TIM SCHAFER RETURNS TO GDC CHOICE AWARDS, HARMONIX HONORED
After his brief ‘freakin’ appearance at this year’s Spike TV Awards, GDC organizers have announced that LucasArts vet and Double Fine founder Tim Schafer is returning as host of this year’s Choice Awards ceremony, having apparently come away unscathed by recent reports of rampant youth software piracy.
The night will also see Harmonix founders Alex Rigopulos and Eran Egozy given the ceremony’s Pioneer Award “for their role in pioneering and popularizing music games, a vitally important genre for widening the appeal of games,” and games musician Tommy Tallerico will be given the night’s Ambassador Award “for helping to advance the game audio community.”
More info on the awards via the Gamasutra link below.
2009 Choice Awards Names Ambassador, Pioneers, Schafer As Host [Gamasutra]
See more posts about: Double Fine, Offworld Originals
GAME DEV CHOICE AWARDS TOPPED BY LITTLEBIGPLANET, BRAID, LEFT 4 DEAD
GDC organizers Think Services have announced the finalists for its recently mentioned Tim Schafer-hosted Game Developers Choice Awards show, with Media Molecule’s LittleBigPlanet topping the list with seven nominations across its various categories, including best design, art, best debut, innovation and game of the year.
Xbox Live Arcade time-shifting puzzler Braid is the second most nominated game with five, followed by a tie between Left 4 Dead and Fallout 3. Other nominations of interest: World of Goo for best downloadable, debut, and innovation, Mekensleep’s best debut Soul Bubbles, and Patapon and Echochrome for best handheld.
Hit the jump for the full list of nominees for the March 25th GDC-related ceremony. (more…)
See more posts about: Offworld Originals
BEHEMOTH NOW BUILDING A BETTER FROST KING
Oh! Is this going to be a series? Because I could get behind that. Following his original behind-the-Undead-Cyclops video, Behemoth’s Dan Paladin does another (16 minute!) look at the creation of Castle Crasher’s Frost King, which not only gives you a look at the design and animation process, but the Paladin-ification of the character, going from its original placeholder sketch to its full black-spot-wall-eyed glory.
The eagle-eyed will also spot Behemoth programmer Tom Fulp’s hirsute AIM screen-name and relentlessly badger him for details on their still-secret new game.
Frost King [The Behemoth]
Previously:
Behemoth show how to build a better Undead Cyclops – Offworld
The Behemoth talk Castle Crashers balance, ladies – Offworld
Castle Crashers gets Kinged – Offworld
See more posts about: Offworld Originals, Xbox 360
DUDE-A-DAY DOES ICO/SHADOW/LEFT 4 DUDES
Obviously I’ve neglected due diligence in keeping up with Andy ‘AtomicToy’ Helms’ Dude-a-Day dudes: his late Jan/early Feb dudes line up nicely as a two game tribute, with the surliest Ico I’ve ever seen, the most distracted Agro I’ve ever seen, and wonderful Left 4 Dead mugs, with Francis, again, showing a significant amount of self-loathing.
dude-a-day [atomictoy p4, via VG Arts]
Previously:
AtomicToy's Dude-a-Day Games Dudes – Offworld
Surly Hate Machine: Dance to everything Left 4 Dead's Francis can …
See more posts about: Andy Helms, Offworld Originals
BEAM RACER: MIT PREVIEWS BOGOST/MONTFORT ATARI 2600 BOOK
In other un-related Ian Bogost news, MIT Press has opened a Google Preview of the opening chapters of Bogost and MIT assistant professor Nick Montfort’s forthcoming book Racing the Beam, chronicling the life and times of the Atari 2600, and how the development pioneers at the time created “new techniques, mechanics, and even entire genres.”
Interestingly, the book takes the form of following the console’s lifespan through six key carts: Combat, Adventure, Pac-Man, Yars’ Revenge, Pitfall!, and Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back and what each would mean to games now.
Bogost is a consistently interesting voice — academic but highly approachable — in his columns for Gamasutra: very much looking forward to seeing what the two of them make of this under-explored chunk of the past.
Racing the Beam [MIT Press, Google Preview, via 8bitrocket, via GameSetWatch]
Previously:
Touch me I'm slick: Persuasive Games' experimental Jetset – Offworld
Passage's Jason Rohrer and emotional game experiences – Offworld
BAFTA to honor Pong/Atari head Nolan Bushnell – Offworld
Pixel porn: the brilliantly honest Yar's Revenge, Asteroids, Star …
What Does Your Soul Look Like (Part 2600) – Offworld
See more posts about: Offworld Originals
H.GRENADE REVEAL IPHONE SHOOTER/HACKER CIRCUIT STRIKE.ONE
“Casual games for hard core gamers” maker H.grenade have uploaded the first footage of their debut Unity-developed iPhone shooter/node-hacker Circuit Strike.One, and there’s not much to do but gawp.
It showcases some of the strongest UI work iPhone gaming’s had since the App Store opened its doors (little surprise, as grenadier Shay Casey appears to have cut his teeth on UI design for games like Silent Hill V), and is rife with fantastic little touches like the occasional spectrum glitch-out lightning flash.
Even better, the devs say what the video’s missing is “Rez-style synchronized AV effects” to an original soundtrack that’s promised in the next look at the game.
Circuit Strike.One [H.grenade]
See more posts about: Offworld Originals
ON WIRES AND PUMPS: PERSUASIVE GAMES TALKS JETSET, APP STORE OPACITY
G4TV have posted a new interview with Persuasive Games’ Ian Bogost taking a deeper look at the development process of their recently mentioned location-aware iPhone airport security parody Jetset, giving Bogost some air-time to not only express some frustration with the opacity (or lack thereof) of Apple’s approval process (and thusly explaining the late-January appearance of a snowglobe), but also its selectiveness on just what the company deems ‘offensive’:
Their first gripe was about what they claimed was offensive sexual content in the game, which amounted to a couple things that we had included based on these stories.
There was this guy in Chicago a couple years ago, who had this penis pump that he was trying to take in a carry on. Someone asked him what it was, and they thought he said it was a bomb, or he was joking and he said it was a bomb. And there was this kind of international story about this whole thing because it was funny but also it really highlighted the kind of embarrassment of having a personal item exposed to the world. And so that was one that they were uncomfortable with.
We had also included a woman’s underwire bra, because there’s just a whole mess of stories about the underwire in women’s brassieres setting off certain metal detectors when their sensitivity is raised. And this has led to actually quite a large number of complaints about, you know, inappropriate groping by agents. So these are two items that Apple found offensive I guess. And you know, the thing about the penis pump, is that yeah ok maybe it’s a little off-color, but I can also buy Austin Powers on iTunes, which is just riddled with penis pumps and the consumer in that case is given the choice about what to think about that content, Apple’s not making it for them.
Despite the roadblocks Persuasive hit with the game, Bogost also makes note of two more forthcoming similarly news-worthy and “anti-panic” games coming to the platform later this year, via the link below.
The Making of an iPhone Game & Things That Make Apple Uncomfortable [G4tv.com]
Previously:
Touch me I'm slick: Persuasive Games' experimental Jetset – Offworld
See more posts about: Offworld Originals
LET’S DIG: GLOBAL GAME JAM GAME BROWSER GOES LIVE
The Global Game Jam has officially drawn to a close, and now the real work begins: mining the output for any hidden gems.
The Game Jam teams have uploaded all of the worldwide output for download here, and the Independently Speaking blog has already got underway at pointing toward some notable entries. I’m about to start to do the same myself and will update with any excitement I unearth, and please do the same with anything amazing you find (or created and are proud of!) via the comments.
Previously:
World of Goo's Kyle Gabler gives top 7 Global Game Jam tips – Offworld
Global Game Jam Continues! Here's live video (without kittens …
See more posts about: Offworld Originals
LEFT 4 LOVE: ALEXANDRIA NEONAKIS’ LATEST VALENTINES
The yearly return of new games valentines from Halifax illustrator Alexandria ‘beavotron‘ Neonakis is one tradition I could really get used to. It started with Katamari, Colossus, and Warcraft, moved on to Team Fortress 2 (1, 2, 3, 4, 5), and now her set of five Left 4 Dead cards above (plus one group-shot bonus) suitable for printing and startling someone with.
Alexandria Neonakis [Beavotron, Deviantart, via the always excellent VGArts]
Previously:
Left 4 Dead: Savage beyond belief – Offworld
Left 4 Dead: the twits don't stand a chance – Offworld
See more posts about: Offworld Originals
AND THEN THERE WERE FOUR: OLLY MOSS TAKES ON SILENT HILL
Olly Moss soars through number five of his 9-game “Classics” cover art series, this time with the horrible, gnawing dread of radio static in Silent Hill. This leaves four, and then (did I miss this before?) a “big screen print” of all nine (yeah!).
Olly Moss’s Videogame Classics [Flickr]
Previously:
Olly Moss's Penguin-inspired Videogame Classics covers – Offworld
Olly Moss's Man With The Golden Gear – Offworld
Olly Moss brings a touch of class to Black Mesa – Offworld
See more posts about: Offworld Originals, Olly Moss
