gewgaw

$100 laptop design, which features a hand crank for generating power in places where it isn’t readily available… and a strap that doubles as a power cable.

DOPE!!

Thanks Brian.

—-

Speaking of cranking – Oddworld gets some much-needed props for Stranger’s Wrath

Greg and co. on indie games and their new effort in the sector:

“The problem isn’t so much a “single big change,” but an ongoing trend that has eroded developers’ negotiating leverage with publishers over time. The game industry is hardly unique in the harsh terms it offers developers–if you want an eye-opening look into how creators can =really= be screwed, read up on how the music industry does things sometime–but in other industries, creators themselves become, in a sense, a brand, and can use consumer recognition as a lever when dealing with publishers/labels/movie studios/what have you. With rare exceptions, gamers don’t know who creates the games they play–or even the name of the developer.

Money compounds the problem. If you look at book publishing, for instance, authors are treated pretty well, by comparison to other creative media. That’s because the cost of writing a book is fairly minimal–one person can do it over the course of a few months. Thus, except for best-sellers, publishers don’t risk that much capital on a single book–and with a best-selling author, the author obviously has a lot of leverage. As game budgets have ballooned, terms for developers have gotten harsher and harsher, to the point that, today, it’s almost impossible for a developer to escape a hand-to-mouth existence or even retain ownership of its own IP. And really, when your asking someone to put up $5m and wait three years, that’s probably reasonable–but not a lot of fun for developers.”

I’m all for indie games, and I love to see developers recognized by their peers/public – but comparisons like this always make me cringe. True – it doesn’t cost millions for one author to write a book… but getting it into the hands of readers is expensive. Rollout is 90% of success: pre-release hype, interview tours, endcap negotiations with major retailers… much of the same crap goes on whether the product is a book, dvd, game or mp3 player. And for every item that makes it (every book on the NYT best seller list, for example) there are thousands of cut-outs in bins at Costco, Borders, or EB.

In the end, the sheer volume of goods produced for a profitible niche *necessitates* agressive filtering in both publishing and retail – regardless of delivery mechanism. Creators without a track record are pretty much doomed to minimal exposure, unless they impress someone involved in that filtering process. And that (no matter what you’re selling) is about making connections. While far from a revolution, a new player in the “online marketing/publisher/etailer” space is a new (potential) connection for aspiring studios. Kudos to Manifesto for that.

Seth sent this link to a photo of Sabine from Scott’s recent Chicago visit.

“See how much she misses you?”

Why why why are landlords here so anti-cat???

.

We should really have a katamari cooking contest, shouldn’t we???

Thanks Ben!!

I keep forgetting to post this interesting thread on disease, Warcraft, and game simulation. Why is that? I have always hankered for “Sim Disaster” and think it would be morbidly fun (not to mention educational). Especially if you could engineer a zombie virus.

Thanks, Ian!

Let’s hope the Kirby crew floats, 25TL sinks, and this changes Sony’s mind about supporting homebrew on the PSP. I’m still not quite sure how I feel about this one…

In other news: Chris at the Escapist.

Team HP took some great photos of us the other night at Chocolat…

Dan was getting tipsy, and Kozy was kinda sleepy.

I was clearly holding forth.

:)

Doug is a headphone freak. He has a fancy noise-reducing cd player and external headphone amp, with vacuum tubes and everything. He’s investigated several types and brands of headphones – and even tried the amp with different tube sets (someone on some mailing list was sending them around on a tour) to see how they changed the sound. Hardcore!

I, on the other hand, am not a headphone freak. I top out at about $100 cans – the kind that come in a moulded plastic, hang-on-the-hook container at Best Buy. But I’m getting spoiled. With this kit, listening is like a direct injection of dark chocolate… or sex… or some deadly combination of the two. Especially with the Sennheisers. Cushy and cave-like, with open backs and fantastic reproduction… the music just melts in your ears.

I’m sure you know what I’m listening to – because of course now that I’ve been playing again, the songs are stuck in my head. And nothing but hearing them will scratch the itch. First it was Blue Orb, then the Disco Prince song… then the Stevie Wonde-ish track. My only wish is that Keita had given me a translated lyric sheet with the disc. Because, as it turns out, I *am* a lyrics freak.

–

This review does a lot to describe just how much good music does to enrich the experience of the game, and how careful one has to be about matching the character of sounds (from vocalist and style to production quality) with the finished product. Then it describes how the sequel nails several basic concepts examined in the original – becoming, essentially, the best game it could be.

Despite a dubious read of Keita’s overall intentions/character (and the King’s dialogue – which I interpreted as a commentary on the vaguaries of fans and fan pressure and sequels), I think this is one of my favorite reviews of the game so far.

Bright and early this am I drove up to the city for brunch with Mark. After tons of coffee and some delicious donuts – we headed back towards his place, stopping off at the Folsom Street fair.

This was my first brush with SF’s leather culture, and all I can say is … wow. Chicago hosts the International Mr. Leather contest each year, and several of the participating bars were in and around my old neighborhood. What goes on in the bars may be racey, but the street presence of IML is *tame* by comparison. In the midwest, I suppose, it isn’t suprising.

I didn’t know the fair was today – so I arrived on the scene dressed for a casual weekend brunch. In a sea of harnasses, chaps, and bare asses… I like to think my new t-shirt really stood out! Not as much as the booth selling “scrotum polish”, however. That one even stumped Brian.

Overall – I was struck by how much cosplay etiquette was observed at the fair – people keeping a respectful distance of those on display (posing alone, with friends, sometimes in action) so that others could observe and photograph the proceedings. Everyone was just as polite as at TGS – though there was definitely more waxing going on with this crowd, I’d say. TMI city!

—

Anyhow, now it’s late, and I’ve just played through the last level of WLKD. Oh, it’s such a silly little game. I spent the last half hour just going through my collections, reading the object descriptions. I think I’ve found my favorite “adult” character: the Parisienne. “Her job is harder than it looks. Everything she does looks fashionable, so she has to be careful.”

:P

Via Alice: read up on Bad Day in LA – and check out some of the screens (whose look is inspired by the artwork of the lovely Kozy and dastardly Dan). Will it be cool – or just a lame re-hash of the stereotypes it attempts to address?

Fingers crossed!

You know you would buy it.

Thanks, Casey!

Wow.

Thanks Sean!

Yeah, even the second time around, I love it. Soooo digging on the King’s heart-shaped chair, chin commentary, and the scathing complaints of underwhelmed fans when the ball is too small (or rolling too slow). Even the sideline commentary is great. “Oh – your very first crash! It is 9/23 – the anniversary of your very first crash! How exciting!!!”

I’m happy I managed to pick up a copy without having pre-ordered… it sounds like other people were not so fortunate. “We are disappointed! Oh yes, we are positively miffed!”

:)

Anyhow – if you listen carefully, you can hear me say “Katamari Damacy is the best game in the world” out loud and in person, in Justin’s TGS quicktime flick (large-ish) – which is actually formatted for viewing on the PSP!

For those of you who don’t totally already know… We Love Katamari comes out today in the US. More chances for America’s otaku to dream about the King and giggle with the Prince. To promote its arrival, Namco’s newsletter features a big WLKD header and links to the official site where the fan art contest results are gradually being posted. Lots of anime headed our way, I think…

For those of you who are in France/England – Keita will be speaking at Game Hotel in Paris – go check it out!

… to Jellybath.

In Tokyo, after a full day of shopping and sightseeing with Keita, Masa and the gang, I curled up in the sky-view tub with this stuff and let me tell you – it was fucking amazing. It was only surpassed by the magic grapes we ate that day – and even then, it was pretty damn close. You will think this thing is too expensive ($24) and you will be wrong. Order a tub soak – for yourself, friends – or … both! You will not be disappointed!!!

Randy has started to post his reviews of the Edge Awards games – entertaining and informative, as per usual. This is the way I wish someone would write about Ninety Nine Nights.

Ok – I’ve posted all the photos from my Tokyo trip.

I’m really missing it this time – much more than usual. I am feeling the emptiness of LA, the sting of indifference in my purchasing interactions… and of course, culinary withdrawl.

Last night Kozy/Dan came over for dinner and chicken katsu (team HP hosting in style, as usual), and showed me some of the awesome photos and movies from their trip – including their time with Keita and their night-time flashlight art party at Odaiba (be sure to check out the resulting animation. Basically – we spent a good portion of the night sulking, collectively, about how much we want to spend more time in Japan.

Because I didn’t take cosplay pix this year (sumo instead – a good trade if you ask me), there was less to process. So I pretty much cranked through them on the plane home (foregoing sleep). In part, I did this because Justin lost most of his photos early on the day of our return. I wanted to provide him with some quick memorabelia. What good news that despite the pain of his initial deletion, many were recovered. Phew!

It’s stuff like this that make me want to kill myself.

As far as gameplay goes, N3’s core mechanics are pretty classic and should be easy for anyone to pick up. The base mechanics are pure hack and slash. You’ll have a single attack button, a jump, a block, and the ability to dodge attacks. Though the comparisons with Koei’s Dynasty Warrior series are inevitable, there’s more to the game than that. The combat system is expanded over your basic hack-and-slash title in a number of ways. You’ll be able to level up your character courtesy of experience you earn as you mow down the hordes of foes. You’ll be able to direct friendly troops who join you in battle and get them to attack or retreat. Most significantly, you’ll collect red orbs that will fill a power meter onscreen. Once it’s full, you can unleash a powerful super attack that triggers some dramatic Matrix-style slowdown and lets you cut through the throngs of foes like a hot knife through butter. But such flashy killing is only the tip of the iceberg–you’ll be able to fill up another meter during these attacks that will let you perform a devastating orb-spark attack that decimates your foes like a smart bomb.

The visuals in the game are coming along nicely, with eye-bleeding clarity courtesy of its 720p resolution that was on impressive display in the Microsoft booth. The HDTV monitors running the game showcased the detailed textures, high-polygon characters, and massive environments being used to bring the virtual world to life. You’ll see impressively large throngs of enemies come at you, currently numbering in the hundreds, which can be cut down in flashy style by your standard and orb-powered attacks. The various special effects in the game are well done and are a satisfying complement once you get your groove on and start cutting down huge mobs. The game’s frame rate takes a hit every so often, and the camera can occasionally get itself in an awkward angle when you least want it to, but neither issue was enough to ruin the experience.

(emphasis mine)

“Yeah – it’s like… you can collect points, and like – do super combos… and … kill shitloads of guys. It’s gonna be a total eye bleeder!!”

Someone – get me my noose.

While I didn’t attend Iwata’s announcement, friends said it seemed like a compelling move. Looks like press on the device has started to make major sites – the beginnings of a push to consumers. Will it separate the Nintendo offering from MS and Sony in their minds (and wallets)? Only time will tell!

Looks like yet another Experimental Gameplay Workshop presentation has resulted in good fortune for an indie title! Congrats to Marc and the Steam team!

… or genius? You decide!