Wednesday, February 19, 2014
Donkey Kong Country Returns: Tropical Freeze comes out February 21
The reviewer of the new Donkey Kong game loved the soundtrack:
"It’s the best Donkey Kong Country has ever sounded.
Wise’s background tunes become increasingly rich and complex as you progress through the levels. One level has you quickly descending vines littered with bells. Each time you pass a bell, it rings, adding a new backing instrument to the background music. It’s not until you trigger every bell that the song fully reveals itself in all its glory.
Usually it’s a simpler progression, merely using the passing of a checkpoint or a tricky platforming segment to trigger a change in the music. As you get closer and closer to finishing the level, the music amps up the sense of urgency."
Wise’s background tunes become increasingly rich and complex as you progress through the levels. One level has you quickly descending vines littered with bells. Each time you pass a bell, it rings, adding a new backing instrument to the background music. It’s not until you trigger every bell that the song fully reveals itself in all its glory.
Usually it’s a simpler progression, merely using the passing of a checkpoint or a tricky platforming segment to trigger a change in the music. As you get closer and closer to finishing the level, the music amps up the sense of urgency."
Read the full review
Wednesday, February 12, 2014
Monday, December 9, 2013
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.
Read the article
Example
Thursday, November 14, 2013
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
Monday, November 11, 2013
Wednesday, November 6, 2013
Nick and Tesla's High-Voltage Danger Lab
Read an excerpt here
Tuesday, November 5, 2013
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
Tuesday, October 29, 2013
Gold Farming
Two articles on gold farming:
China used prisoners in lucrative internet gaming work
Friday, October 25, 2013
Tuesday, October 22, 2013
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.
Read the article
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.
Wednesday, July 24, 2013
Friday, May 31, 2013
Sunday, April 21, 2013
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.
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