April 03, 2006
Spore Gameplay Video
The legendary game designer, Will Wright, presents an alternate way to develop games, and the awesome product of this way of thinking. Everyone talked about it at the 2005 DICE Summit. Microsoft made it the focus of its keynote address. For many it's a cold hard fact: the price of developing a game for the next-generation of systems is going to skyrocket. It's going to take warehouses full of artists and level designers to create all the content for every title. For many, this proposition is terrifying.
Will Wright, creator of SimCity and The Sims, says YES. And more than that, he believes he's found a way to make gaming a much more personal experience for everyone it touches. And it won't take hordes of content developers: it'll just take a little savvy and use of what's called "procedural" content development.
Posted by richard ting at April 03, 2006, 04:42 PM
July 13, 2005
spring_alpha
spring_alpha is a networked game system based on Chad McCail's drawing "Spring" and the series "Evolution is Not Over Yet". This narrates the attempts of a small, urban community to create its own "utopian" society. The narrative is used as a metaphor for the real-world issues that the project explores and a focus around which speculative and critical ideas can develop. The software system serves as a "sketch pad" for testing out ideas for alternative forms of social practice at both the "narrative" level, in terms of the game story, and at a "code" level, in terms of working with the actual data and communication structures that support the game. It is an exploration of software and social governance in relation to Free Open Source Software practice. The project combines the development of an open software system along with workshop events that seek to broaden Free Open Source Software development principles into areas outside of programming.
Posted by richard ting at July 13, 2005, 10:34 AM
January 15, 2004
Gaming With an Opponent Who's 'Over There'
LAST month Kevin Dustin Sr. spent a Monday afternoon playing video games with his son, Kevin Jr. While this might be an everyday event for many families, his session was conducted long distance, and was aimed at improving military morale.
Mr. Dustin Sr. was at a Microsoft Xbox set up at the U.S.O. center near Times Square, and his son, a 25-year-old Air Force staff sergeant, was 4,000 miles away at Spangdahlem Air Base in Germany. The 90 minutes they spent playing Project Gotham Racing 2 was part of a collaboration between an Air Force command, Microsoft and the U.S.O. that enables military personnel overseas to play video games and speak with their families and friends using an online gaming connection called Xbox Live.
"It makes you feel a lot closer," the senior Mr. Dustin, 47, said after playing during an inaugural event that was also attended by his 24-year-old daughter, Laura. "It's like we were both sitting there next to each other playing."
Read the full article at NYTimes.com
Posted by richard ting at January 15, 2004, 11:44 AM
December 01, 2003
Holiday Season a Feast for Gamers
'Tis the week of Thanksgiving, and crowds are thronging video-game stores to line up three deep at demo machines to check out the holiday season's crop of new titles.
What a crop it is. Yes, long-awaited titles such as Half-Life 2 and Doom 3 won't see daylight until next year -- but who cares? There is a vast selection of inviting new titles that will satisfy virtually any taste -- from hard-core virtual warriors and racers to families looking for something to do together on a lazy holiday afternoon.
http://www.wired.com/news/games/0,2101,61370,00.html
Posted by richard ting at December 01, 2003, 10:51 PM
November 13, 2003
Smile, gamers: You're in the picture
Smile, gamers: You're in the picture | CNET News.com
By moving the wand in a circle, he can produce a trail that turns into a ring of fire on the screen. By flicking the wand toward the TV, he can make a fireball sizzle across the monitor. Other geometric shapes conjure tornadoes or make the player invisible. 'I actually had my son draw up a list of spells he thought would be good,' Marks said.
Don't put in an emergency call to the Ministry of Magic just yet. Marks, a special-projects manager for research and development at Sony Computer Entertainment America, is only recounting his exploits with EyeToy, a miniature camera he invented that attaches to the PlayStation 2 and translates body movements into a video game. Peripheral devices for video game consoles generally do not sell well, but more than 1 million of these set-top cameras have been sold in Britain since they were introduced there in July.