Just in time for the gift-giving season,
Humble Indie Bundle 4 has been released. Available for MacOS, Windows, and Linux on a pay-what-you-want scheme, this release (currently) includes Jamestown, Bit.Trip Runner, Super Meat Boy, Shank, and Nightsky HD. Pay more than the average donation and get Gratuitous Space Battles and Cave Story+ included in your Bundle. When purchasing, you can choose how your money will be allocated between developers, charities (Child's Play Charity and American Red Cross), and a tip to the Humble team.
[more inside]
posted by hippybear
on Dec 13, 2011 -
43 comments
Bfxr is a web app for creating sound effects for your game or own amusement.
Use the Randomize button to get started.
posted by Foci for Analysis
on Dec 13, 2011 -
24 comments
The International Committee of the Red Cross is deeply concerned about six hundred million people who commit war crimes...
virtually. All those people out there playing video games involving shooting? Today's gamers may become tomorrow's war criminals.
[more inside]
posted by Chocolate Pickle
on Dec 8, 2011 -
61 comments
"Skyrim is big. You just won’t believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it’s a long way down the road to the chemist’s, but that’s just peanuts to Skyrim. [...] Lately, one of my favorite parts of Skyrim are the in-game books. At any time, you can pull a book off the shelf, and get a nice fresh slice of lore to go along with your hearty adventures. I’ve even gone so far as to break into houses in the middle of the night just to read their books." — So says the blogger who decided to extract all 1000+ pages of text contained in the books of Skyrim and format them for
EPUB and
Kindle.
(Skyrim previously)
posted by 256
on Nov 29, 2011 -
95 comments
The Metaphysics of Morrowind: an essay series that looks at the deceptively deep lore that surrounds one of the best-loved open world games ever made, and incorporates not only the plot elements of the game world, and the supplementary books scattered for the player to find, but also the meta-narrative of the gameplay itself, including the player character and the construction kit. Parts
1,
2,
3,
4.
posted by codacorolla
on Nov 16, 2011 -
92 comments
"Imagine a world where casual and hardcore gamers can enjoy games together? So instead of hardcore gamers pretending to like wii sports just so they can spend xmas with their family they actually prefer it as opposed to just going off and playing the best hardcore games such as Skyrim or Fable3." From the often hilarious fake Twitter account for "Peter Molyneux 2" comes
cascore. Finally, bowling and survival horror come together.
[more inside]
posted by jbickers
on Nov 14, 2011 -
13 comments
It's All Games Now: The Convergence of Games and Social Media (video, 61 minutes), is a talk given by Raph Koster, one of the lead designers of the MMO Ultima Online, at the 2011 Game Developers Conference Online in Austin Texas. In it he looks at how digital games have changed as a social experience from MUDs to World of Warcraft, where they are going in the future, and the bleed between games and the real world. Koster has posted a summary
here on his site.
[more inside]
posted by codacorolla
on Nov 7, 2011 -
15 comments
cactus (aka Jonatan Söderström) is a prolific independent videogame developer. His games are known for playing against genre expectations and their surreal storytelling qualities (as in David Lynch surreal). His latest effort (a collaboration with
his brother and
FUCKING WEREWOLF ASSO) is called
KEYBOARD DRUMSET FUCKING WEREWOLF. It's about an eskimo that that turns into a werewolf and the events that follow. Sound weird? It is. Available in pc and mac flavours.
posted by pancreas
on Nov 5, 2011 -
22 comments
In 1987 the first Castlevania was released. It was followed by Simon's Quest in 1988. The difference between the two games is stark. Although they both have the same basic plot lines (kill Dracula) and setting, Simon's Quest introduced an open world and RPG elements, giving eventual rise to the genre known as "Metroidvania".
Sequelitis looks at the difference between these design decisions and shows that maybe Metroidvanias aren't quite as much fun as you might remember.
posted by codacorolla
on Nov 3, 2011 -
66 comments
"Rather than adopting the popular perspective on gaming as a way of escaping life, engaging in violence or being antisocial, the film focuses on the gamers’ pure joy in their hard-sought achievements, the thrill of high-level competition, the significance it gives their lives, and the communities they create."
Jon Rafman's (
previously, and
previously) Codes of Honor.
Text and
Video.
[more inside]
posted by codacorolla
on Oct 30, 2011 -
8 comments
"The days when you could buy a videogame one day and get an expansion a year later are, sadly, lost in time. Instead, it seems there's a constant bombardment of DLC and microtransaction items all vying for our credit card numbers. They're in everything, from MMORPGs through to singleplayer shooters, and it's only getting worse as time goes on." -
An investigation into microtransactions and gaming.
posted by Artw
on Oct 17, 2011 -
114 comments
"Are you a lady? Then finally there’s a game for you! While too many games are pretending that ladies enjoy the same things as men, like shooting, building cities or exploring alien worlds, Lady Popular properly recognizes what it is that makes a true, strong, independent lady: shopping, hairstyles, and having a boyfriend."
John Walker of Rock Paper Shotgun gives a
no-holds-barred review (NSFW) of the game
Lady Popular.
posted by happyroach
on Oct 13, 2011 -
93 comments
"Menagerie" is a series of 10 polygonal animal paintings by Laura Bifano, inspired by her love of nature and classic 8-bit video games.
[Via]
posted by homunculus
on Sep 22, 2011 -
21 comments
Ludum Dare is an annual video game development contest where the contestants have 48 hours to complete a game. This year's theme was Escape and 599 games were submitted. The winning
solo and
team created games have been announced. You can download all games and even view their source code. If you want to experience the awesomeness of real-time game development, check out the
time-lapse videos.
[more inside]
posted by Foci for Analysis
on Sep 13, 2011 -
10 comments
The Digital Antiquarian discusses
ludic narrative
and has been filling in by bits and pieces an amazing history of
recreational computing and adventure gaming.
The Rise of Experiential Games traces the development of Wargames from H.G. Wells' (!) wargame for toy soldiers,
Little Wars, to Avalon Hill's Squad Leader; he discusses the development of
Dungeons and Dragons (part
2,
3) led to
the first CRPGs on
PLATO. He'll tell you things you didn't know about
Oregon Trail (part
2,
3,
4,
5,
postscript, the
1975 source code!),
Hunt the Wumpus (
part 2),
Colossal Cave Adventure (part
2,
3,
4,
5),
Eliza (part
2,
3),
Scott Adams' games (part
2,
3,
4,
5), the
TRS-80 (part
2,
3), the
2 adventuring cultures of university minicomputers and home PCs, and their
unlikely bridging. [more inside]
posted by Zed
on Sep 11, 2011 -
18 comments
