OFFWORLD GALLERY: THE GAMES FACTORY, HOW MARIO, TETRIS, SONIC, PONG WERE MADE
I’ve already highlighted some of the excellent photography in the latest issue of France’s games/fashion mag Amusement, but this one’s even more special: a series of photographs from the magazine’s Made of Myth feature, in which photographer Marc Da Cunha Lopes (“aisakie“) shows us the factory work behind the most iconic games of the past few decades: the smelting of Sonic‘s rings, the chiseling of the 1-Up mushroom, and the rubber-pressed rebounding blocks of Arkanoid.
Below the fold, then, the full high-res gallery, with special permission from Amusement. (more…)
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BEATERATOR: ROCKSTAR/TIMBALAND’S MUSICMAKER COMING TO PSP IN SEPTEMBER
We were as surprised as anyone in March to hear that Rockstar’s Beaterator — a music sequencer/tracker based on their original 2005 Flash/web experiment — was back on track for a 2009 release, and curious about Take Two being coy with the platform on which it would eventually land.
And now we know, as Take Two announce that — as it was always intended to be — the project is due for a release in September on the PSP (alongside a digital only release on the PlayStation Network), and drop off the video above.
The only question remaining is the actual mechanisms behind which we’ll be able to share our resulting music: trading custom save files? MP3 exports? But there’s hardly a month left until all will be officially revealed.
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ONE SHOT: STREETPONG, THE SECOND
And more Pong taken to the streets, part of Patrick Runte‘s photo series of physical arcade games, which, please don’t miss his Pac-Man, Space Invaders and pinball, as well. [via GSW]
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CRUMBLING ECONOMY: W!GAMES ANNOUNCE PSN EXCLUSIVE STRATEGY GAME GREED CORP
Though PopCap designer Jason Kapalka recently famously warned that a hexagon’s very shape itself turns off casual players with its “vibe of science, of dirty stuff, of war games,” Amsterdam’s W!Games aren’t letting that stand in their way for their just-announced PlayStation 3 exclusive downloadable game Greed Corp.
Part of that, obviously, is because Greed Corp is a war game, but one that, as is clear from the trailer above with its steampunk-ish self-ambulatory harvesters, is couched in lighter and less gritty territory than your usual tabletop conflict.
W! says the game — which plays off an environmental bent in which four territories are literally ruining the earth beneath their feet in an industrial revolution race for resources — will include both a single player campaign as well as options for 2-4 player local or online multiplayer games, will come with “multiple unlockables for a variety of challenges.” The game is due for release on the PlayStation Network in September.
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WEB WORK: TIGER STYLE’S SPIDER: THE SECRET OF BRYCE MANOR IN MOTION
In a rare happy accident, Apple approved Tiger Style’s recently lauded debut iPhone game Spider: The Secret of Bryce Manor [App Store link] well before anyone had expected, which had the unintended side effect of putting the game in players’ hands even before the studio had finished their promotional trailer.
That wait, at least, is now over, as above, which gives you the best showcase yet of the game’s fantastically illustrative style (provided in part by Austin’s own Amanda Williams) and playful mix of action mechanics over top its underlying adventure.
On the latter part, designer Randy Smith has just published a post-mortem of the project at Edge, where he explains of the game’s interweaving of narrative goals:
One of our test levels had a shot glass and liquor bottle on a lonely table, which generated more response than we anticipated. Who was drinking here all alone? What were they depressed about? This grew into a decision that the story shouldn’t be the spider’s but the environment’s, whose history would be revealed through set dressing…
This is a dead story, one you cannot change but only discover through exploration. Often in games, stepping into your character’s shoes leaves you wishing you had the interface for countless actions you’d take in real life. As a spider, your lack of interest and ability to affect the story is natural, and you fill the role your character would in real life: you leave the house covered in cobwebs.
See my earlier review for more on just how well that worked, but really, there’s almost no excuse to not simply take the plunge. You will not regret it.
Spider: The Secret of Bryce Manor [Tiger Style, App Store link]
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TOKIDOKI, UPPER PLAYGROUND, I-AM-8-BIT ARTISTS CREATING NEED FOR SPEED NITRO DESIGNS
I legitimately sometimes worry that I’m quickly devolving into a parody of myself, and it sure doesn’t help when this happens: EA Montreal have announced new partnerships for their upcoming Wii and DS-bound racer Need for Speed Nitro, and, having paid almost no mind to the game in previous months, it’s suddenly squarely on my radar.
Why? Because those partnerships are with: Italian vinyl toy/design studio Tokidoki (whose car you see above), SF art brand Upper Playground — a collective that includes the respective bunny-skulled and heavy-handed art of Offworld faves Jeremy Fish and Sam Flores — and, finally, all the artists behind the past few years of I-am-8bit shows.
EA says each have “created custom skins for a wide variety of vehicles including the Lamborghini Gallardo, Dodge Challenger, Dodge Charger R/T, Volkswagen Type 2 and Subaru Impreza WRX,” and have “provided over 140 stylistic brushes that players can use to paint and personalize their ride,” and now my lifelong dream to make a car with a CactusPup or sad/cute/hardcore rabbit on it go really really fast can finally be fulfilled.
Need for Speed Nitro [EA Montreal]
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OFFWORLD GALLERY: THE DELICATE NOSTALGIA OF GHOSTPATROL’S GAMES-INSPIRED ART
In the second Offworld Gallery for the day, we look at the games-inspired pieces by Melbourne artist Ghostpatrol. Above and below are two of his most recent works, from a series called “me playing the video games that changed my life”, both fantastically fragile and delicately rendered — a trait, it turns out that carries through all of his pieces.
Below the fold you’ll find the rest of the “changed my life” series, and a selection of older, Mario, Mega Man and Zelda-inspired pieces from the past several years, all used with permission of the artist and taken from the Ghostpatrol website, where you’ll find even more pop-culture related pieces, including more or less the most adorable He-Men and Skeletors outside of DoubleFine artist Scott C’s own collection. (more…)
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RED SERPENT: JORDAN MECHNER RELEASES THE LAST EXPRESS PREQUEL SCRIPT
Following the recent mix-down of his post Prince of Persia adventure game The Last Express to more quickly-digestible video form, Jordan Mechner has just dug up and released Red Serpent — the unfinished first draft script of what would have become a prequel to Express.
Set 10 years before Express and starring that game’s main character Robert Cath, Mechner notes that “the plot bears a more-than-slight resemblance to The Da Vinci Code, which would be published the following year,” and says “I’d guess that Dan Brown and I had been reading the same pseudo-historical “research,” including Holy Blood, Holy Grail by Baigent and Leigh (who did, in fact, sue Brown for plagiarism, and lost).”
The 48 page script [direct PDF link] was dropped quickly after it had begun in 2002, as his involvement on Prince of Persia: Sands of Time took up the majority of his time. Says Mechner: “It was the right decision.”
Previously:
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FLIPPING OUT: NINTENDO RELEASES FREE SKETCHBOOK ANIMATION APP TO DSIWARE
In a relatively surprise release (the European version was meant to be added to DSiWare before the Americans received it), Nintendo have officially unleashed FlipNote Studio, the same web-sharable flipbook animation system originally covered here back in December as Ugoku Memo Chou (Moving Memo Book).
The app is available for free on the DSiWare store, and, as above, the underlying web service is currently live at flipnote.hatena.com, where you can browse, rate, favorite and embed animations uploaded from the DSi itself. As mentioned before, users can embed their own recorded sounds, or use monochromatic stills captured from the DS’s camera in their animations as well as painting them by hand.
Don’t judge me too hard on my debut flick — it’s a work in progress, alright! And, it goes without saying, I’m looking forward to seeing what everyone comes up with.
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SOUL JUNK: BEHEMOTH OFFICIALLY DETAIL THEIR GAME #3
Finally, after months of conjecture, Castle Crashers devs The Behemoth have officially begun the process of revealing the inner workings of Game 3, the fantastically and adorably chaotic multiplayer arena game we’ve seen hints and traces of a few times before.
Included here: the first guided look at the “soul mode” section, a directly competitive mode where players use their customized offensive/defensive weapons — there’s a strong emphasis being placed on customization of all aspects of your avatar here, dev Dan Paladin explains — to knock the souls from others and hold on to them as long as you can.
Still to be revealed in later updates: the Zelda 4 Swords-ish reluctant ‘co-opertition’ we’ve previously some of its other modes, any hint at what Behemoth promise is a ‘wonderful’ underlying story, and just why, exactly, the jewel makes the little guys cry.
Previously:
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