NOW I’M SPINNING: THINKING STUDIOS’ PC MUSIC PUZZLE RAYCATCHER
A new indie PC music development I’m keeping a close eye on: Thinking Studios’ Raycatcher, which looks like a menage spawn between fan favorite Audiosurf (for its dynamically generated play), Newtonica (for its in-bound color matching), and Cyclomite, the InstantAction game from Stubbs the Zombie creator Wideload (for its flat-field spinning).
The demo currently offered by Thinking doesn’t give you a full sense of how it will eventually play (there’s no mp3 support, and you can’t even get really clever and try to test its mettle by sneaking in Animal Collective songs by renaming the demo mp3s in the data folder), but watching the video above should illuminate things, as it were (at least, until the RIAA/YouTube mutes the music).
Raycatcher [Thinking Studios, via Indiegames]
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PORTAL GUN MAKER’S NEW BIOSHOCK SYRINGE
Harrison ‘Volpin‘ Krix’s next trick, after creating one of the best fan-made games props we’ve ever seen with his Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device? As he has previously mentioned, a trip into Rapture, with a full scale version of BioShock‘s Big Daddy suit.
If it’s even half as good as this Adam syringe — the same used by Little Sister to extract and ingest the genetic enhancer for reprocessing — then we’re in for quite a treat.
Bioshock Little Sister ADAM Syringe [Volpin Props]
Previously:
There goes my gun: Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device in real …
DIY: A deeper view into the Portal gun – Offworld
I feel a wreck without my little china sister – Offworld
Come to Big Daddy – Offworld
Little shocks: IG Fun show off iPhone/mobile BioShock – Offworld
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PINBALLHD: THE 1080P DIGITAL PINBALL CAB
Straight from the digital hardcore pinball underground: HyperPin forum admin BadBoyBill shows off his latest “side project,” a supersized dual LCD monitor cab-in-the-making that takes 3D pinball sim Future Pinball to some mind-boggling new level.
Announcing HyperPin Digital Pinball Frontend [via Ideaity, thanks Rob!]
Previously:
Pinball designer Lawlor on the kinetics of the silver ball – Offworld
See more posts about: Arcade, Offworld Originals
EARTH INVADERS: RöYKSOPP’S HAPPY UP HERE VIDEO
If you were fooled (as I was) into thinking the cartoon fan vid that made the music blog rounds a few days ago was official, you’ve missed out: Röyksopp’s actual debut video for their forthcoming Junior album is this glorious Reuben Sutherland-directed number which does real-life Space Invaders better than anything I’ve ever seen.
Sutherland’s no stranger to games invasions: he was behind two fantastic ad spots for Insomniac’s PS3 shooter Resistance, both of which can be spotted at his demo reel site.
Previously:
Only on Offworld: Dublab debuts Adventure's vintage arcade video …
Glorious retro carnage: Wyld File's hallucinogenic video for …
Caveat Enzo: The Lost Levels' Early Sheets video – Offworld
Pixelz are so small: Deerhoof's new 'Buck and Judy' video – Offworld
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RAGDOLL METAPHYSICS: QUAKE WARS DESIGNER ED STERN ON BLIND LUCK AND THE PROBLEMS OF ORIGINALITY
Ed Stern is a senior games designer at Splash Damage, the UK studio that made Enemy Territory: Quake Wars. In this wide-ranging conversation we discuss the fluke of luck that was the original Enemy Territory game, and why originality might not be the best thing for game designers to pursue.
So let’s talk about games, in the first of my quaint fireside chats with developers. I will have already set the scene for readers by now, via some introductory text, so let’s plunge in. You’re known as senior games designer at Splash Damage…
Ed Stern: Yes, I worked on both the Enemy Territory games. I’m always a bit baffled by job titles. There is some standardisation of that stuff across the industry now, but the reality of the job from one studio to the next could be radically different. It’s much the same in TV or the film industry, “assistant director” might mean the guy who had incredible input to the film, or he might just have sat in the trailer doing paperwork. Game designer is a pretty general catch-all, every artist and coder and tester is helping designing the game too…
But you, at least, had some design input with the big break for Splash Damage, Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory, a game that was enormously popular. A huge game for a very small company?
Stern: Well it was the result of a huge amount of work by Splash Damage, very little of it done by me. Splash Damage is Paul Wedgwood’s company, and much of it his graft. But it was also the consequence of a huge amount of luck, without the excellent intervention of Id Software and Activision we would never have got to work on the game. And sometimes that good fortune feels grossly unfair.
I keep hearing about people evidently considerably more talented than me who have been working in the industry for years and never seen a game released. Nothing wrong with their work, just bad luck with publishers or the business side of things. I feel pretty lucky to have had two, OK, arguably one and a half games shipped in my seven years, and have both of them be kindly received. (more…)
See more posts about: Offworld Originals, Ragdoll Metaphysics
ONLY ON OFFWORLD: GIVE DANIEL PEMBERTON’S LITTLE BIG MUSIC ANOTHER LISTEN
In early December, Offworld debuted a track off Daniel Pemberton‘s then-forthcoming collection of his contributions to Media Molecule’s LittleBigPlanet, with the ragtime/big band turntablism of ‘Horny Old Man.’
Since then, the album — Little Big Music: Musical Oddities From And Inspired By LittleBigPlanet — has been properly released to iTunes [link], and, as was noted in early February, LittleBigPlanet‘s soundtrack has been nominated for the UK’s BAFTA award for best original score, alongside Assassin’s Creed, Dead Space, Fable II, Fallout 3, and Metal Gear Solid 4.
In celebration of the work that Sonica‘s Mat Clark, Media Molecule’s own Kenny Young and Daniel put into the game’s stellar soundtrack, Pemberton has given Offworld another exclusive track for your downloading or streaming needs.
This time it’s the haunted toy-box pop of ‘The Appliance of Science,’ one of the tracks from the game originally available on TVPOPMUZIK, Daniel Pemberton TV Orchestra‘s debut album which also features ‘Pip Pop Plop,’ Pemberton’s excellent original theme song for Offworld fave Brit-com Peep Show (and is also available on iTunes and amazon.mp3).
Listen below, or grab
!
[mejsaudio src=”http://venuspatrol.com/ofiles/16%20The%20Appliance%20Of%20Science%20%28That%27ll%20Teach%20Em%29.mp3″]
DanielPemberton.com [also, MySpace]
Previously:
Only on Offworld: A sneak peek at Daniel Pemberton's …
Daniel Pemberton's Little Big Music hits iTunes – Offworld
Call of Duty 4, GTAIV, LittleBigPlanet top 2009 BAFTA nominations …
See more posts about: Daniel Pemberton, Listen, Little Big Music, Offworld Originals
BEHIND THE SCENES OF THE WRESTLER’S FAUX-8-BIT WRESTLE JAM
In a very nice feature over at Kotaku (that I’m honestly a bit jealous didn’t come out of Offworld!), Michael McWhertor talks with artist Kristyn Hume and programmer Randall Furino (of, it turns out, Lego Universe developer NetDevil) for a behind the scenes look at the creation of Wrestle Jam, the faux-NES game played in Darren Aronofsky’s The Wrestler.
The game is of course inspired by the NES’s Pro Wrestling, and is actually fully playable, with “an intro screen, character select, win / loss conditions, opponent AI, eight different attacks,” all put together in some two weeks.
Hit the link for more on the game, and on Infinity Ward’s reaction to getting a similar Call of Duty shoutout in the film.
The Making Of Wrestle Jam: The Wrestler’s Unsung Hero [Kotaku]
Previously:
Wrestle Jam: Randy 'The Ram' goes next-gen – Offworld
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EVERYDAY HEROES: TOM RHODES’ OLD GAME CHARACTERS
Like Andy Helms’ Dude-a-Day dudes, Tom ‘Plan to Fail‘ Rhodes’ Old Game Characters series does up classic games guys, gals, and bubble bobblers in his own nicely Mad/Cracked-inspired comic style.
Click through for more Mario, Street Fighter, Half-Life, and Starfox interpretations.
Old Game Characters [Tom Rhodes, thanks .tiff!]
Previously:
AtomicToy's Dude-a-Day Games Dudes – Offworld
Dude-a-Day does Ico/Shadow/Left 4 Dudes – Offworld
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GIMME INDIE (?!?) GAME: EA/BORNE’S MIRROR’S EDGE 2D
Shortly before Offworld launched, EA let slip a limited beta of another in its very forward-looking campaigns with Mirror’s Edge 2D. That it was a cute Flash mini-game meant to promote the release of the proper console/PC game wasn’t much to celebrate, that they’d specifically partnered with an indie developer to create it was.
In this case, it was Brad Borne of BorneGames, who’d already worked up a name for himself with his two entries in the Fancy Pants Adventures series, a smart pick given their single-minded focus on momentum and stylish platforming.
The original trial only included a single level, but now EA has officially launched a new full version of the game, which is fully networked with leaderboards for top Story Mode and Time Trial players, and an unlockable ‘Baddie Rush’ mode, should you find all of the game’s evidence files.
It’s wicked stuff, exactly the kind of free-running you’d expect from both Faith and Borne, and just the kind of indie success story the scene needs much more of.
Mirror’s Edge 2D [EA/Borne]
Previously:
On the momentum in Mirror's Edge – Offworld
Mirror's Edge, running the void – Offworld
Faith chaser: a look at Mirror's Edge Synesthesia – Offworld
Gimme Indie Game: Runhello's Jumpman – Offworld
Gimme Indie Game: Konjak's Legend of Princess – Offworld
Gimme Indie Game: Minotaur China Shop, happiness in shattery …
Gimme Indie Game: Gravity Bone – Offworld
See more posts about: Gimme Indie Game, Offworld Originals
PENNY ARCADE GAME DEVS BRINGING BRAID TO MAC, THE MAW TO PC
Well this was unexpected: Hothead Games, the Vancouver studio behind Penny Arcade’s On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness adventure game and Deathspank, the new adventure game from Maniac Mansion and Monkey Island creator Ron Gilbert, have announced they’ll be collaborating with indie devs to help bring their games to new platforms.
First out of the gates will be Jon Blow’s Braid, which was recently confirmed to be coming to the PC. Hothead says it will be both porting and exclusively publishing the new Mac version (presumably via the studio’s upstart games portal Greenhouse).
Also on the slate is a new Windows version of Twisted Pixel’s excellent recent Xbox Live Arcade action/puzzler and IGF finalist The Maw, which will include “special features to make the crowd-pleaser compatible with multiple as-of-yet-unannounced digital distribution platforms and services.”
Previously:
Xbox Live Arcade hit puzzler Braid coming to PC in March – OffworldThe Offworld Guide to the 2009 Independent Games Festival – Offworld
See more posts about: Offworld Originals
