As part of his ‘PSX’ interface project that “disrupts conventional game interaction rituals,” Julian Bleecker has created a custom PS2 dongle and script and dedicated himself to answering an important question:
I decided to do an absolutely crucial bit of game science. Something that I am entirely sure is mulled over constantly, but never properly investigated. The question is but stated thusly: how long would it take the Little Prince to roll up an entire room based on a random path algorithm?
His result, via the video above, clocks in at just over 71 minutes, after a semi-excruciating period of consistently missing the final 10 objects (which Bleecker mercifully manually grabs in the end). The full explanation and code are available at the link.
Autonomous Game Controllers [Near Future Laboratory, thanks Tom!]
Previously:
Manifesto for "blogjects" — objects that blog – Boing Boing
It might lean a bit too heavily on the oft-repeated but dubiously-argued narrative of the industry’s bust and boom (and other console wars tropes), but Kyle Downes’ 3D/motion graphics student project A Short Visual History of Videogames is as pretty as it gets, and came packed in a gorgeously designed case to boot.
His level of dedication is less of a surprise, however, when you realize that he’s the same ‘Ultra Awesome’ Downes that put together the previously covered giant NES controller/coffee table/storage box.
A Short Visual History of Videogames [Ultra Awesome, via GamOvr]
Previously:
Giant working NES controller/coffee table – Boing Boing
While I normally can’t say I cotton to explicit game-character tattoos (the three pixelated invaders gracing my left wrist felt ‘iconic’ enough to not qualify), there’s something inescapably charming about Masatomo Ueda’s 16-man wrap-around Patapon tattoo that ends with Ueda himself as the final boss.
Patapon Tattoo [Milano by beer, via Wonderland]
Previously:
Rolito unleashes new Patapon toy – Offworld
New Rolito toy: Patapon X our one true heart – Offworld
Praise from Patapon and a passionate plea – Offworld
Glasgow’s Greig ‘conquerearth’ hits all the right notes at making a new viral classic: untraditional instrument used for game music – check, Portal tie-in – check, using hack-up tech to outwit a game (here, Rock Band‘s vocal track pitch recognition) – check and mate.
See also: Greig’s covers of Epona’s Song from Ocarina of Time, and the Halo 3 title music.
[via Kotaku]
Spotted on infamous games forum NeoGAF, resident artists m0dus and orioto have collaborated on a new basically stunning PlayStation 3 theme based on Treasure 16-bit cult hit shooter Gunstar Heroes, with one HD artwork each and a set of themed icons.
m0dus is no stranger PS3 themes — after a series of unofficial creations, Konami hired him to create the official Silent Hill 5 theme, and orioto has been working the 16-bit HD airbrushed remakes for some time as well.
m0dus and orioto’s experimental thread of art collaboration . . .
It’s been near exactly two years since Darwinia and Defcon developer Introversion first revealed their official “next game” (not including multiplayer expansion Multiwinia), with a debut video showing its initial real-time cityscape generating algorithms.
Fast forward to now and, surprisingly, we still have very, very little to go on beyond what we knew then: apart from its familiar vector-beam design, the ongoing blog entries showing Subversion‘s progress have been just as opaque, bar optimizations of those algorithms, and a fractal descent showing ever more detail at the building-by-building level.
We learned in March that part of this is understandable, if not deliberate, when programming head Chris Delay admitted that “we genuinely don’t know what’s going on,” but (he’d said earlier) “every day I work on it I’m even more convinced – this is the big one, Introversion Software’s Magnum Opus, and it’s going to be the best game we will ever make.”
And so every scrap of information, as with Delay’s most recent blog post, becomes a desperate hunt for anything that might take us that one level deeper into their mindset. In it we learn that Subversion’s progress is now focused on systems of standardized components: “Sensors, Actuators, Emitters, and Controllers,” and while we don’t get much in the way of narrative, a sense of its sandbox possibilities (and, as its name might suggest, an espionage-tinged flavor akin to Introversion’s debut title Uplink) is certainly starting to gel:
…smash one of the Actuators with a hammer, and one of the doors will stay where it is, while the other door continues to open and close. Smash one of the outer sensors and the Actuator will push the door of the end of its slide. Cover the motion sensor with a plastic bag and it wont send any detection messages to the computer, leaving the doors closed. Stick some chewing gum over the inner proximity sensors and they will think the doors are already closed, thus the control computer will leave the doors open.
Push a bin in-between the two doors and they will close on it, and sensors on the insides of the doors will detect this obstruction, and the doors will open slightly, then try to close again. The doors will be stuck in an open/close/open loop, constantly hitting the bin and re-opening, just as you’d see in real life. Cut any of the signal wires, or short-circuit them to set a high or low value. Or just plug straight into the control computer and tweak the status variables in memory, making the system do whatever you want whenever you want. None of these are activities or opportunities that I have explicitly created, but all are possible because I’ve simulated the system in sufficient detail. The possibilities for amazingly complex systems and interactions – from Introversion AND from the Subversion community – is kind of breathtaking.
The blog post contains more in-game shots and video of working systems — the previous twelve ‘It’s all in your head’ entries in the archive will give more of a sense of the scale and the magnitude of the game, while we all patiently await further concrete detail.
It’s all in your head, Part 13 [Introversion]
Previously:
The art of vector-war – Offworld
Introversion playing with fire with unbeatable DEFCON AI – Offworld
The latest in David Rosen’s ever-popular design tour videos takes a look at Bit Blot’s indie adventure Aquaria, paying special attention to the intricacies of the game’s level composition and animation system, as well as a number of important features never explained to the player.
Previously:
At the core of the World of Goo – Offworld
A deeper look at Knytt Stories – Offworld
The dynamic fluids of Chronic Logic's Gish – Offworld
Bit Blot's Aquaria hits Steam – Offworld
Bit Blot bring indie-hit Aquaria to Macs – Offworld
If you missed the previously mentioned appearance by Media Molecule co-founder Alex Evans at Wired’s NYC store in early December, the outlet is now showing the entirety of his presentation at Game|Life.
Evans’ talk was generally a basic overview of LittleBigPlanet and its user-focused, social platform roots (with a keen aside on using arcade game high-score boards as an early example of user-generated content) that might be old hat to die-hard fans, but the 2:30-3:10 mark is particularly notable for its highlight reel and explanation of ‘Craftworld,’ the 2D vector prototype of LittleBig‘s gameplay that the company put together to sell the game to Sony (and which will explain the origin of LBP‘s secret ‘Yellowhead’ costume).
Game|Life Video: The Making of LittleBigPlanet [Wired]
One last game-tech mash-up morning update: Jetdaisuke, the same electroclash-bespectacled rock star that taught us how to make a talkbox from our DSi, conducts his ‘gadget orchestra’ consisting of a DS Lite playing Toshio Iwai’s Electroplankton, Korg DS-10, App Store Japanese-gong oddity ‘Mokugyo (with Cat)’ on an iPod Touch, an iPhone running Brian Eno’s generative music app Bloom, and, most traditionally, a Korg Kaossilator.
[via Tiny Cartridge]
Following the last in our impromptu and now apparently ongoing series of Korg DS-10 showcases, I was pointed in the direction of Receptors’ all DS-10 album ‘groKwork,’ available as a free download via last.fm (along with a number of other more traditionally chippy EPs).
Receptors is the solo alias of Jeremy Kolosine, the curator behind Astralwerks’ excellent all-star/all-chiptune Kraftwerk cover album 8-bit Operators, and while groKwork is a bit harder and more dense than my usual predilection, it is a good starter set for those wondering just what the DS is capable of churning out.
groKwork for gameBoy – Korg DS10 – Receptors [last.fm, thanks n0wak!]
Previously:
Korg DS-10 + bendy straw = handheld talkbox – Offworld
Extra Hyper Korg DS-10 performance – Offworld
Four times the DS-10 – Offworld
