PALM-DEEP IN THE DEAD: ID DETAILS IPHONE DOOM PORT
Hot on the heels of their Wolfenstein 3D iPhone release, Id technical director John Carmack has posted a lengthy, and, well, technical, look at the work they’ve done on the soon-to-be-released port of Doom.
In contrast to Wolfenstein, which Carmack says was simply a “quickie project to satisfy my curiosity and test the iPhone waters,” Id has undertaken an “honest development effort” to make the port “a really good game on a platform that doesn’t have a keyboard and mouse or an excess of processing power.”
The first version to be released will support WiFi multiplayer, with a later iPhone OS 3.x exclusive release that will also support bluetooth, but Carmack says latency issues keep the game from being playable online over 3G.
Most intriguingly, Carmack says that with the release and subsequent popularity of even very large iPhone apps, like the 700 meg-large Myst, he’s considering taking the platform even more seriously:
The fact that people are downloading Myst on the iPhone is heartening — I have ideas for leveraging our high end idTech-5 content creation pipeline for a future iPhone game, if people will go for a few hundred meg download.
iPhone Doom Classic Progress Report [iD]
Previously:
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GIMME INDIE TOOLS: 2D BOY UNLEASH OPEN-SOURCE RAPID PROTOTYPING FRAMEWORK
Attn. would-be indie devs: World of Goo creators 2D Boy, as they gear up to develop their next game, have just released this simple open-source framework for rapid prototyping, a process which 2D Boy Kyle Gabler notably employed to create the original Tower of Goo at the Experimental Gameplay Project. The framework, they say, will:
1. Minimize the amount of code required to set up a new game
2. Provide all the basic facilities so as to avoid wasting time reinventing the wheel (2D rendering, sound, input, persistence layer, and resource management)
While the 2D Boys won’t be providing any support beyond the two included sample games, they have set up a new forum to discuss development on the framework. Let us know if you make something incredible!
Rapid Prototyping Framework [2D Boy]
Previously:
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FROM GOLDENEYE TO GARDENING: THE FANTASTIC FOLIAGE OF BONSAI BARBER
You will be forgiven for overlooking the release of Zoonami‘s WiiWare debut Bonsai Barber several weeks back — I might have too, if I didn’t know firsthand the pedigree of the studio behind it. Zoonami is, as it turns out, the studio founded by former Rare designer Martin Hollis, one of the foundational design team behind Nintendo 64 Bond shooter GoldenEye 007, who left in the midst of Perfect Dark development to strike out at his own studio.
In the intervening years, Zoonami had thus far only eked out a single game, DS/PSP minigame/Sudoku mashup Zendoku (which, much to its credit, is the only Sudoku game that’s actually managed to hold my attention for more than a round or two and is well worth investigating), with another two years passing until Barber‘s release.
Of course, there’s nothing that overtly ties Goldeneye and Bonsai together to say that fans of one would be instantly drawn to the other, except to say that both are, truly, exceptional games. (more…)
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REFORMAT THE PLANET DIRECTORS VISIT INFAMOUS DEVS SUCKER PUNCH
Speaking of studio visits, I might have entirely passed by this series of Sucker Punch video diaries describing the concept and development of just released PS3 exclusive action game inFamous if producer Paul Levering hadn’t recently sent them in.
Levering is, as you might recall, one of the producers behind the ongoing BlipFest DVD series and chiptunes documentary Reformat The Planet, and 2 Player Productions’ now-signature style manages to make beautiful shots out of even the simple talking-heads.
Part one is above, see part two and part three.
2 Player Productions [Thanks, Paul!]
Previously:
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OFFWORLD PSA: NINTENDO’S RHYTHM HEAVEN ITUNES VISUALIZER IS AMAZING
I spent longer than I’d like to admit trying to put together the ultimate Hudson Mohawke – Polkadot Blues YouTube sample that would prove just what I mean, but for now you’re going to just have to take my word and the image above.
Tiff sent me a heads up yesterday that tucked away in amongst the Flash navigation at Nintendo’s website for DS favorite Rhythm Heaven was an official iTunes visualizer, and though it continually crashed her Mac, it runs beautifully on my PC.
As I would come to find out, what it proves beyond reasonable doubt is that nearly every piece of music is exponentially better when accompanied by: effete frogs, erlenmeyer flask-shaking lab partners, thick-lipped Moai heads, guitar wielding ghosts, and dogs done up in rocket-mech suits, all throbbing and pulsing to the beat.
Let the Rhythm Heaven site come to a complete load and check the left nav for the link. [Hope you get yours working, Tiff!]
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ONE SHOT: ELLIOTT BURFORD’S POSTHUMOUS REGRET
Eternity’s a long time with no Mole Mania. From the sketchbook pages of Elliott Burford (who also has strong words for Tetris).
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LAND OF THE RISING SUNNY: SIMON PARKIN’S NANAON-SHA STUDIO VISIT
Says UK journalist and Offworld contributor Simon Parkin of his latest upstart photo series WorkStation:
Offices are offices, whatever their location, but having visited a number of development studios across the world, I still find it interesting how diverse they can be in the details. You can tell so much about the minds and ideas that inhabit a desk just by looking at the detritus on and around it.
WorkStation aims to be an intermittent feature, offering a window into the development environments of studios around the world.
And he’s started it off in as wonderful a place as I could imagine, Parappa dev NanaOn-Sha‘s Tokyo studio, with, as above, a full size figure of WonderSwan oddity Rhyme Rider Kerorican and more Parappa/UmJammer Lammy merch than you could ever fathom. Visit Parkin’s Chewing Pixels blog for the whole set.
WorkStation #1: NanaOn-Sha [chewing pixels]
Previously:
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ONE SHOT: SCOTT C.’S KEEPING THEM AT BAY
Devo as fearless Earth Defense Force, by Double Fine artist Scott C., part of Gallery Nineteen Eighty Eight‘s ongoing ‘Quiet Storm’ exhibit (though my favorite may be Simon and Garfunkel’s magical Friendship Trip).
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MUG SHOT: CAPCOM KOREA’S PROMOTIONAL SERVBOT COFFEE MUGS
Apologies for the lack of updates lately — I’ve been suffering from extreme under-the-weatherness for a few days now — and for the brief catchup I’ll be doing to get the site back up to speed.
As mea culpa, I offer another in a long line of objects to covet (and to keep your eyes peeled on eBay for): this set of Dead Rising Servbot mugs, meant to be served during your own dawn of the dead, and emblazoned with both series producer (and Mega Man creator) Keiji Inafune’s john hancock and Mega Man sketch.
The don’t-call-them-Lego-headed Servbots continue to be a Capcom series favorite, most notably for their appearance in what might have been the studio’s top three shining moments of the PlayStation era: action/puzzler The Misadventures of Tron Bonne, a game I’d desperately like to see come to the PlayStation Network store for PS3/PSP play.
Say “Good Morning” with a Servbot Coffee Mug [Capcom-Unity]
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ONE SHOT: FOTOLOGICO’S INVASIóN ESPACIAL EN LA CAPITAL DE ESPAñA
Madrid invaded, by Fotologico. [via GamOvr]
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