LISTEN: VIRT’S 8-BIT HAPPY HARDCORE FROM BLIPFEST 2007
Newly uploaded by Reformat the Planet producers 2 Player Productions: extended and gorgeously shot video from BlipFest 2007, including the happy chirps of Virt above, Polytron’s Jason ‘6955’ DeGroot doing an even shoe-gazier deconstructed version of his Fez theme song (below, see the first here), and more from Loud Objects and Huoratron.
2PP has a two-disc DVD of the entire show available for sale via Filmbaby.
Blip Festival 2007: The Videos [Filmbaby]
Previously:
- Listen: 6955 remixes Fez title track – Offworld
- Kaiju artist Lamour Supreme does games design for DataPop – Offworld
- Endless Loop: TWC's academic study of chiptune history – Offworld
- 8Bitpeoples/BlipFest prep Data Pop 09 SXSW chiptune party – Offworld
- BBtv: Jellica, Mr. Spastic, and Nullsleep at Blip Festival 2008 …
- BBtv: Bubblyfish at Blip Festival 2008 – Offworld
- Offworld: Music Archives
See more posts about: Listen, Music, Offworld Originals
SO GOO-D: THIRD PARTY WORLD OF GOO HACK/MOD SITE GOOFANS
Whirring away since early November — and apparently unrelated to the previously mentioned open-source level editor — is GooFans, a repository of third party hacks, mods and new themes for 2D Boy’s PC version of World of Goo.
The site is integrated with an app called GooTool (with Mac and Linux versions also available), which lets you “build a custom World of Goo based on your preferences and selected add-ins” all downloadable from the GooFans site.
The first hack I’m angling toward? My-Key’s stereoscopic 3D level.
Levels and mods for the World of Goo [GooFans, 2D Boy’s official hack/mod forum]
Previously:
- 2D Boy's World of Goo: The community updates – Offworld
- At the core of the World of Goo – Offworld
- Scream real loud: the playable origins of World of Goo – Offworld
- Tarballs: World of Goo released for Linux – Offworld
- Švankmajer does Goo: Portly Pig's claymation creation, The …
- Listen: 2D Boy's free World of Goo soundtrack – Offworld
See more posts about: Offworld Originals
DONKEY KONG IN LIGHTS: STEVEN READ’S MEGGY JR. SUPER MONKEY KONG
Though Darius Kazemi’s still the unspoken champ of Evil Mad Scientist’s 8×8 LED portable Meggy Jr. RGB (having actually laid hands on and fallen a little in love with his Tiny Rogue during GDC [and made it further into its glorious glitched-out program-error netherworld than anyone apparently had before]), the newest heavyweight contender is Steven Read with his 1×1 sprite platformer Super Monkey Kong.
Wonderfully interpretive and surprisingly readable for a series of flashing lights, Super Monkey Kong is an 8×8 vertically-scrolling version of Donkey Kong, which completely sells itself with that giant purple Kong at the top of the level.
Head over to Steven Read’s site for the (unfortunately unembeddable) video to take in the full new-retro splendor.
Super Monkey Kong [Steve Read, via Denki Games’ twitter]
Previously:
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LITTLEBIGARTHOUSE: MATTHEW BARNEY’S CREMASTER COMES TO LITTLEBIGPLANET
Hey, here’s a sentence I never thought I’d be typing: PlayStation Network (and YouTube) user fluxlasers has set out to re-interpret the entirety of Matthew Barney’s cinema arthouse series Cremaster as a set of LittleBigPlanet levels.
Above, the Goodyear blimps and football stadium choreography of Cremaster 1, and below, fluxlasers’ rendition of the motorcycle sidecar races (and an appearance by Barney himself as the The Loughton Candidate) of Cremaster 4.
Fluxlaser Paul told the Cremaster Fanatics blog that he “plans to create levels based on all five Cremaster films. Once completed, he will incorporate all the levels into an area called The Cremaster Cycle where you start with Cremaster 4 and complete and unlock the levels in the same order the films were released. On the Cremaster 3 level there will be a hidden key which will unlock ‘The Order’ level.”
Fluxlasers channel [YouTube, via Negatendo, via Waxy]
Previously:
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THE FAWN-LIKE FUTURE SHUFFLE OF EON REALITY’S IMMERSIVE 3D ROOM
Says IDEO Labs of EON Reality’s immersive 3D ‘cave’ (which renders polarized stereoscopic imagery based on the position of the wearer’s glasses):
A simple, featherweight headset, a 10′ x 10′ x 10′ white room, and $600,000 worth of projector and computer equipment, combined with the smarts of the folks at Eon Reality, results in one insanely real experience.
Who knew once the future we were all waiting for finally got here it’d be so unbelievably disorienting? I get a little touch of motion sickness just watching him try and baby-step shuffle down the stairs. Where’s the power fantasy in that?
AMAZING 3D IMMERSION TECHNOLOGY [labs.IDEO, via core77, via Nathan]
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DIG DUGS & SONICS & BEARS: THE REST OF UNIQLO’S GAMES T-SHIRT LINEUP
Continuing Offworld’s quest to keep you perpetually well clothed: after drip-feeding new designs for the past several months, Japan’s Uniqlo has decided to blow-out the rest of its forthcoming officially licensed games T-shirt designs, showing off every card in its hands for the next several months.
Above you can see a few of the best: Parappa‘s adorable canine mug and the quasi-metal inspired Ghosts ‘n’ Goblins shirt (along with a bonus LittleBigPlanet ring-tee), and below, a quick-dump of all the rest of the assorted goods.
ユニクロ UT: UT×Japan Game [Uniqlo, via Capcom Unity]
Previously:
See more posts about: Fashion, Offworld Originals
MIT’S JENKINS, DRZAIC, RAUCH ON MORALITY & PHILOSOPHY IN ZELDA
MIT’s (and soon to be USC‘s) Henry Jenkins has posted a new interview with former students Peter Rauch and Kristina Drzaic (who I’m sure I’ve seen commenting around Offworld a time or two) on their contributions to the recently released pop culture/philosophy collection ‘The Legend of Zelda and Philosophy: I Link Therefore I Am‘ (!).
Approaching the subject from two backgrounds (Drzaic’s from her thesis on secrets and glitches in games, and Rauch on morality in games), the two have created a mashup chapter called “Slave Morality and Master Swords,” and, while I haven’t seen the piece itself, I did enjoy this quote from Drzaic (along with the post as a whole):
Peter and I both agree that the game series of Zelda is not, narratively speaking, a morass of intriguing philosophical questions. Every Zelda game has the same plot and In the Zelda world morality is fully black and white, good and evil. While replaying the same plot might sound boring, it isn’t. Each game looks different, feels different, and behaves differently. Players keep coming back because the play itself is the attraction.]
The act of play is where the philosophical questions become interesting. As you work your way through the game world you can subvert the seriousness, the story, and the philosophy itself through your play. In this way, Zelda is a good case study for how philosophical questions can function within a videogame; our book explores the experience of the player vs. the reality of the game…
Defying the laws of a game is an illicit pleasure. In the case of [a glitch in Ocarina letting players fly] meant being able to explore the space in a new way and see incomplete construction and the game world’s edge. The experience of flying in Zelda was like gaining access to the Disneyland Magic Kingdom underbelly or peeking behind the stage of a play. In flying through the air and playing with glitches you get to see things that are not meant for your eyes. It destroys the fiction but it also gives you, as a player, great freedom and mastery over the space.
Head over to Jenkins’ Confessions of an Aca/Fan blog for the full interview.
Getting Philosophical about Legend of Zelda: An Interview with Kristina Drzaic and Peter Rauch [Confessions of an Aca/Fan]
Previously:
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THE BEST SUPER MARIO WRITING UTENSIL NEVER MADE
Via Dotter Dotter, the blog from 3D pixelcrafter Tibori Design, previously mentioned for his Super Mario dioramas: a high-concept Mario pen Nintendo would do well to consider producing.
I’d buy three.
I want one of these! Piranha Plant ballpoint pen! [Dotter Dotter]
Previously:
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RETRO ART EXHIBIT FAMICASE RETURNING TO JAPAN IN MAY
Japan’s finest hipster retro/game culture store Meteor has announced via its blog that its Famicase art exhibit will be returning to the shop from May 2nd through the 31st.
What’s Famicase? A curated selection of original 8-bit Nintendo cartridges given new labels by the local finest design houses and illustrators, each imagining games never created.
Why should we care when it’s likely that the great majority of us won’t be able to make it in to see the show? Because if this year comes even half as close to the highlights of their 2008 show (my three favorites below), we’re in for a visual treat, regardless.
Check the updated Famicase site for a list of this year’s artists, and for a group page of all 2008 submissions.
My Famicase 2009 [via Super Meteor]
See more posts about: Famicase, Offworld Originals
EVERYTHING YOU’VE WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT LEFT 4 DEAD’S SURVIVAL MODE DLC
With Left 4 Dead‘s first free DLC pack to touch down as soon as next week, Valve have finally let loose precisely what its new “Survival” mode will amount to, and, in typical Valve style, they’ve done it with a thoughtful, chart-enhanced look behind its design.
As it turns out, it will be as simple as requiring a team to survive a fairly constant onslaught of infected as intense as the campaign mode’s final moments — and will chart via leaderboards the tighest-knit groups around the world — but, the team found, even an onslaught needs to be properly tuned.
Says Valve:
Given the extreme pace of Survival Mode, the number of zombies killed in a single round often outnumbers an entire campaign. Even optimizing towards using pistols to eliminate common hordes, ammunition usually becomes an issue at some point. As ammo piles provide a unique infinite resupply for players, they tend to be in relatively less defensible positions in the Survival arenas. This means making an all important ammo run is rarely a safe proposition and requires good teamwork and planning. Timing your resources correctly to be able to make a run when necessary can make or break a team. The perfect pipebomb or well placed molotov can mean the difference between a cakewalk and catastrophe.
The Hospital Elevator, for example, might seem like an easy Crescendo Event to conquer. Hit the elevator button and holdout until the doors open for a quick escape. In Survival Mode, however, the area begins locked down. Areas open as the hordes come in, breaking down the doors to reach the survivors. In each room there are additional caches of vital pills, pipes, and Molotovs. By moving from location to location, using up the plentiful supplies as needed, a team can maximize their time in a game where the elevator never arrives to offer escape. In other maps, items may be less plentiful and require careful planning on their usage. Managing one’s inventory and resources works hand-in-hand with teamwork in Survival Mode.
Head to the official Left 4 Dead blog for more on finely crafting chaos.
Surviving the L4D Survival Pack [Valve]
Previously:
See more posts about: Offworld Originals, Xbox 360
