On Etsy, of course.
There's an official BY drought, as the filmmakers didn't want to spoiler the character by having toy plans leak, so it's only fast-turnaround toys like Funko that are currently available.
It's going to be a bloodbath when the official plushies arrive...
Emerging just to post this...
It's under one fifty, and it's... vegan... and we're all going to need one eventually.
About once every six months I see something that makes me want to actually blog it instead of just-tweeting, because it's that marvellous.
Behold: the Powerglove Oven Mitt. Or maybe ... THE POWERGLOVEN.
I'm getting two, KAPOWA!
A pal told me about this yesterday, and it looks like something straight out of a sci-fi movie.
In Fragments, your AR headset will first map your play space - likely your living room. Then the game overlays the play onto your real stuff: game characters sit on your furniture, and game events take place right in front of you.
"We're able to put a thumbprint on a matchbook that we hide behind your coffee table, so that you actually have to physically get up and find that pivotal clue..."
I'm not fond of the avatars (as they are here) or the clunky avatar-delivery of the storytelling, but you can see where this can go, of course. Amazing stuff.
(Thanks, Jamie!)
Here's how to get smarter, quicker: (back and) play Losswords.
It's made by game industry legends Eric Zimmerman (<-- Diner Dash!) & Colleen Macklin and John S. As a player, you get to make & break codes created from public domain classic literature...
In the future world of Losswords, books have been banned and video games are the only form of state-approved culture. You are a member of secret literary underground called The Readers. To keep books alive and out of sight from the oppressive government regime, you scramble and unscramble passages from famous works of literature...
It's not out yet - the Kickstarter is successfully backed, but the stretch goals include Android versions and moar books - so I can't tell how fiendishly hard (or not?) it is. Also whether it requires either an epic literary knowledge to win... or just really excellent googling/in-OCR search skills.
Either way, I'm betting on myself to pwn the Alice in Wonderland challenge, given that I've been given about 23 copies of it over my birthdaylifetime. <3
Congrats, Eric, Colleen & John!
I wrote up some thoughts - SO FAR - on VR over at BoingBoing.
I'm finding it fascinating to watch the VR story unfurl: it feels like the hypey-hype peaks are higher than ever, and the sceptic-meh lows too. Everything seems to be so much more extreme these days, doesn't it?
I'm in the for-VR camp, but only because I've had a go with Tiltbrush on Vive, and found myself completely paralysed in The Walk (couldn't do it. Nope.). Fully-Immersive-VR-With-Hands is an amazing experience, and I want one in the living room.
'Course, that currently puts me in the titchy fraction of a percent who a) wants this now and b) can maybe just about afford it - still pondering that one - and c) thinks it's worth spending money despite there being far more important things going on in the world. Sometimes you just want to Not Think About Those for a few minutes and selfishly doodle in 3D instead.
And that's the strongest of the skeptic positions: "It's (still) not ready yet for the mainstream".
Google and Facebook, though. They are mainstream, and they are building this for the masses. Putting also-amazing AR aside, and glasses, bots, drones, messaging and healthcare*, I am thumbs-up that VR is a Thing that's here Now.
Lots of work to do, tho, starting with affordable rigs, cheap bluetoothy gestural devices, better headset styling, a far better understanding of the native experience(s) that best suit the platform, more data on whether it harms eyes/kids/the furniture, etc x 20.
Fun times!
Remember that Autodesk-Mattel announcement of nearly a year ago? The fruit has ripened, rather beautifully.
Here's Mattel's ThingMaker, a $300 toymaking desktop factory. The first kid-centric 3D printer to properly make it to market.
Though it's named Mattel's ThingMaker, the product looks to have a pretty straightforward, Autodesk-centric genealogy. The machine seems to be a variant of traditional desktop filament 3DP (with a nice moulded casing); Autodesk has lots of recent machine-building XP via Autodesk's Ember. The app is the grandchild of Modibot and Modio, which was bought by Autodesk last year. Looks like a pretty easy-to-broker deal, then, that ;-)
Hasbro's Easy-Bake Oven was launched in the 60s, and is still super popular, despite only making cake and cookies (OK maybe that's the popularity). This machine, however - and especially its future descendants - will be able to bake all kinds of interesting and on-demand toys. Can't wait to see where this goes.
OK. Some background on this one. If you don't know Rex, he's a genius game-designing artist, He Who Created Tearaway, and was instrumental to the creation of (or maybe created it, I dunno, but teams are good) Little Big Planet. And Moo: Moo has worked on all kinds of games, and when I got to work with him for a few months, he's one of those guys who is a never-ending stream of Really Amazing Game Suggestions. Creative, smart, knowledgeable. And Kenny! He wears silver boiler suits.
In Knights and Bikes, you will play as Nessa and Demelza on their quest for the truth behind the medieval legends of Penfurzy, an island on the fast track to financial ruin and literal destruction. Recruit a party of creatures from all walks of life, enlist and inspire deflated islanders, and embark on an adventure to find the hero the island so desperately needs.
Female-y protagonists. The company is called Foam Sword! It has bmxes in it and silliness. I love it.
This game is going to break the $1m kickstarter barrier, or it bloody well SHOULD. Back it already.
It is the week for amazing games on Kickstarter, at least from my POV because friends are displaying their ridiculous talent this week ;-D
First up: Fabulous Beasts. Many have watched this project come to life, as Alex and the team have lugged the box-of-parts everywhere: to houses, to conferences, to pitches. They playtested it into bits and back up to pieces again. And now it's ready to be Made Real.
Digital-physical stuff is three times as hard as single-type stuff because you have to figure out the hardware, the game, and the bridge software, and you're also probably having to figure out marketing, your customer database and fundraising too.
So look at this.
What an achievement.
A fantastic looking game, a fantastic looking set of objects, and a solid plan to execute. I can't wait to own this, Poesy's going to love it.
Fabulous Beasts on Kickstarter.
Pretty swoofy. Looks laptop-ready. Would wear.
32 quid. Not bad!
Reversible Nintendo backpack also pretty nifty.
I can tell you, most of 'em won't come off the printer looking like that: there will be screen stickering going on, but still. Cayoot.
Cute mug.
Cute ... blankie?!
REALLY cute PILLOW. I may have to have this one.
Take a moment to appreciate how merch has changed in the last 10 years.
Imminent life-priorities issue looming:
The realness is nuts. It cheers me that in my lifetime - just in time for retirement, probably - the realism + worldbuilding + VR and that gubbins means a whole ton of fun where the real world really isn't. When you're 80. Ew.
New genre in 2030: MMOs for seniors.