I’m currently working on the design for a game which needs a cityscape background (more on that another time), so when I came across this collection of pixelated cityscapes, I was inspired.
You can see the cityscape set on Flickr by Max Capacity [AM] (check out his other Flickr images/sets, they’re very cool – and some are NSFW).
An interesting look into posters of the soviet arcade games, taken at the Museum of Soviet Video Games, found via Flickr, click here to see the set.
The Daily Fail (some of you may know it as the ‘Daily Mail’) is again trying to tackle those pesky violent video games by vomiting words without thinking.
Here is a quote from their article (more a jumbled mess of right-wing garbage than an article):
This Christmas’ top selling computer game could be one in which players kill hundreds of civillians in an airport. The sick game, called Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, features a level in which players score points by shooting unarmed passengers at an airport terminal, according to a trailer released on the internet.
The footage shows the player entering airport security with a machine gun in hand, before killing every innocent bystander in sight, often while they are crawling away injured or screaming for help. Eventually, the player must shoot the police that come to the public’s aid to progress.
Gamer Alan Burke, 14, said “The game looks like a lot of fun. All my friends at school are getting it for Christmas”. But mum Cathy was outraged; “I can’t believe they thought this was suitable material for such impressionable minds ” she told us, “it’s absolutely sickening”.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare sold over 7 million copies, and this new version is predicted to break that record. Market research shows that most of the players are aged between 12 and 18.
PM Gordon Brown condemned the game in a conference call this evening, saying “It’s atrocious that the entertainment industry feels the need to make light of such a serious and grave issue”, and Conservative MP Justin Davis called for the game to be banned from sale. Activation, the company who make the dispicable title, refused to comment.
Damn those video games, coming over here with their violence, poisoning our kids minds, making them go on school shooting rampages. It gets me really angry, it makes me want to actually parent my children, make sure they don’t access 18+ games instead of complaining and whining like an extremist conservative cunt who is taken in by the media bile that spews from within the Daily Mail pages.
Sidenote: If you’re letting your kid play an 18+ game, it isn’t the game at fault, it is the parent. End of. The fact that some ‘sheep’ will follow the Daily Mail’s article is laughable, but another needless blow to gaming. Shooting (FPS) games have been around for a while now, maybe it is time people grew up and accepted the fact that a game is just a game.
My friend, Phil Whittle, a fellow gamer also said in an online discussion:
I really hate how the Daily Mail reports things, and I wouldn’t be suprised if this leaked footage was done by Activision to drum up a bit of free publicity about the game before release. We don’t know the full context of the scene yet, I read that there are two warnings before the scene starts and you can skip it at any time, and it’s actually there to demonstrate how bad the terrorists are, not to reward the player for commiting terrible acts as the article implies.
Since they brought up kids playing the game, it’s rated 18+ by both the BBFC and PEGI so they shouldn’t really be playing it (although that’s a debate for another day).
Planetfall is a wonderfully aesthetic scrolling space shooter (shmup) game that my friend (Phil Whittle) and I have been working on for a very long time. It all started in 2007, but now I’m going to reveal some of the development and design processes and explain a little more about the project.
The game wasn’t ever meant to be complicated, but it was meant to be beautiful with a vast array of complicated particle-based effects and wonderful patterns. The main game was supposed to feel both modern but with a retro feel, so we decided anti-aliasing was a no-go area, pixelated minimalist graphics were given the nod.
We announced and started developing in October 2007, with a beta release in November, we expected it to be complete by December. So here we are in October 2009 and we still have no firm release. One could describe it as vapourware, and until we release it, that would be a partly accurate description. We originally picked up a little bit of hype in the local and small forum communities, though this has died down a lot since then.
Why has the project taken so long? Well 2008 was spent with at least 2 engine rewrites, a break whilst working on other important projects and a makeover. Then 2009 came and we made the final engine rewrite and the final design makeover. In addition to that, I use a Mac and the game is developed on Windows at the moment, so I’m limited to how much I can do.
Basically, all there is to do now is to create the actual game, though arcade mode functions very well and it’s possible that we could release arcade mode on its own, rather than a story filled mode.
You may have noticed the minimal ship designs in the newer builds (see first screenshot in this post). The designs were not always minimal, however, here is what the player ship used to look like (see below).
Note: Press ‘F1′ in-game for controls.
*Working on a Mac version, beta only available for Windows, annoying I know, especially for me since I use a Mac.
Amanita Design Studio released their independent, visually stimulating and impressive game today. There is a demo available to play on their site (without downloading) but you can get the full game and soundtrack for Mac and Windows for $20 (about £12). Very much worth it, and a great combination if game and art.
The long-awaited game for the iPhone/iPod Touch, Ramp Champ, has been released to the masses and naturally, I rushed onto the App Store to go get it this morning.
As a fan of seaside arcade games and the whole atmosphere of the cheap and chirpy British (or indeed any seaside) atmosphere, full of piers, mediocre beaches, slightly above average attractions and the wonderfully diverse array of people and culture, I thought this game would be for me.
I have played Skee-ball before but was rather skeptical about whether a game on a small device could replicate the feel of a popular seaside game. Amazingly, it did. The sound track and the sound effects, combined with the game play and absolutely stunning graphics contributed to the making of one of the best games you can get on the iPhone.