Red Wasp Design Talk in #Bristol 6th Jan 2012
Red Wasp Design (which I’m part of) are going to be giving a bit of a talk (with a quiz and prizes!!) on the 6th January from 1 till 2pm at the PM Studio in Bristol. It’s free to attend and Shoggoths are wellcome. Here’s the info:
Red Wasp Design are nearing the end of the development of the anticipated game ‘Call of Cthulhu: The Wasted Land’. The game is based on the cult horror RPG, Call of Cthulhu, which is itself based on the writings of H.P.Lovecraft. Both the RPG and the works of Lovecraft are much loved and have become a powerful meme. From South Park to cuddly toys, from horror fiction to fan-made films; the Cthulhu-meme has become all powerful. While it’s a bonus to be making a game based on such a well known idea, it also makes it a huge challenge.
Existing fans have their own expectations and yet the mobile phone has its own limitations on memory. Red Wasp Design will talk about the challenges and opportunities of adapting a paper-based game into a digital space whilst trying to keep fans happy and the development manageable.
During the lunchtime talk we’re also going to run a quick Lovecraft/Mythos themed quiz with an amazing prize for the winner – so come armed with knowledge of R’lyeh and Chthonians…
The Tech That Died in 2011
This is a really interesting list of tech that died in 2011 – the Flip camera, Google Buzz and the like. A couple of entries caught my eye:
Guitar Hero
Santa Monica, Calif. — For Guitar Hero, Feb. 9, 2011, was the day the music died. The videogame franchise was killed when Activision announced during its fourth-quarter earnings call that it was shuttering the business unit dedicated to Guitar Hero.The popular game was born in 2005 to Red Octane and Harmonix, and was distributed by Activision. Later iterations of Guitar Hero, which were developed by Neversoft, had band-specific titles and also incorporated more instrumental props, so fans could play drums or sing as well as play guitar.
But Guitar Hero sales fell off, and the game was eventually overshadowed by its record-breaking Activision siblings, the Call of Duty and World of Warcraft series. Revenues of Guitar Hero fell from $1.7 billion in 2008 to about $300 million in 2010.
Guitar Hero will be remembered for its love of music, with Aerosmith, Metallica and Van Halen among its favorite artists, and for creating living-room rock arenas for millions of users.
Guitar Hero is survived by Rock Band, Rocksmith, Rock Revolution and likely many other console and mobile games starting with “Rock” that we’re not aware of or haven’t been invented yet.
I was surprised by this as Guitar Hero was a game that should have done well in the connected age where the download systems of PSN and BOX Live allowed the download of new tracks (I know I purchased quite a few). It was also touted at the ‘Billion Dollar Franchise’. However the game-play didn’t change as much as it should and I know I stopped riffing on my plastic guitar some time ago. Ah well. What the article does not mention as the successor is the Tap Tap Revenge games – basically this same idea on a smart phone.
The other things that caught my eye are how much the list is driven by mobile – the Flip went because we all have great cameras in our smart phones. The tablets that died in competition with Google/Apple, the technology that could not keep pace with the mobile world etc..
Jay Is Games Picks Mirrornaut for ‘Weekly Download’
Mirrornaut (Mac/Windows, 8.6Mb, free) – IfCanabalt were slower, took place in space, and featured puzzle-like elements where you had to reverse your position and play as your mirror image, it would be (an entirely different game called) Mirrornaut. Obstacles slowly scroll your way, and you have two methods of avoiding them: jumping, and switching to the other side of the horizontal white line. Many things you can simply leap over, but others are too tall, forcing you to reverse sides. It’s strangely puzzle-like trying to figure out what and how to progress. Just a few mistakes is all it takes to start the level all over again, but the progression from stage to stage is a welcome change from endless running.
Self-Healing Chips
US researchers have created a circuit that heals itself by releasing liquid metal which restores conductivity.
The research, published in the journal, Advanced Materials, could lead to longer-lasting gadgets as well as solving one of the big problems of interplanetary travel.
“It simplifies the system,” said chemistry professor Jeffrey Moore, a co-author of the paper. “Rather than having to build in redundancies or to build in a sensory diagnostics system, this material is designed to take care of the problem itself.”
The Fusing of Online, Mobile and Physical Gaming…
Which sounds almost transhuman, but it’s not – more business related:
Juniper research predicts that in 2012, online, mobile and physical markets will begin to fuse (source: Juniper research, accessed December 2011). They have previously predicted that by 2015, mobile games revenues would surpass $11 billion globally (source: marketwire.com, November 30th 2011).
Savage Moon: The Hera Campaign screenshot for the now old-school PSPgo...
Happy Cthulhumas!
One and all!
#Crytek Gets Our Shared Digital Future
Game engine vendors must acclimatise to the new environment of digital, mobile and social games studios, the technology boss of Crytek has said.
Carl Jones told Edge that “the whole business of technology providing will change” because so many studios have broken away from the traditional triple-A, fire-and-forget business model.
As long as they make Crysis 3 that is…else we’ll be falling out 😉
Gem of a Game – Comix Zone (#Megadrive Classic!)
At the Bristol games development community meeting, I got a chance to play an old Megadrive game, not one I’d seem before, and what a gem it was. The idea is that you are trapped within a comic. Best thing is to see the video of the game (or even better play it!):
Games in the Loo: What Would Freud Say?
Sigmund Freud was a little obsessed that we were a little obsessed with what goes on in the loo. I was mildly intrigued to see a company building games into men’s urinals. In many ways it’s a natural fit (ahem) to place a game into a space where not much else is going on other than uncomfortable silences. (Indeed it reminded me of this game that tests your knowledge of the ‘unspoken etiquette’ of the men’s urinals.) But the men’s is not the only place you can find (ahem) human waste related gaming. The loo is also the setting for a game that aims to be a bit of fun and show you what should (and should not) be flushed away…
Bag It & Bin It is an action puzzle game that sees you trying to help the good imp stop the naughty imp from throwing the wrong things down the loo and so into the sewer. It’s got a kids mode in (because young kids find toilet humour a blast) and is a free download for iPhone and iPad. Here’s how it looks:
(PS…and I was involved along with the nice people at Wessex Water and Tool Box Design in the creation of the game…)
Modern Games as 8-Bit Classics
Can believe I missed this article – it’s ace fun. Images of modern games re-imagined as if they were 8Bit games:
Little Big Planet
Red Dead Redemption
A Great Becoming... 