Via press release: Electronic Arts and Z Corporation have just announced the opening of Sporesculptor to offer custom 3D printed figures of your Spore creations, utilizing the same technology as Z Corp’s ‘Bandmates‘ figurines for Harmonix’s Rock Band.
The announcement isn’t too much of a surprise: the private showroom of Spore‘s debut E3 booth was packed with cases full of the figures, and the conference tables at subsequent Maxis visits were always littered with the same. But it does add focus on what’s still Spore‘s strength: its sense of creativity and ownership over your particular world.
There are limitations: given the near infinite permutations of creature shapes and features, the site has headed off problem children at the pass and lists a number of features that won’t work with the tech, for obvious reasons: particularly long, spiny and wispy thin features, and bubbleheaded creatures who are supported by spindly bodies. Instead, the site says, “legs are good.”
Starting the process is as simple as browsing to your creature’s PNG file and uploading to the servers, and, as with the Bandmates, the sculpts come permanently mounted on a base, and are offered at roughly $49 to the ‘mates’ $69.
I was tempted to not follow up our earlier link to Simon Parkin’s first Best Games Writing list with his second, if only out of humility, as inside he does call Offworld his “favourite new videogame site of 2008” (next to Sci Fi network/Tom Chick’s Fidgit), but, hrm, right, it does have too many good things within to ignore.
Apart from Margaret’s debut One More Go column, he calls out an excellent IGN [!] piece on Gears of War 2, which beside Parkin’s quoted paragraph contains a wonderfully apt comparison of GoW to the delayed adolescence combat-games in The Life Aquatic, as well Eurogamer’s Ellie Gibson’s review-response to a GameFaqs message board poster on whether you could drive into and break the legs off a lion in Sony’s PlayStation 3 safari sim Afrika.
Having reached her breaking point on the tire-less/-some swirls of ‘can a game make you cry’ debate, Offworld’s own One More Go columnist Margaret has a lovely final (?) response on the matter, said wonderfully here:
Tears shouldn’t be our goal. Stories don’t need to be our tools. The majority of art forms don’t rely on narrative for their emotional impact. Stop and think about that for a second. The games industry tends to draw on such an amazingly limited roster of inspirations that it’s easy to forget it. But our obsession with linear, story-based – word-based, even – non-participatory art at the expense of all the other forms makes life so much harder for games, and it makes me crazy.
Read more, and her related GDC metagame plan, via her blog.
Just added to Take Two’s web store, a ‘very limited’ 3 inch porcelain version of BioShock‘s Little Sister that was quite obviously always meant to go alongside the Xbox 360’s special edition Big Daddy figure. And it comes at a very respectable ten dollars, which is about loads less than I’ve paid for a number of the vinyl figs scattered around the room.
Allow me just one last “this is awesome; you can’t have it” link for the morning: via andriasang I see that Nintendo has partnered with web company Hatena to let users of the upcoming DSi downloadable sketchbook animation app Ugoku Memo Chou (Moving Memo Book) upload their creations to a full-on YouTube like video sharing site.
The site’s already launched and is currently populated with demo movies from the app’s developers, including the slightly sinister one above [stripped out because I couldn’t get the embed to not autoplay, and the music was driving me crazy], some stop motion claymation done via the DSi’s camera, and some otherwise quite impressive animation.
Kotaku notes that Nintendo of Japan is offering a new Club Nintendo gift: 150 points will net you 30 business cards printed with the unmistakable visage of your Mii — and, this time, the added bonus of your Wii’s friend code.
In July of this year, Nintendo launched a new Digital Camera Print Channel in the region which, in partnership with Fujifilm, let you order bound photo books featuring images uploaded from your camera and, yes, Mii business cards, all via the Wii itself. In that case a set of 30 cards would set you back 500 yen (roughly $5.60).
The only difference now, from what I can gather, is that extra line with the code, though I’m not positive that the originals let you also add 1-up mushrooms above your name — I mention this here primarily because, if you’re listening and gauging interest, stateside Nintendo, this is something we’d also like.
Taito really knows how to throw a 30th anniversary blowout party, but this invite unfortunately is for Japan only: Space Invaders Infinity Gene is a new retro-futurist reimagining of the classic arcade game, done up with a new low-bit techno soundtrack and razor-sharp vector beam dressing.
As the title suggests (somewhat, it actually comes off more in the brilliant Darwin quote opener), the premise this round is a standard monochromatic version of the arcade original slowly evolving into more complexity as you work your way deeper into the game.
Like a smaller cousin to Space Invaders Extreme, your ship’s been upgraded with twin shots, homing lasers, and beautifully contrail-ed missiles, and the aliens and UFOs morph into creatures and structures too large to fill the screen (along with some clearly Rez inspired cargo ships).
The catch: it’s currently a mobile phone-only release, but as Siliconera suggests, it’s ripe for a DSiWare release. See the clean video and screenshots via the Famitsu preview.
Friends of Offworld Rock, Paper, Shotgun have landed the ultimate exclusive interview with developer Videlectrix, the team behind Hallrunner, STRONGBADZONE, Trogdor, and our recently notedDangeresque Roomisode 1: Behind the Dangerdesque.
RPS has previously covered the growing rift between the company and publisher Telltale, and the interview delves into the issue further:
RPS: Now of course the disagreement with Telltale has become public, with the release of the first of your Roomisodes. Telltale are distancing themselves from you, and going ahead with the release of Episode 5 despite this all. Could you explain what led up to the current situation?
‘TRIX: It’s very simple, actually. Telltale claims they invented the ’sode’ when they know good and well Videlectrix did decades ago. Are they just ignoring our ‘Cartridgisodes’ or forgetting that we pioneered the ‘LCD Handheldisode?’ Roomisodes were just a natural extension of our earlier innovations. And we will continue to innovashe despite whatever fanciful, pranciful claims Telltale makes.
Update: Shortly after publishing, snap7 was removed from the App Store, but will be returning after the new year under a new name. Until then, consider this an introduction to Chain Factor and a preview of what’s to come, and I’ll update again when the game’s re-released. As noted via this January post, snap7 has officially been re-released to the App Store as Drop7. Check the updated post for more information!
In my top freeware games of 2007 recap, I noted a then-mysterious TV ad campaign related Flash game called Chain Factor. It was a curious mix of falling-block and number games, and, for me, stood so well on its own that it completely overshadowed the promotional ARG purpose it was supposed to serve.
It was cerebral but accessible, and, as I said at the time, was most surprising for blending the mechanics in a way no one (in this age of casual copycats) had thought of before. And it had that fantastic, circular, rising/falling Steve Reich-ian soundtrack. The ARG ended, the show was picked up for another season, and the masses cleared out, but I still found myself continually coming back for another run.
That’s why I’m so happy, then, to have realized this morning that area/code, the developer behind Chain Factor, have quietly ported the game to the iPhone as Drop7.
Billed now as Tetris meets Sudoku (which hits all the right notes, but check Factor‘s rules page for a better gist), the new version has adopted a much cleaner Helvetica design (which gives me NYC subway nostalgia) but kept — more importantly — that music. It’s also added a new Sequence mode which drops identical discs for all players to compare global high scores, though, so far as I can tell, they’re not charted on the web anywhere quite yet (also: a paltry 87,560 so far, if you’re wondering).
From top web game of 2007 to one of the top iPhone games of 2008’s a very happy progression, and Drop7 comes very highly recommended.
