This is how Spelunky's Level Generator Works

When it comes to level generation (that is creating levels based on algorithms as opposed to forming them in a map editor), one of the most admirable examples is Spelunky. You’ve surely played Spelunky by now (if not, here’s the free older version) and know that it creates a magical illusion that “the walls are shifting” every time you enter its caves, jungles and hellholes. It’s not magic, though; it’s procedural generation and it supplements Spelunky’s mechanics and creates a constant challenge even for veteran players.

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Example

Replacing Tests with Video Games

The idea being that monitoring the way a kid reacts to challenges thrown up in a game is a lot more useful to understanding them than a traditional "right or wrong" test.

Full Article

Interviews with Evoland Developers

Interview 1
Interview 2

Nick and Tesla's High-Voltage Danger Lab

Nick and Tesla's High-Voltage Danger Lab: A kids' mystery novel with electromagnets, burglar alarms, and other gadgets you can buildNick and Tesla are a couple of teenagers who get themselves into trouble and must build MAKE-style projects to save the day. There are two books in the series, aimed at ages 9-12, and they contain a number of fun DIY projects. The publisher, Quirk Books, kindly gave us permission to run an lengthy PDF excerpt from Nick and Tesla's High-Voltage Danger Lab that includes plans for making a compressed-air water rocket.

Read an excerpt here

Spelunky Developer Interviews

Interview: Derek Yu

Mobile "just too scary" for indies, says Spelunky dev

Video game playing found beneficial for the brain

Playing the Super Mario 64 video game causes increased size in brain regions responsible for spatial orientation, memory formation and strategic planning as well as fine motor skills, a new study conducted at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development and Charité University Medicine St. Hedwig-Krankenhaus has found.

Read the rest of the article (and the comments) here 

The Amazingly Unlikely Story of How Minecraft Was Born

A couple of weeks had passed since Markus started working at Jalbum and his thoughts were circling full speed around the game he’d promised himself he’d work on. Like when he was a child and would run home from school to his LEGOs, he now spent almost all his free time in front of his home computer. He combed the Internet in search of inspiration for his project; the heavy labor—the coding—could begin only after he figured out what kind of game he wanted to create. The idea for Minecraftbegan to take shape in his encounter with Dwarf Fortress.

Read the rest of the article on Wired 

Gold Farming

Two articles on gold farming:
The Life of the Chinese Gold Farmer
China used prisoners in lucrative internet gaming work

World of Goo Developer Interviews

Interview 1
Interview 2
Interview 3
Interview 4
The making of the world of goo

Don't Starve Developer Interviews

Interview 1
Interview 2
Interview 3

Terraria Developer Interviews

Here are 3 brief interviews with the developer of Terraria:
Interview 1
Interview 2
Interview 3

Ripple Dot Zero

Ripple Dot Zero is a throwback '90s platformer that evokes the look, sound, and gameplay of early 16-bit era games.

Interview with the creators

Blog by the creators

Google Uses Minecraft to Teach Quantum Physics To Kids

Google thinks it can get kids hooked on the wacky world of quantum physics early on by using the popular game Minecraft. The Internet giant has unveiled a game mod designed to help millions of Minecraft players become familiar with the strangeness of quantum physics rules that appear to defy reality.
The new game mod, called qCraft, allows Minecraft players to mess around with quantum rules such as superposition, entanglement, and observational dependency. These tricks would allow players to create quantum teleporters, make entangled Minecraft blocks that can both be affected simultaneously by changing the properties of just one block, and build castle drawbridges that vanish when seen from different perspectives.

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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

More Photos

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.

Game Website

Now You're Swimming With Portals

Lab Rat Comic

Here

Learning Processing

Hey buddy,

I'm going to be learning programming in processing - do you want to learn with me? I found these video tutorials that seem pretty good. They say you should be at least 10 years old, and OMG, you're 10 years old.

Healthier Living Via Video Games

Doug and Janet sent you this article about video games in health care.

A video game can turn a child with diabetes into an empowered superhero who tests his blood sugar before taking on monsters. Give a new mother a game — with gift cards as prizes — and she’s more likely to show up for well-baby visits.
“Games tap into very deep and fundamental aspects of our psychology,” said Ken Werbach, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School who wrote a book on gaming. “We love surprises, we love challenges, we love competition, we love fun.”

Video game character meeting

Donkey Kong Rom Hack

A dad edited the Donkey Kong rom so that his daughter could play as Pauline instead of Mario.

Story here.

The software he used is Tile Layer Pro. You can find tutorials on YouTube.

Pixel Monster Generator

Single color generator
Three color generator