Video Game College

Checking in on North America’s first video game college, 25 years later

Welcome to game school

Digipen's 100,000 square foot campus doesn't look like a “video game academy.” At least, not the scare-quote kind. This isn't some Willy Wonka-styled factory of fun, nor a Chuck E. Cheese playland.

TV screens and posters celebrate prior graduates' games, and an arcade cabinet in the lobby plays student projects. Otherwise, the implications of the word “Institute” definitely apply. The place looks like a community college, seriously. From the outside, it's an unremarkable gray building whose giant windows are smothered in blinds. From the inside, it's all small lecture halls bathed in fluorescent lights and massive computer labs broken up by cubicle walls.

The first hint that this place is different comes from the couches. In my first hour at the school, at roughly 10am, I see two students passed out on them. And this is during the school's admittedly slower summer quarter.

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Profile on Chuggaaconroy

Profile on Chuggaaconroy at Wired

Portal-themed Bedroom

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25 most entertaining recent indie games

From Ars Technica:

Here, we've collected 25 of the most entertaining indie titles we got our hands on recently. Some of these were being shown for the first time, others have been around the trade show circuit a few times now. Some are even already available for purchase or download. Regardless, all of these should at least be on the radar for anyone seeking new and entertaining gameplay experiences.

And here's another list of 25 indie games from the Telegraph

Evolution of Video Game Controllers

The complete family tree of video game control schemes–including handhelds, joysticks, paddles, gamepads, and one notable glove–this chart shows how gaming input has evolved from simple knobs to directional pads to touch screens. Including every console ever, this sprawling print features 179 species and 12 genera over seven decades of gaming.

http://popchartlab.com/products/the-evolution-of-video-game-controllers

140

The developer who crafted the creepy puzzles for the 2010 platformer Limbo is close to releasing 140, a side-scrolling rhythm game with constantly changing levels. The landscapes in 140 alter as its overlaid techno soundtrack hits major percussive beats, requiring players to time their movement and jumps with the rhythm to stay alive — the game's soundtrack controls everything from the player controlled character to the environment's shape and color. The music design earned the game Excellence in Audio from the 2013 Independent Game Festival awards presented at last week's GDC. 140 looks like a color-soaked hallucination of an 8-bit platformer, which should be equally wild to play as it is to watch. The game was created as an independent project of Playdead developer Jeppe Carlsen, and it's set to be released later this year.

Faster Than Light

FTL: Faster than Light - Trailer from Justin Ma on Vimeo.

FTL: Faster than light won the Best Debut award at this year's Game Developer's Conference.

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