ONE SHOT: PETRI PURHO’S FRACTALLY FITTED INVADERS
More curious developments in our latest Purho edition of What’s He Building In There (which I suppose really should be its own category), as the Crayon Physics creator extends the generative aspects of his last character prototype even further with these mathematically created and arranged pixel Invaders.
As a bonus double shot, a look at a tiny fraction of the 32,768 unique invaders that can be created in a 5×5 grid, courtesy Jared ‘Levitated‘ Tarbell, original author of the fractal invader code that Purho’s prototype is loosely based upon. [all via Petri himself]
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TORONTO DEVS KETARA RELEASE UNAUTHORIZED FLOW CLONE TO IPHONE
And then this happened: none less than thatgamecompany’s Jenova Chen notes that Toronto iPhone developer Ketara — whose mission statement contends they were founded as “an outlet for new, interesting ideas” — has just released Aquatica, a game that is nothing less than a direct copy of the original Flash implementation of Chen’s flOW, straight down to the peripheral sonar-like pings of its ascending/descending markers.
Chen told 1up that he had released the original Flash source to a number of people who emailed and asked for it, though Ketara have commented that “all the source code is completely, 100% written from scratch.”
But, at issue for Chen, apparently, is not necessarily one of code theft — telling 1up that an iPhone version was something he wanted to pursue himself, if its IP weren’t now tangled up with Sony — but rather the fact that Ketara make no mention of his or thatgamecompany’s name as at very least its inspiration:
I thought the creation of Aquatica is a very flattering thing because they mimic the game I created in the university and somewhat realized my dream for a flOw game on the iPhone. It could be a very sweet thing if they did this as a fan ware and put it out for free. But the fact they didn’t mention flOw at all and call it a ‘new, unique game completely in a class of its own’ is disappointing.
Ketara, for their part, contend:
What’s wrong with adapting a general idea of one game to the iPhone? No one had done this before, and we wanted to play it with tilt controls. In general, most games within each class are practically the same, just different graphics.
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FIGUREPETS: LITTLE COMPANIONS FOR YOUR WORLD OF WARCRAFT FIGURES
Just launched by FigurePrints — the company behind the customized one-off models of your World of Warcraft characters — is FigurePets.
While they’re not uniquely modeled, they are limited edition: FigurePrints says each three-print run — here starting with “Speedy, Clockwork Rocket Bot and and Stinker” — will never be run again after an allotted time, which this time ends on July 31st. As a bonus, ordering the pets gets you a 10 percent discount off your own custom FigurePrint character, as well.
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BE@R/TET: MEDICOM REVEAL NEW DESIGNER TETRIS TOYS
Remember word in February that Kubrick/Be@rbrick makers Medicom were planning an unlikely crossover with a new Tetris model Be@r? Well, that was no joke, and so now behold, the world’s first designer Tetris toy, part of Medicom’s 18th series of collectibles.
Also apparently on its way in a few short weeks, this separate collector’s model, in association with Japan’s official Tetris portal, tetrisonline.jp. Keep an eye on eBay for them to start making their way through soon, alongside fellow series 18 Terminator, Spongebob, Stimpy (!), and hardcore-tattooed Tokidoki ‘bricks.
Previously:
- Blocks meet 'bricks: Tetris coming to Be@rbrick toy series
- Zombie Snake: Medicom's latest Metal Gear Solid 3 vinyl
- Rolito unleashes new Patapon toy
- New Rolito toy: Patapon X our one true heart – Offworld
- Weekend Watching: the story of Tetris, 25 years later
- Tiny Tetris in a wide, wide well
- Building blocks: Reece Ward's Tetris Skyline T-shirt
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RAGDOLL METAPHYSICS: COULD THE XBOX 360 BE THE LAST CONSOLE YOU BUY? (OR, THE ACTUAL MOST IMPORTANT NEWS OF E3)
Oft-quoted industry analyst Michael Pachter, of Wedbush Morgan Securities, had something to say about E3’s announcements. All that games chatter was one thing, but Pachter thought the real news was all the other web media deals that Microsoft had made for the 360.
“The announcement that I thought was missed was the opening of the Xbox Live Dashboard interface to the internet,” Pachter told Gamasutra. “Later this year, Microsoft will allow members to access last.fm and to select music, to access Netflix and instantly watch films/TV shows, to access Facebook and interact with other friends, and to access Twitter and post/read tweets.”
Pachter argues that the gaming media entirely missed the significance of this announcement, which puts the 360 firmly in the same territory as Apple’s AppleTV, only with a library of awesome games. With so many 360s already installed around the world, MS have a good chance to become the default choice for web media on your TV. A colleague of mine – one of the big boys of the games media who definitely didn’t miss out on the significance of the this particular announcement – proclaimed that “Microsoft have won, and no one even said anything.”
My kneejerk reaction was to say that no, it’s not that this idea has been ignored – indeed it’s been bounced around for so long that I don’t think it really came as a surprise to anyone and, consequently, it didn’t get a great deal of coverage. But, far more importantly, this is gaming, and the platform which ends up having the best library of games will win. (more…)
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BEHIND THE SCENES: HOW TETRIS BLOCKS ARE MADE
You didn’t think they just popped up on screen themselves, did you? Commercial animation by South Korea’s WooDUS, who are also behind this vaguely Bubble Bobble-esque title animation. [indirectly via Myk Dawg]
Previously:
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ONE SHOT: LITTLESOUNDDJ, THE KEYBOARD
Sinclair‘s been served, rainbow style: 8bitcollective member Ralp uses his custom LSDJ keyboards during live performances to control his Game Boy’s output, explaining: “the arrows are used to step through the channels, Page Down and Page Up to go up and down the screen (B + Up / Down), ENTER to launch (START).” [via TheBBPS]
Previously:
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FEMME FATALE: GRAVEYARD, PATH CREATORS TAKING ON WILDE’S SALOMé
Due for release on October 5th — in celebration of the 78th anniversary of the play’s first English performance — The Path and The Graveyard creators Tale of Tales have announced Fatale, a new interactive version of the tale of Salome, based primarily on Oscar Wilde’s 1891 interpretation.
The production will reunite most of the key players involved in the making of the IGF-nominated art piece The Graveyard, including composers and musicians Gerry De Mol, Jarboe and Kris Force, with a yet-unnamed “extremely talented and very well known game artist” working on the character design.
Tale of Tales say players will explore the story — in which Salome, under orders from her mother, seduces her step-father with ‘the dance of seven veils’ so he will agree to behead John the Baptist, who had condemned the mother/step-father’s marriage — “through the emotions and thoughts of the characters involved.”
Add creators Auriea Harvey and Michael Samyn:
We’re interested in the idea of a love story that ends in death, but we also want to include other elements of the tale. The fact, for instance, that Salomé may have been just an insecure girl who was manipulated by her mother, Queen Herodias – who then ends up becoming the real “femme fatale”. We’re also very sensitive to the political tension that underlies the tale: a Middle Eastern country -Judea- occupied by Westerners -Romans- at a time of religious unrest -the birth of Christianity. And this girl, Salomé, just has the head chopped off of one of the most important figures of the time. On a whim, apparently, or for unrequited love, changing the course of history.
Follow their progress at the just-launched Fatale site.
Previously:
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TWEET (#2303033822)
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8-BIT VJS REJOICE: OPEN EMU LETS YOU CONTROL GAMES WITH AUDIO, MIDI
Very well spotted by friends of Offworld Create Digital Motion is this new modular emulation system for Macs that — while performing all of emulation’s standard grey-market duties — is most notable for being able to add real time effects to the playback — both visual and mechanically.
CDM lists its most important features:
* High-quality OpenGL scaling, multithreaded playback, and other optimizations
* Audio or MIDI actually plays the game (and can also be used to make the game line up with music)
* Play multiple ROMs at the same time
* Real-time 3D effects, image processing – and route game controllers to those effects
Hit their full breakdown for example instructional videos, and be sure to ping us back to let us know what you’re doing with it.
Open Emu: Free Game Emulation on Mac, Quartz Composer – Even VJ with Games [Create Digital Motion]
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