Sunday, August 2, 2009
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Friday, July 10, 2009
Wii Spray, We Rejoice
Yeah.. that’s right.. Some German cats came up with a use for the Wii I am actually excited about. Virtual graffiti with a spray can peripheral.
“WiiSpray – a technical experiment
During development in the Spring of 2007, Bauhaus University Media Department students Martin Lihs and Frank Matuse completed Prototype One, forming the groundwork for the WiiSpray. Upon consideration, Martin Lihs chose to further investigate this project for his Master Thesis, developing an entirely new Prototype, known today as WiiSpray 2nd edition. Complete with new ideas as to how the interface works, how the physical model appears, and a new 3 Dimensional interaction concept. The part of the software that allows Collaboration working is now in a betastatus.
However, the original idea of the project was founded much sooner.
While doing an internship in Lisbon, Martin Lihs met street and
graffiti artist „Target”. Lihs developed an interest in the medium
graffiti and the following questions arose:
“Is it possible to create a tool that allows one or more people to
interact creatively independent of space and time?
“Furthermore, is it possible to exchange thoughts and ideas through this?
“Can people who have only been observers take part in the creation process?”
These questions and the “Nintendo Wii” technology were the basis for
the resulting creative experiment.
What is the „WiiSpray“ project?
The foundational basis for the project goes well beyond replacing real graffiti as an art form. Moreover, WiiSpray
is to be seen as an interface to give graffiti a new virtual level surpassing tactile boundaries of the tangible world.
Within the system, there is a symbiosis of digital and analog as well as overcoming restrictions of distance and time. An advantage of the system proves to possess a user-friendly design simple enough for children to use. The virtual canvas allows the user to decide what is saved and what is discarded, all the while keeping the surrounding area clean and free of what otherwise would be a messy form of media.
The actual hardware tool of the artist – the spraying can – remains constant in its shape and
function and is a catalyst for this software supporting innovative computer interaction. The self-explanatory program requires no previous knowledge or reference of a user’s manual. This software allows users to make the game all their own, offering a wide
range of colors, interchangable caps, along with the possibility to incorporate the user’s personal photos, graphics, and backgrounds into the setting.
The WiiSpray provides a framework of different possibilities yet without any specifications on how to use it. Every user decides for themselves what his or her creative expressions might be.
WiiSpray is independent of platforms and is based on »Adobe Flash«,
a »WiiiSpray server« how is based on the »WiiFlash server«, and standard »Wii« technology.
WiiSpray, a technical experiment with a lot of potential for expansion and application.”
The reason why I'm excited about this is because this is device that has the ability to move two mediums forward. Often times when we speak of innovation in gaming, there is distinct lack of it. In its place however, is a great deal of denilitating flash that serves no other purpose but to limit creativity for the sake of the bottom line. This certainly isn't true for all game companies, and further, many franchises continue to strive to provide new experiences. The only thing that I am implying is that you will never see a huge conglomerate do this - simply because they don't need to. Unless we force them too.
Monday, July 6, 2009
Sunday, June 14, 2009
Thursday, March 12, 2009
Deep Context, Vol.3
Mob Ties Tokyo: An Indie Mafia Adventure
No one is going to mistake 'Mob Ties Tokyo' with the next blockbuster, multi-billion dollar title. But as indie developer, EVEdigital proclaims on their site, the are an "independent game development and digital video studio... dedicated to immersive story archs, innovative character interaction and top quality game play." Does it succeed? I would suggest giving it a shot.
"Things have changed for the old school mafia, cartel and syndicate organizations. Those with money are trying to make more. Going legit is the best way. But with ties to street gangs&druglords trying to keep the organizations in the past, change is not easy. Severing those ties takes the skill of a professional. The bosses, now businessmen, call in the best. Takuma Ishikawa, a wealthy Japanese businessman has broken his ties with the Tokyo underground and is now being extorted and threatened by a triad of street gangs. Each with their own intentions, the gangs have moved into Ishakawa’s nightclub business, using the clubs as a stage to expand their illegal activities and drug trade. Ishakawa has called on you to deal with the gangs and help his transition to legitimacy succeed. Born with connections to the world’s most powerful mob lords, you’ve learned from the best of the old and the new. Though the technologies have changed, the outcome remains the same, blood and profit. Hitman or vigilante, your loyalties lie with the highest bidder. “Anywhere at any time” is your motto and this time, it's Tokyo.." (Trailer)
An excerpt from the press release, "The team found themselves living in his mother’s basement during a record-breaking winter storm in Spokane, Washington and a completed PC game titled ”Mob Ties Tokyo”. The fact that the entire game was created by two people with a very small budget and completed within a year is a sign to other indie game makers that it can be done. “Both of us worked nearly 12 hours a day, 7 days a week on this for a year, doing the jobs of what large game companies would have had many different departments working on.”
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
Slip Into 8-Bits
Over at Etsy, they are advertising the custom slip on shoes they design using some famous scenes, moments, and characters from some classic gaming experiences. It isn't rare to see game characters appropriated into other mediums, and seeing them on shoes is really nothing new, but, something about this struck me as very, very cool.
Monday, January 19, 2009
The First Black Video Game Character
"Tomorrow, the United States will inaugurate its first black president, Barack Obama. In honor of this watershed moment in American history, I thought we should pay tribute to another African-American trailblazer: the first black video game character. After exhaustive research, I believe I’ve found him.
Thirty years ago (1979), the first obviously black video game character appeared in Basketball, programmed by Alan Miller for the Atari 800 home computer. That same year, a black basketball player also appeared in Atari Basketball in the arcade. Which came first is, at present, uncertain, but the 800 version had a distinguishing characteristic: it was in color. Interestingly, the arcade game only rendered its graphics in black and white, so the Atari 800’s black basketball star — let’s call him John Q. Basketball — broke the color barrier in more ways than one." [source]
Now, essentially, the character in question is more or less a small mass of brown pixels. Also, we could celebrate the entry of the first purple video game character.. whatever demographic that is supposed to represent. There is another article over at Microscopiq that discusses some characters in length, listing such characters as Akuji the Heartless (a mighty voodoo priest and warrior....?) and Michael Jackson from Moonwalker. There are some redeeming characters, like Jade from the classic Beyond Good and Evil, and well... that's it, not counting Shaq from his own game, and I use that loosely, 'Shaq Fu' and even Michael Jordan's own videogame Chaos in the Windy City.
I wonder why these are they examples for Black leading characters. I mean sure, Fiddy's got a game where he fights terrorists to obtain his coveted jewelry, or a crystal skull, or whatever.. but come on... Honestly... Why are these the examples that we have? In most cases, because games with Black protagonists don't seem to be very often writen with that cultural background in mind. But what is the cultural background for a Black character in games these days? In games where you can create the aspects of your character, like for RPGs for example, the cultural significance is ignored for the sake of a general background related to the period or actions the protagonists may have taken before the onset of the game's beginning. Is it important for these cultural ideas to be addressed? Or is the everyman or everywoman more important? I'm not sure. I do know that given the option of creating my own character is far more appealing because I can control some aspect of the narrative. I'm made Black Jedi's pre-Sam Jackson's Mace Windu, and I've wielded swords and spells like an ebony Merlin in the World of Warcraft.
I guess I just wonder when it isn't an everyman, or that I have to construct something to make me identify with a character that is not so much the loud sidekick that yells random ish for no reason while he sacrifices himself with a grenade in one hand and cigar in the other, meanwhile, the main characters run off to save the day and 'never forget the sacrifce of Sgt. Jerome 'Pain and Maim Train' Joseph Jenkins'.
Tuesday, December 23, 2008
Videogames: Again, The Root of all Evil
"Waukesha Police are recommending charges after two brothers, both in their 30's, wound up choking and then stabbing and cutting each other. What's more, police say the two did that while fighting over a video game controller.
Waukesha Police are recommending charges after two brothers, both in their 30's, wound up choking and then stabbing and cutting each other. What's more, police say the two did that while fighting over a Playstation 2 video game controller.
It happened Sunday at a home on Whiterock Avenue. According to Waukesha Police, the brothers got into a fight over whose turn it was to play the game.
The fight escalated into one of the brother's choking the other. The brother who was being choked then pulled out a knife and cut his brother's hands. The brother who was doing the choking then grabbed the knife and stabbed his brother in the chest. He then fled the scene.
The brother who fled walked to the hospital, which led him to suffer severely frostbitten fingers.
Police say none of the injuries was life threatening." [Link]
Clearly, there is an issue greater than a simple, 'Who's got next?" But that will become incidental in the wake of something as ridiculous as this happening in relation to videogames. Why? Because videoames foster behavior ill suited for children. It causes them to want to get to stabbing. I myself can't easily remember a time where my Atari 2600 drove me to want to stab someone with a knife. But then again, unlike the child in the article, I didn't store knives on my person with the intent of future stabbings. Though as bad as the ET video game was, maybe I should have stabbed someone.