ONLY ON OFFWORLD: A NEW LOOK AT DENKI’S XBLA WORD/STRATEGY GAME QUARREL
Here’s what I know for sure: as mentioned back in December, Square-Go broke the first news of what will be the Xbox Live Arcade debut for Scotland’s Denki (headed by Crackdown designer Gary Penn), Quarrel. The site described the game as ‘Scrabble x Risk x Countdown’, where strategic territorial control was hard won by word-game battles between warring areas.
At the time, it looked quite nice, in Denki’s traditional primary colored way (see also: Denki Blocks / Go Go Beckham), but my eyes did bug out slightly when the studio sent over these new work-in-progress shots of the game, seeing that tradition now amped up gorgeously.
Here’s what I’m still not sure of: well, how it plays, other than in the vaguest terms, with Denki continuing to evolve the game over the past several months, but! Denki’s own David Thomson is currently in my own city of Austin, and is apparently carrying on his person a paper prototype of the game which, with any luck, I’ll have in my hands in less than a day from now, and can update accordingly. For now, rest your weary eyes on these for a jolt of that Denki spirit.
Previously:
Denki re-emerge with XBLA boardgame mashup Quarrel – Offworld
The way of the Denki: Gary Penn's game design rules – Offworld
Denki does recruitment right – Offworld
See more posts about: Denki, Offworld Originals, Xbox 360
TOUCH FIRE: NGMOCO’S MULTIPLAYER IPHONE FPS LIVEFIRE IN MOTION
Knowing you’re curious how its faux-dual-analog controls will operate and how robust its net-code will be, and knowing you probably haven’t clicked through to the streamable Apple conference tape, ngmoco have helpfully directly uploaded new footage of its newly announced multiplayer iPhone FPS LiveFire.
Touch-screen FPSs are a hard sell, but their thumb solution is looking very viable — plus, the physical interaction needed to jump (a shake of the iPhone) could finally mean an end to the usual bunny-hopping madness of most online shooters.
Previously:
iPhone 3.0: ngmoco show off new FPS, Touch Pets Dogs microtransactions – Offworld
More on ngmoco's iPhone FPS LiveFire and in-game buying power …
See more posts about: Offworld Originals
MY VIRTUAL MEMORY: HARLANCORE’S ADORABLE NINTENDO/RPG PAPERCRAFT DIORAMAS
Designer and papercraft artist Jason Harlan packages his ‘boxpunx’ paper productions as “albums,” the latest of which — a 24 track double album called My Virtual Memory — documents Harlan’s favorite games from throughout the years as ‘3D fanart.’
After starting with the obvious — Mario, Zelda, Final Fantasy, Silent Hill, Resident Evil — Harlan quickly diversifies in a number of directions from Hideo Kojima’s Blade Runner-esque cyberpunk thriller Snatcher (possibly my favorite of the bunch), to recent hardcore RPG releases like One More Go favorite Disgaea, Soul Nomad, Baroque, Odin Sphere and Ar Tonelico.
Also included: a ‘true ending’ blank template for adding in your own missing virtual memory.
MY VIRTUAL MEMORY [harlancore, thanks to Elliot, who adds that Harlan’s Persona 4 series “will never fail to bring a smile to your face, whether you played the game or not.”]
Previously:
ACME's Mushroom Kingdom Novelty Toys: the paper Paper Mario …
Welcome to violence: Horrorwood's papercraft arcade – Offworld
Life-size papercraft Link hat (and hair) – Offworld
Getting crafty: Hattori's Kid Icarus diorama papercraft – Offworld
See more posts about: Offworld Originals
POLY-AMORY: POLYTRON’S POLYSHOP V0.1 OFFERS FEZ, PORTABLE PRO SHIRTS
Taking a break from the teasing for something a bit more tangible, Fez and Power Pill creators Polytron have just opened their 0.1 web store, offering five variations of its Gomez shirt featuring a sequential sprite rip of the Fez star, and three of the Polytron Portable Pro, their Mobira-esque Game Boy straight out of 1982’s imagined future.
Polyshop v0.1 [Polytron]
Previously:
Polytron/Infinite Ammo collaborating on Power Pill for iPhone …
Happiness is a warm Fez: prepare for wonderful – Offworld
Annabelle Kennedy joins Fez creators Polytron – Offworld
Only on Offworld: Polytron/Kokoromi's Anaglyphic super HYPERCUBE …
See more posts about: Offworld Originals, Polytron
RICH JEWEL IN A HYRULIAN’S EAR: NAKATOMI’S NEW ZELDA/PUNCH-OUT PRINTS
Move fast on these: the first two releases in Nakatomi’s “reNESsance” poster series have just gone up for sale in very limited numbers.
Tim Doyle’s “Punch-Out at the Last Supper” is a signed and numbered edition of 100, and Clint Wilson’s “Girl With the Triforce Earring” is the same, but with a special “gold cartridge variant” run of just 25 also available.
New Poster series “reNESsance” drops tomorrow! 1up! [Nakatomi, via GamOvr]
Previously:
Offworld: Art Archives
See more posts about: Art, Offworld Originals
GRAVELER ROADS: POLYGRAPH’S NEW POKÉMON 151 SHIRTS
The site actually appears to be down at the moment, but Japanese news outlet inside-games brings word that Game Freak/Polygraph’s previously mentioned brilliant joint venture POKÉMON 151 — creating art-style T-shirts for adults — has shown off these new upcoming designs.
While I’m quite taken by Tangela‘s slithering digit-stealing sinews and the chocolate/pink simplicity of the Mew, the ‘danger: falling rocks’ visual pun on the Graveler shirt (and turning its number into a highway marker) possibly tops the whole series so far.
New Pokemon 151 T-shirts this spring [inside-games, google translation]
Previously:
Polygraph's Kakuna T-shirt casts harden – Offworld
Offworld: Fashion Archives
See more posts about: Fashion, Offworld Originals
GENDAI OPENS BETA FOR INDIE FOCUSED WEB/IPHONE GAME CREATOR GAMESALAD
Another indie-focused tool that could end up producing good things: Austin’s Gendai Games has been plugging away for some time now on GameSalad, a visual drag and drop tool that lets the programming challenged piece together their own games, but retains the ability for more experienced developers to drill even deeper and modify code.
They’ve just announced an open beta of the tool, which currently is Mac only, and will eventually let you port creations to the iPhone (a feature due before the package’s official launch), on top of its current web embedding export tool.
Download the package here, and have a look at the current gallery of sample games here.
Game Salad [Gendai Games]
See more posts about: Offworld Originals
LISTEN: FREE SAMPLER EP OF UPCOMING CHIPTUNE SHOWCASE DUTYCYCLE II
While I’ll obviously be making my way to Giant Robot/Attract Mode’s art and indie game exhibit Game Over/Continue? and the usual lineup of games industry parties, the other GDC-week event I’m most looking forward to is DUTYCYCLE II, a San Francisco showcase of chiptune artists set to take place Saturday, March 28th at the Space Gallery SF.
The DUTYCYCLE folks have also just written in to let me know that they’ve just released a free EP of the artists performing that night, which is as diverse as you’d want it to be, running the gamut from ambient bleeps to hip-hop blips.
The DUTYCYCLE site has more information on the show, which starts at 8pm at Space Gallery’s 1141 Polk St. location, and the above video offers a recap of their last show. If you’ve seen Reformat the Planet, you’ll immediately recognize the shirtless antics of now SF-based Starpause.
FREE MUSIC! Download the DUTYCYCLE II sampler now… [DUTYCYCLE, thanks Morgan!]
Previously:
8Bitpeoples/BlipFest prep Data Pop 09 SXSW chiptune party – Offworld
Kaiju artist Lamour Supreme does games design for DataPop – Offworld
Listen: Simon Mattison's chiptune dub and Bud Melvin's banjo …
BBtv: Bubblyfish at Blip Festival 2008 – Offworld
BBtv: Jellica, Mr. Spastic, and Nullsleep at Blip Festival 2008 …
See more posts about: Listen, Music, Offworld Originals
WHAT HAVE WE HERE: ANOTHER TEASER FOR FEZ/AQUARIA DEVS’ IPHONE GAME?
Sometimes I wonder if they do it just to torture me: former Aquaria devs Infinite Ammo, currently at work on the iPhone’s Heroes & Villains, have posted a new image to flickr simply labeled ‘??? modeling.’
I’ll take a wild stab now and presume the image is a full level map of Power Pill, their iPhone collaboration with Fez developer Polytron that was just teased yesterday — it certainly looks the part of a twisted cavern without the layered-paper rendering.
I wouldn’t hazard many more guesses, but on a night’s reflection on that first teaser and combined with the above image, I’m wondering how much the game might have in common with under-rated Game Boy Advance/GameCube import Kuru Kuru Kururin (YouTube gameplay): I certainly wouldn’t mind a touch enabled version done up in Polytron’s signature retro-futurist styling.
??? modeling [Flickr, Infinite Ammo]
Previously:
Happy pills: Fez, Aquaria devs collaborating on new iPhone game – Offworld
Polytron affirm essential awesomeness – Offworld
Happiness is a warm Fez: prepare for wonderful – Offworld
The latest look at Infinite Ammo's iPhone puzzler Heroes …
We could be thrilled: in-depth with Infinite Ammo iPhone puzzler …
See more posts about: Infinite Ammo, Offworld Originals, Polytron
LISTEN: JAMES KOCHALKA’S SUPERF*CKERS THEME VIDEO
While we all wait for James Kochalka’s teenage superhero team the Superf*ckers to deliver another game review after their Killzone 2 debut, you can get acquainted with their underachieving superpowered exploits via this theme song video that’s just made its way to YouTube.
Once you’ve done that, it’s highly, highly recommended that you follow up with Top Shelf’s series of comix: it’s the epitome of Kochalka Quality.
SuperF*ckers TV show Theme [americanelf]
Previously:
Only on Offworld: James Kochalka's Superf*ckers review Killzone 2 …
Offworld: Monster Mii Archives
See more posts about: James Kochalka, Listen, Music, Offworld Originals
