Here, artist AgentScarlet imagines Nintendo's mustachioed mascot handled by a modern Western studio, or Super Mario with a gun. It's predictable, but I bet it would be a lot more fun than Hotel Mario! AgentScarlet explains, "Peach is now a scientist that gets kidnapped all the time, and Mario is a veteran spec ops commando.

Make sure to check out the other AgentScarlet's deviantArt gallery for more video game-inspired work like Team Fortress pin-ups, Nintendo punks, and more. Of course, I've included a couple of my favorite fanart pieces after the break:

Continue reading "Super Mario Warfare" »

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Harvest Moon, which many consider as the inspiration to Facebook gaming king FarmVille from Zynga, will see several browser-based social game releases thanks to Japanese developer and publisher Marvelous Entertainment.

The company looks to put out five to six titles designed for social networking services, according to a report from the Nikkei Industrial Journal translated by Andriasang. It's expecting to begin releasing those games this summer.

The 14-year-old series has seen dozens of releases, ports, and spin-offs on a multitude of home console, portable, digital download, and mobile platforms, so this move to spread the franchise to popular services like Facebook isn't surprising.

Marvelous didn't disclose any gameplay details behind the projects or specific strategies for attracting FarmVille's 83 million fans to its own farming simulator, but the publisher says it "aims to use its game development knowhow to deliver full game experiences."

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[Continuing our countdown of the Top 5 lectures of GDC 2010 in terms of what piqued our interest, here's Leigh Alexander writing up an intriguing lecture from Metroid and WarioWare co-creator Yoshio Sakamoto, a bit of a Nintendo legend who rarely speaks in the West.]

Nintendo’s Yoshio Sakamoto is a designer who takes pride in being strange – a paradox at times, as he’s employed by a company perhaps best known these days for its approachable, all-inclusive games.

“It wouldn’t be an overstatement to say that Metroid is the only series I’m known for outside of Japan,” Sakamoto said as he introduced himself in a packed GDC 2010 talk.

He says he was “virtually uninvolved” in the Prime arc of the series, and the balance of his work is “subtler and quirkier” and thus doesn’t often see release outside of Japan.

In fact, Metroid games are niche titles in Japan as well, he says – “Over there, I might be considered a guy who only makes niche games… my true identity might be as a game designer with a strong tendency for niche games.”

Nintendo president Satoru Iwata has always been “puzzled” by Sakamoto’s approach, he says. Sakamoto has played a director role on the Metroid games, but for the upcoming and highly anticipated Other M, which launches in the U.S. on June 27, he is the producer.

The aim is to create the “ultimate Metroid game,” he says.

He resists being credited for originating the franchise, punning: “If anything, maybe I consider myself the one who raised Samus. After all, the one who gave birth to Metroid is the Queen Metroid, right?”

Continue reading "Best Of GDC 2010 - #3: Nintendo's Sakamoto And His Four Creative Tenets" »

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Haymaker Games -- a small indie outfit comprised of Whitney Hills (who works at Microsoft Game Studios by day), Sean Gubelman, and two freelance artists -- recently revealed Ghost Chef, which the studio promises will be a "revolution in interactive spectral cooking".

Based on this short trailer, the title looks like a time management game (e.g. Cake Mania, Diner Dash) but with ghosts -- ghosts so cute that they demanded an adorable, squeezable plushie! Hopefully someone will mass produce these in time for Ghost Chef release on Xbox Live Indie Games this fall.

The game will feature solo and co-op modes in which players can "micro-interact [their] way to glory". More competitive types can jump into the versus mode, to send their opponent's kitchen up in flames. Ghost Chef also promises "unlockable narrative vignettes and a smorgasbord of otherworldly recipes." Delicious!

[Via superannuation]

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Namco Bandai's teaser trailer for Pac-Man Battle Royale several weeks ago gave us very little to go on with this 30th Anniversary arcade revival -- is it a remix of Pac-Man CE with Pac-Man Vs.-style multiplayer matches?

Maybe it's a game in which boisterous Junior High Pac-Man students are trapped on a dangerous island and forced to fight against each other to the death? Or perhaps it's just Pac-Man with all the fruit sprites replaced with quarter pounders from McDonalds?

Arcade Heroes captured new footage of Pac-Man Battle Royale at Amusement Expo 2010, and it looks like the game takes a few ideas from those first two predictions (no cheeseburgers, unfortunately); its graphics and changing stages are similar to Pac-Man CE, but the focus is on eating/murdering other players (Pac-Man Vs. was more about ghosts chasing Pac-Man).

These cocktail cabinets are running prototype versions and Namco Bandai won't release the game until September, so it's likely Pac-Man Battle Royale will receive a lot of changes before it's sent to arcades.

Posted by Eric Caoili at 2:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

[In a GameSetWatch-exclusive set of blog posts covering the week of GDC 2010, Magical Wasteland blogger and Game Developer magazine columnist Matthew Burns continues his journey through the show. Previously: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 and Part 4.]

I’m speaking to Baiyon, the composer and graphic designer on PixelJunk Eden. He talks about how different the show is from CEDEC, Japan’s counterpart to GDC.

“I like CEDEC, but I feel like they are a little too serious, thinking too much. Here, I did a talk with Richard Lemarchand, Lead Designer on Uncharted 2, and there I answered a question on how to get ideas for games by saying my method is that I go on a date with a girl, have some drinks at a bar, and then spend some private time together, and the next morning I’ve decided what to do."

"That was a kind of joke, but many people were talking and tweeting about it. I also played a set at GAMMA IV. It was so fun,” he says. “I love the GDC people– the whole thing is like a party.”

We also talk about what it’s like to work with Dylan Cuthbert, and he describes some details of his approach to his next collaboration with Q-Games– a music visualizer called PixelJunk lifelike.

We end our lunch conversation with a story about something Keita Takahashi, of Katamari Damacy and Noby Noby Boy, created in college: a goat-shaped planter where excess water comes out of the goat’s rear end. I’m not sure if learning this contributes to my understanding of his work at all, but I’m inexplicably pleased to hear the anecdote anyway.

Continue reading "GDC, The Fantasy of Control Part V - Baiyon And On" »

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[Continuing our countdown of the Top 5 lectures of GDC 2010, at least from the intriguing and/or overlooked point of view (full coverage here), we've got Chris Remo writing up a provocative Game Developers Conference lecture on achievements by former Spore dev Chris Hecker.]

It's possible that an over-reliance on metrics-driven design and extrinsic rewards for in-game actions could lead to a future of "designing shitty games that you have to pay people to play," warns independent developer Chris Hecker.

Hecker, who is currently working on the espionage-themed multiplayer game SpyParty, presented his hypothetical "nightmare self-fulfilling scenario" as part of a talk inquisitively titled "Achievements Considered Harmful?" during Game Developers Conference in San Francisco.

Hecker based his talk on a large volume of often-conflicting psychological studies about the effects of intrinsic and extrinsic rewards, but he was quick to preface his hypothesis by noting that "there are no direct studies" about the topic as it specifically relates to video games, and he called for more research into the effects of reward structures in design.

Continue reading "Best Of GDC 2010 - #4: Hecker's Nightmare Scenario - A Future Of Rewarding Players For Dull Tasks" »

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Carnegie Mellon University tinkerer Chloe Fan created this rudimentary version of Super Mario Bros. out of an 8x8 LED matrix, an Arduino Nano, and two buttons (forward and jump). Of course, with a system even more limiting than the Meggy Jr., there are bound to be a few elements missing: power-ups, enemies, and music.

To add a soundtrack to the game, Fan transcribed Koji Kondo's famous theme and plays it in a separate Arduino-powered device. It's a basic experience that only scratches the surface of Super Mario Bros., but it's impressive how much of the legendary platformer she was able to fit on an 8x8 display.

Interesting fact: the blocks in this Super Mario Bros. clone are just recolored clouds.

[Via Boing Boing]

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[Just a quick note on GDC's attendance and 2011's dates, when we'll be returning to Monday-Friday, for all those who like to go home before the weekend! Watch for some more follow-up galleries and write-ups from GSW-centric GDC lectures/parties as the week progresses.]

Organizers of the 2010 Game Developers Conference, the world's largest industry-only event dedicated to the advancement of interactive entertainment, has announced an all-time record of 18,250 game industry professionals attending San Francisco's Moscone Convention Center for the March 9th-13th event.

Surpassing last year's total of 17,000 attendees, the event - created by the UBM Techweb Game Network, as is this website - brought together experienced game developers, publishers, deal makers, industry aspirants and working press for more than 400 lectures, panels, summits, tutorials and roundtable discussions.

Offering a full five days of content, the event also hosted an extensive Exposition floor, featuring the biggest firms in the games space alongside the Career Pavilion and associated Game Career Seminar.

Also presented were the 12th Annual Independent Games Festival, the 10th Annual Game Developers Choice Awards, Game Connection America, and more opportunities for networking, discussing business, sharing knowledge, and meeting with equally-devoted fellow developers.

Following the success of the show, organizers of the Game Developers Conference have announced that GDC 2011 will return to the Moscone Convention Center in San Francisco from Monday, February 28 to Friday, March 4, 2011, with a call for lecture submissions to open this Summer.

Continue reading "GDC Sees Record Attendance, Reveals 2011 Dates" »

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Canabalt composer Danny Baranowsky has posted soundtracks for two recent indie releases he contributed to, including Steambirds, the excellent aerial-dogfighting turn-based-strategy game from Andy Moore and Dan Cook. You can stream the five-track album for free at Bandcamp or download the full release for $0/99 (two of the songs are under 30 seconds in length).

Danny B also uploaded seven songs from Gravity Hook HD, Adam "Atomic" Saltsman's addictive one-button action Flash game (coming to iPhone/iPod Touch soon). The release is also available to stream for free and to download in its entirety for $0.99, and it also includes songs from the original Gravity Hook's soundtrack.

And if you haven't heard it yet, don't forget that Danny B's Canabalt soundtrack is also up at Bandcamp with full and ringtone versions of the game's two themes, as well as a bonus megamix from Fathom.

[Via Nobuooo]

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It only took a three-and-a-half-year wait for it to come out, but we finally have more footage of Limbo, Playdead's dream-like black and white platformer releasing to Xbox Live Arcade some time this summer. The game follows a boy searching for his sister in Limbo, or "on the edge of hell."

For those of you that missed the show, the Independent Games Festival Awards selected Limbo as the winner in two categories, Excellence in Visual Art and Technical Excellence. Playdead showed off this first area of the game on the IGF showfloor at the Game Developers Conference last week.

[Via IndieGames.com]

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[Continuing his 'Sound Current' series of interviews with notable game music creators for GameSetWatch, Jeriaska catches up with Heavy Rain composer Normand Corbeil to discuss the creation of the soundtrack to the acclaimed Quantic Dream-developed PlayStation 3 exclusive.]

Composer Normand Corbeil previously joined game director David Cage and film composer Angelo Badalamenti on the production of Quantic Dream's paranormal thriller Indigo Prophecy, titled Fahrenheit in Europe.

The soundtrack to Cage's follow-up title, the interactive drama Heavy Rain, was recorded at Abbey Road Studios and has recently been made available on iTunes. In addition, a code to download the soundtrack album comes with the Collector's Edition of the game. In this interview, Corbeil discusses his approach to adding nuance to the personalities of the story's central characters through the use of the musical score.

Continue reading "Sound Current: 'Identity Through Music - On the Soundtrack to Heavy Rain'" »

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[So, you may have noticed a gigantic amount of GDC coverage over at sister site Gamasutra. We'll do a giga-roundup in the near future, but in the meantime, we've decided to run a Top 5 of most intriguing GDC 2010 write-ups on GSW, starting with Chris Remo on this year's awesome Game Design Challenge.]

Noted game designers Jenova Chen, Kim Swift, Heather Kelley, and Erin Robinson presented concepts around the topic of "Real-World Permadeath" during this year's Game Design Challenge at Game Developers Conference, with Chen's HeavenVille taking the audience-determined top prize -- a bottle of Jameson whiskey.

The terms of the challenge demanded the designers present pitches for games that in some way involve the actual permanent death of a real human being. No further requirements were established.

Last Game & Testament, Erin Robinson and Heather Kelley

Erin Robinson of Wadjet Eye Games and Heather Kelley of Kokoromi, the winners of last year's competition, collaborated on Last Game & Testament, a piece of software intended to replace a traditional written will, to be played by the family members of the game's subject after his or her death.

Creating a will is "probably a pretty tedious process," Kelley said, and "the reading of a will has the reputation of being pretty morose, but also stressful."

Last Will & Testament attempts to solve both of those issues. The person creating the will uses the software to create unique barcode labels for all the items in his or her posession to be given away to friends and family members. That barcode is linked to the name of the item's intended recipient, as well as any historical or family-related information the subject wishes to assign to it.

Continue reading "Best Of GDC 2010 - #5: Jenova Chen's HeavenVille Wins Game Design Challenge" »

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