon Boyer

Flashbang let loose a little Blush

Putting to rest the mystery behind their recent tease of a game inspired visually by flight404's gorgeous generative squid, Minotaur China Shop makers Flashbang have given us the first look at the end result, Blush.

The team haven't revealed much beyond that, other than their terse Pong-instructions-like guidelines: "destroy enemies and collect their powers to increase your own."

So, we're happily slotting that in a category vaguely along the lines of Spore's initial stage or Thatgamecompany's fl0w, then, but have no doubt Flashbang have more twists to add in the coming weeks, ahead of its projected March 1st release date.

Announcing Our Next Game: Blush

Previously:
Flashbang Relentless-ly tease new game - Offworld
Gimme Indie Game: Minotaur China Shop, happiness in shattery ...
Things We Lost In The Snow, pt 4: Raptor Copter hit the iPhone ...

Brandon Boyer

LittleBigWatch: new packs bringing WipEout costumes, kitties galore

Curious timing: just as I was fidgeting about trying to resurrect from the tattered remains of Edge's original website a fully-functioning copy of the magazine's excellent Q&A with the artists responsible for Europe's Wipeout Pure PSP booster pack (including my favorite track from friend of Offworld Jon Burgerman), word comes in of more fanciful Wipeout crossovers.

This time, it's with LittleBigPlanet, as Sony Europe community manager 'MusterBuster' has laid out the next several months of LBP addon's and packs, including, in February, a WipEout HD costume pack which transforms your little Sackboy into the pilot of his own little cardboard Feisar or Icaras ship.

Other new packs on the horizon: the Ape Escape and Toro (Japan's PS3 mascot) costumes that originally shipped with Japan's copy of the game, a God of War tie-in pack, a vaguely horrifying Groundhog Day pack, and a Valentine's Day pack that promises at least one massive kitten head sticker.

No word on equivalent stateside release dates, but the wait's rarely been long between territories.

Little Delay To LittleBigPlanet Content [eu.playstation, via Shacknews]

Brandon Boyer

Sega taking WiiWare on Pole's Big Adventure

Wait, what's this? Days ahead of Sega's official reveal on its mystery countdown page, Japanese games mag Famitsu -- via IGN -- have lifted the curtain on Pole's Big Adventure, an original WiiWare game reportedly coming from Phantasy Star Universe producer Takao Miyoshi.

According to translations coming from IGN, NeoGAF and elsewhere around the net, the game is a multi-layered heavy-meta parody of 8-bit classics, with a constant barrage of retro-referencing set ups and pratfalls.

Case in point, if you can make it out in the image on the right, collectible mushrooms (as with Super Mario, obviously) make your character grow, but to absurdist dimensions -- the red blocks on the right there are your characters now-gigantor feet.

That's put that one square on my most-wanted list then: I'll be checking back in a few more days for more information and crossing every pair of fingers and toes I've got for a Western release.

Sega's Countdown

Brandon Boyer

Reactor-88's Dig Dug Dunnys

More excellent custom vinyl goodness, this time designer Ryan 'Reactor-88' Crippen's one-off Dunnys of Pooka, Fygar, and Dig Dug himself, also known as (fun fact!) Mr. Driller's grizzled father and chairman of the Driller Council, Taizo Hori.

Dig Dug Dunnys [Reactor-88, via the excellent ToysREvil, thanks Aaron!]

Previously:

The Munny shot: Earthworm Jim edition - Offworld
New Rolito toy: Patapon X our one true heart - Offworld
Rolito unleashes new Patapon toy - Offworld
A Felyne of your very own - Offworld
KodyKoala's Mushroom Kingdom customs - Offworld

Brandon Boyer

The humanity of LucasArts' virtual world forerunner Habitat

As if I needed another excuse to get my hands on Rogue Leaders, the visual history book on the golden age of Lucasarts I mentioned in December, Gamasutra has run a great excerpt not on any of the usual Monkey Island or Grim Fandango suspects, but rather Habitat, the late-80s Commodore 64 virtual world forerunner which ultimately failed for its beta trial's overwhelming success.

The article explains of its creation:

Development began in 1985 and sketched out a virtual world where each player had an in-game "avatar" -- a word defining a player's online representation (and still used today). These characters could interact with other players, connected in a massive online world composed of 20,000 "regions" -- essentially individual screens connected to as many as four additional regions...

Despite the apparent advantage of not having to program artificial intelligence for in-game characters, given that all the players were real people, creating rules for player interactions required the developers to broach subjects never before considered in game design.

Remarked Chip Morningstar in a long treatise on Habitat's creative process: "A special circle of living Hell awaits the implementers of systems involving that most important category of autonomous computational agents: groups of interacting human beings."

Book Extract: 'Rogue Leaders' On Lucasfilm Games' Habitat [Gamasutra]

Previously:
Chronicle holding LucasArts book signing - Offworld

Brandon Boyer

Unfinished Swan, Feist make IGF Student Showcase finals

Ian Dallas's Unfinished Swan video enraptured blogs everywhere before Offworld had a chance to leave the launch pad, but now the game's been named one of this year's ten finalists in the Independent Games Festival's Student Showcase, so I've got a great excuse to run the video again.

Elsewhere, the finalists included Feist, also a finalist in the main IGF competition (see my writeup of that in the Offworld Guide to the 2009 IGF), the environmentally minded "Tetris meets Sim City" City Rain, the "exploration of familial relationships" game Where is my Heart?, and, errr... the "funkalicious first person dish washing wonder" Dish Washington, created as... a Half-Life 2 mod?

Expect more in-depth looks at the games soon, and hit the jump for the full list of entrants and links to their respective IGF pages.

READ THE REST

Brandon Boyer

Here we Grow again: Eyezmaze returns with Grow Tower

The mark of true game-making talent: pseudonymous Eyezmaze head 'On' has been an always reliable source of quality Flash gaming for going on five years now, and even if you swapped in new graphics, you can recognize his style from the mechanics themselves.

His newest, after nearly a year in hiatus, is Grow Tower and again consists of his signature fractal-array of possible item combinations that result in ever more bizarre reactions unique to each specific sequence. This one, On says, has only one solution for the truely maxed tower.

My best effort thus far: this 15 meter high contraption: I seem to have got the robot and the button working properly, but I've obviously underutilized that crank and gears...

Attention iPhone developers: commercializing these games is an absolute no-brainer (at 99 cents a pop, or as a higher priced collection?). I'm surely not the first to think of it though, On's FAQ says he's currently considering incorporating and heading down a monetized path.

GROW TOWER [Eyezmaze]

Brandon Boyer

Hey Mr. LSDJ: BleepBloop's custom USB-transfer Game Boy carts

Would-be Game Boy musicians take note: Jose 'BleepBloop' Torres has completed his run of 16Mbit custom Game Boy cartridges with built-in USB transfer capabilities, specifically created for budding Little Sound DJs.

The classiest part, though, is the on-board "I love my Gameboy" message, which I hope everyone will have the good sense not to cover with the included LSDJ stickers.

Available via Gameboydev.org and Kitsch-bent.

Previously:
BBtv: Jellica, Mr. Spastic, and Nullsleep at Blip Festival 2008 ...
BBtv: Bubblyfish at Blip Festival 2008 - Offworld
Octoroc releases the full 8-bit Jesus - Offworld
Listen: Pixelmod Records' Merry Pixmas Compilation - Offworld
Listen: Leeni's 8-bit kabuki 'Underworld' - Offworld

Brandon Boyer

There goes my gun: Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device in real life

Easily the most incredible cosplay accessory ever created, 'emilyskeith's real world Portal gun does everything just about perfect, and is so meticulously constructed I -- no lie -- can't tell how it was made by anyone other than Aperture Science themselves.

Update: You can see many more pictures detailing its creation via the constructor himself, 'Volpin', at his cosplay.com gallery.

Portal Gun [Flickr, via N'gai]

Brandon Boyer

Obama: Famicom-aniac

How does our commander in chief relax after a long inaugural day? Surely, as with Gamu-Toys' celebratory DiD action figure spread, with a quiet night in eating oranges with his trusty original Famicom never more than a few feet away (presumably with Namco's classic Pac).

DiD US Presidential Election 2008 [Gamu-Toys, via Jean Snow, DiD site]

Previously:
Barack is Mac, and Pac? - Boing Boing

Brandon Boyer

Touch me I'm slick again: area/code relaunches Drop7

In mid-December I was delighted to discover that Manhattan developer area/code had stealth released a port of Chain Factor -- the Flash puzzler they'd created in partnership with CBS tv drama Numb3rs as part of a promotional alternate reality game -- to the iPhone as snap7.

As it turned out, it was a bit too stealth for my own good: just hours after I'd posted it, the app had to be removed from the store. But now, a month later, it has re-emerged under its new name Drop7 at a re-introductory $0.99 price, and comes as very, very highly recommended as it did to start: it's been one of my most regular smoke-break and long-trip iPhone companions since.

The only downside is -- gasp -- my high scores have been removed in transition, and I know I've had at least one absolutely brilliantly executed Sequence mode run where I scored well higher than my original 87k.

To learn more of what the game's about read my original writeup, and find the game on the AppStore here.

Drop7 [area/code entertainment, iTunes phobos link]

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Brandon Boyer

I wanna be a big bang: Arkedo's Big Bang Mini demo hits the Wii

Previously mentioned as one of my most anticipated DS titles for the first half of 2009, Arkedo's Big Bang Mini is not only shipping to retailers this week, but, publisher Southpeak has announced, has hit the Wii's Nintendo Channel DS Download Service as well, so you can try an extensive demo of the game ahead of time.

If you do, what you'll discover is that while it shares PS2 launch title puzzler Fantavision's vivid romanticization of fireworks against a jet black sky, that's where the similarities end. What Big Bang Mini really is, at its fuse-lit core, is an introduction to the thrill of hardcore bullet-hell shooters wrapped in a more palatable and familiar metaphor.

READ THE REST

Brandon Boyer

Change I can believe in: the presidential mech-wars of Metal Wolf Chaos

Offered as a counterpoint to 1UP Retro Blog's timely "worst presidents of gaming" article (a list including, of course, Bad Dudes' own burger-loving Mr. President), I submit gaming's greatest commander in chief, the hard-boiled, dual-wielding mech-pilot Michael Wilson of From Software's 2004 import-only Xbox title Metal Wolf Chaos.

Wilson not only soldiered bravely against the rebel army of his vice president, Richard Hawk, but commanded one of gaming's most fantastically ridiculous entrances, exploding through the West Wing walls.

Microsoft, if you're listening, now that we've ushered in a new era: now's the time to correct your prior error and bring this to the States as a special Xbox Originals download.

The worst presidents in gaming [1UP.com]

Brandon Boyer

Edmund McMillen's Meat Boy getting revamped for Wii, PC

Happy news for fans of Gish, Blast Miner, Tri-achnid, Aether and the just-IGF-nominated Coil: Edmund McMillen has announced via his blog that this year will see the release of a deluxe version of his Newgrounds hit Meat Boy on PC and Mac.

McMillen also teases a third "secret release platform," but a quick jog over to the game's new home site reveals that the game will also see a port to the Wii, presumably Nintendo's downloadable service WiiWare.

The deluxe version will be programmed by Pillowfort dev Tommy Refenes, who was behind last year's excellent Goo! (not to be confused with 2D Boy's
World of...), and original Meat Boy developer Jon McEntee.

You can play the original Meat Boy here, and its recently released 70 level fan-submitted expansion pack here -- it's fun and sadistically brutal stuff, something akin to a more visceral take on N+'s super-jump platforming set in an auto-scrolling world.

The beautiful smell of raw meat. [Edmund McMillen, via Indiegames]

Previously:
Edmund McMillen gives us No Quarter - Offworld
The dynamic fluids of Chronic Logic's Gish - Offworld
The Offworld Guide to the 2009 Independent Games Festival - Offworld

Brandon Boyer

ESRB rates Square Enix puzzler Yosumin for PC release

Very well spotted via Tiny Cartridge, the ESRB -- everyone's new favorite source of pre-release information -- has rated a Windows PC version of Square Enix's excellent puzzler Yosumin. Originally released as an import-only DS title, you may recall rumors spreading several weeks ago of an imminent Xbox Live Arcade port, but this is the first public indication that Square Enix is considering stateside release -- though, it should be said, not a guarantee.

Either way, I now have a very good excuse to say here, you can prep yourself for the release by training on Square Enix's Flash version (hosted grey-ly by thelostmd, click the first of the three menu options to start the game), but -- fair warning from personal experience -- it's frighteningly easy to lose hours to the charms of its virus-esque polygons.

The gameplay itself is simple enough: your only task is to find any rectangle amongst the field where the same color shapes make up each of its four corners, at which point all the shapes inside will be converted to that color, collected, and replaced with a new set of randoms. While your score will be boosted by by finding ever wider rectangles within the field, each level ends when you've collected the requisite number of each color.

The ESRB notes, as the Xbox Live Arcade rumors did, that the official release will include both high score challenges and multiplayer modes -- here's to looking forward to updating more on that later this year.

Previously:
Atlus PR manager defies genetic programming, exhibits sense of ...

Brandon Boyer

Six weeks to launch: Australia's Studio GameOn challenge

Already three weeks in but just spotted today: Studio GameOn is a project in association with the Barbican Art Gallery's traveling games history exhibit Game On -- currently resting in Australia's State Library of Queensland -- to put together a development team and create a debut title in just six weeks.

The team's lo-fi prototype for its B-movie stuntman simulator was just revealed on Monday -- you can follow the group's progress, as we will be, via its Flickr or YouTube channels.

Studio GameOn

Brandon Boyer

Intangibuild training 'knitting heroes' with Wii-mote enhanced Kniitiing

Though there doesn't appear to have been much activity on the site since mid-2008, after coming across the project today I'm tentatively hopeful it's still moving forward: artist Rachel Beth Egenhoefer and scientist Kyle E. Jennings have partnered to create KNiiTTiiNG, a Wii-mote enhanced, presumably PC-based application that would use motion control to teach the basics of knitting via minigames and on-screen tutorials.

Egenhoefer explains:

The more we started to work together and play silly Wii games, the more the ideas started to come. We thought about the craze of Dance Dance Revolution and Guitar Hero and then thought we’d make our own type of “Knitting Hero”. Users follow the knits and purls as they move up the screen challenging the player to knit in rhythm with the game, and without dropping a stitch! In Dance Dance Revolution the player produces a dance (or something like a dance), and in Guitar Hero the player creates an actual song. In KNiiTTiiNG however, you can only knit a virtual cloth object which comes back to my ideas about tactility and code, while also bringing in elements of pop culture and scatological video games."

The site teases three patterns: a tea towel, 'sensible' hat and octopus toaster cover, but we might also suggest more game-centric further add-ons: pixel-patterned DS/PSP cozies? Partnering with mad-teaparty's Xiola for Katamari hat patterns? The possibilities are endless.

KNiiTTiiNG!! [Intangibuild, thanks Kristen!]

Brandon Boyer

Llamasoft's Gridrunner+++ gets April date for Xbox Live Arcade

A month after ruing the fact that Microsoft's Xbox Live Arcade team were "sitting on" his submitted demo, Llamasoft head Jeff Minter has announced (alongside an excellent review for Space Giraffe PC) that the Xbox 360 remake of his cult retro shooter Gridrunner will see release via XBLA in late April.

In signature Llamasoft fashion, Gridrunner blends psychedelic light-synth overtones to a simple auto-shoot mechanic, as you can witness for yourself in its original PC and Mac form, or, more socially via its conversion to a Facebook application.

And, best of all, Minter also revealed earlier last year that the Xbox Live Arcade port, as above, would include emulated versions of the original Vic-20 and C64 titles that earned Minter and Llamasoft their reputation, for a release that promises to be as good a newcomer's introduction to the Llama-legacy as you can find.

Space Giraffe PC gets awesome 92% review [Llamasoft, Gridrunner PC]

Previously:
Llamasoft's Space Giraffe released for PC - Offworld Llamasoft taming PC port of Space Giraffe - Offworld

Joel Johnson

Blog War! Watch this space for Planetside details; Updated

Keys have been provisioned for the Planetside war and shots started going off last night. Sadly, I'm having some trouble getting it running properly on Vista, but I think I've got it licked. A few of you have asked how we're going to organize, while a few more of you have offered to help organize and get us on Ventrillo or Teamspeak.

I can't drop out to handle this during the day, but you'll have my full attention this evening and we'll get something figured out after, say, 6PM Eastern. Right here.

Update: I'm going to open up the Campfire room for guest access so we can coordinate. Just click the link to chat: Come on in. As for voice chat, I think I'll just rent a Ventrilo server this month. (InstantVentrilo.com looks easy enough.)

I'm going to start playing in about 45 minutes, so join me in Campfire if you'd like to figure out details! I got my client running earlier but I have no idea what I'm doing at all.

Here's how I got it working in Vista: Go into the directory and change the compatibility mode on the executable itself to Windows 95 or Windows 2000 compatibility mode, then Run as Administrator. Worked for me!

Brandon Boyer

Listen: 2D Boy's free World of Goo soundtrack

Update: Well, now that we've gone and killed his website, Kyle has sent along word that there's a temporary mirror at the 2D Boy's site, which you can find here. Attack!

The best present we could have received today: World of Goo devs 2D Boy have released the game's soundtrack -- truly one of the best in recent memory -- as a free download via designer and composer Kyle Gabler's homepage, with notes on the inspiration for its various tracks. Gabler explains:

The majority of the instruments you'll hear are computer instruments, with a few live performances on top to add a bit of warmth. For the older music, I used one of those Sound Blaster cards that let you load samples into memory. More recently, I've been using the freeware sfz soundfont sampler. I have an m-audio keystation 49e midi keyboard for picking out melodies. Influences include Danny Elfman, Vangelis, Bernard Herrmann, Hans Zimmer, Ennio Morricone, and all the big movie guys. I grew up listening to them, and they remain a big influence in everything I write.

It's hard to pick a favorite, each one conjuring very happy memories of different game highlights, but embedded below, this being Offworld and all, the most obviously Vangelis inspired, 'Inside the Big Computer.'

Music from World of Goo [Kyle Gabler, via 2D Boy]

Previously:
At the core of the World of Goo - Offworld
2D Boy's World of Goo: The community updates - Offworld
Ragdoll Metaphysics: Ten Things That Made Me Glad To Be A Gamer In ...
The Offworld 20: 2008's Best Indie and Overlooked - Offworld

Brandon Boyer

Getting crafty: Hattori's Kid Icarus diorama papercraft

Nothing says 'presidential inauguration' like papercraft, and Hattori obliges with this wicked Kid Icarus diorama that captures everything good about the game minus the Eggplant Wizard.

[Kid Icarus Papercraft, via Nintendo Papercrafts, via Tiny Cartridge]

Previously:
Getting crafty with Foldskool and Cubecraft - Offworld
Life-size papercraft Link hat (and hair) - Offworld

Brandon Boyer

Louis & Bill & Zoey & Francis: the real fab four

And the day's last dose of Helvetica porn: following Meat Bun's similar Nintendo dream team shirt, which followed Amsterdam studio Experimental Jetset's iconic original, Zazzle user 'bigdukesix's tribute to his "band (of survivors)" of choice, the boys and girl of Left 4 Dead.

Louis & Bill & Zoey & Francis. T-shirt [via Tom, via Wonderland]

Previously:
Left 4 Dead: the twits don't stand a chance - Offworld
Screaming for Hitekkai: Meat Bun's new T-shirt designs - Offworld
Polygraph's Kakuna T-shirt casts harden - Offworld
Look a little bit like Little Mac - Offworld
A new Hanes Beefy-T awaits - Offworld

Brandon Boyer

Olly Moss's Penguin-inspired Videogame Classics covers

Like AtomicToy's Dude-A-Day project, I happened across designer Olly Moss's fantastic Swiss-inspired movie posters last week and wondered what he might come up with in the games realm, and now I see I didn't have to wonder long.

Taking a cue from classic Penguin book covers, I'd like to think Moss's newly created 'Triforce on the brain' Zelda cover and his 'projectile dysfunction' Goldeneye design would have brought a happy twinkle to Germano Facetti's eye.

Videogame Classics [Flickr, via Super Punch, via Tiny Cartridge]

Previously:
AtomicToy's Dude-a-Day Games Dudes - Offworld
Ben Marra's view from Vice City - Offworld

Brandon Boyer

Browser brawl: Street Fighter comes to YouTube

Well spotted via Destructoid, Patrick Boivin's Youtube Street Fighter, a fully playable (as playable as, say Dragon's Lair), stop-motion version of the arcade classic done up with cleverly hacked overlay buttons and a frighteningly complex array of all various outcomes.

Youtube Street Fighter

Brandon Boyer

You're my obsession: Puzzle Quest: Galactrix demo goes live

As I mentioned in December, Infinite Interactive's sci-fi themed Puzzle Quest follow-up Galactrix is one of my most anticipated 2009 titles, based almost solely on the fact that the original game has wound up on nearly every one of my supported devices: I currently have dedicated characters on my DS, PSP, Xbox 360 and, most recently, my iPhone, and happily chip away at the same areas on each based on whichever I've got on hand.

But now I've got better reason: publisher D3 and Infinite have set a Galactrix demo live that lets you putter with the game's match-3 battle interface, and already I've lost a good part of the morning to its hexagonal wiles.

Though I don't quite have its particular vocabulary yet (the help gives only the briefest overview) It's all too instantly familiar to a Puzzle Quest regular -- each three or more pieces matched add to your equivalent bank of 'mana', purple for experience, white (presumably) for money, and blue for shield regeneration.

It's that last bit that gives Galactrix its extra strategic kick: as a regenerable force, keeping your shields up becomes an utmost priority, as does moving in for repeat attacks once you've got your opponent's defenses on the ropes. And the playfield's mines, this version's 'skulls', amplify their damage the longer they remain on the field (unlike PQ's randomly dropped/spell-amped flamers), so minimizing their effect on you by clearing them as soon as possible, or holding them to maximize damage to your opponent, also adds to the depth of play.

Whether Galactrix will garner the fast word-of-mouth cult hit status of the original Puzzle Quest, or -- as Popcap CCO Jason Kapalka recently claimed, its very shape will prove a turn off for casual customers -- remains to be seen, but I can say that even my brief time with the demo has made the game climb several rungs in my most-wanted ladder.

Play Puzzle Quest: Galactrix [Infinite Interactive, game site, via GameCyte]

Previously:
Things We Lost In The Snow, pt 1: PuzzleQuest hit the iPhone ...
Nintendo's Wii/DS outlook: The Offworld view - Offworld
Othello gets Puzzle Quest treatment with Neopets Puzzle Adventure ...

Brandon Boyer

Ngmoco promise Word-Fu, more Topple by mid-February

More good iPhone news following Infinite Ammo's: reigning App Store champs ngmoco have let slip that their first post-Rolando games coming in the next 30 days will include Word-Fu, a tossed-out Scrabble tile wordfinder (a much more 'traditional' casual outing for the dev) -- which you can see via TouchArcade's MacWorld party spycam footage above -- as well as a new version of its debut "fast app" brick-stacker Topple, to be known as Topple Too.

Previously:
Touch me I'm slick: ngmoco/Hand Circus's Rolando - Offworld
ngmoco shows off iPhone's Dr. Awesome, Dropship - Offworld
Rolando gets papered - Offworld

ngmoco twitter feed

Brandon Boyer

Infinite Ammo tease iPhone puzzler Heroes and Villains

Doing due diligence on keeping up with the work going on at Offworld fave Infinite Ammo, the team have updated with new concept art for Heroes and Villains, a prototype game idea they're busy porting to the iPhone.

As with their recently mentioned larger project Marian, we've only got bits and pieces to go on, but in a late November update, Ammo head Alec Holowka dropped one little tidbit on its gameplay, calling it "Lemmings meets [Blizzard platformer] The Lost Vikings meets Awesome," which is basically all I needed to hear.

Heroes and Progress [Infinite Ammo]

Previously:
Infinite Ammo teases their Marian-ette - Offworld
Bringing Gamma home to you - Offworld
Bit Blot's Aquaria hits Steam - Offworld

Brandon Boyer

Revolvingdork's Super Mario Land etched Eee PC

The last bit of Monday Morning Metal: 'revolvingdork's Eee PC etched with the entire map of the original Game Boy Super Mario Land "from the familiar layouts of 1-1 to the climactic battle with Tatanga in the clouds at the end of 4-3" has, to my mind, never made a better case for laser etching everything.

Logo etching detail [Flickr, via GamOvr]

Brandon Boyer

ThirdProjectJuno's Shineys make a real Rock Band star

The only thing disappointing about ThirdProjectJuno's iconic games-smithing is the fact that they're not for sale (claiming copyright issues, which surely hasn't stopped a nation of etsy sellers). Above is my favorite of the bunch, a necklace linking all of Rock Band's instruments, but I'd also be hard pressed to only choose one between the Tetris ring, Metroid pendant, and NES D-pad.

Thirdproject Shineys [via GamOvr]

Brandon Boyer

Sure plays a mean marble: Marble Madness finished in 2:30

In other morning video madness: the only thing more amazing than this Marble Madness expert play video is the champ's seemingly flailing double-palm whack technique (the original niconico video's tags include 'bloody muscle pain' for good reason).

People are already comparing it to TGM HOLiC's unbelievable Tetris: The Grand Master 3 video which -- if you haven't seen it already -- will leave you speechless, particularly when he continues to play with the fallen blocks turned invisible.

[Via NeoGAF, via Cabel]

Brandon Boyer

Listen: Leeni's 8-bit kabuki 'Underworld'

A fantastic way to start the week: chiptune musician Leeni describes her latest album 'Labyrinth' as "Danny Elfman, Elliott Smith and Bjork [collaborating] on the soundtrack to Castlevania or Zelda" and has marked its debut with this 8-bit mole-man kabuki video for 'Underworld' by Niina Koivusalo and Ville Konttinen.

There's much more to be had -- chippy Thom Yorke covers, even -- via her 8bitcollective page and home site.

[Leeni.us, via the increasingly excellent Attract Mode]

Brandon Boyer

Weekend watching: Look Around You makes its U.S. debut

Unlike last time's Weekend Watching, this one's something you'll have to actually tune your TV to: this weekend (at the very enviable time slot of Sunday at 1am -- set your Tivos, probably) will see the Adult Swim debut of BBC2 comedy Look Around You, an Offworld favorite from Robert Popper and Peter Serafinowicz.

A pitch perfect parody of yesteryear's 'technology of tomorrow, today' programs (if you can follow the chronology there), I offer the most relevantly Offworld-ian bit above as a taste, and, once you're finished with that, an emulated version of 80's classic Diarrhea Dan, the F. Scott Fitzgerald-inspired toilet-based game featured in the clip.

[Look Around You - US trailer, BBC Minisite]

Previously:
Weekend watching: Rex Crowle's Grip Wrench - Offworld

Brandon Boyer

Gimme Indie Game: Gravity Bone

This is one of my biggest regrets of 2008: had I played Brendon Chung's indie PC game Gravity Bone on first glance it would have made The Offworld 20 without question. Instead, I waited until after the new year, thinking it'd be a game I'd have to sit down and take in like a slow meal.

This turned out not to be true: you can finish Gravity Bone in about as much time as it takes to complete many games' tutorials, and get more out of the experience than you did most games in their entirety. If Portal was gaming's latest great novella, Gravity is its mini-comic: colorful, concise, and economical.

The less said about the actual mechanics of the game, the better, as any exposition threatens to give away its best twists. The generics, though: it's a double-mission exotica-tinged snapshot of the life of a contract killer and his infiltration of a secret jet-set society; spy-fi by way of Fellini's leisure life and LucasArts' Grim Fandango. None of this is said, of course, just confidently implied through its symbols and traces of its signal drifting number-station mumblings.

Currently employed at Pandemic designing levels for EA's just released Lord of the Rings: Conquest, Chung's mini-game feels like an exercise in escape, a nights-and-weekends rough sketch of the kind of games he by all rights should be doing full-time. Even with its double-take ending (and for all its gnawing mysteries [what was going to be mapped to inventory slot 3?]), it's over all too soon, and -- though he's detouring through his top-down Xbox 360 Community Game Atom Zombie Smasher -- it's something we sincerely hope he comes back home to soon.

[Bonus love: Take a closer look at its second mission office-tower directory -- you might notice some familiar names.]

Gravity Bone [also at Blendo Games]

Joel Johnson

Out of work? Write a game!

A blip from a jovial interview with 2DBoy's Ron Carmel and Kyle Gabler, creators of World of Goo (which I finally finished):

Eurogamer: After it all, would you encourage others to do the same? If they've got a great idea and the skills, should they strike out on their own?

Ron Carmel: Hell yeah! And it has nothing to do with money, by the way. It was about doing what we love, not about starting a company. That sounds really cheesy, but it's true.

Kyle Gabler: To anyone thinking about quitting everything and making an indie game, it's good to remember that you can always go get a job if it doesn't work out.

Ron Carmel: There are so many game developers being laid off now, it seems like the perfect time for people to go indie. Yay for severance pay!

Brandon Boyer

LittleBigWatch: Will Scobie's LittleBigPlanetoid Sticker Pack

Following its debut release from Brighton-based illustrator Matt Buchanan, Little Big Planetoid has released their second excellently curated designer-series sticker packs, this time south England illustrator Will Scobie with a nice mix of loopy lines and cubic creations, collected via custom in-game levels.

Once again, until LittleBigPlanet allows direct HDD uploads the pictures are of semi-dubious quality, but Planetoid promises the levels will be reworked when the game allows.

LBP Designer Sticker Pack #2: Will Scobie [Little BIG Planetoid]

Previously:
LittleBigStickerPacks - Offworld

Brandon Boyer

Vintage ad, vintage notion, vintage violence

Unreality's list of 20 vintage videogame ads is a decently selected list of classic franchises and fun comic art (see Atari's Mario Bros. ad), but most striking is this ad for Wizard's Texas Chainsaw Massacre, a 180 turn from most modern marketing (bar, perhaps, Postal or Manhunt), brazenly using its violence as both a selling point and a healthy anger-management pursuit.

Even better, the above video of its actual gameplay.

20 Awesome Vintage Video Game Ads [Unreality, thanks Tom!]

Brandon Boyer

Harmonix head Rigopulos on PS3 Amplitude, iPhone plans

Ars Technica's latest interview with Harmonix head Alex Rigopulos has scored an effortless Unison Bonus with my heart, and it's got little to do with the state of the music industry's involvement with Rock Band going forward.

Instead, (and finally!) Ben Kuchera presses Rigopulos on the idea of working with Sony to get the studio's earlier work, particularly the Sony-owned Amplitude, done right via the PlayStation Network:

Rigopulos: I would love to. That game is still close to my heart. I love it. I'd love to do a sequel to Amplitude, actually. It's an issue of prioritization... For us, that lingering question of "what are we going to do about Amplitude" is still very much out there. I would love to come back and do it right for the PlayStation 3, for example.

And, even better, gets him to elaborate on the studio's obvious next best move: the iPhone, a place I'd love to see HMX show the Tap Tap ilk just how it's done, either with a reworked port of its outrageously under-appreciated iPod game Phase [buy it now if you haven't already], or something more original:

Rigopulos: Believe me, we're looking at the iPhone. If we take a stop on that platform, we want to do it right, so we're thinking about the specific attributes of the iPhone so we can make it the right step where we can make the product that's the right product for that platform. We could just do a port of Phase, but I'm wondering if there isn't something that's more ambitious that we could do as well. I don't think we have any specific plans there yet, but needless to say, we're looking at it.

King of Rock: Ars talks to Harmonix CEO Alex Rigopulos [Ars Technica]

Previously:
Going deep on music with Harmonix - Offworld
Rock Band bucking the sequel trend in 2009 - Offworld

Brandon Boyer

Denki does recruitment right

We've only got half an idea of what's actually cooking at Scotland's Denki -- the studio's site will only cop to their forthcoming Xbox Live game Quarrel and an undetailed Wii game, then "turning [their] attention to the iPhone" (!).

In the meantime, though, they've launched a series of playful campaigns starting with the Denki Top 100, a "year-end round-up of the greatest, gaming experiences we've ever done," and now, possibly the best recruitment ad in recent memory, Are You Denki Or Not?

I'm pleased to say I completely aced the test (though I've known we were eye-to-eye since Go! Go! Beckham) and half think it could function just as easily as an Are You Offworld Or Not -- let us know how you fare.

Are You Denki Or Not?

Previously:
Denki re-emerge with XBLA boardgame mashup Quarrel - Offworld

Brandon Boyer

Lost souls freed from Game Developer archives

From retro to retro: Gamasutra has launched a terribly promising new series reprinting archive material from the depths of its Game Developer Magazine reserves, starting with this 1994 premier issue behind-the-scenes look at the making of Doom.

The article's a treasure trove of quaint technical anecdotes from Carmack trundling through snow to get his hands on a much treasured NeXT cube, to Id's babysteps into online multiplayer, to its very opening salvo: "In an era of where it often takes 20MB to put in all the advertised features, they did it in less than four."

The Game Developer Archives: 'Monsters From the Id: The Making of Doom' [Gamasutra]

Previously:
Offworld goes to hell - Offworld
Welcome to your Doom in a browser - Offworld
Buy the car that Doom bought - Offworld

Brandon Boyer

Virtual Apple ][: Browser embedded game design lessons

Via Darren Gladstone's latest PC World column, a good way to wile away the weekend with Virtual Apple ][, a browser-embedded Apple II and IIgs emulator last mentioned on the Mother Boing in 2004, but now cross-browser/platform compatible in its 4.0 iteration (though IIgs emulation still requires Windows).

As Gladstone points out, the 1250+ images in stock means you can take a trip through some of gaming's earliest landmarks that took us where we are today, from Fallout progenitor Wasteland to Beyond Castle Wolfenstein to Ultima and Wizardry to--... ah, who are we kidding, let's just label this one the Official Play-Oregon Trail-In-Your-Browser Site.

Classic Apple II Games That Inspired Today's Greats [PC World]

Joel Johnson

Blog War! Help Offworld defeat Rock, Paper, Shotgun, The Escapist in a three-way Planetside battle! Recruiting now!

Update: Okay, we're out of free keycodes! I'll be sending out an email ASAP (perhaps tonight, depending on if I can get this article written, but by tomorrow at the least) and we can start strategizing!

As most of you know, every other website on the internet is staffed and consumed by scum. But none are worse than those dastardly Terran Republican reprobates at The Escapist or those New Conglomerate libertarian weenies of Rock, Paper, Shotgun, both of whom question the clear transhumanist vision espoused by Offworld's alignment with the Vanu Sovereignty.

Vaporize them we must. And it is your duty as mutants to enlist in our cause to battle against 140 of the universe's dregs of pre-post-humanity in Planetside.

That's right: We're having ourselves a three-war blog war.

Sony's given us 70 90-day playtime keys for their online first-person shooter, Planetside, with which to wage battle for a month against the readers of The Escapist and RPS. After a month, the site with the most kills, hacks, or...uh, explodeys will be declared the winner. And then the losers will shut down their sites forever and redirect all their traffic to the winner. (I didn't actually mention that clause to the staff at either site, so we may have to work that out later.)

If you possess a gaming machine of modest 3D ability and would like to hop a dropship with the Offworld and BBG editors over the next month, click on through and I'll explain how to get a key after the jump.

READ THE REST

Brandon Boyer

Mario Physics: measuring Mushroom Kingdom gravity

This is what we like to see: something to rival Dan Bruno's Mother 3 musical malarkey and Kevin R. Grazier, Ph.D.'s fantastic 2007 Halo Science 101 (key finding: "For a Halo with a radius of 5,000 kilometers to simulate one Earth gravity, it would have to spin with a tangential speed of slightly over seven kilometers per second. That implies that the Halo would rotate once every hour and fifteen minutes, or 19 ¼ times a day.") for sheer theoretical madness.

Brooklyn physics teacher Glenn Elert and students have meticulously measured Mario's rate of descent in each game of the franchise from Super Mario Bros. to Super Paper Mario (the study having been done, presumably, before Super Mario Galaxy -- or perhaps its distinct gravitational lunacy instantly set their computational units smoking).

Their conclusion:

Generally speaking, the gravity in each Mario game, as game hardware has increased, is getting closer to the true value of gravity on earth of 9.8 m/s2. However, gravity, even on the newest consoles, is still extreme. According to Wikipedia, a typical person can withstand 5 g before losing consciousness, and all but the very latest of Mario games have gravity greater than this. Also, with gravity that great, it is a wonder Mario can perform such feats as leaping almost 5 times his own body height!

Acceleration Due to Gravity: Super Mario Brothers

Brandon Boyer

Three Dog's iTunes mix tape

Even months later, my Wasteland time has left me utterly earwormed with nearly all the songs on Fallout 3's stellar soundtrack (as would be expected, I suppose, after being marooned nearly 70 hours with the same song shortlist), and short of GameStop's pre-order 5-song sampler, or, you know, a modicum of effort at chasing them all down on iTunes, there was no way to collect everything in one fell swoop.

Enter: Bethesda, who have updated their blog with word that iTunes's 'iMix' section has an essentially definitive Fallout 3 mix that nets you 13 songs for just under as many dollars. The blog's got full instructions on chasing it down, but you can also get there directly via this phobos link.

Fallout 3 iMix on iTunes [Bethesda]

Previously:
Three Dog's Wasteland Top 40 - Offworld
Fallout 3: Everybody Dance! edition - Offworld

Brandon Boyer

Seaman DS in development, Apple denying iPhone spin-off Gabo?

Since late November, I've been doing at very least twice or thrice weekly App Store checks to see if Yoot Saito's previously mentioned Seaman spin-off caveman sim Gabo has sprung to life, and apparently my checks were all in vain.

In a post-script to a long and otherwise unrelated blog post, Saito has said (as best I can tell, I'm currently working on a more official translation) that the app has long been finished, but that Apple had "expressed displeasure" at the interactions with its perkily umbilical Peking man and denied its release.

Though this part's even more shakily translated, the post also seems to suggest that because the iPhone app's developers are currently preoccupied with Seaman DS (which might itself be the even bigger news; it's the first Saito has hinted at the idea since the beginning of 2008), they've given up on making changes to satisfy Apple's demands for now, but in the long run hope to return to the project and ensure its release.

Something else [rough pass Google translation]

Previously:
Seaman dev going iPhone with Gabo - Offworld

Brandon Boyer

Miyamoto, Spore awarded Jim Henson Honors

In its fifth year running (and, shamefully, the first I'd heard of them), Muppet-makers The Jim Henson Company have put Will Wright's Spore and Nintendo legend Shigeru Miyamoto in good company amongst prior honorees Al Gore, Hayao Miyazaki, Neil Gaiman, Etsy and the Prius as recipients of their annual Jim Henson Honors, which celebrate "organizations, individuals or products that reflect the core values and philosophy of Jim Henson and the company he founded."

Miyamoto was awarded the 'Celebration' honor for "[making] the world a better place by inspiring people to celebrate life," most recently with his oversight on Wii Fit, while Spore was honored for "[demonstrating] ground-breaking technology in a creative way," in giving people "their own personal universe in a box where players build their own galaxy from scratch."

Also awarded this year was Atlanta, GA non-profit The Center for Puppetry Arts and guerilla design legend Shepard Fairey for his instantly recognizable Hope art campaign for Barack Obama.

Jim Henson Honors [via press release]

Brandon Boyer

Guitar Hero 1.0 begging for real-life remake

Today's brilliant one-off gag: b3ta user 'ianwarren's Guitar Hero 1.0, which I'm hoping someone's already on top of actually coding.

[b3ta, via The Internet Now In Handy Book Form]

Brandon Boyer

Miffies' Famicom inspired 8-bit fonts galore

Keeping briefly on a design kick, Ray Barnholt at 1UP's new retro blog has dug up this brilliant collection of Famicom inspired pixel fonts, where sussing out the source for each based on their punusual names (Dig Dub, Monkey Kong, Tower of Druger, Sp-Ranker) is quite nearly a game in itself (at right, Coconut Milk, inspired by 8-bit Hudson obscurity Nuts & Milk).

Perfect, I should think, for any upcoming Offworld skin re-designs, or, Barnholt suggests, "bedroom door signs ('ENTERING AWESOME GAMER ZONE')" and tattoos.

Miffies | Font [via 1UP]

Brandon Boyer

AtomicToy's Dude-a-Day Games Dudes

With AtomicToy's fantastic Dude-A-Day project currently making the design/culture blog rounds, I'd hoped Andy Helms would make good with the games related dudes, and, happily, the dude's been abiding since its late October get-go: Half-Life, Metal Gear, and Mega Man abound.

As Helm's style also brings to mind the double fine work of Psychonauts/Brutal Legend artist Scott C., I'll also note that the latter has been going great guns with his own Double Fine Action Comic -- I've been extra sweet on his recent founding father kick.

dude-a-day [atomictoy, via Pica+Pixel]

Brandon Boyer

Takara Tomy banks Invaders

Combining Japan's apparently resurgent enthusiasm for electronic novelty banks and our own ongoing love affair with All Things Invader during Taito's seemingly bottomless and endless treasure trove of 30th Anniversary tie-ins, CScout's Japan Trend blog brings news of Takara Tomy's just released Space Invaders cocktail cab bank.

While it doesn't actually play so much as count your 100 yen coins with a new on-screen invader each time, its attention to detail, with the itty-bittiest instructions panel and color overlay (making it Space Invaders Part II, for the pedants), still manages to get a lustful rise.

Space Invaders retro tabletop game bank [Trends in Japan - CScout Japan Blog]

Previously:
You've got to spend to save - Offworld
Space Invaders evolve on Japan's mobiles - Offworld
Space Invaders about to Get Even on WiiWare - Offworld

Brandon Boyer

Flashbang Relentless-ly tease new game

Flashbang's latest tweet on via their official Blurst account is my new maddeningly opaque "what are they building in there" tease: the company says flight404's generative and rhythmically pulsing beast, which bursts into a jet black flock of ravens on every kick, is apparently "one of many visual inspirations" for their next game, which makes me wonder if they've actually kicked the "mythical/extinct creature plus outlandish physical activity/heavy machinery" habit.

[Relentless, The REV, via Blurst]

Previously:
What's he building in there: Introversion's Subversion - Offworld
Gimme Indie Game: Minotaur China Shop, happiness in shattery ...
Riding the iPhone's Raptor Copter - Offworld

Joel Johnson

Ruben & Lullaby, an iPhone love story

Half-game, half-art piece, Eric Loyer's Ruben & Lullaby is billed as a "story you can play", a wordless comic book-styled piece in which two lovers have their first fight on a park bench, guided toward resolution by your stroking and shaking. At first glance it seems relatively shallow, but the voyeuristic element appeals: I'd much rather control the destiny of two fictional lovers than develop an ersatz relationship with a computer simulation. (At least for now; girlfriend simulators have always left me cold.)

Publisher Opertoon is billing it as a "story you can play like a musical instrument". I've yet to play it, but from the gameplay video below, it looks nearer to a "story you can watch by rubbing". Still — I'm pleased to see more experimental forms showing up on the platform. And the art style is welcomingly adult.

Ruben & Lullaby is on sale now for iPhone and iPod touch for $3.

Ruben & Lullaby download [iTunes via Technabob]

Brandon Boyer

Left 4 Raccoon City

From one Umbrella to the next: while it doesn't quite 'snap into' the parodical punch of the previously mentioned Macho Man mod (or, indeed, the nauseatingly glorious 'sexy beast' Boomer thong), Zac-UK and jonmag's meticulous recreation of Resident Evil's Raccoon City (an obvious and fitting crossover if ever there was one) looks as though it's shaping up quite nicely:

The campaign places the four survivors on the abandoned streets of Raccoon City after a truck crashes into their car. You head on foot to the police station in hope of rescue. Upon entering the station you receive help from an injured cop who points you in the direction of the sewers to escape the infested city, however the 4 survivors soon end up discovering the reason behind the infection when they come across a top -secret high tech research facility owned by the 'Umbrella' Corporation.

[Bioh4zard 2 via Kotaku]

Previously:
Left 4 Dead: Savage beyond belief - Offworld
Left 4k Dead: Left 4 Dead in 4KB of Java - Offworld
Ragdoll Metaphysics: Left 4 Dead, The Thinking Man's Braindead ...
Why Left 4 Dead has the best tutorial ever... and why you never ...

Brandon Boyer

An umbrella fit for a zombie apocolypse

Though presumably it's just a happy accident, ThinkGeek's newly offered 'Umbrella' umbrella is the perfect gift to say "let's ward off the drizzle, and the undead, together."

Umbrella Umbrella [ThinkGeek, via Wonderland]

Jim Rossignol

Ragdoll Metaphysics: Soap Opera & The Sims

Next month sees the release of The Sims 3, the second sequel to one of the most popular videogames of all time. What's interesting about the series is not simply its success, but the fact that it has essentially created a genre of its own. There are very few social people-sim games, and none that can even pretend to rival The Sims. I think Sims 3 will be the last Sims title that will launch with that kind of comfort zone. Its time as a one-game genre will soon be up.

The Sims is a game that has, quite deliberately, tapped into the mainstream of modern life, not just mechanistically (in a game about everyday lives), but aesthetically and fictively (with stories about, er, everyday lives). All of which led me to think about where it is that The Sims connects to culture generally. Where outside games do we see similar methods? Where are the resemblances and likenesses across media? Where else does this kind of appeal-to-everyday stuff really connect with our culture? I'd say it was in soap opera.

READ THE REST

Brandon Boyer

Jolt reviving Zork as browser-MMO

Today's guardedly optimistic revival: casual MMO developer Jolt (they of the recent Google Maps enhanced long-distance trucker MMO Trukz [which friend of Offworld Mathew Kumar recently detailed]) have announced a revival of Infocom's foundational text adventure Zork as a browser-based casual MMO.

Though they haven't yet detailed how the game itself will operate, they have said Legends of Zork will provide a persistent world for all its players, who will take the role of a "laid-off salesman and part-time loot-gatherer, as he explores the Great Underground Empire."

Reassuringly, it looks to be as much a labor of love as any: the game's blog notes that "Double Fanucci also makes an appearance, in the form of a full deck of 174 Fanucci cards that you can collect and use to improve your skills," and furthermore says that its multiplayer return will extend to grouping for tougher quests and arena battles.

The young and the rookies can have a look at Matt Barton's exhaustive History of Zork feature via Gamasutra, or play the first three games in the franchise online via ReZork to bone up as we anticipate the game's launch.

Legends of Zork - The legendary adventure returns, to your browser.

Previously:
The irony being no-one even reads them anymore - Offworld

Brandon Boyer

GMod Theatre Presents: 'Grigori Grimoire'

It's Presto for the City 17 set: 'fncypntz's 'Grigori Grimoire' is officially my new favorite GMod happening. See also, the amazing Super Gmod Kart and Team Fortress 2 Heavy's 2Girls1Cup Reaction.

Fncypntz's channel [YouTube, via WeGame via Oddbob]

Previously:
Garry's Mod life - Offworld
Doom 3: Repercussions of Evil: another Garry's Mod masterpiece ...

Brandon Boyer

Mother 3: Behind the Music

In what can only be described as a heroically meticulous post (and an early front-runner for games-related blog post of the year), Dan Bruno (QA tester, coincidentally, for Rock Band creator Harmonix) has dissected the battle music in the recently fan-translated Mother 3 to better come to grips with its combo system.

It was one of the game's most surprising secrets: each enemy you come across in its turn based battles has a unique theme song, and their own signature 'heart beat' that coincides with the theme. As you attack the enemy, continuing to press the button along to their beat results in continued combo attacks that, if sustained, lands some 50 percent more damage.

The trick, though, is that harder enemies come with harder beats and sadistic time signature trickery. Bruno transcribes one of the most difficult, "Strong One (Masked Man)"s 29/16 signature, and quips that its rhythm "would make Dave Brubeck cry."

Mother 3’s battle music [Cruise Elroy, via Waxy]

Previously:
Mother 3 translators start Earthbound Central blog - Offworld
Harvey James's Mother 3 fan art vanguard - Offworld
Tomato releases Earthbound Zero 'easy patch' - Offworld

Brandon Boyer

PixelJunk Eden getting a well-deserved Encore

Q-Games head Dylan Cuthbert has blogged to Sony's official PlayStation outlet to note that their previously promised patch for Offworld 20 highlight PixelJunk Eden will be available tomorrow, adding a new multiplayer camera and a still undetailed "new control system."

Even better, Cuthbert says an "Encore" version of the game is in development, offering only a teaser that the new expansion will add "crazy stuff," though the notion of new Baiyon tracks (note that the Eden musician/designer has just released a new EP, Tachikanae) is more than enticement enough.

PixelJunk Eden: Tending to Our Lovely Gardens [PS.blog]

Previously:
Pixeljunk Eden, Osmos top 2009 IGF nominations - Offworld
PixelJunk Eden patch promises mercy - Offworld
Sony's own inspired holiday sales - Offworld
The Offworld 20: 2008's Best Indie and Overlooked - Offworld

Brandon Boyer

Dotter Dotter's Kirby reversi

The latest in Tibori's Dotter Dotter series: the most adorable imagined version of Reversi ever created, featuring Kirby and rival Meta Knight.

The Kirby reversi [Dotter Dotter]

Previously:
Dotter Dotter's 3D pixelcraft - Offworld

Brandon Boyer

Beat: My god, it's full of bits

Today's biggest treat: following yesterday's scraps on forthcoming WiiWare series Bit.Trip and its initial block bouncer Beat, publisher Aksys has lifted the veil and let loose full gameplay video, which is even more wonderful than I had imagined.

Less a tennis-for-two and perhaps a bit more Breakout 2600: The Musical (well, minus the actual block-smashing, and then filtered through Stephen Malinowski's fantastic Music Animation Machine), Gaijin seem to have beat Taito at their own game and given us the Space Invaders Extreme-esque retro-futurist version of Arkanoid we'd hoped their DS port might be.

Even better, Aksys have uploaded Desention, the video clip's phoned-home chiptune, as an mp3 [direct link]: every part of this Bit.Trip seems custom built specifically to tickle Offworld's fancy.

BIT.TRIP BEAT [Aksys Games]

Previously:
Gaijin Games taking the Wii on a Bit.Trip - Offworld

Brandon Boyer

Crayon Physics gets Wall-E-fied

I've admittedly been seriously derelict in my duties to big-up Kloonigames' Crayon Physics Deluxe following its official release last week on both PC and the iPhone, so in an effort to make right before giving a more considered verdict, I offer this video, in which 'Jimmy Gunawan' bridges the ball-star gap with, naturally, an elaborate counterbalanced Wall-E and Eva contraption.

Crayon Physics - That Darn Pole, featuring Wall-E [Vimeo, via Gus]

Previously:
Things We Lost In The Snow, pt 3: Crayon Physics about to hit the iPhone - Offworld
Crayon Physics Deluxe opens pre-orders - Offworld

Brandon Boyer

LittleBigWatch: Free instructions for your Sackboy stitch-up

In early December, UK craft mag Simply Knitting announced that it'd be publishing a pattern to create your own custom version of LittleBigPlanet's Sackboy, which was amazing, but also disappointing in that a.) importing a single issue of a magazine sounded like a ridiculous trial (see also: Vice's LittleBig issue, and I'd still love to find a kind UK soul to help me get my grubby mitts on that [hint]), b.) as much a modern man as I might try to be, going to any length to eagerly snatch up a knitting magazine might've been just the tiniest bit shameful.

So I'm happy to report that UK tabloid the Sun has partnered with the mag to offer the pattern as a free download (direct PDF link), an unusual pairing, given the Sun's traditional beat covering, as Wonderland's Alice Taylor puts it, "topless ladies, celeb gossip, salacious murder details, assorted other painful deaths, surgery gone wrong, football transfers and astrology predictions."

Knit your own little Sackboy [The Sun, via Wonderland]

Previously:
More like LittleBigDeathOfInnocence - Offworld

Brandon Boyer

Feltron Eight dives into Liberty City minutae

Designer Nicholas Felton's annual reports have become one of my favorite year-end cappers, no matter that none of the information presented has an iota of relevance in my own personal life. The grace, beauty, and frankly slightly worrying amount of personal record-keeping that go into each collection of the minutiae of Felton's daily life is the classiest bit of voyeurism you'll engage in all year.

That's why I was so happy to see that this year's Feltron report covered not just the number of Michael J Fox sightings (one), beers consumed in public (408), or songs listened to in iTunes (just shy of 34k), but extended into his Liberty City life with an extensive breakdown of the number of miles traveled during the course of his/Niko's Grand Theft Auto IV exploits (1,036), which, according to his timeline, he completed near the end of May (that's dedication!).

If Felton's reports tickle your own obsessive compulsive urges, add yourself to the invite request list at Daytum, Felton's new service still in private beta which allows you to auto-generate Feltron-like reports based on any criteria of your choosing, and please let us know if you find creative uses for it based on your gaming life.

Feltron Eight [Thanks, .tiff!]

Brandon Boyer

Castle Crashers gets Kinged

While January 21st will see the release of The Maw, Twisted Pixel's anticipated 3D adventure recently noted in the Offworld Guide to the IGF, tomorrow's Xbox Live Arcade update will include new downloadable content for The Behemoth's retro-inspired beat em up Castle Crashers.

The so called 'King Pack' is set to add two new playable characters, the 'Open Faced Grey Knight' and the King himself, as well as a new healing spell via the King, three new weapons and Pelter, a new animal orb sidekick, all of which, now that the game has been properly patched and fixed issues with its online play, is as good a reason as any to discover why the game landed on our Offworld 20 best 2008 games list.

[GamerScore Blog]

Previously:
The Behemoth talk Castle Crashers balance, ladies - Offworld
The Offworld 20: 2008's Best Indie and Overlooked - Offworld

Brandon Boyer

Ultima creator Garriott regaling Austin on space voyage

There wasn't a very graceful way to mention it at the time, but in early December I had a serendipitous run-in with recently departed NCsoft head, legendary Ultima creator and recent space voyager Richard Garriott at a venue here in Austin, which ended with him happily monopolizing the night in front of a gaggle of curious onlookers, with candid stories of What Things Are Like On The International Space Station ('was there booze? are the Russian parts of the ISS different than the U.S. bits? how did you poop?') (the imagery of the latter is now irreversibly burnt into my consciousness -- it's not a pretty story).

I knew it was a special treat at the time, but now it's got a sticker price: Austin's Zach Theatre will be officially hosting Garriott to do the same on January 24th, with "artifacts and photos from his private collection, plus videos of aspects of space travel never seen before," and a subsequent Q&A.

For the non-Texans, you can also catch some footage of Garriott's expedition via film group Beef and Pie, who traveled with the trekker during his training and have the rights to his own personal space-films for the upcoming documentary Man on a Mission.

Austin, Texas > On Our Stages > Extreme Voyage [ZACH Theatre, via Massively]

Brandon Boyer

Dangerous High School Girls gets Writer's Guild nod

Variety reports that the Writers Guild of America have nominated this year's videogame selection for the best writing of 2008, the second year since it founded the new category. The selections are always somewhat slanted, with their prerequisite that nominees be part of the WGA itself (leading to last year's left-field winner, Vicious Cycle's otherwise lovely PSP action title Dead Head Fred).

This year's nominees included EA's Red Alert 3, Bethesda's Fallout 3, LucasArts' Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, Eidos's Tomb Raider Underworld, and this year's curiosity, indie dev Mousechief's Dangerous High School Girls in Trouble!.

The last game, an IGF entrant two years running, actually, is primarily the reason I wanted to call attention to the list. It's a game we haven't yet mentioned here, and we're pleased to find that certifiable friend of Offworld Leigh Alexander has an extensive writeup from late 2007 over at Play This Thing on the "charmingly stylish, elegantly macabre" game about the most terrifying of all creatures, the high school girl.

Writers Guild videogame award nominees announced [Variety]

Brandon Boyer

Left 4 Dead: Savage beyond belief

This month's greatest superfluous game-mod: 'Guido-Anchovy's Left 4 Dead hack, which, apropos of nothing, replaces all infected clips with the sounds of Randy 'Macho Man' Savage, creating something that's way, way funnier than it needs to be.

Left 4 Dead - Randy Savage Infected Sound Mod addon [Mod DB, via Shacknews]

Brandon Boyer

Listen: Bizarre give us 46860 Choices

Bizarre Creations' new years gift for fans of early Xbox Live Arcade flagship title Geometry Wars? '46860 Choices,' a 13 minute megamix [direct mp3 link] of the series' music done up quite nicely by Audio Antics's Chris Chudley -- series composer, and musician for a majority of Bizarre's output -- which should tide you over until the developer manages to get the official soundtracks to iTunes.

Try as I might, I still haven't managed to track down the inspiration for the name.

A late Happy New Year! [via everywhere, it seems, including NeoGAF]

Brandon Boyer

UNIQLO teases new games finery

Following on their brilliant Metal Gear crossover with Konami (I still covet the box-head shirt), Japan's UNIQLO offers this teaser for new games related shirts coming in March of this year, in partnership with a number of Japan's biggest publishers.

Each is kept a surprise, but it should be fairly easy to suss out each one (here's a hint, it goes S, M, A, P, G, B from top left to bottom right), and I'm obviously quite excited for lower left.

ユニクロ UT: UT×Japan Game [via Kotaku]

Joel Johnson

"I love you more than Xbox" says card someone else made for you while you played Xbox

This Etsy seller "Storeyshop" sells hand-cut greeting cards, including this handy one carved to say "I love you more than Xbox". Oh, the relationships this little card will save.

(It's sold out now, but I suspect they'll make more.)

I love you more than Xbox card page [Etsy.com via Technabob]

Brandon Boyer

Namco rightly reviving PlayStation's Klonoa

Some of the finest Wii news I've received since.. well, since the Bit.Trip announcement earlier this morning: Namco has confirmed they'll be bringing the hi-def remake of the original PlayStation platformer (shown above) to North America this year.

One of Namco's more obscure properties, the series has since branched into additional platformer sequels for PlayStation 2, Game Boy Advance, and, most obscurely, Bandai's original WonderSwan (my personal favorite of the franchise, and the most overtly puzzley), as well as an overhead RPG and, curiously, an altogether-skippable PlayStation beach-volleyball game.

The series has never fully got its due in the West, quite likely for its achingly saccharine overtones (particularly its admittedly piercing baby-talk dialogue, which has since been replaced in the Wii version), but beneath that sugar coat laid some of the smartest puzzles and challenging tests of dexterity of the PlayStation era, and was famed for its horrifying end-game cinematic that would shatter even the stoniest heart (and prove that strong men also cry).

Namco says the updated Wii version will have undetailed "new secrets" and option motion control -- we're just hoping the company has the good sense not to do this to a decade old cult classic.

Brandon Boyer

Henry Hatsworth: The Pompous Adventurer's Theme Tunes

Anticipation is running high for EA's simul-puzzle/platformer DS title Henry Hatsworth In The Puzzling Adventure, and as we wait patiently to get our proper go, I note that EA's offering the entirety of the game's soundtrack via its official homepage.

Our picks for the old bean's top tracks: the theremin laden 'Moist Tango,' and 'Old Timey Eight-Bitter,' which is as good a Koji Kondo tribute (rampant steel drums and all) as any I've heard since Denki's Go! Go! Beckham.

Henry Hatsworth [EA]

Previously:
Nintendo's Wii/DS outlook: The Offworld view - Offworld
Denki re-emerge with XBLA boardgame mashup Quarrel - Offworld

Brandon Boyer

Mega Man vs... everybody at once

Rockman 2 Neta, a one-off indie hack from Japan pitting Mega Man against his greatest challenge yet. Auntie Pixelante explains:

instead of having each robot wait for megaman alone in a room, why doesn’t doctor wily just have them all jump him at once?

rockman 2 neta is a game built around exactly that design joke... and it is possible to win: that’s part of the joke.

And above, the entirely improbable seizure-inducing victory.

rockman 2 neta [auntie pixelante]

Brandon Boyer

Gimme Indie Engine: TIGSource community's Balding's Quest

Over at TIGSource, work has continued anew on a fantastic community effort: Balding's Quest: The Quest of Guy Balding, which isn't so much a standalone game as it is a fully extensible 2D PC engine ready to be reconfigured with its own map, animation and dev editors.

Clearly a work in progress, development has been ongoing since early 2007 and for now consists of a pack of loadable maps which, from all that I tried range from difficult to brutally difficult. They're so hard, in fact, that I nearly skipped mentioning it altogether, but Balding's overall pleasant squish in every interaction and animation was so spot on (see also: Spelunky) that it comes recommended if only for a quick feel, although be sure to let us know if you manage to create something amazing, as well.

Balding is back! [TIGSource]

Brandon Boyer

Mother 3 translators start Earthbound Central blog

I'm not entirely sure how many more dedicated Earthbound fansites the internet can handle before collapsing under its own weight, but the latest, Earthbound Central, comes direct from Mother 3 fan-translation lead Tomato, and promises a "daily blog supplement" to Starmen.net, as close to a fearless leader for the game's hyper-dedicated community as it gets.

That said, any development that brings more Western legitimacy to the series is, of course, much appreciated.

Earthbound Central [via Starmen.Net forums]

Previously:
Harvey James's Mother 3 fan art vanguard - Offworld
Tomato releases Earthbound Zero 'easy patch' - Offworld

Brandon Boyer

Gaijin Games taking the Wii on a Bit.Trip

Several weeks back this suitably ridiculous viral video made the rounds, along with speculation that it related to an announcement for a forthcoming Wii exclusive, and it seems Nintendo Power (via a spy-cam shot supplied to GoNintendo) has prematurely solved the riddle.

Upstart developer Gaijin Games, it turns out, has been quietly at work on the WiiWare's answer to Q-Games's PixelJunk series (or Skip/Nintendo's own ArtStyle/bit Generations franchise): a set of six games under the "Bit.Trip" label, starting with Beat, a retro-futurist rhythm-based Pong-alike that you can catch a momentary glimpse of during the flickering montage above, or via Gaijin's official CommanderVideo site.

Beat's twist, the magazine revealed, is its evolution based on how well you play: get yourself on a winning streak and the game responds with increasingly complex synced up color and sound, but falter and it returns to its original monochrome form.

The series is due for a release later this year, published by traditionally niche RPG house Aksys, and is a very welcome surprise for 2009's WiiWare outlook.

Where’s the Cat? [Gaijin Games]

Brandon Boyer

Infinite Ammo teases their Marian-ette

Blame my spotty feedreading on the days surrounding New Year's Eve, but I quite shamefully missed Infinite Ammo's teaser for their official debut game, Marian, until last night. As previously mentioned, Ammo is a team with a stellar reputation, having been responsible for both Gamma 3D's layer-hopping Paper Moon and their part in Bit Blot's Aquaria.

They haven't revealed much, bar a description lifted from Play magazine's pictorial blurb which describes its protagonist as a re-animated puppet who's "caught in the dream world between life and death," and "uses her own puppet handle as a weapon and replaces her limbs with a variety of tools."

But Katie De Sousa's striking Audrey Kawasaki-esque concept art says as much as Ammo needs to for now -- they're well on their stated goal of "making one of the most beautiful 2D games."

Announcing: Marian [Infinite Ammo]

Previously:
Bringing Gamma home to you - Offworld
Bit Blot's Aquaria hits Steam - Offworld

Brandon Boyer

Super Mario in real life

From the Kasou Taishou team that brought you Matrix Ping Pong -- I'm still trying to work out the Obama subtext.

第81回仮装大賞準優勝作品【スーパーマリオ】 [YouTube, via Waxy]

Joel Johnson

Let's take a moment to remember that Denis Dyack made a Kris Kross videogame for Sega CD

From Wikipedia:

In 1992, a video game directed by Denis Dyack was released starring the pair titled Kris Kross: Make My Video. It was released on the Sega CD system, and consisted of the player editing together the group's music videos to a few of their hit songs—using portions of the original music videos, stock footage, and general video animation effects. Players were prompted before each edit session to make sure to have certain footage compiled into the video. The game was released only in the United States to poor sales figures and dismal reviews. It was ranked 18th on Electronic Gaming Monthly's list of the "20 Worst Games of All Time".

Brandon adds: Oop, but not so fast -- as the video itself shows, the director is actually the infinitely more likely music video director Chris Painter [partial videography, Make My Video credits] -- my guess is that the Wikipedia edit is fallout from Dyack's run-in with NeoGAF.

Brandon Boyer

The Offworld Guide to the 2009 Independent Games Festival

The Independent Games Festival has become a bedrock institution for the games industry, especially within the past few years.

Apart from being a celebration of inspired and auteur design -- design with passion -- it's also become a fast-ticket to getting noticed by console makers eager to bring the best of the fresh talent exclusively to their download services.

Braid, World of Goo, Darwinia, Everyday Shooter, Crayon Physics, Audiosurf -- all truly became names of their own following IGF successes. In the spirit of looking forward, then, and because Offworld's initial mention of the 2009 winners amounted to little more than a rote list of names, I've taken the time to sit down with all of this year's finalists and try to contextualize each entry (bar those cases where my hardware unfortunately failed me).

Inside you'll find as many video demos as I could muster, links and mentions to those games currently available to try for yourself, and an independent summary of each of the 22 finalists this year. As with our Offworld 20 best games list, any comments can be left via this page below.

On to the guide...

Brandon Boyer

Attract Mode's attractive blog

I last mentioned 'videogame culture shop' Attract Mode on Offworld's launch when I pointed to (and apparently 'leaked' -- sorry, fellows!) an early T-shirt design from artist Harvey James. At the time, the launch of Attract Mode's own site was still in the unforeseeable distance, but I've just got word today that the group's new blog has appeared.

While the actual shop and further designs have yet to be revealed, the group's initial blog posts are pleasingly left-field, celebrating the awesome pixels of the Flying Pizza Kitty as well as the art-grotesque paintings of Japanese artist Masao, and giving me good hope for the types of artwork they'll be curating in the future.

I'll say here as I did when it was first revealed, though, unless they make a print available of Harvey's Game Girl pin-up in addition to the wearable, there is no justice in the universe.

[Attract Mode - Videogame Culture Shop]

Brandon Boyer

Fidget's sci-fi redefining games list

Very much enjoyed Tom Chick's latest list for Sci-Fi Network's games blog Fidgit that, appropriately, focused on the 10 games that redefined science fiction -- videogaming's, as Chick put it, "Gattica, Dark City, Clockwork Orange, and Wall-E." Pleasingly, the list contains a number of undersung classics that are always well overdue for a revisit from Eric Chahi's Out of this World/Another World (which got a high-def anniversary re-release just a few years back) to Belgian developer Appeal's fantastic Outcast -- and saves an unexpected twist for its number one.

10 videogames that redefine science fiction [Fidgit]

Brandon Boyer

TIGSource babysteps toward an all-indie Steam/App Store

TIGSource's Indie Game Database has been growing at a very healthy rate -- having just now reached over 500 entries -- and, to help foster further growth, the group has added a REST API to help spread its exhaustive cataloging. The most exciting development to come out of its new accessibility, though, is TigBox [PC only .zip].

According to TIGSource's Jeff Lindsay, he and indie dev Ivan Safrin have been "toying with the idea a Steam or iTunes Store app for indie games" since the 2008 GDC, and TigBox is the first 'v0.01 alpha' step in that direction. The app currently only consists of two tabs -- Your Games, and Get Games -- and works by grabbing a list of the top rated TIGdb games, which can be automagically downloaded and installed with a double click.

I couldn't get the app to actually, erm.. work (it creates folders for the games like a champ, but seems overly temperamental on which files it then wants to download or not), but the TIGers admit it's more a proof of concept rushed out at the last minute. Either way, it's certainly one of the most important projects to keep an eye on in 2009, and a fantastic idea to unionize and legitimize the motley crew of worldwide indies.

TIGdb Advances [TIGSource]

Brandon Boyer

JayIs Opens Voting For 2008 Best of Casual Gameplay

As I plug away on a bigger feature due later today, I'll point you this morning to the fifth annual "Best of" feature from casual/web powerhouse blog Jay Is Games, which has opened for public voting and contains an absolutely overwhelming list of browser/downloadable/freeware nominees that should tide you over for a good long while.

Best of Casual Gameplay 2008 [Jay is Games]

Brandon Boyer

James Kochalka's Monster Mii: Dorgie's Little Ol' Accident Edition

[James Kochalka's Monster Mii is a regular Offworld feature, with a new Mii monster each time for you to download to your Wii. Once there, they'll give you creepy stares from the sidelines of your Wii Sports, lap you rudely during your Wii Fit jogs, and in general liven up your Plaza and gaming day.]

For our third edition of Monster Mii, we bring you Dorgie, whose dry-cleaning bill is only matched by the size of his heart (we recommend 'favoriting' him in the Mii Plaza for a quick change of dungarees).

To bring him home to your Wii, enter the Check Mii Out Channel's Posting Plaza, click 'Popular,' then the 'Search' button at bottom. After that, hit the arrows at top right and enter in the code: 6513-2494-4351.

Previously:
James Kochalka's Monster Mii: Zex's Sexy X-mas edition
James Kochalka's Monster Mii - Kzorx

[James Kochalka's daily diary strips, which run at AmericanElf.com, have just entered their tenth year and been collected in three print volumes. He is also the author of more books and comics than you can count on both hands, including some that are excellent for children, and others not so much. All are excellent. James also plays rock and roll and Game Boy rock as James Kochalka Superstar, and recently exhibited artwork at Giant Robot's GR2 gallery.]

Brandon Boyer

WiiWare Cave Story getting new downloadable content

Hidden in amongst an otherwise innocuous post by Nicalis, one of the team behind bringing Pixel's certified indie platformer darling Cave Story to WiiWare, is news that the game will be getting more than just an updated facelift for its console port:

We’re still working away at Cave Story trying to make sure it’s faithful to Amaya-san’s original while adding a few things for the console release. One of these new additions, I’m happy to announce is Download Content. I think we received enough e-mails demanding it that we’re doing our best to include some new surprises in the WiiWare release.

If, by some stroke of madness, you haven't experienced the game by now, please feel free to immediately leave this website for Mirai Gamer's fan site, where you can find ports for just about any imaginable platform.

And Hello Again! [Nicalis, WiiWare port homepage]

Brandon Boyer

MS Paint the games of 2008

Even though it's primarily full of the hokey amateur charm you'd normally expect from threads like these, there are some entries in the NeoGAF forum's "favorite videogame moments" MS Paint thread that are genuinely a little jaw-dropping.

Recreate your favorite videogame moments using MS Paint: 2009 Edition! [NeoGAF]

Previously:
Ye olde anagram game challenge - Offworld

Brandon Boyer

Microsoft reshapes Boku as Kodu for Xbox 360

The best part of Ballmer's CES keynote last night? It wasn't the old hat Halo sequels and Xbox Live Primetime games -- it was the announcement that not only would Microsoft's game-maker studio codenamed Boku be officially released as Kodu, but that the suite would become an integral part of the Xbox 360 Community Games channel.

First demonstrated in March of 2007 and again brought to light in October of 2008, as above, the kit is meant as an introductory course to games programming (but done purely via the controller with simple formulaic logic): more LOGO (and including a turtle of its own) than LittleBigPlanet (to which it's been most often and annoyingly/lazily compared).

What's not clear yet is just how it'll be delivered and how its sharing functionality will integrate into Xbox Live, but its bright pixel-organics (actually strikingly similar to Tibori's Dotter Dotter art I mentioned in December) are a very welcome development, and there are few things on my 2009 radar I look forward to playing with more.

Kodu - Microsoft Research [press release, live project demo]

Margaret Robertson

One More Go: Donkey Kong Jungle Beat

In my line of work, I hear a lot of bad game ideas, which is something I find agonizing. This is because about 90% of them are emanating out of my own mouth, usually prefaced with something asinine like, ‘This is just off the top of my head, but..’ or ‘I know! Why don’t you try...’ The theory is that the good thing about bad ideas is that they always teach you something. In my case, they usually teach me how polite and patient my colleagues are.

Thankfully, the other 10% aren’t my doing, but what’s amazing is how many of them get made. One of the worst game ideas ever was embodied in Donkey Kong: Jungle Beat, which is a platform game you control with a pair of cheap electric bongos.

Not, please note, a modern, newfangled, automagic platform game like Assassin’s Creed. A proper, old-fashioned 2D platformer with ledges and enemies and timed swings and all the things that make you cry out for a nice crisp d-pad and a decently sprung jump button. Or, in the absence of those, perhaps at least something with more than two buttons which you can operate without having to pretend to be a toddler who just dropped a jam sandwich off his high chair.

So why go back to Jungle Beat? For a little reassuring schadenfreude that I’m not the only person who can have bad game ideas? No. Because it’s a dazzling, dizzying delight. Bad idea; brilliant game.

READ THE REST

Brandon Boyer

Rock Band bucking the sequel trend in 2009

The best games news I've heard out of CES thus far? Via Crispy Gamer, Harmonix's Alex Rigopolus bucking the sequel trend and maintaining development focus on Rock Band as a pure platform, very much as it should be:

“We’ve actually made a choice to break out of the annual release cycle for Rock Band this year,” Rigopolous told the assembled press and industry members. “[This is] partly because the annual cycle places limits on the choices you can make as a developer. We’re trying to take a long term view.”

That doesn't mean Harmonix hasn't given up on standalone releases -- in October the company announced a new deal with The Beatles to provide a custom one-off Rock Band-esque exploration of the band's back catalog, slated for release later this year.

Harmonix’ Rigopolous: “Rock Band 3 breaking the annual cycle” [Crispy Gamer]

Previously:
Going deep on music with Harmonix - Offworld
Expect new Guitar Hero releases for the next ten years - Offworld

Brandon Boyer

Pixel art Spore creations

I think it's been entirely too long since I last checked on Spore's creature scene -- Shacknews points out these two curated Sporecasts featuring nothing more than massive doses of reconstructed classic pixel art, which honestly would be a delightful surprise to run across in the middle of an otherwise dark galaxy.

Spore Creatures Go 8-Bit [Shacknews]

Previously:
Sporesculptor opens for 3D printed Spore creatures - Offworld
EA tosses new parts into Spore patch - Offworld

Brandon Boyer

MUD history going down Wiki's memory hole

MMO news outlet Massively points out a growing controversy with a number of Wikipedia entries on various classic MUDs coming up for deletion and disappearing despite majority votes to save them, and the support of MUD creators and supporters like Richard Bartle, Raph Koster, and Scott "Lum the Mad" Jennings:

What makes this whole discussion so frustrating lies in how the MUD community has preserved their own history. Many of the facts and tales of the games comes through something akin to the oral tradition -- many users who have written about, blogged, or related their thoughts to others via community sites. Because of this, there is no main verifiable source to connect these MUDs with. Without a verifiable source, one of the main tenets of Wikipedia, all of these articles can come under fire. With the MUD community in decline, many of the older articles can't even be linked to or referenced -- providing only more problems with keeping these entries in the system.

MUD history dissolving into the waters of time [Massively, via Margaret]

Brandon Boyer

Oxford research: Tetris blocks traumatic memories

Today's best scientific news: playing Tetris could alleviate traumatic memories, provided (and in the highly unlikely case that) you play immediately following a painful event:

The researchers who published their findings in the Public Library of Science One journal showed 40 healthy volunteers that included traumatic images of injury from a variety of sources, including adverts highlighting the dangers of drink driving.

After waiting for 30 minutes, 20 of the volunteers played "Tetris" for 10 minutes while the other half did nothing. Those who had played the computer game experienced significantly fewer flashbacks over the next week.

Dr Holmes and her team believe that the computer game helps block the brain from storing painful memories as long as it is played immediately after the event...

The Oxford team chose "Tetris" because it involves moving coloured building blocks around and uses a large part of the mind. They are unsure whether other computer games would be as effective.

No word from the team on what to do when the trauma itself is the nightmare of inescapable re-occuring Tetris dreams.

Playing the video game 'Tetris' could reduce trauma, claim Oxford University [Thanks, Mr. Swyve!]

Brandon Boyer

PSN to get block-puzzler exclusive Cuboid

Tomorrow's PlayStation Network exclusive puzzler Cuboid looks as though it's shaped up well, and fits in nicely with a recent spate of spatial block puzzles (or, at least, with the recent release of the iPhone's excellent platformer Edge [more on that soon]).

Following that, though, I'm having a hard time sizing up the remainder of the year for PSN originals: apart from Titan Studios' mutliplayer strategy Fat Princess, Boolat's spinning-top platformer Topatoi, Media Molecule's port of Rag Doll Kung Fu, the 'two or three' subsequent PixelJunk games Q-Games recently teased, and SCEJ original garbage-piling puzzler GomiBako my vision is quite clouded.

Cuboid Coming Soon Exclusively to PSN [PlayStation.Blog]

Brandon Boyer

MST3K-offshoot adventure Darkstar back on track?

GameSetWatch's early morning link-dump pointed me innocuously to news that adventure game Darkstar is “content complete" with just "testing and QA” left to finish before a Christmas 2009 release. That in itself didn't stir much interest until I realized (re-remembered?) the game stars a who's-who of former Mystery Science Theater 3000 glory (Joel's Cinematic Titanic half, anyway, as opposed to Mike's later Rifftrax cohorts).

A bit of research later (from what appears to be a since-deleted copy of an ancient Wikipedia article), I realize the game's been in production since late 2000 (long enough for me to wonder if it'd ever been on and subsequently dropped off my radar), and, to be honest, looks the part with a pre-rendered and composited style that instantly dates it considerably.

Comments on the original news seem to carry a healthy dose of skepticism, and, after watching a snippet, I'm curious as to just how straight the game will play itself, despite Joel, Trace, Frank, J.Elvis and Mary Jo's all-star involvement, but for now I'm filing it under cautiously optimistic.

Darkstar [via GameSetWatch]

Brandon Boyer

Bovinedragon unveil iPhone trash-collector Gomi

I've got a soft spot in my heart for Bovinedragon's free iPhone platformer Trace [AppStore] and its mix of MS Paint naivete with frankly excellently done draw-your-own stick-figure action/puzzling, so I was pleased to note this morning that they've updated their site with new details of their upcoming title Gomi. (Japanese for 'trash'), the game finds its hook in an environmental motif that sees you reclaiming the world from, so far as I can tell, polluters, industrialization, and... baby seal clubbers?

Though critics will now truly have a game to lambast as the iPhone's low budget Loco Roco (Rolando having proven itself sufficiently self-standing), the clearly unabashed lifting and downgrading of its style, along with its dash of Katamari and even just a hint of Mario Galaxy's island-hopping reassures me that they know precisely what they're doing, and could end up creating something quite nice.

Gomi [Bovinedragon Software]

Brandon Boyer

Requiem for a RetroShooter

Filed under tremendous pity with some glimmer of hope that exposure might bring it back to life, oeFun founder Ian Dunlop -- former programmer on games like Thief: Deadly Shadows and now head of his own Austin based indie that's focused on the DS and iPhone -- has released video of his now-abandoned original Wii production.

Known then as RetroShooter 2050, Dunlop has described the game's hook as so:

The game was a simple point-and-shoot game with a twist. Each level represents a decade in our history starting in 1940 and ending in 2050. The concept was that people in the future (2050) made this game and it is their interpretation of historical events that represent the levels features and enemies. This rosy / filtered look on the past by some future historian is what gave the game it’s unique ideas and look.

The game supported two simultaneous players and featured music synced to the games action. The demo features one level from the year 2000 and ends with a boss.

I recall when Dunlop was touting Wii development as "a direction in gaming that I’ve been wanting things to go now for a long time" and ideally suited for indies, so the sting is sharp to see a game that, even for as clearly Rez inspired as it is, had a strong vision and would have been a boon for the platform.

» Blog Archive » RetroShooter 2050 [oeFun]

Brandon Boyer

Falling deeper into (I Fell In Love With) The Majesty of Colors

I, too, fell in love with (I Fell In Love With) The Majesty of Colors, Gregory Weir's melancholic Cthulu-ish rumination we featured early in December, so I was quite pleased to see a full postmortem from Weir pop up on GameSetWatch, where Weir explains the genesis of the project:

Inspired by Lovecraftian themes, I had the idea of an enormous creature from beneath the waves discovering the world above. When I think of the deep ocean, I imagine darkness and a lack of color. When I think of color at its simplest, balloons come to mind: floating spheres in primary shades.

Contrary to what many players have guessed, the game was not actually based on a dream I had. I was aiming for a dream-like atmosphere, but the concepts came from a more prosaic source: brainstorming. My actual dreams are typically much weirder than "Majesty."

Check the link for more from Weir on how the game developed, how the monster lost one of his tentacles, and more business minded thoughts about indie Flash development.

Postmortem: (I Fell In Love With) The Majesty of Colors [GameSetWatch]

Previously:
Gimme Indie Game: I Fell In Love With The Majesty Of Colors - Offworld

Brandon Boyer

Pixeljunk Eden, Osmos top 2009 IGF nominations

The Independent Games Festival has announced its list of finalists for this year's competition, culminating with this year's awards show on March 25th. Topping the list of nominations is Q-Games' fantastic PixelJunk Eden, which nabbed Visual Art, Audio and Technical Excellence spots, as well as Hemisphere Games' cellular puzzle game Osmos, which earned Technical and Design nominations, as well as a nomination for the overall Seumas McNally Grand Prize.

Other notable entrants include Amanita's Machinarium, the latest point and click adventure from the maker of the brilliant Samorost series, Between, the Esquire-curated game from Passage creator Jason Rohrer, and high-concept fan-favorite You Have To Burn The Rope from Mazapan.

Hit the jump for the full list of nominations.

READ THE REST

Brandon Boyer

'Seamster's DIY Giant Atari Joystick Lamp

Ending the day where we started, only 100 percent less destructively, Wonderland has discovered new plans recently added to Instructables for this wicked Atari 2600 joystick lamp, with a shade smartly done up in classic game covers -- though, as Alice points out, it is solely for the tool/router/saw/sander/clamp-enabled.

Giant Atari Joystick Lamp [via Wonderland]

Brandon Boyer

Shooting Watch gets an English language user guide

Just a single day after getting my own recently reissued version of Hudson's long-coveted Shooting Watch -- Japan's digital 'trainer' meant to help strengthen your button-tapping muscles up to par with the hummingbird-fingered Takahashi Meijin -- and wondering aloud what those two secret functions might be, 1up's reliably niche Ray Barnholt comes through with an unofficial English language guide.

Obviously in need of some serious work, my own top score has never reached higher than my very first run of 8.2 button taps per second, half that needed to unlock what turns out to be... a random number generator. Well, that and the infinite respect of your peers/ability to explode watermelons at will, obviously.

If you're feeling left out and strapped for cash, homebrew coder 'retrohead' has created a watermelon-enhanced version of the unit for the DS, or you can order your own at any number of online import houses.

The Unofficial Shooting Watch User's Guide [Retronauts]

Previously:
Into the mind of the Meijin - Offworld

Brandon Boyer

Gimme Indie Game: Benzido/Ryan Chisholm's Evacuation

Officially today's most dangerous time-waster is Benzido/Ryan Chisholm's deceptively difficult airlock puzzle, Evacuation. Procedurally generated (and therefore somewhat uneven from level to level -- particularly when it inexplicably crowds all crew into the cockpit) and spanning some 200 levels, your goal is simply to open color-coded locks to eject invaders off your ship, while not exposing crew to either the aliens or the vacuum.

Evacuation [via TIGSource]

Brandon Boyer

Metal Gear Solid cast's curiously tense improv session

I can't quite figure out just what's so bizarre about this 15 minute off-the-cuff riff session with nearly all of Metal Gear Solid's voice actors (Debi Mae "Meryl" West was sadly not in attendance), but I'm pretty sure that it all boils down to Paul "Col. Campbell" Eiding quietly lording over the entire proceeding at center back.

Metal Gear Solid Cast Improv [YouTube, via Joystiq]

Brandon Boyer

Displaced Lively users finding new home in NewLively?

Via Metaplace's Raph Koster we learn that a China based company has founded NewLively, a VMRL replacement for Google's recently shuttered virtual world that's quite, err, brazen in its interface, down to X-Ray Kid's character art on its familiarly-sparse login screen. The company claims, however, that its platform was rebuilt from the ground up:

After the closure of Lively, there is no greater happiness than to duplicate Lively for the sake of the Lively users. We understand that this activity would generate a certain degree of legal risk. However, whenever I remember the disheartenment and disappointment of that many Lively users, this risk is worth taking and the users will support us...

We are not using any codes whatsoever from Google Lively. The entire platform was created new from scratch. Only the concept and the interface remained as Google Lively and the amount of work involved in doing this was quite insignificant in comparison to the creation of the entire system. Moreover, in our understanding of the kinds of platforms, copyright privileges should go to the content providers. As long as these content providers are willing to transfer the platform to Newlively, there will be no issues.

Raph’s Website » Newlively!

Previously:
Google shuttering virtual world Lively - Offworld

Brandon Boyer

Retro repositories for the lost art of the manual

From one lost art to the next, Metafilter has spotted two fantastic repositories for scanned/PDF'd manuals for games both old and new. Most notable is Vimm's Lair, which stocks over 350 each for the NES and PlayStation, as well as hundreds more for earlier systems, and Meekeo does the same for the more modern (and commenters call out ReplacementDocs for the PC set).

Edge magazine recently ran a nicely done requiem for/celebration of the dying breed of carefully attentive manuals, and the sadly antiquated practice of including ephemeral ‘feelies’ (cloth/foldout maps and the like). I've got especially fond memories of the lavish anime-esque (a term I wouldn't know existed for another 15 years) artwork that graced the NES's Zelda manuals for filling in the gaps between the 8-bit iconography and the 'reality' it represented.

Online Game Manuals (for free!) | MetaFilter

Brandon Boyer

Pinball designer Lawlor on the kinetics of the silver ball

Speaking of lost arts, GameSetWatch has a great interview with pinball designer Pat Lawlor (Funhouse, The Addams Family) that veers comfortably wildly around all topics of the modern pinball industry, but is at its best when discussing just how pin-boards are designed -- a topic closely related to videogame design but so tactile at its core that it slightly boggles my mind:

There are obviously many aspects involved in kinetics. Every designer has differing goals for the "feel" of the game. Usually these goals are a result of the kinds of games the designers like personally.

Things to consider are, in no particular order:

1) Middle shots are easier for beginners.
2) How to mix stop and go shots with nice return flow shots.
3) How fast is the overall game? Very fast games are very difficult for beginners.
4) When a shot is missed, what happens to the ball? Is it a bad, clunky thing? Does the ball come back in my face?
5) Are these shots just "there,” or do they represent something from the theme?

Hit the link for more on the inescapable draw of wolloping Funhouse's 'Rudy' head, and why pinball has "not adequately adapted to the 21st century."

GameSetInterview: 'Rudy's Father Speaks - The Pat Lawlor Interview' [GameSetWatch]

Brandon Boyer

Covering the covers

Only six days into the new year and we've got a handful of nice projects launching: first Today's Free Game, which could quickly make itself quite useful, and now, Simon Parkin's laser-focused Box Art, a new Tumblr blog that does daily just what you think it will:

Box art is a dying art and I think we’ll be all the poorer for its inevitable demise, even if the reduction of humanity’s bulk of packaging can only be a good thing in wider terms. This site then is a place to celebrate the most interesting box art of games past and present from across the world.

The glory days of the likes of Roger Dean's Psygnosis covers
are surely all but buried (a legacy I'm sure Parkin will get to in good time), but maybe in some small way Box Art will re-invigorate the practice.

Bonus points, too, for Parkin's choice in favicons: the eagle-eyed will notice that it's a detail from my favorite box art of all time, the original PlayStation's fantastically bizarre Jounetsu Nekketsu Athletes (an art-piece I'd like to believe I had a small part in championing, if only because the first google image result I found for it used my same original filename).

chewing pixels » Box Art

Brandon Boyer

Rolando gets papered

Fresh off the digital press: Rolando illustrator Mikko Walamies has created a handful of new iPhone wallpapers for Hand Circus, the most charming of which (at right) I believe might just be striking enough to finally unseat Kitsune Noir's Mcbess paper I've been rocking since April.

Rolando Wallpapers [Hand Circus, via Twitter]

Previously:
Touch me I'm slick: ngmoco/Hand Circus's Rolando - Offworld
The Offworld 20: 2008's Best Indie and Overlooked - Offworld

Brandon Boyer

Remember Madballs? They're back! In game form.

Winning the Offworld award for Franchise I'd Thought Least Likely To Ever Make A Comeback, Playbrains has announced that cult indie arena-ball-brawler BaboViolent 2 will be given a facelift in 2009 with a new PC and Xbox Live Arcade version, now sporting original characters from short lived 80s fad Madballs (in their first appearance since Ocean's "we'll make a game of anything, really" C64 and Spectrum title from 1987).

Truth be told, my interest is actually slightly piqued by the video above, and, as GamerBytes points out, the original BaboViolent worked up enough of a community to spawn its own comprehensive fan-site: this may just be the retro revival we didn't know we needed.

Madballs in BABO:INVASION [Playbrains, via GamerBytes]

Brandon Boyer

Weapon of choice

In the most dangerously superfluous update of the day, the juvies at Destructoid have spotted this Instructables how-to that will turn your now outmoded Xbox 360 HD-DVD player into a real live ray-gun, capable of (at very least) burning electrical tape, popping balloons, and lighting matches from across the room, all of which seems like appropriate responses for having sided with the wrong team in the video format war.

New 007 Laser Weapon - Revealed! [Instructables, via Destructoid]

Brandon Boyer

Autonomous Katamari-Roomba clean sweeps in 71 minutes

As part of his 'PSX' interface project that "disrupts conventional game interaction rituals," Julian Bleecker has created a custom PS2 dongle and script and dedicated himself to answering an important question:

I decided to do an absolutely crucial bit of game science. Something that I am entirely sure is mulled over constantly, but never properly investigated. The question is but stated thusly: how long would it take the Little Prince to roll up an entire room based on a random path algorithm?

His result, via the video above, clocks in at just over 71 minutes, after a semi-excruciating period of consistently missing the final 10 objects (which Bleecker mercifully manually grabs in the end). The full explanation and code are available at the link.

Autonomous Game Controllers [Near Future Laboratory, thanks Tom!]

Previously:
Manifesto for "blogjects" -- objects that blog - Boing Boing

Brandon Boyer

Kyle Downes' Short Visual History of Videogames

It might lean a bit too heavily on the oft-repeated but dubiously-argued narrative of the industry's bust and boom (and other console wars tropes), but Kyle Downes' 3D/motion graphics student project A Short Visual History of Videogames is as pretty as it gets, and came packed in a gorgeously designed case to boot.

His level of dedication is less of a surprise, however, when you realize that he's the same 'Ultra Awesome' Downes that put together the previously covered giant NES controller/coffee table/storage box.

A Short Visual History of Videogames [Ultra Awesome, via GamOvr]

Previously:
Giant working NES controller/coffee table - Boing Boing

Brandon Boyer

Patapon: the tattoo

While I normally can't say I cotton to explicit game-character tattoos (the three pixelated invaders gracing my left wrist felt 'iconic' enough to not qualify), there's something inescapably charming about Masatomo Ueda's 16-man wrap-around Patapon tattoo that ends with Ueda himself as the final boss.

Patapon Tattoo [Milano by beer, via Wonderland]

Previously:
Rolito unleashes new Patapon toy - Offworld
New Rolito toy: Patapon X our one true heart - Offworld
Praise from Patapon and a passionate plea - Offworld

Brandon Boyer

What's he building in there: Introversion's Subversion

It's been near exactly two years since Darwinia and Defcon developer Introversion first revealed their official "next game" (not including multiplayer expansion Multiwinia), with a debut video showing its initial real-time cityscape generating algorithms.

Fast forward to now and, surprisingly, we still have very, very little to go on beyond what we knew then: apart from its familiar vector-beam design, the ongoing blog entries showing Subversion's progress have been just as opaque, bar optimizations of those algorithms, and a fractal descent showing ever more detail at the building-by-building level.

We learned in March that part of this is understandable, if not deliberate, when programming head Chris Delay admitted that "we genuinely don’t know what’s going on," but (he'd said earlier) "every day I work on it I’m even more convinced - this is the big one, Introversion Software’s Magnum Opus, and it’s going to be the best game we will ever make."

And so every scrap of information, as with Delay's most recent blog post, becomes a desperate hunt for anything that might take us that one level deeper into their mindset. In it we learn that Subversion's progress is now focused on systems of standardized components: "Sensors, Actuators, Emitters, and Controllers," and while we don't get much in the way of narrative, a sense of its sandbox possibilities (and, as its name might suggest, an espionage-tinged flavor akin to Introversion's debut title Uplink) is certainly starting to gel:

...smash one of the Actuators with a hammer, and one of the doors will stay where it is, while the other door continues to open and close. Smash one of the outer sensors and the Actuator will push the door of the end of its slide. Cover the motion sensor with a plastic bag and it wont send any detection messages to the computer, leaving the doors closed. Stick some chewing gum over the inner proximity sensors and they will think the doors are already closed, thus the control computer will leave the doors open.

Push a bin in-between the two doors and they will close on it, and sensors on the insides of the doors will detect this obstruction, and the doors will open slightly, then try to close again. The doors will be stuck in an open/close/open loop, constantly hitting the bin and re-opening, just as you’d see in real life. Cut any of the signal wires, or short-circuit them to set a high or low value. Or just plug straight into the control computer and tweak the status variables in memory, making the system do whatever you want whenever you want. None of these are activities or opportunities that I have explicitly created, but all are possible because I’ve simulated the system in sufficient detail. The possibilities for amazingly complex systems and interactions – from Introversion AND from the Subversion community – is kind of breathtaking.

The blog post contains more in-game shots and video of working systems -- the previous twelve 'It's all in your head' entries in the archive will give more of a sense of the scale and the magnitude of the game, while we all patiently await further concrete detail.

It's all in your head, Part 13 [Introversion]

Previously:
The art of vector-war - Offworld
Introversion playing with fire with unbeatable DEFCON AI - Offworld

Brandon Boyer

LittleBigWatch: Alex Evans talks Craftworld, social gaming

If you missed the previously mentioned appearance by Media Molecule co-founder Alex Evans at Wired's NYC store in early December, the outlet is now showing the entirety of his presentation at Game|Life.

Evans' talk was generally a basic overview of LittleBigPlanet and its user-focused, social platform roots (with a keen aside on using arcade game high-score boards as an early example of user-generated content) that might be old hat to die-hard fans, but the 2:30-3:10 mark is particularly notable for its highlight reel and explanation of 'Craftworld,' the 2D vector prototype of LittleBig's gameplay that the company put together to sell the game to Sony (and which will explain the origin of LBP's secret 'Yellowhead' costume).

Game|Life Video: The Making of LittleBigPlanet [Wired]

Brandon Boyer

Diving deeper into Aquaria

The latest in David Rosen's ever-popular design tour videos takes a look at Bit Blot's indie adventure Aquaria, paying special attention to the intricacies of the game's level composition and animation system, as well as a number of important features never explained to the player.

Previously:
At the core of the World of Goo - Offworld
A deeper look at Knytt Stories - Offworld
The dynamic fluids of Chronic Logic's Gish - Offworld
Bit Blot's Aquaria hits Steam - Offworld
Bit Blot bring indie-hit Aquaria to Macs - Offworld

Brandon Boyer

Jetdaisuke conducts the gadget orchestra

One last game-tech mash-up morning update: Jetdaisuke, the same electroclash-bespectacled rock star that taught us how to make a talkbox from our DSi, conducts his 'gadget orchestra' consisting of a DS Lite playing Toshio Iwai's Electroplankton, Korg DS-10, App Store Japanese-gong oddity 'Mokugyo (with Cat)' on an iPod Touch, an iPhone running Brian Eno's generative music app Bloom, and, most traditionally, a Korg Kaossilator.

[via Tiny Cartridge]

Brandon Boyer

Grok this: Receptors' Korg DS-10 album

Following the last in our impromptu and now apparently ongoing series of Korg DS-10 showcases, I was pointed in the direction of Receptors' all DS-10 album 'groKwork,' available as a free download via last.fm (along with a number of other more traditionally chippy EPs).

Receptors is the solo alias of Jeremy Kolosine, the curator behind Astralwerks' excellent all-star/all-chiptune Kraftwerk cover album 8-bit Operators, and while groKwork is a bit harder and more dense than my usual predilection, it is a good starter set for those wondering just what the DS is capable of churning out.

groKwork for gameBoy - Korg DS10 – Receptors [last.fm, thanks n0wak!]

Previously:
Korg DS-10 + bendy straw = handheld talkbox - Offworld
Extra Hyper Korg DS-10 performance - Offworld
Four times the DS-10 - Offworld

Brandon Boyer

Treasure hunt: m0dus/orotio's HD Gunstar Heroes PS3 theme

Spotted on infamous games forum NeoGAF, resident artists m0dus and orioto have collaborated on a new basically stunning PlayStation 3 theme based on Treasure 16-bit cult hit shooter Gunstar Heroes, with one HD artwork each and a set of themed icons.

m0dus is no stranger PS3 themes -- after a series of unofficial creations, Konami hired him to create the official Silent Hill 5 theme, and orioto has been working the 16-bit HD airbrushed remakes for some time as well.

m0dus and orioto's experimental thread of art collaboration . . .

Brandon Boyer

Still Alive, theremin style

Glasgow's Greig 'conquerearth' hits all the right notes at making a new viral classic: untraditional instrument used for game music - check, Portal tie-in - check, using hack-up tech to outwit a game (here, Rock Band's vocal track pitch recognition) - check and mate.

See also: Greig's covers of Epona's Song from Ocarina of Time, and the Halo 3 title music.

[via Kotaku]

Joel Johnson

Are you there, God? It's me, Mario Kart

Would you like your own corded Mario Kart phone? Too bad! This $70 phone, sold originally by NoveltyTelephone.com, is sold out.

But because we love you lots, we've taken the onerous task of typing "Mario Kart phone" into eBay's search box to discover one on sale for just $40. There's also a couple on sale from Amazon vendors. Use it in good health.

[via The Earth Times] (Thanks, Bob!)

Rob Beschizza

Microsoft refuses to fix broken Xbox Live account

Online gaming's descent into a bureacratic social networking hell continues apace, aided by the scripted and unhelpful staff that man Microsoft's telephones. From Qt3 poster RickH:

I set up an Xbox Live Silver account for one of my sons in April 2007, using a Windows Live ID linked to one of my email addresses. This Christmas, he asked for and got an Xbox Live 12-month card so he could play online. ... However, when I try to enter the code, it says it can't connect to Xbox Live. (Which is BS, because I can do it with the other profiles in the system.) After a half hour on the phone with MS's highly scripted but ultimately useless 1-800-4MYXBOX folks, they told me that the Windows Live ID "hadn't been used in so long that it expired." As a result, my son's Xbox Live Gamertag, which logs into Xbox Live just fine to record his achievements, is permanently unable to be turned into a Gold account.

If you've considered getting Silver "just for now" with the idea of changing your setup later, it's worth thinking again: you may ultimately have to discard your ID, achievements and saved games to get what you want.

Thread [qt3]