ONE MORE GO: WORLD OF WARCRAFT, HOME IS WHERE THE HEARTH IS
A few days ago I held my breath, squared my shoulders and stepped through a magic portal. It sucked me forward through space and time, turned winter to summer and day to night. It also beeped because I’d forgotten to take my keys out of my pocket.
And now, having had three dinners in a row, and then three breakfasts in a row, I’m in Australia. Ten thousand and five miles across the globe from London; as far as it’s possible to be from base and still get a decent coffee. There should be jet-lag and there should be culture-shock (if only on the basis of how goddam cheery everyone is), but there isn’t. Instead there’s this: I just came home.
Not physically, virtually. After a happy holiday with another guild on another server, I recently put in a character transfer request so I could go back and join my original guild in their assault on Northrend. Fifteen quid for Blizzard to copy a heap of shamefully low stats (level 69 still, somehow, no raid gear, basic mount) from one World of Warcraft server to another. From one identical copy of the world to another. (more…)
See more posts about: Offworld Originals, One More Go
KATAMARI DAMACY COMING TO DSI AS… A BLOCK PUZZLE GAME?
Need another reason to pick up a freshly-announced DSi? Here’s what we know via the grey market underground of early-breaking news from Japan’s Weekly Famitsu magazine: on March 25th, the DSi’s downloadable game service DSiWare will see the addition of a new 500 Point ($5) puzzle game from Namco Bandai based on everybody’s favorite Katamari Damacy.
Instead of the stylus-rolling game everyone thought they wanted, though, Korogashi Puzzle Katamari Damacy will be a block puzzle game where players will make “sets” of the same “things” you’ve rolled up into stars a million times before, which then are, as best I can tell, ejected out into a black hole. (As 1UP smartly points out, the game appears to be a re-skinned version of Namco’s underdog puzzler Pac-Attack.)
The only other tidbit Famitsu has let slip for now is that the ending theme will be “performed” by Yamaha’s Vocaloid2 speech synthesis singing “star” Hatsune Miku made famous by endless versions of popular songs spread on Japan’s version of YouTube, NicoNicoDouga (hear her version of Portal‘s ‘Still Alive’).
We’ll have more on the game later this week or early next, as more above-the-level information hits the Japanese press sites.
Previously:
Katamari rolls onto iPhone – Offworld
iPhone Katamari gets Exquisite addition – Offworld
Autonomous Katamari-Roomba clean sweeps in 71 minutes – Offworld
It's a stretch: Explaining Katamari creator's new Noby Noby Boy …
See more posts about: Offworld Originals
CALL OF DUTY CREATORS INFINITY WARD LAUNCH THEIR TWITTER SUGGESTION BOX
Last week we brought news that Call of Duty creators Infinity Ward were working with Cursebird programmer Richard ‘Fantastic‘ Henry to bring.. well, something games related to Twitter. Grand notions started to run through our heads, hoping for something on the level with friend of Offworld Tom Armitage’s brilliant Left 4 Dead Twitter-bots.
Well, the project has officially launched, and it’s… well, not quite what we were expecting, but a good lesson on crowd-sourcing, I suppose. The #mw2 project is a way for Call of Duty designers — currently at work on Modern Warfare 2, the sequel to the best selling CoD4 [aka the first FPS that’s ever really, really sucked me in to multiplayer action with brilliant lite-RPG underpinnings] — to talk with the community about what they’d like to see in the new game.
At heart it’s a simple suggestion box that could’ve served its purpose on any stock forum, but it’s smartest twist is in letting the #mw2 community give a thumbs up or down to any individual suggestion, and then rank the best commenters on its own leaderboard, where you can then link back to their original tweets.
So it might not be any sort of real-world extension of the game as we’d originally hoped, but still a good effort for bringing developers and their audience closer together in this new “games are services” landscape.
#mw2 project [Infinity Ward]
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THE GAMES OF TOMORROW, YESTERDAY: 1982’S ‘GAME PARLOR OF THE FUTURE’
The Paleofuture blog, dedicated entirely to looking at the future of predictive articles past, found this feature from a 1982 issue of ‘Electronic Games’ (the first U.S. all-games magazine) which does a surprisingly accurate job of describing the developments that would come in the following two decades.
Though it wasn’t quite prescient enough to see games moving into homes and the subsequent quiet death of the arcade itself, below are some of the choicest quotes, with links to the wishlist items that would essentially come true:
Interactive fiction should continue to do well, as will role-playing games that involve the arcader in ever more personal ways (such as Prisoner and Network). Players will be able to assume the role of a detective, questioning the suspects in a murder case with full audio/visual accompaniment…
Look for arcades to be constructed along the lines of big-budget science fiction movie sets, with special effects a major attraction of the games. For example, there might be chairs that rock back and forth, swing from side to side or swivel a full 360 degrees…
The arcade games of the next century may not only be activated by voice command, but conceivably even by thought – at least in a sense. Something akin to galvanic skin-monitoring devices attached to the gamer’s arm, perhaps in the form of a bracelet, could measure emotional response and even act as a triggering device.
Game Parlor of the Future (1982) [Paleofuture, via Matteo Bittanti]
See more posts about: Arcade, Offworld Originals
DSI, RHYTHM HEAVEN GETTING APRIL 5TH U.S. LAUNCH
Nintendo has announced that its successor to the DS Lite, the DSi, will be getting an April 5th launch in the U.S. Originally somewhat panned for being “just” a DS with additional cameras and an SD card slot, I can safely say after spending several months with the import version that it’s absolutely worth the price of an upgrade.
Even though we haven’t yet seen any original retail games that fully make use of its new features, the downloadable DSiWare store has already proven itself with the addition of a number of new ‘Art Style’ games and free community based animation software, and Nintendo promises much tighter Wii/DSi integration in the future as it makes the standard SD card slots its defacto storage unit.
Even better, Nintendo has announced that its brilliant music game Rhythm Heaven, the DS sequel to the Game Boy Advance original — itself the subject of a recent Offworld One More Go column — will be launching alongside the hardware: the first the West will see of one of the company’s essential series.
The DSi will launch in blue and black on April 5th at a price of $169.99, $40 above the standard DS Lite price.
Previously:
Nintendo's DSiWare makes holiday debut – Offworld
One More Go: Rhythm Tengoku, or Why plucking the hairy onion makes …
Japan gets DSi sketch animation sharing with UgokuMemoChou – Offworld
DSi getting more downloadable Art Style, Tetris Attack – Offworld
Listen: YMCK's Bowser-busting hardcore Mario remix – Offworld
Listen, too: Another PicoPict YMCK NES mega-mix – Offworld
See more posts about: Offworld Originals
NOBY NOBY EVE: A LONGER LOOK AT NOBY’S DIGITAL PLAYGROUND
So they did have a master plan after all, and it’s all been leading up to this, hasn’t it? A day before Noby Noby Boy‘s long-awaited PlayStation Network release, Namco have taken a sharp turn and — rather than give us sparse, 30 second single-camera blips of the game — lead us instead on a three minute montage tour through its universe.
Not to say that there’s anything particularly revealing or surprising that we haven’t seen before (apart from the giant flailing Noby and the brilliant square-wheeled carrot car), but what strikes me more than anything, especially as the Boy knots himself through that lattice structure at 1:55, is how consistently the game fits in with what designer Keita Takahashi has been dreaming of all along.
As I mentioned in my first attempt at explaining the game, since first finding his audience with Katamari Damacy Takahashi has famously been saying that while making games has been a fun ride, his heart has got more ‘physical’ designs, particularly constructing playgrounds for children.
Like he told Edge magazine in 2007 as he toured the Nottingham, UK site that has been cordoned off for him to do just that: “I just want to make a park where a child will feel like taking off his shoes and start to run.”
Everything we’ve seen of Noby Noby Boy looks like a universe constructed to do just that, and I can honestly say there hasn’t been a world I’ve been so excited to ditch my sneakers and just play in in quite some time.
o–o [Namco]
Previously:
It's a stretch: Explaining Katamari creator's new Noby Noby Boy …
Ask a stupid question: Takahashi finally ‘explains’ Noby Noby Boy – Offworld
Happy Holidays from Offworld (feat. Keita Takahashi) – Offworld
Another new look at Noby Noby Boy – Offworld
76 Trombones: this morning's Noby parade – Offworld
See more posts about: Noby Noby Boy, Offworld Originals
DOOMLASER TEASES SECRET IPHONE PROJECT, ‘THE PLUMBER IS DEAD’
Spotted via a not-so-subtle tweet from indie dev Mark ‘Doomlaser‘ Johns, part of the TIGSource massiv. All we know about the above is that filename’s called ThePlumberIsDead, that it was correctly guessed to be a 2D/3D gameplay mix, and that Mark’s definitely got our attention.
I met Johns briefly at the 2007 Gamma 256 party (the same Kokoromi showcase where Jason Rohrer’s Passage made its debut), and, amongst more legitimate accomplishments, he holds the distinct honor of being one of only two people I know who had even more trouble crossing the border into Canada that year than I did (the other being Fl0w/Flower creator Jenova Chen, who was barred from crossing altogether).
For more on what doomlaser’s about, see the Gamma256 entry Johns had submitted that year, stdbits, which plays something like a psychotropic, corrupted retro-futurist Adventure.
Doomlaser [Mark Johns]
Previously:
Bringing Gamma home to you – Offworld
Only on Offworld: Polytron/Kokoromi's Anaglyphic super HYPERCUBE …
Things We Lost In The Snow, pt 2: Passage hit the iPhone – OffworldPassage's Jason Rohrer and emotional game experiences – Offworld
See more posts about: Offworld Originals
MY 45 SECONDS OF UNIQUENESS, VISUALIZED
Of all the games that came out of this year’s Nordic Game Jam — the inspiration for and held concurrently with the Global Game Jam — “4 Minutes and 33 Seconds of Uniqueness” seems to have captivated the indie set the most, a surprise, because while fantastically high concept, it’s probably the least traditionally game like.
4m33s comes from Crayon Physics creator Petri Purho (with the assistance of Kokoromi’s Heather Kelley and Jonatan ‘Cactus’ Söderström), and admittedly probably did the best job of interpreting the game jam’s theme, ‘As long as we have each other, we’ll never run out of problems.’
The premise is simple: all you have to do to win is run the game for that 4:33, represented by what is essentially a game-screen loading bar. The obstacle: if anyone else in the world tries to play at the same time, your game is instantly cut off and shut down.
At the get-go, it was almost impossible to tell a shutdown from any given crash, but Jonathan Basseri has created what might be the most essential mod for the least essential game with this Google Maps visualization of exactly who’s stolen your crown.
Seen above: my glorious 45 or seconds of uniqueness before some bastard Finn took it all away from me. The surprise? For a game that isn’t a game (is it actually an abstract ARG?), it is actually surprisingly compelling.
UPDATE: Commenter oboy puts me deeply, deeply, to shame with his observation below: “It sounds like it was created specifically as an existential examination of what exactly a game is. In 1952, John Cage composed 4’33”, a three-movement piece where no notes are played. Is it music? I think the same question is being asked here–the player is asked to do nothing for 4’33”. Is that a game? Well played. Well played indeed.”
Proof that this week has got the best of me: I couldn’t even see the Cage connection when the numbers were staring me straight in the face. Well played right back at you.
4 Minutes and 33 Seconds of Uniqueness: Current Leader [Jonathan Basseri, game home]
Previously:
Only on Offworld: indie game and artist all-stars collide at Giant …
Things We Lost In The Snow, pt 3: Crayon Physics about to hit the …
Crayon Physics Deluxe opens pre-orders – Offworld
World of Goo's Kyle Gabler gives top 7 Global Game Jam tips – Offworld
See more posts about: Offworld Originals
XBOX LIVE ARCADE HIT PUZZLER BRAID COMING TO PC IN MARCH
Jon Blow’s Braid probably doesn’t need much introduction as one of Xbox Live Arcade’s flagship puzzlers which (deservedly) set every art-game-braniac’s heart a-flutter on its release earlier last year (if you do need an introduction, I included a relatively spoiler-y preview video in my Offworld 20 writeup).
Now, though, the deviously complex time-shifting platformer is officially set for a PC release via Stardock’s Impulse platform, with a tentative release date of March 31st and a price of $19.95 $14.95.
A Steam version seems likely as well: Blow talked with Gamasutra in late January and said of their continuing relationship:
A long time ago, I was talking to them, and it didn’t really work out. Since then, they’ve come back and contacted me, and they are interested in putting the game up. So it’s just a matter of me having a PC version ready that I feel is good to go with.
This, presumably, will be that version (unless he’s continuing to add Steam-exclusive achievements) and the cross-platform domination can begin in full, but for now it seems Impulse has one of its highest profile indie exclusives.
UPDATE: As noted via the official Braid blog, the game has already dropped to $14.95 to match Xbox Live Arcade pricing, and will be coming to two more yet-undisclosed portal services.
Braid home [Jon Blow, Impulse pre-order page]
See more posts about: Offworld Originals, Xbox 360
EARTHBOUND CENTRAL CLARIFIES LEGAL QUANDARIES
As you may have seen, Mother/Earthbound translation head Tomato was kind enough to elaborate on some points of my last post on Earthbound quite likely never making it to the Wii’s Virtual Console.
The curious musical confusion highlighted in his Earthbound Central post (oddball Rick Ocasek and Little Rascals samples in the game’s soundtrack?) wasn’t, as I’d mentioned, the bits he thought Nintendo of America would be worried about, but promised to start collecting the bits he figured they would in a separate page in the near future.
Well, that came sooner than I expected: this post starts that cataloging with an extensive breakdown of some of the thornier legal issues in the cult hit game.
Some have been well documented since the game first garnered its underground master-work status: Red Cross, Blues Brothers, and Coke-alikes were all modified on its initial release, but some other things might not fly so easily today: the Mr. T likeness, and especially some of the more blatant Beatles influences and outright drum-loop samples. On closer listen, those and the Who-alikes remind me: the Earthbound soundtrack really was fantastic, wasn’t it?
EarthBound & Legal Issues [EarthBound Central]
Previously:
Not What I Needed: you got your Ric Ocasek in my Earthbound …
Mother 3: Behind the Music – Offworld
Mother 3 musical toe-dip into Bach, Vivaldi, Satie… Batman …
Mother 3 translators start Earthbound Central blog – Offworld
See more posts about: Offworld Originals
