creation
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Storyboard: A man of many talents
Rejoice! After the columns of the last two weeks, the specter of relationships has been forever vanquished! (We're using "forever" in the same sense you'd see it in a comic book here. In other words, give it a month.) Diving back into the haphazard series on character creation, today we'll be taking a look at generating a character based solidly upon their abilities -- a method that seems a bit odd at first glance and almost ridiculously simple upon further consideration. Think about it for a moment. If someone asks you to describe yourself, odds are excellent that you don't start with a recounting of your personality or your history unless you're on a date. Most times, you start with what you do -- hobbies, profession, and any other pertinent diversions on the road toward the grave. It's not a real cognitive leap from being accountants, clerks, and waiters to being warriors, mages, and rogues. The big question is extrapolating backward from the ability to figure out the sort of person who would go into the profession in the first place. Because it's such a broad field, in fact, I'm going to take a look at it from three different angles.
Preview: Lego Universe
There's no question at all: Lego Universe is a game built for children. Creative Director Ryan Seabury says the primary audience of the game is ages 8-12, and the interface is very clearly young user-friendly, with big, brightly colored buttons, and easy-to-use UI widgets. The game centers on collecting "imagination," and while there is combat in the game, it's simple and trouble-free, more fun than strategic. But here's the thing: good game design is ageless. And Lego Universe seems like a tidy summation of everything both developer NetDevil has learned about making MMOs, and Lego has learned over 75 years of making classic toys. %Gallery-95663%
MyTown 4.0 adds item creation, location tips
Booyah has released MyTown 4.0 for the iPhone, the latest update to their extremely popular check-in game, and it adds a whole new round of social functions to the system. Properties that you own (which you get by checking-in at real-life properties) can now create items of their own, and different categories, like shopping or dining, will create different types of items. Additionally, items can now be traded with friends in the game, and all of this adds a new level to the gameplay -- not only are you earning points for checking-in, but you're collecting items, and those items can give you extra boosts or otherwise mix up the game. Plus, actual virtual items helps out Booyah's in-app sales, and I'm sure they will eventually put some of their branding agreements to work by making some of those created items brand-name products. Version 4.0 also adds "location tips," which allow users to leave comments at certain locations (to enable Yelp-style discussions), and check-ins now recharge over time, while max level players can check-in as much as they want. MyTown's growth has been phenomenal, and with the amount of work going into the app, that growth likely won't slow down any time soon. The app is free and on the App Store right now.
Hobby artist creates paintings on the iPad
Obama Pacman's got a few cool paintings by an artist named John Haasl. The unique thing about these paintings is that Haasl created them exclusively with the iPad. While a lot of the talk around the iPad has centered on the device as a content consumer, content creation is definitely easier in one big area with a much larger touchscreen, and of course, that's art. Not only does the extra screen space help out would-be artists, but the processing power makes things quick and easy, too. Haasl is using ArtStudio for iPad for his work, and there's other good software available as well (SketchBook Pro is another popular app, though it's a little more expensive, with ArtStudio on sale for just a buck). Haasl says that he takes about two days to put a painting together, and it's totally a hobby -- his day job is in IT. It's very cool, anyway. It will also be interesting to see what professional artists end up doing with the iPad's screen, and if some of the new interfaces for art make their way back to traditional computers.
AAPL goes on a roller-coaster ride
The above image from SingularityDsgn graphically shows the wild roller-coaster ride that Apple's stock has been on today. It traded at roughly 1.5% below Tuesday's closing price heading into today's iPad announcement, but started climbing during the iBooks announcement. AAPL's stock took a major leap when pricing information was released, and is currently trading around 209.69, up about 1.75% (please note that these numbers fluctuate frequently). Lots of jumping is about right for any Apple event, though the big jump when price was announced is somewhat surprising. AAPL actually tends to drop after an event, as there are so many rumors flying around ahead of time that investors are easily underwhelmed. But it looks like especially the pricing news won their approval today. As always, this is not official stock information, and you shouldn't make any buy or sell decisions based on what you read here.
LittleBigPlanet PSP creation mode looks just like PS3 version
Playing only makes up for one third of the "Play, Create, Share" motto. We know LittleBigPlanet for PSP plays a lot like the PS3 version. But, how's the creation aspect? Sony Cambridge shared a new trailer at Gamescom today highlighting the creation tools of LBP PSP.For better or for worse, it looks exactly like it did on the PS3. The Pop-It tool seems to drive the familiar experience, giving players access to a variety of textures and objects. The PS3 editor certainly has been successful so far (creating over a million levels so far), but those that expected a more streamlined process for the handheld version may be disappointed.
Upcoming LittleBigPlanet DLC to make creation more 'versatile'
Save for a few of the game's beefier DLC packs, a majority of the downloadable content for LittleBigPlanet has been purely aesthetic. Not that we mind being able to dress our Sackboys up like Cole McGrath -- but we'd prefer something that makes the already rich level creation engine just a little bit richer.Fortunately, during the Develop Conference earlier this month, Media Molecule co-founder Mark Healy announced that an upcoming piece of DLC will add "lots of exciting things that make it into more of a versatile creation tool." He didn't get any more specific than that, but added that it would make fans "very happy." Hey, if it helps our levels not look like something a six-year-old drew in Sunday school, we'll be pleased as punch.
The making of the Warhammer Online cinematic
Just before Warhammer Online launched, we were treated to a gorgeous new cinematic to give us just a taste of what to expect in the game. This teaser launched right about the same time as World of Warcraft's Wrath of the Lich King trailer, making for several heated forum debates on which video was more amazing. No matter which side of that fence you're on, the fact is that Mythic gave Blizzard a run for their money in the cinematic department, there's no doubt.Now the actual creators of that cinematic, Blur Studio, have compiled a two-hour video depicting the making of that Warhammer teaser. It's broken down into four parts, so you can pace yourself, but it's certainly worth a watch if you're into the whole CGI scene. You'll learn about the concept stages, how Blur took liberties with actually creating new content before it was designed for the game, how the Orcs were made as an army and much more. Check out Blur's website for their impressive CGI portfolio which includes the Tabula Rasa cinematic as well.
The Queue: Casual raiding and you
Welcome back to The Queue, WoW Insider's daily Q&A column where the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft.Hooray weekend! Boo Sunday! Let's jump right into things with Galipan's question...Is casual raiding a possibility? Ive heard from many people that it isn't, however, I'm trying to get a guild started that does give it a shot.
Death Knight creation bug solution
There is a bug currently affecting the creation of Death Knights after you have installed Wrath of the Lich King.If you get an error when creating the Death Knight, and you have met the requirements of having a level 55 character on the server in which you're creating the Death Knight, just make a new level 1 character first.After that character is created, you can then create your Death Knight without any more problems.I have to wonder how the bug came to be, and why they weren't able to fix it. We probably won't know either of those answers. But at least we have a quick and dirty fix.Happy Northrending!
MMOGology: Build your own adventure
I hope all of you got to check out Elizabeth Harper's great preview of the upcoming LEGO Universe MMOG by NetDevil. I'm personally a huge fan of LEGO and proudly admit to playing with those little, plastic blocks well beyond the recommended age rating. There's just something great about a product that gives you the tools to create without limiting the possibilities of your imagination. When it comes down to it, LEGO is simply another medium like clay or paint. It's up to the artist/designer to manipulate the medium into something unique and meaningful. NetDevil's product will allow us to partake in that enjoyment in a digital fashion, although, unlike creation in Second Life, it appears as though artists and designers will not have free reign over content creation. In the context of an all ages game, the choice to place limits on creativity seems like a valid one. Allowing users to create anything they wanted with LEGO obviously opens up a Pandora's Box of offensive possibilities. I'll take the high road for now and refrain from mentioning the many examples of naughty things you could create in LEGO. But beyond potentially offensive things, creating absolutely anything you wanted in a game could potentially destroy the game from a design and gameplay perspective. User-created content brings up a variety of questions. To what extent can users shape their worlds without breaking them? To what extent can they expand and add to the content without altering the original vision of the developers? What role can user-generated content play in the future?
Twelve handy links for EVE Online newbies
CrazyKinux has decided to help all those struggling to get a foothold in the complex EVE Online, by providing a list of links which will get you on your way. Originally there were 10 websites linked to, but the list has grown to 12.The featured sites range from the official player guide at EVE's homepage, to help with character creation, to various information-packed wikis, and even an EVE Online humor site. It can be extremely daunting to start up in EVE Online, as it is quite far removed from the standard MMO fare and also unforgiving of mistakes, so if you are thinking of trying the game then follow the link below and get bookmarking.
Brain Machine legally induces mind trip
We know, returning to work after an all-too-short long weekend leaves you just wanting more time off, but rather than skimming through those pictures you snapped and refusing to get back in the groove, why not force your brain to meditate and release those negative vibes? In an admittedly bizarre how-to guide, the folks over at MAKE have detailed Mitch Altman's Brain Machine, which reportedly enables you to slip into deep thought, sleep, or peaceful nirvana by syncing up your brain waves with pulsing lights and sounds. Odd as it may sound, the homegrown trip inducer purportedly utilizes an SLM (Sound and Light Machine) to "phase in new brain states by switching frequencies back and forth." Of course, we're still a bit hesitant to put our retinas at risk in order to legally experience hallucinations, but be sure to hit the read link for the step-by-step guide, and tap the via if you're interested in catching a video before subjecting yourself. [Warning: PDF read link][Via MAKE]
Mondo Spider robot walks, consternates onlookers
Joining the Land Walker, Robotic Giraffe, and the Anchorage Mecha as some of the most exotic, over-the-top ways to get from point A to point B is the Mondo Spider, which required a team of skilled engineers and "thousands of hours" in order to assemble. The creators seemingly spared no cost on the mechanical arachnid, as it boasts an impressive array of gears, linkages, and sheer quantities of metal to bring it all together. The man-driven beast cranks up like your average vehicle, but slipping it into first gear gets the spidey's legs a-crankin', and before long, it actually gets up to a respectable pace and commands respects from anyone close to its path. It may not shoot rubber balls or pass a state inspection, but we can't imagine too many vehicles standing up to this intimidating monster. Catch the videotaped demonstration in the links below.[Via Wired]
Disabled inventor crafts DinnerUp pet feeder
After a solid four-mile run on the Doggy Treadmill, it's not too tough to understand why Fido is famished, but for folks who are disabled in ways that make bending down or moving around in general difficult, getting the pet food from the pantry to the bowl has been a serious chore. Thanks to a retired engineer (who was stricken by cerebral palsy) that figured he better solve his own problem rather than wait for someone else, the DinnerUp apparatus was concocted, and now it's on the brink of commercialization. The device mounts onto a kitchen counter or door and relies on a hand crank / clutching system in order to lift the attached bowls to a level that's easy to reach, after which it's lowered back down to the anxious pets below. Currently, Ray Dinham is assembling the units himself and offloading them to "satisfied customers" for £70 ($140) apiece, but it shouldn't be long before the manufacturing is "outsourced to a UK-based firm" and these gain some serious worldwide traction.[Via BBC]
Wi-Aquarium: the WiFi-enabled fish tank
We've seen everything from WiFi-enabled PMPs, robots, and even gardens, but a recent creation showcased at the Embedded Systems Conference in California took remote access abilities underwater. While not as profound as a bay-patrolling nuke detector, Lantronix's Wi-Aquarium was able to grab the bronze for its snazzy internet-enabled fish tank, which reportedly "allows users to remotely control and monitor their aquarium anytime from anywhere in the world." Moreover, users can login and keep an eye on the situation via webcam, and they can even dictate the water temperature, lights, and filter from afar. The standout feature, however, is the ingrained ability of the tank to send the owner emails containing status reports of several key metrics, which should certainly keep you connected to your sea-dwelling pets no matter your location. Now this is what Tamagotchi should have been from the start, eh?[Via The Raw Feed]
Morpho Towers: ferrofluid sculptures that groove to the music
There's just something irresistible about random objects that get down to surrounding beats, and the Morpho Towers: Two Standing Spirals installation is quite the eye-catcher indeed. The pair of ferrofluid sculptures were deigned to stand in a platter of ferrofluid and move "synthetically to music," which translates into a magnetic field being generated by sound and creating autonomous art. Subsequently, the towers react by attracting "spikes of ferrofluid" from the bottom-up, which can mold itself and transform into a variety of stunning shapes. The spikes themselves are designed to "rotate around the edge of the spiral cone, becoming large or small depending on the strength of the magnetic field," and by utilizing time series metadata ingrained in the music, the designers can create (and control) more dramatic scenes on the towers' sides. So if you're interested in what a magnetic Christmas tree might look like, be sure to take a peek after the jump for the artwork in motion.[Via SciFiTech]
xBot dictates Xbox 360 controller, racks up gamer points
We've heard of using a Wiimote to handle home automation tasks, but building a device in order to create an automated Xbox 360 controller is another animal entirely. An intrigued and efficiency-minded individual set out to to achieve an additional 60 Xbox Live gamer points by trudging through 1,000 Death Matches and 1,000 Dark Ops rounds, all without him actually being there. Thus the xBot automator was born -- a robotic dictator that was programmed to simply hit the start and B buttons on a timed interval in order to progress through all the matches needed in order to snag the oh-so-coveted points. Essentially, the completely non-intrusive machine utilizes two rotational solenoids driven by a TTL (Transistor to Transistor Logic) controller, and while the actual programming steps were indeed a bit more in-depth, the creator isn't divulging all of his secrets just yet. So if you think you've got the DIY skills necessary to concoct one of these yourself, and would rather spend "around 10 hours" piecing together an automating machine rather than 40 (or more) hours in Perfect Dark: Zero, be sure to hit the read link for a few more deets on the whole process, and click on through for a live demonstration.[Via Digg]
Buzzing, copter-inspired Blowfly alarm clock goes on sale
We see far too many fabulous ideas that simply never make it to market for one reason or another, but after a lengthy stint in proverbial purgatory, the Blowfly alarm clock has hit production. The design looks a bit more mainstreamed that previous conceptions, but the functionality remains in tact and looks to be the perfect annoyance to force you to rise in the early AM. Sporting a shiny black base, blue backlit LCD, large-format numbers, and the obligatory mini-copter launcher, this alarm clocks purportedly blasts the chopper into the air whenever you're supposed to awake, and unless you get up, catch the flying object, and place it back into the clock, that awful screeching nose simply will not cease. So if you're the world's worse snooze abuser, and you don't mind stumbling around your room with eyes half closed, you can cure that late arrival syndrome for just DKK299 ($53).[Via GadgetReview]
Fujitsu achieves another storage milestone using patterned media technology
Although it seemed that Seagate was comfortably at the forefront of magnetic recording developments, Fujitsu is hoping that its latest "breakthrough" will add a little friction to the areal density competition. Using patterned media technology, the firm "was able to achieve a one-dimensional array nanohole pattern with an unprecedented 25 nanometer pitch," which essentially means that recording one-terabit per square inch onto HDDs of the future is now realizable. Additionally, the company also revealed a new development "involving perpendicular magnetic recording (PMR) read / write operation on random patterned media," which utilizes the soft underlayer (SUL) as the PMR media. As expected, the presenters weren't as forthcoming about when we'd actually see these achievements make a difference in our laptops, servers, and other HDD-equipped devices, but the sooner the better, okay Fujitsu?
