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'Pxl Pushr' blends Kinect and iPad play to impressive, multicolor results
Among the dozen or so games strewn about New York City's Museum of Modern Art (during last week's Kill Screen-curated "Arcade" event) two titles had their playable debuts: Eric Zimmerman and Nathalie Pozzi's "Starry Heavens" ("a physical game of power and betrayal"), as well as Matt Boch and Ryan Challinor's "Pxl Pushr" ("something akin to a full-bodied theremin blended with a puzzle game"). Considering what the two freshman entries were up against -- critically acclaimed games like Limbo, Canabalt, and Echochrome -- it was impressive that both games had lengthy lines throughout the evening. I mean no offense when I say this, but Pxl Pusher looks like what would've happened if Kinect technology had existed in the Coleco Vision days. In the same way that your Dad's sweet 1973 Lacoste track jacket still looks totally rad, so does Pxl Pushr. The bizarre look is both a measure of the dev duo's style -- their day jobs are as designers at Harmonix -- and of the short-term development cycle. "Over the past four weeks-ish we've been messing around building this game," Boch explained. In Pxl Pushr, one player places dots on an iPad, while another player attempts to catch as many dots as possible by using the contortions of their body (via Kinect). The player contorting their body is scored on how many pixels he/she is able to "push" versus the ones they miss. It's a simple concept for sure, but one that had many attendees smiling while making very silly poses. Not that the crowd's reaction was foreign to Boch and Challinor, two gentlemen who spend their working hours with Dance Central 2.%Gallery-129438%
Free film series at NYU Game Center kicks off tonight
If you live in the New York City area and still haven't visited NYU's Game Center for one reason or another, well, we're very disappointed in you. Luckily, several upcoming opportunities to head down and geek out amongst colleagues were announced on the Game Center's blog, starting tonight with a screening of short film "Play!" at 7PM EST. Subsequent film screenings -- in the theme of gaming, as you might imagine -- are scheduled to follow in March and April, with "I Got Next" closing out the film series on April 14. If the screenings themselves aren't enough, some of the films will feature a Q&A with that night's director. And hey, if that still isn't enough, there may be free refreshments. But you don't wanna be that guy, do you? A full listing of the film series can be found after the break.
Highlights from the future of gaming ... panel at the New York Gaming Meetup
If you didn't join us at last month's New York Gaming Meetup, there's a good chance you missed out on Take-Two Interactive CEO Ben Feder and Gamelab founder Eric Zimmerman discussing where gaming will be 30 years from now. Luckily for you, we captured highlights from the event on video and dropped them into a 10-ish minute vignette just after the break. We found Feder's take on hardware plateaus especially interesting. He believes developers will be free of technical constraints, allowing them to solely focus on creativity. Though he's not sure we'll reach that plateau in the next few years, he sees it as an inevitability. "There is an element of technology needed for innovation for sure," Feder said. "I think that's not going away -- that's going to be with us forever. Just in the way that humans will always invent new things and innovate to solve problems." Eventually, he said, entertainment technology will reach a point at which it's "Good enough to tell an interactive story. Or to play an interactive game." He then admitted, "I don't know when that is." Us? We're going with 25 years. Yeah, that sounds about right.
GDC's Design Challenge panel tackles sex in games
How does "My First Time" sound as this year's topic for GDC's time-honored Game Design Challenge panel? It may sound like something we cooked up ourselves, but it is, in fact, legit. This year's theme is all about the dilemma of designing games centered on "sex and autobiography." Obliviously, this won't be a discussion on how to peddle porno games; instead, it'll be about tackling the taboo and coming out with something both artistic and unique ... and probably about how to avoid a situation like this.Eric Zimmerman (chief design officer at Gamelab), Steve Meretzky (game design VP at YouPlus), Kim Swift (Valve level designer) and Sulka Haro (Sulake lead designer) will all be speakers at the panel on March 25. Those who are attending the industry-only event might want to stop by Room 135, North Hall at 2:30pm to see what's going down ... no innuendo intended there.[Via G4TV]
GDC08: Watch highlights of (the first half of) the Developers Rant
While you're reading our thorough coverage of the Game Developer's Rant (trust us, it's worth it), be sure to check out video highlights from the session courtesy of Mahalo Daily. Unfortunately we only have the first half of the session on film, so you're going to have to read the rest. (Warning: video NSFW)%Gallery-16726%
Witness 'The Metagame' in action, thanks to MTV
It ran at GDC 2007; we reported on it, but you didn't get to see it. Now, MTV has hosted a special edition of The Metagame game show, as part of their "Gamer's Week" Coverage, and Stephen Totilo has posted the highlights for mass consumption.The Metagame, designed and hosted by Frank Lantz of area/code and Eric Zimmerman of Gamelab, pits two teams against each other in a battle of video game smarts. Each round, teams move pieces on the game board to form comparative statements between two games (such as "Halo would make a better movie than Half-Life," or "Virtua Fighter is sexier than Super Mario 64."), and argue these statements to earn points. Vying for victory this time are MTV's Stephen Totilo and Tim Kash, versus Newsweeks' N'Gai Croal, and fellow journalist Heather Chaplin, author of Smart Bomb.The debate is heated, hilarious, and only the slightest bit pretentious. We'd definitely enjoy watching more designers, developers, and press-members argue the semantics and specifics of the industry's most influential games. Any chance of picking up the show full-time, MTV?Update: Due to silly legal restrictions, the video posted above is not viewable in the UK or Canada. Apologies for any confusion or irritation this might cause.
Pajitnov, with needle and thread, wins Game Design Challenge
The game design challenge is an honored tradition four years in the running at the Game Developers Conference, pushing creativity in a competitive, humorous environment. This year's winner was Tetris creator Alexey Pajitnov who managed to create a viable action-puzzler using needle, thread and cloth. He bested both David Jaffe (Calling All Cars, God of War) and last year's winner Harvey Smith. The following is a pseudo-live blog of the event from earlier this afternoon. Read on for a full description of each game proposed.
GDC: A game worthy of the Nobel Peace Prize
What kind of game concept would be considered for the Nobel Peace Prize? That's the question GameLab CEO Eric Zimmerman posed to the group of developers competing at the third-annual Game Design Challenge.The winning concept (as judged by audience response), Peace Bomb, developed by Deus Ex lead designer Harvey Smith, would be a multiplayer game for the DS. Players would join together and trade resources, eventually leading to real world flash mobs — a crowd that assembles suddenly in a public space, performs a notable act, and then quickly disperses. It's Smith's hope that the Peace Bomb flash mobs would erupt around socially constructive movements, encouraging players to transform an entertaining game into an effective social project.
