Offworld

Tweet (#2696313561)

2009-07-17T22:07:15Z

2D Boy/EGP's Gabler: "It would be sad if unscrupulous devs turn all of our prototypes into 99-cent iPhone clones." Link

http://twitter.com/brandonnn/statuses/2696313561

Tweet (#2696110446)

2009-07-17T21:53:39Z

Global Game Jam is looking for hosts/space for its January 29-31, 2010 event: Link

http://twitter.com/brandonnn/statuses/2696110446

One More Go: Final Fantasy XII, Wasting your time the scientific way

2009-07-17T18:46:03Z

I resent having to write this column. I resent being on a train on the way a conference that I also resent. I resent the pretty song that's playing on my phone. I resent the way the sun is breaking through the clouds. I resent the nice second breakfast I'll be enjoying in an hour, I resent all the nice people I'm about to meet and all the interesting conversations I'm about to have. Sod the lot of you. I could be at home playing Final Fantasy XII.

Again.

This is not rational. For once, I've already played FFXII. Twice, in fact - once in Japanese and once in American. Pretty much the same stuff happened each time. And while it's always a pretty place to be, the way I'm playing it now - running it through a PS3 so I can be wireless - means that it's letterboxed and smeared across a fraction of my telly's unco-operative screen. There are dozens of newer games I could - should - be playing instead.

And more than rational, it's downright dangerous. I love FFXII with a fierceness which would daunt a nursing lioness, but the more time I spend with it, the more opportunities there are to notice its few shortcomings.

The puzzles really are dreadful, it will surprise no-one to hear. The story occasionally fractures under the strain of obeying simple logic, let alone credible character arcs. The more you ogle the cut-scenes, the more you are infected with creeping dread that Balthier might actually be wearing slingbacks. It gets harder and harder to ignore the oddly saurian ridges that fan out along Vaan's spine.

The rest, though, is pure magic. Majestic and brave, Final Fantasy XII is operatic not just in its plot and setting, but in the way the game itself is a story of doomed defiance. It wasn't opposing a controlling father, a disapproving church or a unscrupulous officer, but its spirited rejection of random battles, of the supremacy of leveling and of line-dancing combat was well worth an aria or two. Its characters, too - vivid, charismatic and mature - steered the series away from the pubescent angst that has so often been its stock in trade. It's efforts were far from universally welcomed, but for those of us who had long felt that Final Fantasy was a series shackled, rather than supported, by its past, it was a revelation.

Surely, then, I'm being hard on myself to say it's irrational to want to pull a sickie to spend the day in bed with an eight-foot bunny-girl and some steam-punk surfers? The thing is, Final Fantasy XII has a secret - a wonderful, but confusing secret: it plays itself.

One of its innovations is the Gambit system, a modular control mechanic which lets you set the conditions and priorities which define the behaviour of your team. If you like, you can set of them all to automatic and simply sit back and watch them spray pretty bouquets of laser death around them as they explore. So, madness. Why stay home to replay an old game that doesn't even need me to be there?

Steam engines, that why. Steam engines and pipe organs. I don't think anyone can stand next to something like that and not be struck with wonder and fascination. Simply getting to watch a complex and beautiful machine do its stuff is captivating. What FFXII does is give you the chance to build that machine, and then stand by like proud parent and watch it go. Tweaking Gambits lets you take incremental steps towards perfection. Each time you try a new technique or set a new priority you get closer to the ultimate goal of being a perpetual killing machine, a super-efficient, zero-emission, friction-free engine of domination.

This preparing, witnessing and fixing loop is one of the most compelling I've encountered in games, I think. It's what gives FFXII the edge over other games that play themselves. Much as I love Progress Quest, there is a teensy limit on the amount of credit I can take for the successes I've had over the years.

Witnessing is crucial, too. I think one of the reasons that Duels never got its claws into me is that - especially in the bad old, pre-animation days - you never really got to sit back and bask in the glory of your own might. And I loved the idea of Forza's Drivatar, which could drive for you when you couldn't be bothered, but there were no quick fixes there: if you wanted it to race better for you, you needed to get better yourself.

Conceive a plan, test it, amend it. The reason FFXII is so narcotic is that, at its heart, it's basically the scientific method, dressed up in biker boots and a leather crop-top. And so, as its siren song lures me back, I shan't resist. It's not skiving. It's learning.

[Margaret Robertson is the former editor of Edge magazine and now videogame consultant. One More Go is her regular Offworld column in which she explores the attractions of the games she just can't stop going back to.]

Previously:

The curious case of the Bape x Pokemon T-shirts

2009-07-17T17:32:07Z

News sprang up this morning that seemed custom-created for Offworld: a collaboration between Japanese hipster fashion legend Tomoaki "Nigo" Nagao's A Bathing Ape label and The Pokemon Company for a line of Bape x Pokemon T-shirts (found via Pink Tentacle via Gus).

The images originate from a blog called World Famous Design Junkies, posted by a guy called Chris Burns, who said news of the project was sent to him via a blog called A Tiny City Printing Press, whose sole author seems to be, uh, a guy called Chris Burns.

Even more strangely: Burns says the images are "© 2009 A Tiny City Printing Press", which is a bit odd, when you'd imagine they'd be © Bape or Nintendo, surely. So, without further clarification, I wouldn't get your hopes up on spotting these in your local boutique any time soon, which honestly is no great loss when the designs don't have anything on Polygraph's previously / covered official own. Maybe I'm just fantastically under-informed.

Previously:

Space Invaders Infinity Gene gets first video, iTunes stages

2009-07-17T16:45:41Z

Just uploaded by Taito: the first video of their recently announced Space Invaders Infinity Gene running on the iPhone.

As expected, shows off the directly touch-controlled, the new a-typically breakneck pace, and a new mode which lets you use your iTunes library as the backdrop for special original stages, though there's no word yet whether these are dynamically generated or just made available specifically for your music.

Previously:

Gene therapy: Taito bringing Space Invaders Infinity Gene to ...

I'm with the Band: Harmonix opens Rock Band track creation, sales to Xbox 360 home users [Updated]

2009-07-17T16:10:55Z

Minorly earth-shattering music/game news this morning from the Rock Band camp as they officially unveil The Rock Band Network, a new program for any musician or band to create their own Rock Band tracks and sell them through ~~the game's online store~~ a new Rock Band Network store.

The Network will work alongside the Xbox 360's XNA Creators Club, and will let home-users output MIDI song information to accompany their master mix with plugins created especially for digital workstation Reaper, package them together as a Rock Band-compatible track with Harmonix's own Magma tool, and preview your track in-game with a new 'Audition mode' being added in an upcoming patch.

From there you can publish your song to the Creators site (essentially, to the Creators Club community), where it will be peer-reviewed -- as XNA games themselves are before they're released to the Xbox 360's Community Games section. If the track is approved, it will appear in the Rock Band store at a price point selected by you (between 50 cents to $3), with a 30/70% revenue split ~~(at a to-be-determined percentage)~~ between you and Harmonix/MTV.

For now, the initiative remains exclusive to the Xbox 360, though a caveat says "select songs" may appear on PS3 -- presumably, those popular enough with the community to get an officially-pushed release from Harmonix.

See Harmonix's newly opened site for more information, and to sign up for the early closed-beta trial, which is expected to launch by the end of the month, with an open beta "after August", and an official launch by the end of the year.

[UPDATE: More information is available in this Billboard writeup, which adds a number of interesting details (corrected above), including the ability for "developers to customize the avatars, camera angles and lighting for the background video rather than using the automatically generated default setting" in Reaper, and HMX training sessions to certify track-makers, which will be officially listed for interested artists and labels.]

One shot: Tim Durning's quick-sketch Colossi

2009-07-17T13:16:06Z

And another Autumn Society piece: even just as quick-sketch studies for his eventual submission, illustrator Tim Durning's takes on Shadow of the Colossus are looking basically amazing -- particularly that foreboding group of colossi on the horizon in the middle, who, even at 10 miles distant are still aware of your every move.

Previously:

One shot: Tilen Ti does BioShock in PenMarkerMagic

One shot: Tilen Ti does BioShock in PenMarkerMagic

2009-07-17T13:15:03Z

Tilen 'penmarkermagic' Ti's submission for 8 Bit And Beyond, a games-themed group show featuring members of Philadelphia art collective The Autumn Society. [via GSW]

My first day at the Wii Sports Resort: a cautionary tale in six photos

2009-07-16T21:56:27Z

This morning I find myself nicely surprised by my local friendly FedEx deliverer, who drops off a package containing one (1) blue flower lei, one (1) Wii AIRLINES ticket from "my living room" to "Wii Sports Resort, Wuhu Island", and one (1) copy of the game and new Wii MotionPlus accessory.

Amanda Visell's Salaryphant and Tado's Ye Olde English Traveler seem a bit nervous about the impending flight, but they're always fretting about something: what could possibly go wrong?

First thing's first: throw caution to the wind and extract the MotionPlus from those damned rubber jackets Nintendo continue to insist we use. You think I honestly don't have the motor skills to keep a controller in my hand without flinging it haphazardly through a window? I'm a grown man.

The first thing you see on booting Wii Sports Resort for the first time: an appropriately in-flight-esque three minute video instructing you on how to connect and disconnect your MotionPlus accessory, all making proper use of and interweaving your wrist-strap through the rubber jacket, of course. At this point, I'm starting to feel slightly chided for having tossed my jacket aside.

But then, ha, ha, no mind! It's me, it's my Mii, all kitted out in high-altitude skydiving gear, doing my final harness checks. I remember this from the E3 conference!

And so, in due course, I make my initial dive toward the 'Wuhu' Isles, linking and unlinking hands with a few of James Kochalka's Monster Miis as we plummet in unison and graceful formation.

And as we land, all seems well. I ace my first sword fight like a pro, and the puppy that's taunted me so many times before on Wii Fit jogs shows similar confident panache and fantastic skill at fetching my clumsily tossed frisbees.

That's when I remember the game Nintendo also demonstrated at their conference: the three-point line basketball toss. Let's give that a whirl, I think -- and so I bring the WiiMote down to retrieve a ball, and swing upward rapidly as instruc--

This is when several things happen all at once. In retrospect, I believe the sequence of events goes: my WiiMote -- given just that extra inch of MotionPlus length it never had before, and me having not fully taken into consideration just how tall I actually am -- comes into contact with a fan blade on my ceiling fixture, in turn knocking the controller and my hand into one of the lightbulb encasings, which shatters with a wicked crack, and proceeds to shower me with broken glass.

It is at this point that I begin to bleed, one might not say profusely, but with intent and purpose, a full-on steady trickle if certainly not a gush, and my mind flashes that how on earth did I, and, oh my god, I have, I've just become one of those people -- those people that have accidents with their Wiis and blog photos of the 'mote-butt-end emerging from their TV tubes, the living baby-blue silhouette of that now ubiquitous warning message showing people flailing into nearby end-table lamps.

And so, day one of my Wii Sports Resort visit sees me unceremoniously carried limp and dazed from its courts, now forever slightly gun-shy about losing myself so completely to its instinctively direct-mapped movements, in lieu of remaining hyper-aware of my immediate surroundings: a victim to and of the virtual.

Previously:

E309: the 5 things you need to know about Nintendo's press ...

Team Fortress Tees: the Sniper and the Spy

2009-07-16T20:51:47Z

And the latest volleys in Team Fortress 2's Spy vs. Sniper battle rage on on your torso, with this new pair of T-shirts Valve's just made available on their store (Spy, Sniper).

Somewhat relatedly, the Soldier has recently taken over the official TF2 blog with predictably hilarious results, including an off kilter portrait for a new set of Steam Community avatar photos, because when the photographer "asked me to act naturally," says Soldier, "I yelled at him to stop disgracing his family and get a real job."

Previously:

Games Crafter: one site to design, manufacture and sell your tabletop game

2009-07-16T20:30:38Z

And one for the tabletop/prototype set via Raph Koster: The Game Crafter, a new site Koster nicely sums as "CafePress for board game designers", where creators can assemble -- pawn by chip by spinner by card by die by sand-timer -- their own games, alongside uploaded art, which can then be boxed and sold, all through Crafter's site. A small handful of games are available already.

Previously:

Machinarium, Closure, Fieldrunners chosen for Penny Arcade's PAX10 indie showcase

2009-07-16T19:47:12Z

Penny Arcade Expo organizers have announced the final ten indie games chosen from over 150 submissions to be exhibited at the upcoming PAX festival, being held at Seattle's Washington State Convention and Trade Center September 4th through the 6th, including a number of names familiar to Offworld readers.

The ten finalists include: GAMBIT's Xbox 360 Community Games featured CarneyVale: Showtime, Tyler Glaiel and Jon Schubbe's light/dark indie game Closure, Subatomic's iPhone (and now PSP) tower defense game Fieldrunnners, and Amanita's Machinarium.

Also included are Studio Walljump's upcoming WiiWare game Liight, Hemisphere's Osmos, Tag Team's Tag: The Power of Paint, Trinoteam's Trino, Team Shotgun's Puzzle Bloom (above), and Story Fort's children's storybook game What is Bothering Carl?

Visit the official PAX site for more information on attending other events taking place during the three day expo.

Tweet (#2674738147)

2009-07-16T19:33:28Z

To everyone that's tried and failed to leave a comment lately, creating an account/logging in is a quick fix. The real fix is coming!

http://twitter.com/brandonnn/statuses/2674738147

Tweet (#2674016812)

2009-07-16T18:47:32Z

2D Boy claim responsibility for the mass of Goo currently devouring Alaska: Link

http://twitter.com/brandonnn/statuses/2674016812

Listen: an ode to Grasshopper's on-hold Silver Case DS port

2009-07-16T16:49:52Z

Bad news via an excerpted interview with Goichi 'Killer7/No More Heroes' Suda on Nintendo site Cubed3 (via Siliconera), where he reveals that the DS port of his PlayStation original detective adventure The Silver Case is functionally complete, but that its release is "still up in the air" until he can figure out a way to "remake it properly to fit in with the current generation of gamers." (Most frustratingly, the PS1 downloadable is currently up for sale on Sony's PSN store.)

The port of the game was first announced over two years ago at Australia's GO3 conference, which is a long time to wait to be told to wait some more, but with an already cool reception to Suda's recently released Flower, Sun and Rain DS remake (which I still have yet to make much of a dent on), he may be on to something.

To smooth over the hurt, though, I offer this: a live remix of Silver Case's theme as spun by none less than Kazutoshi Iida (seen right, being awesome), director of a number of his own cult-legend games from PS1 sims Tail of the Sun and zen-ish ocean explorer Aquanaut's Holiday to Nintendo 64/GameCube's Doshin the Giant.

The performance was part of Grasshopper's first live event, called 25 Hour Party People (spot Suda's typical anglophile reference), which you can spy photos of via an ancient post on Metal Gear producer Hideo Kojima's blog, and I'm presuming you'll probably dig it as much as I do:

Previously:

E309: Ubisoft bringing No More Heroes 2 to the U.S.

Chell's bells: Portal on the iPhone, Portal in a tower

2009-07-16T16:35:11Z

There seems to be a bit of confusion surrounding the night's much-posted video of Portal running on an iPhone, which, unfortunately, is simply a single-room fan recreation by some still-unnamed devs after a few weeks hacking about in third-party engine Unity (the same tech driving Flashbang's Blurst games), but agreed on all counts that it's a nice piece of kit, whether or not it goes anywhere in the end.

To make up for any potential disappointment, though, I'll cap this the same way Alice did on her Wonderland blog, with a recreation of Still Alive being played on the UCSB campus's Storke bell-tower:

Previously:

Space brawls: spycam footage of Coin App's indie shooter Max Blastronaut

2009-07-16T15:03:08Z

I'll take any new looks at Coin App's upcoming planetoid brawler/shooter Max Blastronaut where I can find them, even if they're simple spycam off-screen footage taken by a developer's brother. The new enemy-roundhouse melee and orbiting shots are looking quite nice, but they're nothing compared to the fancy synthesized dog-bark modeling they've got going on.

Previously:

One shot: Corey Lewis's Darkstalkers montage

2009-07-16T13:34:51Z

Seattle illustrator/comic artist Corey Lewis (creator of many very fine images like this) reveals his contribution to Udon's previously mentioned art book tribute to Capcom's classic supernatural fighter Darkstalkers.

Previously:

One shot, Darkstalking, with Paul Robertson

One shot: Björn Hurri's Claude le Cambrioleur

2009-07-16T12:51:15Z

Former Dungeon Runners and current Creative Assembly (Total War) concept artist Björn Hurri posts this French-flavored pixel montage from a "project I have running on and off", which I genuinely, deeply, hope is a game where you play as the cat burglar.

Tweet (#2660535370)

2009-07-16T00:08:51Z

Mobigame's Edge has been removed from the App Store again, this time not by choice: Link

http://twitter.com/brandonnn/statuses/2660535370

Trailer of the month: an extended look at Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet

2009-07-15T17:46:25Z

Found, appropriately, via Phil Fish, who called out the original teaser trailer in his Indie Games Summit session as one of the best examples of hooking an audience with an unmissable video: a new, extended look at Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet, the forthcoming game from artist Michel Gagne and FuelCell's Joe Olson.

Based on the world Gagne created for the Insanely Twisted Shadow Puppets animations shown on Nickelodeon in 2005, Fish is right: there isn't a single second of this video that doesn't make me want to play, though it's still unclear when we might be able to. New posts at the game's blog seem to all but ensure an eventual Xbox Live Arcade release alongside the previously planned PC version, which could put it months away.

But that's a bit beside the point: the point is it's trumped its own record and become one of the most bluntly wicked trailers I've laid eyes on since The Last Guardian, and re-rocketed the game back up my most-anticipated list.

Previously:

Indie Games Summit: 2D Boy/Polytron's top 10 ways to market your ...

Tetris coasters made with cork and beads

2009-07-15T17:02:32Z

These Tetris coasters, made with perler beads against a cork backing to protect table tops, can be purchased on Etsy for $12. Just looking at them makes me want to quit working and time warp back to an arcade in the early 90s.

Etsy [via Gizmodiva]

One Shot: Dangerous Nintendo Girls In Trouble

2009-07-15T13:22:08Z

Peach, Samus, and Zelda, in Agent Melon's "Nintendo Punk."

One shot: Fangamer's packing slip is just a box

2009-07-15T12:42:36Z

My new favorite thing about Fangamer's Metal Gear merchandise: your upcoming orders will be shipped with this packing slip, which doubles as Snake's legendary cardboard disguise.

Previously:

Gene therapy: Taito bringing Space Invaders Infinity Gene to iPhone

2009-07-14T19:24:28Z

Back in some of Offworld's earliest days I mentioned an obscure addition to the Space Invaders family tree: Infinity Gene, a vector-sharp retro-future take on the series made specifically for Japanese mobile phones (as below). The then-recently-announced DSiWare seemed a logical choice for the game to eventually move to, but Taito have just got in touch to let me know they're taking it in a different direction: the iPhone.

And that's perhaps the better move it could've made, so as not to compete against its own Extreme brothers, though they are quite different games. Where Extreme kept you tethered to that X axis, Infinity Gene will let you -- from what I understand so far -- move your ship around the screen at will via touch controls, and, as above, comes equipped with a new rapid-fire laser that puts it much more in keeping with later arcade shooters than the original Invaders.

Infinity's true evolution, as its name suggests, happens by collecting the gene clusters seen at top right which will, at times, break you out of the action and bring you to a new evolution screen that informs you which new capabilities or weapons you've unlocked. And its enemies have evolved as well, with new impenetrable shields (seen top left), new weapons, and massive screen-filling bosses (my favorite bit of the video, apart from the terrifying Zuntata score: 'A HUGE ENEMY -- "The Moon" -- BREAK INTO THE BATTLE').

Taito says the game will be available "in the very near future".

Previously:

Space Invaders evolve on Japan's mobiles

Cubicle rave: Braadworsten brings demoscene to Microsoft Office

2009-07-14T18:20:14Z

Spotted over the weekend via regular Pulsewave visual artist Paris Treantafeles: demoscene group Braadworsten Brigade's Breakpoint 2009 submission, Exelence, a demo made entirely in Microsoft Excel 2003. See its scene.org entry here to download the file for yourself and interrupt your next office meeting in style. [via parisgraphics]

Previously:

Subatomic bringing iPhone tower defense game Fieldrunners to PSP

2009-07-14T17:47:55Z

In an exclusive report on Sony's renewed and rejuvenated initiative to bring smaller (read: indie) offerings to the PSP and its on-device PlayStation Network Store (which I noted earlier as probably the most important aspect of their PSP Go! announcement, especially combined with its subsequent drastic devkit price drop), the company has told Develop that it's already signed some 50 studios for new content, both games and apps.

Chief among them, or at least, the most recognizable game/studio? Subatomic, who Develop have revealed will be bringing a new exclusive version of their iPhone tower-defense hit FieldRunners to the PSP.

Subatomic's Ash Monif told Develop that Sony's plans were "about bringing the lighter, lower barrier content to the PSP that has been so successful in other categories... You don't see this happening at Microsoft and you even don't see it happening at Nintendo yet."

Previously:

Club benefits: Nintendo reward fans with Mario hat, Punch-Out!! minigame

2009-07-14T16:45:02Z

Several weeks back I took an entire Sunday afternoon to dig through the garage and fish out every first party DS and Wii game I've ever owned, and went through the arduous process of cracking open each one to register it on Club Nintendo. The Game & Watch Collection DS game was basically reward enough, but, if you haven't been personally notified yet, there's a newly announced bonus in it for members that reached Gold or Platinum level.

As seen at right, Platinum level members can now choose from two new gifts free just for having participated: a cotton/poly "life sized" Mario hat, which is nice (and would look cutest slung side-long on your unsuspecting child's head, Yoshi's Island-Mario-style), or, a special downloadable version of the Wii's Punch-Out!! remake that pits you directly against your in-game coach, Doc Louis. It's a tough call between the physical and the digital, however exclusive the latter, and I'm still not settled (we have until August 11th).

For Gold members, though, the choice is clearer: you'll be receiving a 2010 desktop calendar featuring a different game per month -- neither wearable or playable, but no booby prize itself. Log in to your Club Nintendo account to see if you're eligible for either and to claim your prize.

Previously:

Five second rules: 100 tiny art/glitch videos on 'old video games'

2009-07-14T16:12:21Z

Greyscalegorilla's current "Five Second Project" -- in which animators and motion designers are given a couple weeks to create a five second video -- is on a theme close to our hearts: "old video games." The entries, which at last count number up to 100, are collected in this Vimeo channel.

A hundred videos might seem like a lot to go through, but at five seconds each it should take no time at all. If that's still too ADD for you: a pair of our personal favourites. Above, William J. Meyer's slightly-longer-than-five-seconds take lends Donkey Kong a helpful hand, and below, Joe Clay's Super Mario Bros. video also takes a turn for the 3D, but in a crazy glitch-out and "blow the cart" kind of way.

The above is especially enjoyable as a fan of the glitched-out aesthetic, which can also be seen in Brad Chmielewski Old Video Games Data Mosh and Sean McDonald's wonderfully teasing Get Ready to Play... the Greatest Game Ever.

Five Second Project: Old Video Games [GreyScaleGorilla]

Invasion NYC: photos from Space Invader's Jonathan LeVine Gallery exhibit

2009-07-14T15:37:11Z

They're probably not the most artful shots, but they're the first on-site looks I've seen so far: Michael Surtees of the always excellent DesignNotes blog returns with these shots from inside the Jonathan LeVine Gallery, where the previously mentioned Space Invader show is still open through July 25th.

In addition to the invaders at top (which are more glittery than they appear here), Surtees has this shot of Invader's 'Rubikcubism' VU/Nirvana/Daft Punk/Sex Pistols album covers remade in Rubik's Cubes.

And this shot (apparently taken somewhere along Bowery), proving that, even after the 25th, the game will continue as city residents spot surreptitiously installed invaders around town.

Previously: