Here’s a work in progress video of Will ‘Pixel Beard‘ Faulds’ Beard Snatchers, 1954. The Flash game with its 1-bit who-needs-colour aesthetic hearkens back to the original Mac OS System 1.
If this an aesthetic you enjoy, also be sure to check out Ace Team’s (of ZenoClash renown) previously covered The Malstrums Mansion.
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Montreal based creator of “extraordinary playthings & diversions” Trapdoor recently sent over this batch of screenshots of their upcoming iPhone game Young Villain Academy, about which they haven’t revealed much, except to say that players will play as “an unwilling student of a once legendary super villain,” who complete lessons by performing “a variety of dangerous trials using rhythm style game mechanics.”
Trapdoor also note that the game’s obvious 50s retro style extends beyond the fantastic artwork to the game’s audio and gameplay. Hit the jump for three more screens, as we all patiently await the long-promised first video and new details. (more…)
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Offworld’s Monster Mii and Superf*ckers Review creator James Kochalka has a youfellasleepwatchingadvd moment with his PlayStation 3 in this recent entry of his fantastic American Elf diary strips (one of my top two web-comic subscription recommendations).
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Concept art for Nils ‘Die Gute Fabrik‘ Deneken’s adventure/platformer/soap opera Mutatione, which takes place “in a mutant-inhabited swamp village with the same name.”
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It’s been a few months since we last gave each other recommendations for Netflix on 360 weekend watching, and with things popping up and down on the service weekly, I think it’s high time for an update, particularly for this extended three-day blowout.
Here’s my quick rundown of the top things that shouldn’t be missed:
Let the Right One In: Tomas Alfredson’s take on John Ajvide Lindqvist’s novel of the (basically) same name skyrocketed itself to one of my top movies of 2008 (landing it square next to Kaufman’s Synecdoche, New York) for making a vampire horror movie that isn’t a vampire horror movie (despite what its stateside trailer may tell you), one that I watched four times in the first two months after its release.
It’s a coming of age story, it’s a story of isolation (on everyone’s part) and of broken, dependent relationships, that ends on a note of indistinguishably mixed hope and resolute sadness when you carry the story forward in your mind. It’s also gawpingly gorgeous, and everyone’s got good hair and wicked style. Do not miss this.
Party Down: With the first season coming to a close Friday night, you now have no excuse to not sit down and watch what I’m going to call right now as the first, best new American comedy series since.. maybe Curb Your Enthusiasm? It’s not just the cast, though that helps, a lineup which includes former State member Ken Marino, Adam Scott (who you remember as the guy who saved it with his solo in the best part of Step Brothers), Freaks and Geeks/Adventureland’s Martin Starr, and Lizzy Caplan (aka My Hollywood Girlfriend; you know her from Cloverfield and as The Only Real Reason To Watch True Blood).
The premise: each episode is a separate LA occasion worked by the titular catering service Party Down, staffed by former/fallen/would-be actors, which sounds like a perfect setup for easy hijinks, and often is, but is always very smartly tempered with an undercurrent of life-reflection — taking the easy, low road after being knocked down. Actual pathos, the kind that the American Office has been managing to scrape together each week since that brutally, Who’s-Afraid-Of-Virgina-Woolf-ishly dark Dinner Party episode. But, also, it’s very, very funny.
Those are my two top, but there’s also, of course, the first season of Graham Linehan’s IT Crowd (which I have intended to talk more about on Offworld for months, let’s do that soon), Søren Larsen’s documentary Lynch, which won’t sell you on David Lynch if you’re already a skeptic, but is an essential peek behind the transcendental curtain if you’re a fanatic, and the Short Films from his box set also recently reared their head on the service, too.
Also from around the network, BBG’s Joel has recommended this documentary on unsung music producer legend Tom Dowd and guest blogger Tiff Chow has had nothing but good things to say about CJ7, the Chinese ‘E.T.’ reimagining from Shaolin Soccer/Kung Fu Hustle director Stephen Chow.
Anyone else dug up any diamonds or have anything to recommend? Let us all know via the comments!
See more posts about: Offworld Originals, Weekend Watching, Xbox 360
Snake ambushed by Liquid Snake, one of three pieces of original comic art in helloMuller’s collection by Ashley Wood (currently collaborating with Age of Empires devs Newtoy on an original iPhone game) for Konami’s intricate PSP Metal Gear digital comic. [via minusbaby]
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Just published by Carnegie Mellon University professor Drew Davidson, and perfect for a long-weekend read (while we all wait for the Infinite Summer to arrive): Well Played 1.0, a collection of 22 essays from developers, scholars, reviewers and bloggers that investigate both the experience of playing particular games, as well as how well the game itself is designed and developed.
The games included in the 1.0 version:
Advance Wars,
Bioshock,
Bully,
Civilization 4,
Europa Universalis,
Guitar Hero,
Half-Life 2,
Ico,
Kingdom of Loathing,
Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time,
Metal Gear Solid 4,
Mines of Minos,
Parappa the Rappa,
Passage,
Phoenix Wright,
Portal,
Secret of Monkey Island,
Shadow of the Colossus,
Silent Hill 2,
Super Mario Bros.,
Tempest,
Ultima Underworld,
World of Goo, and
Zork
From the following contributors:
Kirk Battle (L.B. Jeffries),
Mia Consalvo,
Greg Costikyan,
Patrick Curry,
Drew Davidson,
Corvus Elrod,
Noah Falstein,
Clara Fernandez-Vara,
Mary Flanagan,
Nick Fortugno,
James Paul Gee,
Charles Herold,
Clint Hocking,
Katherine Isbister,
Nick Montfort,
Doris Rusch,
Jesse Schell,
Brett Shelton,
Mark Sivak,
Seth Sivak,
Kurt Squire,
Jason Vandenberghe
The book is available for free as an HTML text dump via the book’s official site or as a free PDF download from Lulu; a print version can be ordered via Lulu as well.
Well Played 1.0: Video Game, Value and Meaning [ETC-Press, thanks Drew!]
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The latest design/game crossover blog well worth following (after BoxArt and PixelStyle): Offworld guest blogger Tiff Chow and Will ‘brilliam‘ Mitchell are curating TextAdventure, a tumblr blog dedicated solely to fantastic examples of in-game and on-package typography.
TextAdventure [tumblr]
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It’s true, the first official trailer for H.grenade’s upcoming iPhone node-hacking shooter Circuit Strike.One has toned down the graphical information overload of the debut trailer by just a touch (most easily noticed in the contrails now being significantly more spindley).
But, publisher Chillingo says the developer did manage to sneak in all of the audio/visual synced up effects promised but not implemented at the time, where “music, environments, vocal samples, and sound FX are mixed in real-time and triggered in sync with the music while playing,” with “a dynamic, sliding time scale where audio speed and pitch are warped in real-time when using the bullet.time hack.”
The game is expected to make its way to the App Store in a matter of weeks.
Circuit Strike.One [H.grenade]
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Detail of a promotional poster for the NES’s automaton playmate R.O.B., recently sold on eBay. [via GamOver]
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