tangram
Latest
Big toys for the big kid in all of us
Some of the toys we played with as children have grown up along with us and now they pack adult-sized fun. Memorable designs have bubbled up into lifestyle products with smarts, but most offer what we always loved them for: an action-packed thrill. Sure, we can drive real cars now, but that doesn't diminish the urge to drift on a motorized Big Wheel. Skateboards and pogo sticks have powered up over the years, too, and hoverboards can now actually hover. This week we pay tribute to the big kid inside each of us with a lineup of reinvented, rebuilt and improved versions of playtime classics. [Image: Local Motors]
The world as a work of digital art
As curious creatures, we attempt to understand the world around us in many ways and nowadays that usually boils down to big data visualization. Whether we're creating models of large-scale systems or breaking down reality into wireframes and exposing the digital bones beneath, the data-rich internet and open-source tools are helping people map and explore the world in new ways. People are leveraging technology to make their voices heard in political realms and using digital expression to bypass physical conflict. Indeed, in this digital age, the lines between life and art are becoming blurred. Don't believe us? Then explore the gallery below for just a few examples.
Preparing your iPhone for the holidays
December is packed full of holidays, and one of the most ideal situations is receiving a shiny new Mac, iPod, iPhone, Apple TV or other Apple-related product as a gift. But what about the Mac products that you already have? We'll tell you how to spruce up your iPhone, then your Mac, for the holidays. Please note that all application links opens iTunes. All prices given are from the U.S. iTunes Store and are in dollars.Making a list ...TUAW recently reviewed Nice List from Polar Bear Farm as a solution to keeping track of your holiday gift list. The application keeps track of whether you've purchased your gift, wrapped, and mailed it. It's not the only holiday-related task manager out there. Christmas List from Better Day Wireless, shown at right, boasts similar features to Nice List, but goes in-depth in a few areas, such as making notes on the gifts that you've purchased. The application also boasts festive graphics throughout, which adds a nice touch to a standard task manager. Both applications do a fantastic job at keeping track of the gifts that you're giving, but Nice List is currently on sale for $.99. However, if you're more attracted to the graphic interface of Christmas List, that might be the better application for you. Nice List: $.99 (normally $2.99) Christmas List: $2.99
Gaming to Go: NEVES
Tired of blocks yet?Thinking of expanding your horizons a little? Perhaps you need more from the gaming life than just a few simple squares. Perhaps you want...shapes?Good news! NEVES has them. Seven of them, in fact, which is enough to create like a jabillion 500 different puzzles. You, dear reader, can have these pointy shapes too. There's this demo thing freely available on the net, or you can dig a little deeper in your pockets and shell out two tens for the real deal.Yuke's puzzler takes classic Chinese tangrams into the modern realm with great success. Solving one of the many short brain teasers in NEVES is an experience decidedly different from a typical video game, emphasizing peaceful thinking over sweaty palms and razor-sharp reflexes.Sound appealing? If gaming breaks are the only way you stay sane, NEVES might be just what you need to unwind. Come along with Gaming to Go and see for yourself why a relatively unknown title in the DS library is one worth checking out!%Gallery-5249%
The DS Life: Love Triangle
The DS Life is a weekly feature in which we scour the known world for narrative images of Nintendo's handheld and handheld gamers. If you have a photo and a story to match it with, send both to thedslife at dsfanboy dot com.The trouble with dating a gamer ...
Slot this NEVES demo into your schedule
In case you haven't already raided the cookie jar for the last of this month's housekeeping money after hearing of NEVES' universal price drop, allow us to further test your resistance.Yuke's Company has placed an excellent (albeit brief) flash demo of the elegant puzzler on its site, giving interested parties access to three of the game's 500 puzzles. There's a time limit on each, and we cut it pretty fine with the third, but pulled through like heroes in the end. The controls in this PC demo are a pretty close approximation of those in the DS version, so if you like this, get reaching for your wallet. Just be warned that far harder puzzles await you in the real thing![Via Siliconera]
It's a good week for NEVES
Yuke's Company announced yesterday that their tangram-based puzzle game NEVES was awarded an "Editor's Choice Award" from Children's Technology Review, a magazine about educational toys, games, and software. Not only is it great for Yuke's and publisher Atlus that their game is getting some praise from educators, this award means that someone -- at least one magazine editor -- played their game. And we're not saying that NEVES is forgettable -- with a small release like NEVES on a console with tons of great puzzle games, it's easy to slip through the cracks.Also in the press release about Yuke's Company's good news is some good news for everyone else: a universal price drop has been enacted for NEVES, to $19.99. %Gallery-5249%[Via GamesPress]
Thrall gets a new big brother: US government wants to search for terrorists on WoW
The Rogue in your next instance or battleground may just be a spy- not from the opposite faction, from the United States Government. The Office of the Director of National Intelligence submitted a report to Congress [Via Wired] on their plans to use data mining in virtual communities to root out spies. The project will involve sifting through vast amounts of data, looking for suspicious behavior and actions. The Intelligence Community wants to target MMOs because they typically fall outside the purview of study. The spying project would only use publicly available data. The findings of the endeavor would not be classified. Data mining is the process of going through large amounts of information for specific relevant information. This is a process that has long been used in the business industry for product and market research. The government plans to use these same techniques to root out terrorist messages in online content.
NEVES: it's 'seven' backwards
Siliconera sat down with Yuke's Company of America representative Ken Koyama to chat about their upcoming puzzle game, NEVES. A DS puzzle game is something of a departure for a company best known for WWE wrestling games (and also known, uh, by me as the developer of the weird Playstation fighting game Evil Zone), so it's somewhat interesting that Yuke's decided to do this.In Japan, where the game is called Hamekomi Lucky Puzzle, it actually carries a license: that of the Hanayama Toy Company, whose Lucky Puzzle is a popular toy. We're impressed that rather than simply cloning their tangram game, Yuke's sought a partnership with Hanayama for the DS game. It's also nice to see Yuke's (and Siliconera) giving some attention to what is destined to fly miles under the radar.
NEVES of steel required to play this puzzle game
Yuke's Company of America announced yesterday that it will bring its grown-up puzzle game NEVES (previously mentioned here as Hamekomi Lucky Puzzle DS in Japan) to the States. According to the press release by U.S. publisher Atlus, players must "think critically as they align pieces and build figures that correspond to a silhouette. Each puzzle features seven wooden blocks, requiring the player to combine them to form specific figures ranging from simple items like a sword or key to more complicated ones such as birds or airplanes." The concept reminds us of a tangram version of the Touch Puzzle mode on Tetris DS, and that was just a single mode in a much larger game. We commend Yuke's for creating games on the more cerebral side, but unique as the concept might be, we hope the title can pack enough variety to warrant more than a passing time investment. There is hope, however, since it will feature more than 500 puzzle pieces to manipulate and game modes including puzzle mode, time mode, versus mode, and count mode. (AH! AH! AH! One puzzle piece! TWO puzzle pieces! sorry, couldn't help it.) Regardless, the DS is looking to be the premiere platform for the puzzle genre, and NEVES will bring a more mature tone when it arrives on American shores later this year. %Gallery-5249%
DS puzzle game for the grown-ups
Aimed at what the publisher calls a more "mature audience", NEVES for the DS is a simple tangram game of shape turning, sliding, and flipping.We thought we'd get to assemble overly detailed silhouettes of Pamela Anderson, but in reality NEVES is just designed for the more cognizant mind of the older, discriminating DS player. No bright happy colors and hand-holding tutorials, just over 500 brain-hurting tangram puzzles, all with touch screen control. Atlus USA will be bringing NEVES to North America in November this year.
Tangram-like puzzle coming to DS to embarrass us
We have a problem with certain kinds of puzzles-- slide puzzles, for example, are damn near impossible for us, and we're quite smart otherwise (really!) It's just some weird mental block that prevents us from rearranging pieces to form a shape. Put us in front of Tetris and we'll drop Alexey Pajitnov's ruggedly bearded jaw, but slide puzzles confound us every time.The same is true of tangrams. We like making abstract shapes out of them as if they were a building set, but we're useless when it comes to matching shapes. So, naturally, we're really excited about Hamekomi Lucky Puzzle DS, which is a series of tangram-like dissection puzzles in which players put together shapes like the Speed Skater and the Cossack Dance (seen here.)
