Well, that answers that: after wondering aloud just how the hell cosplay constructor ‘Volpin’ created the previously featured Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device, Gamedaily updates with an in-depth feature on its assembly.
‘Volpin,’ it turns out, is Savannah college student Harrison Krix, who — after creating the first for his own personal Chell-belle Emily Keith — is doing a second for Portal creator Valve (and, even more ambitiously, a life-size BioShock Big Daddy costume [!!]).
Oh, and the answer seems to be: just lots of foam and tubes, really.
As they had to do with the game itself, Starmen-related venture Fangamer has unofficially filled in the recently mentioned gaps in Earthbound merchandise with a slate of new goods freshly added to the store, including the above Escargot Express messenger bag and smartly designed T-shirt featuring stony-cold Mother 3 protagonist Flint (though I honestly still prefer the scratchy outsider-brut of the Bound Around shirt).
There’s a number of new button sets, embroidered beanies and several more shirt designs kicking around the store as well.
Completely torn: is this sacrilege, or basically brilliant and exactly what the series should experiment with? Deviantart user Kheng gives us a look at the PSP’s gorgeous vector platformer Loco Rocodone up in proper 3D, and it’s by all means a world I’d love to explore.
Adventures of Lolo meets Silent Hill 2 sounds like a practical joke or an idea for a b3ta/SA photoshop thread, but it might not be all too far off base for WayForward’s WiiWare puzzler LIT, which the developer has just announced will be coming to the console on Monday the 9th.
The studio used the reference points in an interview in 2008, and it’s not hard to see why above: while the game that springs to mind more quickly might now be the recently featured Closure, the birds-eye puzzling and obvious horror overtones are readily apparent.
WayForward say the game involves the “typical, apathetic, slightly emo teenager” Jake who has to make his way through 30 classrooms to reunite with his girlfriend Rachael, but, as with Closure, is limited to stepping where the darkness don’t not shine, part of which can be puzzled out with in-game items like remotes for switching on TVs in nearby rooms, flares and so on.
It’s been some time since we’ve been able to wholeheartedly recommend a WiiWare game (quite possibly since World of Goo), but this appears to be pressing all the right switches.
Flashbang’s Blurst and its associates aren’t only dealing in mythical-ribaldry and various takes on dino-humor, they can play it straight, too: case in point, this preview for technical artist Adam ‘6ixset‘ Mechtley’s iPhone boxing demo, being knocked out slowly since last October as a nights and weekends hobby project.
Mechtley says not to expect anything final for the next few months, but the preview shows good progress: the gestural controls appear decently mapped, even if the hits aren’t quite connecting with proper impact (and forgive, for now, the goofy ankle-twists of each knock-down).
The iPhone does need a Punch-Out to round out its arcade experiences — keeping a close eye on this as Mechtley develops it further.
After his brief ‘freakin’ appearance at this year’s Spike TV Awards, GDC organizers have announced that LucasArts vet and Double Fine founder Tim Schafer is returning as host of this year’s Choice Awards ceremony, having apparently come away unscathed by recent reports of rampant youth software piracy.
The night will also see Harmonix founders Alex Rigopulos and Eran Egozy given the ceremony’s Pioneer Award “for their role in pioneering and popularizing music games, a vitally important genre for widening the appeal of games,” and games musician Tommy Tallerico will be given the night’s Ambassador Award “for helping to advance the game audio community.”
More info on the awards via the Gamasutra link below.
GDC organizers Think Services have announced the finalists for its recently mentioned Tim Schafer-hosted Game Developers Choice Awards show, with Media Molecule’s LittleBigPlanet topping the list with seven nominations across its various categories, including best design, art, best debut, innovation and game of the year.
Xbox Live Arcade time-shifting puzzler Braid is the second most nominated game with five, followed by a tie between Left 4 Dead and Fallout 3. Other nominations of interest: World of Goo for best downloadable, debut, and innovation, Mekensleep’s best debut Soul Bubbles, and Patapon and Echochrome for best handheld.
Hit the jump for the full list of nominees for the March 25th GDC-related ceremony. (more…)
Oh! Is this going to be a series? Because I could get behind that. Following his original behind-the-Undead-Cyclops video, Behemoth’s Dan Paladin does another (16 minute!) look at the creation of Castle Crasher’s Frost King, which not only gives you a look at the design and animation process, but the Paladin-ification of the character, going from its original placeholder sketch to its full black-spot-wall-eyed glory.
The eagle-eyed will also spot Behemoth programmer Tom Fulp’s hirsute AIM screen-name and relentlessly badger him for details on their still-secret new game.
Obviously I’ve neglected due diligence in keeping up with Andy ‘AtomicToy’ Helms’ Dude-a-Day dudes: his late Jan/early Feb dudes line up nicely as a two game tribute, with the surliest Ico I’ve ever seen, the most distracted Agro I’ve ever seen, and wonderful Left 4 Dead mugs, with Francis, again, showing a significant amount of self-loathing.
In other un-related Ian Bogost news, MIT Press has opened a Google Preview of the opening chapters of Bogost and MIT assistant professor Nick Montfort’s forthcoming book Racing the Beam, chronicling the life and times of the Atari 2600, and how the development pioneers at the time created “new techniques, mechanics, and even entire genres.”
Interestingly, the book takes the form of following the console’s lifespan through six key carts: Combat, Adventure, Pac-Man, Yars’ Revenge, Pitfall!, and Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back and what each would mean to games now.
Bogost is a consistently interesting voice — academic but highly approachable — in his columns for Gamasutra: very much looking forward to seeing what the two of them make of this under-explored chunk of the past.
