DISPLAY CASE: SEE THE IMAGINARY 8-BIT GAMES OF FAMICASE 2009
As previously mentioned, Japan’s finest hipster retro/game culture store Meteor recently opened its latest Famicase art exhibit with some 58 designers and artists imagining their ultimate games never created.
While the show lacks some of the visual punch that typified its 2008 entries (by which I mean, no repeat of last year’s fantastic Vector Planet and Whale of noise, both of which do need to be turned into working games), there’s still some fantastic stuff in the mix.
The one game most after my one true heart is Cap’s vino-red King Drunk (which appears to serve dual purpose as pun on the shop name, Meteor [Mei Tei Oh]), in which players are given several attempts to clear stages “while enjoying the state of drunkenness,” and which prides itself on its “inability to control game action”:
But also excellent are:
Space Picnic‘s Cosme: Music Maker
argon’s Look at the Rainbow
Meteor’s own A Bit of Garden
Oh, and — whoops! Hawken King‘s ultra-subtle Bush Jr (published by GWBSOFT, natch) in which you must simply “save NYC!”
See the rest of the exhibit via the official Famicase 2009 site.
See more posts about: Art, Famicase, Offworld Originals
ONE SHOT (TWO-FER): OFFWORLD IN CRYSIS
From a Game Artist forums’ “Scene from a Movie” competition, two winning entries created in Crytek’s CryENGINE 2, as sniffed out by fansite inCrysis. Happy to see that, under the new tutelage of Phil Harrison, Atari survives well into the next decade. [via Tom]
Previously:
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SIZE MATTERS: HENRY HATSWORTH’S GUARANTEED VILLAIN ENHANCEMENT
Fresh dug out of the spam folder deep in my underground lair: this invaluable advert for a money-back-guaranteed Villain Enhancement, courtesy Offworld favorite Henry Hatsworth.
Previously:
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THE WAY TO A BOYS HEART: NAMCO’S DIY NOBY NOBY BOY SUSHI ROLLS
Continuing the ongoing supermadness at Namco’s official Noby Noby Boy website, o–o, the latest entry in their DIY Boy series (which charts the team’s progress at building real-world in-game objects) sees Takahashi & co. beating Anna The Red at her own culinary game and creating the above BOY sushi rolls.
The site unfortunately doesn’t give overt instructions beyond the second photo, opting instead to just convey their hunger. Check the official site for more close-up shots.
o–o home [Namco]
Previously:
- Katasushi Damacy in a Bento Box – Offworld
- Keita Takahashi bringing Noby Noby Boy to the iPhone – Offworld
- It's a stretch: Explaining Katamari creator's new Noby Noby Boy …
- Synthesizer Noby: the 29 new musical options of Noby Noby Boy …
- Only on Offworld: your first look at Panic's Noby Noby Boy T …
- Kill it with crowbars: Anna the Red's head-crab bento – Offworld
- Bitey bat bit: Anna the Red's Castle Crashers bento – Offworld
See more posts about: Noby Noby Boy, Offworld Originals
AGE OF EMPIRES DEVS, METAL GEAR COMIC ARTIST PARTNER FOR IPHONE GAME WORLD WAR ROBOTS
In a frankly legitimately exciting announcement that seems to have gone almost entirely unnoticed, studio CEO Paul Bettner has written with news that Newtoy, the iPhone developer behind the cult hit free multiplayer game Chess with Friends, has teamed up with artist Ashley Wood, the illustrator behind the PSP’s Metal Gear Solid digital comic, to create a new game based on Wood’s graphic novel World War Robot.
Bettner and his brother David cut their teeth at Ensemble Studios, where they worked on games ranging from the original Age of Empires series to Halo Wars — the last game Ensemble produced before shuttering the studio — before going on to found Newtoy, where they’ve got a happily Offworld-ian sounding “new dream” charter to bring in outside talent not normally found in games to collaborate on new projects.
Newtoy hasn’t released many details of the World War Robot game quite yet, apart from a selection of Wood’s artwork and this synopsis:
In World War Robot, the human race is split by religion and politics as they wage a savage war between Earth and Mars. Giant robots augment the destruction with incredible battles, intense human/robot drama, a little black humor and some political intrigue thrown into the mix in this epic story.
Coming from a real-time strategy pedigree and creators of one of the most seamless online iPhone multiplayer experiences, though, hopes are high for something along the lines of a stylized portable Front Mission.
Volume one of World War Robot is currently available at Amazon (and rightfully already ordered), and Wood’s just published some previews of WWR2. Hong Kong vinyl toy producer 3A has also recently released these first images of apparently quite big (!) WWR figures (above), who want to roll up all our happiness and smoke it.
World War Robot home [Newtoy, Ashley Wood]
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ONE SHOT: DAVID MAURO’S DEUS EX MACHINA PUNIAT ARKOUSEUS
David Mauro‘s Deus Ex Machina Puniat Arkouseus, via pixelstyle.
See more posts about: Offworld Originals, One Shot
INTERESTED IN CHIPTUNE MUSIC AND PIXEL ART? PLAY GDC: THE GAME
Officially sanctioned by the GDC powers that be, Toronto author, game maker and founder of the local Artsy Game Incubator Jim Munroe took his experience at the conference this year and channeled it into GDC: The Game, an Interactive Fiction game (read: text adventure) that manages to capture quite accurately the collaborative, socially supportive and intellectually curious aspects of what it’s like to actually be there.
Rather than wandering the halls and finding hidden stores of swag, though, the object of the game is to foster relationships based on your own interests and the harmonious interests of others enough to put together a dream team of designers, coders, and promoters and make the next indie hit.
Play GDC: The Game online here, and remember to REMEMBER the advice your conference vets gave you before you left.
GDC: The Game [GameSetWatch]
Previously:
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GARDEN OF THE DEAD: POPCAP RELEASE PLANTS VS. ZOMBIES DEMO
The time is now: after a long procession of teases and trailers, there’s less than 24 hours left until PopCap officially unleashes the zombie throngs on your unsuspecting plants, and the company has opened downloads for the demo version of the game, alongside a discount code for those that order directly through PopCap themselves.
Sign up for the demo download location through PopCap’s official game home for the Mac/PC demo and code.
Plants vs. Zombies home [PopCap]
Previously:
- Frond of the dead: the first look at PopCap's Plants vs. Zombies …
- Spudow: first gameplay footage of PopCap's Plants Vs. Zombies …
- Root of all evil: PopCap's Plants vs Zombies makes sing-along …
- 28 Weeds Later: Plants vs. Zombies will indeed feature plants …
- The one-sheet skating brilliance of Plants vs. Zombies viral debut …
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ROLLING ZEN: ANNA JOHN’S WINNING ROLANDO HAIKU
The results are in and the winner’s been chosen: thanks to everyone who entered our quickie Rolando haiku contest over the weekend, and with the results tallied, game creator Simon Oliver has chosen ‘annakjohns’ entry, which goes a little something like this:
Noble Rolandos!
With tiny accessories,
Navigate my heart!
Says Oliver, “It reminds me a little of Father Abraham and the Smurfs with a zen twist!”
Anna — you’ll have your code in short order, and keep watching for more Rolando news sooner than later.
Rolando home [ngmoco, Hand Circus]
Previously:
See more posts about: Hand Circus, Offworld Originals, Rolando
PROGRAMMING BY CARRIER PIGEON: LLAMASOFT’S FOUND CESIL WORKBOOK
In other long-forgotten retro-tech/programming tidbits, Space Giraffe and Gridrunner developer Jeff Minter (whose Xbox 360 visualizer Neon will be included as part of Wednesday’s Space Invaders Extreme release) has a quick fun tale of stumbling across this CESIL workbook at a recent boot sale, best for this nearly unbelievable memory:
Those who’ve read the History of Llamasoft will remember me being rude about a language called CESIL they tried to teach us in sixth form, where you had to write down your code onto sheets of squared paper and then send them off somewhere where someone would type in exactly what you wrote and try to run it, and if you’d made any errors you’d get your ?SYNTAX ERROR in the post a week later. Not exactly the most interactive introduction to programming.
back in the dying days of big iron [stinkygoat]
Previously:
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