A nice little interview with the team behind ‘Owlboy.’ What’s that you say, dev team? Playable by March? You better not be pulling my leg like last time.
The trouble with rooting around Tumblr is, it’s practically impossible to source these types of things. I had hypothesized that this custom controller was the unholy result of Arcade-in-a-Box, but I’ve now learned that it appeared at last year’s Season’s Beatings IV event.
Ray Barnholt and I used to talk about how we want to play games and relax, and we don’t get to. One time I drew him a picture of an arcade cabinet of a hypothetical coin-op called Relax and there was a bear coming out of the screen. I was like, “Ray, look! It’s your life!” Video via leighalexander
"The DMS is the only wavetable synthesizer for the Apple //e, IIc, and IIc+ computers that is suitable for performance use. It supports up to 8 voices, which can be selected from the 10 on disk, and played (monophonically) from the Apple II keyboard."
[NOT GAMES] – Tosa Novmichi, one of the creators of the Knockman toys (my favorite!), will attend a signing in his honor this Saturday at Giant Robot LA. There, he will demonstrate his latest musical toy, the Otamatone, an electronic musical instrument that superficially resembles an erhu, but sounds more like an aerophone, but also (!) has a little puppet mouth that functions as a mute, dampening the sound. (Otamatone = automaton? So clever!) I would like to get really good at playing the Otamatone, then use my musical abilities to win Mr. Novmichi’s love.
This got RTed approximately 5,348,780,670,897,168,097 times yesterday, so I started to feel guilty and am now doing my part. "Originally the grey shirt was on the left, and it was selling way more," web developer and Attract Mode proprietor Adam Robezzoli tweets. "Then I moved the gold one to the left and now it’s selling way more." Fascinating.
Article begins with in-game footage from ‘The You Testament.’ In it, Christ dies on the cross. Then ‘Bib,’ a hulking goliath of a man, sets about brutalizing everyone at the crucifixion (he punches Mary Magdalene in the back of the head!). Indie game designer Mat Dickie, we learn, loves God—I think?—and he also loves wrestling. ‘The You Testament’ is basically a wrestling game, but it’s set during Christ’s lifetime, and there’s also a lot of meditation and hugging. Maybe this doesn’t sound like it makes sense, exactly, but it will make sense. (via @AttractMode, and in turn via @FortNinety)
Good Old Games is a website that repackages ROMs of still-licensed games, many of them over a decade old, and sells them as digital downloads. I’m only just now trolling the ‘editorials’ section for the first time, and wonder of wonders! GOG.com doubles as a pretty good resource for newcomers to the point-and-click adventure game genre. Here’s a nifty retrospective by my e-pal Pete Davison.
Unbelievably completionist (yes, "completionist") Phantasmagoria retrospective. Hey, GOG! When’ya gonna start distributing Phantasmagoria: a Puzzle of Flesh, hmm? ‘Cause that game is pretty much the weirdest.
On the heels of the ongoing print media death throes freakout, which more recently has been, inexplicably, conflated with iPad tech coverage—and btw articles about either thing have done absolutely fucking nothing for me—this is really good.
Yesterday, New York City’s Mayor Bloomberg revealed more plans for Coney Island’s upcoming Luna Park, which will be built on acreage that was formerly a part of Astroland.
On video games and escapism: What we’re escaping from, Scott Sharkey says pointedly, is unfairness. // I always complained, to his face, that Sharkey was the weirdest kind of person—an angry optimist.
Brandon Boyer catches you up on the Tim Langdell/Edge crap. Then: those irreverent, spunky indie devs fight back the best way they know—litigation-baiting mockery! That’s moxie.
11/14 opening reception for James Kochalka—he of "Monkey vs Robot" fame—at Giant Robot SF. Featuring a live performance of his very own Game Boy music! (Yeah, my satellite Internet connection really dropped the ball on my reposting this.) via docpop tweet
Jenn Frank ·
November 15, 2009 at 10:26 am
· Filed under Ephemera
The 12th annual Independent Games Festival—AKA “GDC? What GDC?”—is nearly upon us, and indie developer Jonatan “Cactus” Söderström is back with more game footage to engage, baffle, and thrill.
"GSW correspondent Simon Parkin sits down with eccentric Katamari Damacy creator Keita Takahashi, to learn about his work on children’s playgrounds, and why he’s begun to feel like he’s ‘just not suited to the games industry.’"
Kevin Bunch ·
August 2, 2009 at 4:14 am
· Filed under Music, Reviews
I really liked Bit.trip: Beat. The combination of retro gaming style, excellent music, underlying narrative, and addictive gameplay put it up among my favorite Wii titles. So imagine my surprise last Monday (editor’s note: Jenn sucks) when I noticed that a sequel, Bit.trip: Core had been released on WiiWare for 600 points!
As its predecessor had done for Breakout-style games, Bit.trip: Core takes the notion of classic, single-screen shooters and spins it off into a new, equally rhythmic direction. Whereas in the first game you were a paddle bouncing pellets to create musical notes, here you are an icon in the center of the screen capable of aiming and firing a beam in four directions, albeit only one at a time. Pellets will appear from all corners of the screen, and you must shoot them before they escape. It sounds deceptively simple, but the game is difficult. Ample reflexes, pattern recognition, and spatial skills –- which block will enter your range of fire first?—are important, but as with Bit.trip: Beat, to truly excel at the game you must lose yourself in it and the music. It’s a zen gaming experience.
Jenn Frank ·
May 30, 2009 at 3:37 am
· Filed under Ephemera
Cactus (who, together with Ville Krumlinde, comprises Lo-Fi Minds) just took to his Twitter account with a trailer for Air Pirates, Lo-Fi’s latest collaboration.
