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
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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]
See more posts about: Offworld Originals, Xbox 360
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.
Previously:
The Behemoth talk Castle Crashers balance, ladies – Offworld
The Offworld 20: 2008's Best Indie and Overlooked – Offworld
See more posts about: Offworld Originals, Xbox 360
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]
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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!]
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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
See more posts about: Offworld Originals
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]
See more posts about: Listen, Music, Offworld Originals, Xbox 360
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]
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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]
See more posts about: Offworld Originals, Xbox 360
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]
See more posts about: Arcade, Offworld Originals
