HERE COME ‘DA SCOUT: VALVE UNVEILING NEW ABILITIES FOR TEAM FORTRESS 2
It’s always a special time when Valve starts the process of updating one of its Team Fortress 2 characters, because their new abilities are always so gloriously ludicrous.
Case in point, phase 1 of The New Scout — coming to the game next week — and his first new move, ‘The Sandman.’ Valve explain:
You Scouts are gonna love this highly collectible bat that smacks baseballs at the other team, stunning the living crap outta anybody dumb, slow, drunk, mute or Australian enough to get in the way. The farther the ball flies before ricocheting offa some chucklehead’s skull, the longer he’s gonna be stunned. And guys who think they’re tough because they’re invulnerable? It works on them too. Now the bad news: You can’t double jump when you’re carrying this little beauty. On the other hand, double jumping never put anybody in a coma.
New updates to the Scout’s repertoire will be coming daily up until the official launch of the patch.
The Scout Update [Valve]
See more posts about: Offworld Originals, Xbox 360
AURORA FEINT MAKERS UNVEIL SOCIAL PLATFORM FOR IPHONE INDIE DEVS
It’s no great secret that the iPhone’s game selection has been growing by leaps and bounds over the past few months, but we are a bit lonely out there, aren’t we? Maybe not so much any more, though, as Aurora Feint, makers of the iPhone puzzler/RPG, um, Aurora Feint, have sent word that they’ve launched OpenFeint, a new social platform specifically geared toward indie iPhone devs.
Now available for private beta, Feint will host the server (which they say is “compatible with Google’s OpenSocial REST API and is accessible through the OpenFeint Client code library and sample UI code”), and are planning to keep the platform free for developers up to an unspecified “limited” number of concurrent clients, with a pricing tier beyond that expected in March when the product goes live.
Here’s what you get:
— Profiles: Players can upload any avatar photo or one from their phone’s camera
— Walls: Each player gets a wall where other players can leave comments and view wall-to-wall conversations
— Asynchronous Real-Time Chat: Game-specific chat rooms for meeting other players, sharing tips, strategies and experiences within each game community
— Friends List: Players can friend other players within their game community or across the gaming community
— Newsfeeds: Players can keep in touch with all of their friends’ activities (wall comments, actions in games, befriending people)
— Global Community Chat: Game-independent rooms for players to discuss recommendations, tips, and experiences on other games
The platform comes nipping at the heels of Trism dev Steve Demeter’s plans for Onyx Online (aka his plan to “save the App Store“), though Demeter’s plans go beyond providing chat and friend links and have their sights set on recreating as much Xbox Live functionality as possible over the device (see more about this via his PowerPoint presentation), and more sociability versus less is always a good thing.
OpenFeint [Aurora Feint]
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LITTLE MEN FROM ANOTHER PLACE: UNDERSTANDING DWARF FORTRESS
Here’s my shameful admission of the month: I’ve never got past the first 20 minutes or so (not counting initial map generation) with Bay12’s unbelievably epic ASCII RPG Dwarf Fortress. I am fully convinced it’s brilliant — quite possibly one of the most deeply rewarding open-world games in recent memory — and I am fully convinced that given more of a chance I would probably have a transcendent experience with it, but I am instantly stricken with crippling anxiety just sitting at its opening play-screen.
I suspect I’m not the only one, too, and for us, there’s now a similarly epic video tutorial set from ‘captain_duck’ that will guide you through all of both its basic and advanced mechanics (and by epic I mean a full 10 minute video simply on mining and making beds). In the last of his original series, duck even showcases a 3D map visualization that might help get your head a bit more into the game.
I hate to say it, though, but I really do think that until someone comes up with a tileset as pixel perfect as the proof of concept above (via SpriteAttack via RockPaperShotgun) (why can’t we make it so?) there’s not much chance of me getting much further into the game, though this set is a massive leap in the right direction.
Dwarf Fortress Video Tutorial [Bay12 forum, via Bill Harris]
See more posts about: Dwarf Fortress, Offworld Originals
LEGO UNIVERSE MMO SAILS FURTHER INTO THE DISTANCE
Disappointing news comes from Lego’s direction this morning with the announcement that Netdevil’s forthcoming MMO Lego Universe won’t be making it to us for at least another year.
Lego lead Mark Hansen told MTV’s games blog the decision was less about tuning the game and “more strategic in relation to product launches that we have within Lego… [We have] new product lines that are coming out… We don’t want to make a big splash [with ‘LEGO Universe‘] in the market where its success could take focus away from [the other products].”
The company softened the blow with new media of the game including the err.. castle-swash-buckling image above, an extra minifig-meets-monsters shot, and, via MTV, an exclusive shot rife with ninjas, which just about covers all of the basic Lego food groups.
The announcement follows recent news which reverses the Lego -> games stream: toy sets based on Jordan Mechner’s Prince of Persia, or rather, Mechner via Ubisoft via Jerry Bruckheimer’s upcoming film adaptation, should be hitting shelves in spring 2010, on time with the release of the film.
As before, my best recommendation to counter-remedy all this waiting: the online collaborative builder/demolisher indie MMO Blockland. Squint your eyes and you’ll almost be able to see the little divets on each block.
Exclusive: ‘LEGO Universe’ Concept Art… With Ninjas [MTV Multiplayer]
em>Previously:
TT/Hellbent going pure Lego with DS Lego Battles – Offworld
What's it going to build then, eh: 'A Lego Orange' imagined – Offworld
See more posts about: Offworld Originals
METAL GEAR’S KOJIMA GETTING LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD AT GDC
After announcing that Metal Gear creator Hideo Kojima would be keynoting the 2009 Game Developer’s Conference, organizers have sent word that the developer will also be the recipient of this year’s Lifetime Achievement Award at the Game Developers Choice Awards ceremony.
The award has previously gone to strategy game maker Sid Meier, Nintendo legend Shigeru Miyamoto, Ultima creator Richard Garriott, Defender/Robotron creator Eugene Jarvis, Marble Madness designer and now wide-ranging consultant Mark Cerny, Game Boy creator Gunpei Yokoi, Sonic designer Yuji Naka and Sim-everything creator Will Wright.
Organizers say Kojima was chosen because his “contributions to game development have broken new ground and inspired the community to think about creating games in never-before-imagined ways… from giving birth to the stealth action game genre to showing game makers how to interact with their players by breaking the ‘fourth wall.'”
The Tim Schafer-hosted ceremony will take place March 25th during the Game Developers Conference, and will also include the main Game Developers Choice Awards and Independent Games Festival awards.
Previously:
Metal Gear creator Hideo Kojima keynoting Game Dev Conference …
Game Dev Choice Awards topped by LittleBigPlanet, Braid, Left 4 …
Tim Schafer returns to GDC Choice Awards, Harmonix honored – Offworld
The Offworld Guide to the 2009 Independent Games Festival – Offworld
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HAPPINESS IS A WARM FEZ: PREPARE FOR WONDERFUL
What kind of wonderful is about to happy with Polytron’s Fez? Speculation is running rampant that the key is in that ‘A’: specifically, that the image is tipping us off to an imminent announcement from Microsoft that the game is headed to the Xbox Live Arcade.
To test that theory, I pulled out my early IGF 2008 build of the game (as I do every few weeks when I need a re-up on sunshine) and found that– ah, wait, the ‘A’s been there from the start (that Fez is being created in Microsoft’s XNA and prefers an Xbox 360/Windows pad for optimal play has never been a secret).
That’s not to say that it’s not the trick up Polytron’s sleeve, anyway, but I suppose we’d just be as well off trying to strip hints off the hieroglyphics hiding in the preview shot from earlier this month. Wait, should we?
SOMETHING AWESOME THIS WAY COMES [Polytron]
Previously:
Annabelle Kennedy joins Fez creators Polytron – Offworld
Polytron affirm essential awesomeness – Offworld
Only on Offworld: Polytron/Kokoromi's Anaglyphic super HYPERCUBE …
Bringing Gamma home to you – Offworld
See more posts about: Offworld Originals, Polytron
LET MY BOARD AND ME BECOME AS ONE: THE WII BALANCE BOARD/GOOGLE EARTH MASHUP
With just a touch smoother scrolling (chalked up, surely, to the program itself), this could feel amazing: Germany’s Research Center for Artificial Intelligence has hacked together a Wii balance board with Google Earth to go surfing, as kottke says, “like the Silver Surfer.”
Or, if you please, the same interaction can be used in Second Life, or — as made the rounds earlier last year — World of Warcraft‘s Azeroth, but there’s nothing better than their tour-glide over Munich from 300 feet.
Wii Balance Board interactions [German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence GmbH, via kottke]
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ASK YOURSELF, HOW DID WE GET HERE: HOW ‘INDIE’ HAS EVOLVED
Gamasutra is running a nice piece from former IGF grand prize finalist Andy Schatz looking at how the “indie” landscape has evolved, tracing its route initially from the doors opened by casual hits like Diner Dash and Zuma to teams creating portal alternatives for games that didn’t fit that casual mold.
But Schatz says, rightly, that the past two years have seen indie gaming hit critical mass, and that the category is now less about economics and more about the experience:
Gamers and customers now see indie games as the poetry, the short stories of the gaming world. They are different, they are thoughtful, and they make you appreciate nuance.
As 2D Boy’s (World of Goo) Kyle Gabler said in his recent Global Game Jam keynote, the best games made in game jams “introduce one new concept to gaming as fast and as clear as possible.” This is largely true for all of indie games as well. The finalists in this year’s IGF competition also tend towards this concept.
Why is this important? Because in the past, indie games didn’t mean anything to customers. We, the developers, knew what it meant — it was important to us because it meant that we were unfettered. But customers didn’t have expectations about what an indie game was.
Customers do have expectations now. Indie games are games that, by definition, don’t fit into any other box. They cost from $0 to $30. They are “cool” — knowing about them is “cool.”
Hit the link for the full evolution and where Schatz sees indie gaming going in years to come.
Opinion: The Evolution Of Indie [Gamasutra]
Previously:
World of Goo's Kyle Gabler gives top 7 Global Game Jam tips – Offworld
The Offworld Guide to the 2009 Independent Games Festival – Offworld
Only on Offworld: indie game and artist all-stars collide at Giant …
Ragdoll Metaphysics: 2008 And The Indie Renaissance – Offworld
See more posts about: Offworld Originals
ONLY ON OFFWORLD: DUBLAB DEBUTS ADVENTURE’S VINTAGE ARCADE VIDEO “POISON DIAMONDS”
We here at Offworld are big fans of LA radio collective Dublab and its unbelievably stellar line-up of associates. Most recently, its VisionVersion project — in which its “collective of directors film amazing artists performing live in exciting locations around Los Angeles” — has spawned a fantastic set of videos featuring Offworld top-fave bands like Why? [watch here] and Daedelus [watch here in awe of his Tenori-On like magic Monome box].
So we’re quite excited to partner with Dublab to debut the latest in its VisionVersion line, Wham City artist Benny ‘Adventure‘ Boeldt doing a live version of his low-bit-inspired hit “Poison Diamonds.”
It’s not just the sound that’s near and dear to our hearts, though: the video was filmed at Glendale, CA retro-gamer paradise Vintage Arcade Superstore and is coated in appropriately fuzzy Betamax corruption. That the track opens and closes with a Roy Batty sample from Offworld’s namesake is just icing.
See more of Dublab’s VisionVersion lineup via its official page, let its dubstream be your new favorite internet radio station, and don’t miss Computer Jay’s bent Atari 2600 performance from the dublab archives. Thanks much to Frosty and Gus for hooking this up!
See more posts about: Offworld Originals
76 TROMBONES: THIS MORNING’S NOBY PARADE
Stick with me just a little longer — it’s only two more days now, which must be what this big love-blossoming parade is all about.
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
Noby Noby Boy stretches further into February – Offworld
It don't mean a thing: another last look at Noby Noby Boy – Offworld
Why can't I stop: Noby in the sky with stripes – Offworld
Today’s drip-fed Noby dose: Noby tastes the rainbow – Offworld
Noby's wakey-wakey: You Have To Break The Mushroom – Offworld
See more posts about: Offworld Originals
