[Not So Humble Pie: Science]

The game exists in it’s own little digital tron-esque universe. It’s an ecosystem populated with industry, civilization, wild life, and various stimuli. It’s a virtual ecosystem where evolution and artificial intelligence is studied. There even religion as a component.

The aesthetic is similarly digital – picture any visualization of computer worlds from the 1980s and you get the idea. It’s a delightful and refreshing aesthetic, both abstract and selectively specific, giving you just the right information with a streamlined yet technical coat of paint. Even the synth’ music harkens back to those glory days.

The game mechanics are deceptively simple. There is not much you can do other than steer your Darwinians in different directions and perform a handful of basic actions but the complexity comes in the strategy and combination of these actions. It results in an odd mix of cerebral strategy and arcade=like action.

Overall it’s a refreshing, surprisingly deep, and really interesting game. It’s great to see and you can tell it’s been made with love by people with a history in the medium. There are even a lot of subtle references to video game classics here. It’s not flashy for a buck. There is some real substance here and it’s a game you can really sink some time in to. It’s probably best classified as an RTS but it’s really not your typical RTS game and is a breath of fresh air amongst all the derivative games being released lately.

Contest:

We’ve got a Darwinia+ prize pack available for one lucky reader. Simply leave a comment below telling us your favorite  8-bit video game and you’ll be entered in to a draw. We’ll randomly pick a winner at the end of the month to receive this prize pack containing:

• A limited edition Darwinia Tin
• Toy Darwinians
• Multiwinia Coffee Table book
• Reviewer Guid to Darwinia+
• Posters

[Lollyphile]

Some people think that telling the difference between day and night would be one of the easiest things you could do and being able to afford a $300 000 a mere piece of jewelry would be one of the hardest. This watch is not for them. Behold the Day & Night watch by Romain Gerome.  For those who see telling the time as a peasants hobby and for whom it is always spend o’clock.  It originally sold for $300 000 but sold out within 48 hours of launch so you’ll have to resort to the second-hand market to obtain one, likely with significant markup. But hey, if markup is of concern to you then this watch was never for you in the first place. Right?

[Romain Jerome]

If  you’re planning a wedding and arbitrarily picking out ugly colours for your bridesmaids’ dresses is too inaccurate and random for you, fret not. Pantone has released a wedding colour guide (specifically for 2010) to help you through this process. These aren’t your normal colours either. These are wedding colours so you know you’re on the right track. Don’t you dare try using them for a birthday or engagement party. If your wedding is in 2011 beware, you’ll be instantly dated a fashion dinosaur.

[Press Release]

Check out Caleb Larsen’s work. He’s got this one project; an unassuming black acrylic cube (I love it already) which perpetually attempts to auction itself off on ebay. As Caleb writes:

Combining Robert Morris’ Box With the Sound of Its Own Making with Baudrillard’s writing on the art auction this sculpture exists in eternal transactional flux. It is a physical sculpture that is perptually attempting to auction itself on eBay.

Every ten minutes the black box pings a server on the internet via the ethernet connection to check if it is for sale on the eBay. If its auction has ended or it has sold, it automatically creates a new auction of itself.

If a person buys it on eBay, the current owner is required to send it to the new owner. The new owner must then plug it into ethernet, and the cycle repeats itself.

It’s an interesting piece. One wonders if any robots are bidding on it.

[Caleb Larsen]
[A Tool to Deceive and Slaughter]

Cliff Chiang has a series of illustrations mashing-up classic album cover art with comic art. He does a lot of other stuff too but theres just something about this series of 12″ remix drawings that really strike a nerve. Keep going Cliff, we want to see more! This idea has legs.

[Cliff Chiang]

Do you like to eat? Do you like to spend? Do you like to combine these hobbies? Well feast (pun intended) your eyes and potentially your wallet on the world’s “most expensive” leg of ham! Selfridges’ Oxford Street flagship shop is hocking it (again, pun intended) for a modest £1,800 for the full seven kilograms. What makes this ham so expensive? Well Pig farmer and “ham expert” Manuel Maldonado hand picked an elite group of fifty pigs to rear in Extremadura feeding them a steady diet of acorns and roots to give them a distinctive flavor. But wait. Theres more. After slaughter, the ham was salted and cured for three full years before being boxed in a hand-made wooden case wrapped in an apron made by a Spanish tailor. It even comes with it’s own DNA certificate. Seriously. The only question left is what to serve it with.

[BBC]

[Lovegrove & Repucci]