Mentioned here primarily for some Austin-local love for our Alamo: the theater chain has just announced via its blog a new contest in association with G4TV for indie filmmakers to create short, two-minute movie adaptations of their favorite un-adapted games.
The winner (is the kicker) will be selected by infamous BloodRayne/Alone in the Dark/House of the Dead/Postal director Uwe Boll, and will have their work screened at the Alamo’s yearly Fantastic Fest blowout.
The deadline for the contest is Sept. 4th, so, soon, and full submission information and rules are available at G4.
Presumably this’ll work just as well as a toy for your favorite non-feline as well, but over on the official PlayStation Europe messageboard, forum member pudgeeagogo has posted full instructions to knit up your own catnip-drenched Noby Noby BOY, if you can stomach the horror of seeing his innocent little •.• face getting mercilessly torn at by your pet’s razor-toothed maw.
The instructions are embedded under the jump, as well, only because I’m terrified the thread will one day disappear and all this hard-won knowledge will go with it. [via Gus]
This clip just about has it all: PixelJunk Eden‘s audio/visual director Baiyon spinning his trademark blend of house/trance at Kyoto’s Club Metro, to an adoring crowd of frame-dropped and light-smeared kids & adorable mod-striped short-haired girls, while wearing — best of all — the T-shirt he received for speaking at this year’s Game Developer’s Conference. [via Nobuooo]
It took me more than a few reads to make sure this was on the level, but it would appear to be so: in an interview with ‘social/artistic’ games blog Press Pause to Reflect, Passage, Gravitation and Primrose designer Jason Rohrer (also currently consulting for ad agency Tool) tells the blog his current project will actually be actually his first retail release.
According to the blog, Rohrer says he’s at work on a DS game to be published by Majesco in 2010, and here’s the kicker:
It’s a two-player strategy game about diamond trading in Angola on the eve of the passage of the Kimberly Process.
The politics of diamond trading in the region (and surrounding areas) has been a minefield for the past few decades, the diamond miners themselves suffering human rights abuses and proceeds of the trade of the so-called ‘blood diamonds’ going to fund local insurgencies/conflicts.
It’s not subject matter that would pop immediately to mind for a handheld title, but I suppose were I to choose someone to metaphorically reduce it to a 2-player strategy game, Rohrer would be somewhere up there near the top of my to-call list. [via Destructoid]
Unearthed: the game’s location (Pennsylvania, notably No Mercy’s Philadelphia and Dead Air’s Pittsburgh, making it the second Wasteland of a city that year), the map that draws a solid line between each episode (above), and screenshots and dialogue of the half-infected news-chopper pilot who we presumably will see more of in Crash Course proper. [via Tom]
Glen ‘albino raven‘ Brogan’s retro-pin-up, really honestly probably the last featured submission for Phillie’s Autumn Society 8-bit & Beyond show, which — last warning! — opens tonight at Brave New Worlds‘ 45 N 2nd St. location, from 6-10pm.
Little known factoid: Harmonix had always intended to include a packed-in pedal with their very first version of PlayStation 2’s Guitar Hero, but were denied by an obscure Sony clause that limited each game’s number of peripherals to just one (the one, in this case, being the guitar itself).
Four years later, and finally — I have suddenly learned via FakePlasticRock — Mad Catz has filled the void with an Electro-Harmonix (no relation) branded Rock Band 2 version which may be the first third-party accessory I purchase in as long as I can remember (though FPR also notes that, with an extension cord, your standard-issue Rock Band drum pedal works in a pinch [!]).
For some time now I’ve meant to split out a new category for video/motion graphics pieces that aren’t necessarily at all games-related, but are either games-inspired, or should inspire games. The problem: I can’t think of a hamball obscure-music-referencing metaphorically-stretched name for them. If you’ve got one: leave it in the comments below for consideration!
Anyway: here’s one anyway, which apparently I am wickedly late on — two years later and some 1.3 million YouTube views in — Love Sports pixel animations, from Studio AKA designer Grant Orchard. Above is the YouTube hit Paintballing, but MTV’s Qoob site (the same that hosts LittleBigPlanet artist Rex Crowle’s Grip Wrench series) has nine more, including High Diving below.
All found thanks toPuit Wars creator Florian Hufsky, which should come as no shock if you’ve been keeping an eye on what he’s creating himself.
Available at your local back-alley card table, between the two dumpsters, covering the steam vent, from a leathery skinned man you’re pretty damn sure is not Professor Oak despite the stick-on name tag on his moth-eaten lab coat. By Kim ‘Draike‘ Kamowski, available for the weekend as a T-shirt from teextile. [via Blog Agog]
