ELIOT MIN’S LITTLE DRUMMER GIRL
Seen via Rock Band‘s “zine,” this gorgeous concept art from illustrator Eliot Min, who also worked alongside Steven Kimura for the game’s Beast of Burden concept costume.
The People’s Artist // The ‘Zine [Rock Band]
See more posts about: Offworld Originals, Xbox 360
CRATE DIGGING THROUGH IGF MOBILE 2009
Scanning through the entries into the Independent Games Festival mobile game sub-competition pulls up quite a few interesting looking titles this year, including Secret Exit’s Zen Bound, the iPhone version of Zen Bondage, a PC game from demoscene coders Moppi which consists of nothing more than wrapping 3D objects in rope with curiously satisfying results (a perfect fit for the iPhone interface, and one we’ve been patiently awaiting for quite some time).
There’s also and-or’s DS homebrew Wardrive, which turns local wi-fi hotspots into enemies you fend off with the stylus, and the intriguingly artful looking Ruben and Lullaby in which you control the temperature of a lovers’ quarrel by using iPhone motion and gesture controls to anger and calm the couple.
Finally, and unfortunately the one I can find the least additional information on, PSP game Rhythm of War, from Ukrainian team SME Dynamic Systems Ltd (about whom I can only dig up some dubiously Google-translated information, which also seems to suggest they’ve also got a DS sketching game called Pika-Rica). The single screenshot looks like an intriguingly colorful play on Taiko Drum Master with a military unit firing on approaching monsters.
2009 IGF Mobile Competition Reveals Record Number Of Entries [GamesOnDeck]
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AN ASTRO TRIPPER APPROACHES
Though we Yanks will have to wait a few months longer, PomPom have announced ahead of Sony that they’ll be making their European PlayStation Network debut next week with Astro Tripper. PomPom’s the team behind the excellent early-XBLA arena shooter Mutant Storm Reloaded and its later scrolling followup Mutant Storm Empire.
Astro Tripper, as RockPaperShotgun pointed out in October, is actually a remake of their earlier Mac game Space Tripper, which they describe as more Defender to Mutant Storm‘s twin-stick Robotron-esque play, and looks as though it retains all the dynamism of that shifting flat-field perspective that’s become their hallmark.
As with their earlier games, a PC version should also be due shortly, which might tide us in the U.S. over until 2009.
Astro Tripper [PomPom Games]
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PRAISE FROM PATAPON AND A PASSIONATE PLEA
The best thing Patapon creator Hiroyuki Kotani says in his new interview with Gamasutra is a simple lesson I wish more developers would learn:
In my previous career as a teacher, what I learned is that if my students are happy, they would learn more; so, we had to praise them rather than scolding them. So, that’s the biggest hint I got for the creation of games: I have to make the users happier, so they would feel like they are encouraged to go to the next stage.
It’s an obvious point (and one elaborated on very incisively at GDC 2008’s Treat Me Like A Lover session by Offworld columnist Margaret) but one that bears repeating.
As an example: one of the keys to Rock Band‘s success compared to Harmonix’s earlier rhythm games like Amplitude and Frequency wasn’t just the real-world fantasy of its plastic peripherals, but the subtle but constant reinforcement of just how brilliant you’re doing, what a fantastic rock star you actually are, when the in-game audience cheers your star-power successes and sings along to ‘your’ vocals when the full band’s maxing out their meters.
Developers: do more of this.
The Rhythm of Creation: Hiroyuki Kotani and Patapon [Gamasutra]
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ROCK BAND ABOUT TO GET A LITTLE BIT COUNTRY
From the MTV owned Country Music Television blog (and therefore very probably not empty conjecture!), the first real word of Rock Band branching out from its, well, rock roots with the first all-country DLC:
Just wait until Dec 16. That’s when Rock Band will add five country songs to its downloadable content for PlayStation3 and XBOX 360… This bundle’s going to have [Dierks Bentley], plus Brad Paisley, Brooks & Dunn, Miranda Lambert and the Dixie Chicks.
Say what you will about the tricky mashup of four spike-and-leather be-goth’d members working their way through a cover of my grandmother’s favorite hits, but more diversity is always a very good thing, especially if it spurs more back-catalog digging (‘Ring of Fire’ being a new Offworld hit in iNiS’s karaoke game Lips).
Rock Band Purists Not So Sure About Country | CMT Blog
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DRESS YOUR RACERS IN RED AND BLACK
A very good update comes via Tiny Cartridge today, who missed (as we did) news of a homebrew contest for Nintendo’s much-beleaguered Virtual Boy that netted not many entries, but at very least two racing remakes: the ubiquitous Mario Kart (of course), and, even better, a fancified duotone version of Outrun.
Not only that, but it’s pointed me toward the fact that Vectrex.biz’s Richard Hutchinson, creator of the first flashcart for 80s home vectorbeam console Vectrex (which I’d be all over if I didn’t already own Sean Kelly’s excellent 60 game multicart) has also produced a flashcart for the Virtual Boy. The cart currently appears to be sold out, though, so it looks like I’m going to have to wait to emerge again from those long VB nights with that trademark panda-eyed visor-line around my face.
VB Racing, a homebrew Outrun clone for the Virtual Boy [Tiny Cartridge]
See more posts about: homebrew, Offworld Originals
GARRY’S MOD LIFE
There’s cause for celebration all around for the 2nd anniversary of Half-Life 2 user-tomfoolery-enabler Garry’s Mod: he’s just revealed that he’s sold well over 300,000 copies of the mod (which, as the bloggers with calculators have deduced, works out to over $3 million thus far), and found stardom so rich he has accidentally shared airplane-food-vomit stories with Junction Point’s Warren Spector.
But for a mod that’s birthed multiple fan-fic teleplays, innumerable wickedly good multiplayer creations, and an awesome gallery of Team Fortress 2 dioramas, it is stardom well deserved.
Garry’s Blog » Blog Archive » GMod10 is 2 years old today!
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LITTLEBIGSTICKERPACKS
Ah, this is an idea so good I’m a little ashamed I didn’t think of it first: LittleBigPlanet fan site LittleBigPlanetoid has started curating sticker packs from designers and illustrators and putting together in-game levels where players can collect them. Brighton-based illustrator Matt Buchanan drew the first such pack, with submissions that perfectly bill the mood of the game.
The current catch is that, with a patch to allow picture imports straight off the PS3 not yet available, the sticker quality isn’t quite up to snuff, but Planetoid promises the levels will be reworked when the game allows.
LBP Designer Sticker Pack #1: Matt Buchanan [Little BIG Planetoid, via Media Molecule]
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NEW ROLITO TOY: PATAPON X OUR ONE TRUE HEART
Apparently not one to take the release of the second Patapon game sitting down (yuk), Rolito has revealed that Medicom is expanding their licensed toy series from the previously shown Bearbrick to this stand-ee plush warrior. I’m completely sold (read: a sucker), but listen, Medicom: what the world really needs is a sound-activated Patapon that lets you tap a rhythm and have it respond in turn. Isn’t it obvious?
Rolitoland: Patapon X Medicom (4)
See more posts about: Offworld Originals, rolito
SPACE INVADERS ON YOUR SIDE
With my Space Invaders enthusiasm in full swing now that Get Even has finally been released, I was doubly pleased to see Final Invader DX, an indie competition submission that, like Get Even, tells the tale from an Invader’s perspective. This time it’s a traitorous octo-invader who steals top secret plans and defects to Earth not wanting to take a suicide mission from an overzealous commander.
The best part: a vaguely Mr. Driller/Elevator Action-esque second act that sees the invader working his way down through caverns to get to the UFO (and the perfectly timed “thank you but” message just as you think you’ve reached the end), and the Darius style warning messages which ChangeV complains no one noticed, but we did, ChangeV, we did.
Final Invader DX (.zip) [via auntie pixelante]
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