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The Love Box is an analog video mixer, house of mirrors for your iPhone (video)
There's something romantic about hacking the iPhone, especially when it means finding ways to personalize the massively popular handset. Apps like Instagram may help you realize artistic talent, but software just doesn't get those creative juices flowing like an old-fashioned piece of hardware can. Despite its taboo-sounding name, The Love Box isn't an adult toy in the traditional sense, instead serving as an analog video (and stills) mixer for your iPhone 4 or 4S. Consisting of a wooden box and an angled sliding mirror, the homegrown contraption lets you simultaneously capture the action in front of and behind you in a single image. It was originally designed in Barcelona to capture two people conversing for a documentary called "The Love Box Conversations," hence the name. The "lowest-tech accessory for the highest-tech phone" is available now as part of a very limited initial run of 100 units, and can be yours for €57.63 (about $77.50) if you hit up the source link below.
Found Footage: Three iPhones, one video
This video, called Trapped in an Phone (watchable after the break), is pretty ingenious. Artists Ronen Verbit and Vanya Polunin apparently took three different videos and assembled them to play on three different iPhones, both standing on their own and moved around as they play to fit different setups. Make sure you stick around to the end as well, where there's a little fourth wall breaking, some also-ingenious credits made possible by an iPhone, and the revelation that the whole thing was apparently filmed by an iPhone, too (you can see the reflection in the last shot). Pretty wild stuff. [via RazorianFly and Cult of Mac]
TUAW's Daily App: Samurai II: Vengeance
We'll start with the obvious: Samurai II: Vengeance is one of the best, if not the best, looking games I've ever seen on the iPhone. It is simply gorgeous, with a unique, cel-shaded look filling out incredible 3D worlds. I'm excited for Epic Citadel's progeny, of course, but this one's in a class all its own in terms of the graphics. It's just amazing. The gameplay isn't quite as astounding, but it's still quality. You play a samurai who (surprise!) is looking for vengeance and has to hack and slash his way through hordes of bad guys. Attacks are combo-based, and controls are responsive enough, given that they're based on overlay buttons, to pull off the attacks you want. Enemies are somewhat repetitive, but in an action game like this, that's kind of the way it works. And speaking of action, things can get kind of gory. Sometimes, by attacking just right, you'll up and chop a guy's head off or even slice him in half. That might be offputting if you're a more casual gamer, but what did you think was going to happen if you ran around swinging a samurai sword? The game is US$2.99, and when you consider that includes both iPhone and iPad versions as well as Game Center integration and a survival mode, Samurai II: Vengeance is a bargain at twice the price. Definitely pick it up, if only to wander through the game's world and marvel at the way it's all portrayed.
GDC: Gaming gets framed for Into The Pixel exhibit
Click to Super Mario-size We like a pretty picture just as much as the next Tom, Dick or Monet, but the art featured in the Into The Pixel exhibit – which opened to the public last night at GDC – is some of our favorite. You can experience the aesthetic splendor second-hand by checking out the gallery posted below. See if you can identify the games each painting is based on! (Spoiler alert: You'll never, ever guess some of them. Not in a billion, trillion years.) %Gallery-88075%
Get wowed by gorgeous video game inspired paintings
DeviantART power user, Orioto, has been creating beautiful video game pieces for quite some time (you may have even seen some of his work on Joystiq) and his latest is no exception. Posted a few days ago, Orioto showcases Nintendo's famed heroine, Samus Aran, against a collection of deadly Metroids. The piece, much like his previous work, is stunning. For gamers with blank walls and deep pockets, Orioto also accepts commissions. Now excuse us while we get our art on ... this paint-by-numbers isn't going to finish itself![Thanks, RobT]
Gorgeous Mirror's Edge inspired photo set leaps into view
Savage Land Pictures have revealed a gorgeous photo set inspired by the 2008 Electronic Arts action title, Mirror's Edge. The shoot, which Savage Land Pictures notes took months to plan, includes sixteen images of a model dressed as Faith traversing rooftops and interacting with armor-clad enemies. The set isn't completely realistic however, as "Faith" is shown holding a pistol and the image doesn't completely break... like the game did when she picked up a weapon. Just kidding, kinda.[Via SlicedLime Twitter]
First trailer of Love is absolutely breathtaking
What does it say about our industry when one man and a laptop can create a game arguably more artistically ambitious and breathtaking than anything to come out of SOE, Mythic, Funcom, Turbine, Cryptic, or Blizzard? We were left to ponder that question after watching the first trailer for Love, an MMO with a one-man development team.We were first introduced to the game at GDC, where we first witnessed its gorgeous impressionist art style and learned about its procedurally generated narrative and creativity-driven social gameplay. Trailer host Rock, Paper Shotgun says this new trailer is the first moving image of the game seen by the public, but we actually included an off-screen video in our impressions of creator Eskil Steenberg's one-on-one presentation. That said, this video is much more impressive. It's simply stunning. We're not able to embed it, so head over to RPS to watch.%Gallery-16906%
Book critic plays BioShock, says it's not quite "art"
If you're anything like us, you're probably getting a little tired of the seemingly never-ending "games as art" debate. Well try and revive your interest for just one more moment -- the Washington Post took an interesting approach in expanding the debate this weekend with a short piece looking at the artistic merits of BioShock.For the piece, Post technology and games writer Mike Musgrove took an Xbox 360 and a copy of BioShock over to the home of the Post's 58-year-old, Pulitzer Prize-winning book critic Michael Dirda, who played the game unassisted for a couple of weeks. As might be expected for a guy whose last game was Myst, Dirda had trouble getting past Neptune's Bounty. "I've got a first-aid kit, but I haven't figured out how to use it," Dirda said in a quote sure to draw guffaws from gamers who haven't won a Pulitzer Prize.But what about BioShock as art? While Dirda said the game obviously has artistic value and was easy to get lost in, he wouldn't quite go so far as to call it "art." The key threshold for games to become an art form, Dirda said, is the ability to make the player feel depressed. Apparently Dirda has never seen his rightfully-earned loot ninjaed after a five-hour World of Warcraft raid. Depressing indeed.But the final word on BioShock as art should probably go to head designer Ken Levine. "Is BioShock art? I don't know, and I guess I sort of don't care. All I care about is, does it work -- does it have an impact on an audience?" On that important score, we're going to have to answer with a resounding "Yes!"
Get Desktoptopia for half off
Desktoptopia (not to be confused with Desktopia) is a program that automagically delivers the latest and greatest in wallpaper right to your desktop-- just press go, and the app will drop a new desktop on you as often as you want, from any categories that you want, rated however you want. For people who love seeing a brand new desktop, but don't want to take the time hunting around to find one all the time, it's the best. The best, Jerry, the best!And now it's even better, because they've posted a coupon code on his site that drops the normally $20 shareware application down to just $10. Enter "luckyme" at checkout, and you'll be wallpaper browsing and changing in no time. More desktops, no worries-- sounds great to me.Thanks to everyone who sent this in!
Tale of Tales showcases artistic games in development
Tale of Tales, an indie studio founded by artists Auriea Harvey and Michaël Samyn, will be showing several of its works-in-progress over the next few weeks in three separate venues around the world. The studio's oldest game (currently on hold), 8, is a dreamy single player title based on the Sleeping Beauty fairy tale. It will be presented at E3, while the MMOG The Endless Forest will be shown in Spain. Starting August 8 visitors to Mexico City's Museo Tamayo will be treated to older works from Harvey and Samyn.Currently, Tale of Tales is hard at work on The Path, an experimental single player horror game inspired by Little Red Ridinghood. You take the role of six characters, each representing Little Red Ridinghood at a different age, and explore hidden emotions surrounding the process of growing up. The game dares to ask "What happens in the dark woods when a girl meets a wolf for the very first time?" We'll guess it involves a lot of screaming.
WoW as the artist's canvas
For a while now I have been snagging screenshots to use as my desktop wallpaper. It began innocently enough with a lovely shot of my mage on her flying mount against that breathtaking Nagrand sky. Somehow this idyll hobby of mine has turned into a sort of obsession, where I now have a filing system on my hard drive for various screenshots-turned-wallpaper. My foray into WoW photography made me think about how actual artists express themselves using the game as a canvas. We watch the machinima with rabid frenzy, are amazed at the ingenuity of those that capture moments for Around Azeroth, bask in the glorious talent of those that create fan art. We also take role play and express it in terms of performance art. I once went to an interactive media conference where a speaker presented his robot that played his MMO 24/7 in order to create a performance piece that included a row of characters that marched in a certain pattern day in and day out. Has anyone out there experienced, witnessed, or created performance art pieces within World of Warcraft? What was it like to be part of such an experience? If you as an artist are planning any pieces of performance art, let WoW Insider know about it so that we can showcase your event.
Spore developer rants on Wii
Chris Hecker didn't pull any punches at GDC's "Game Publisher's Rant" session. The Maxis developer began his "Fear of a Wii Planet" diatribe by declaring, "The Wii is a piece of sh*t."He went on to describe the console as being vastly underpowered, citing low graphical standards and an inability to process complicated AI. According to Hecker's exaggerations, "The way you manufacture a Wii is you take two GameCubes and duct tape." As if that wasn't already enough to break a fanboy's heart, he called on Nintendo to "make a console that doesn't suck ass." His complaints weren't limited to hardware gripes -- he also criticized Nintendo for not pushing games as an art form. Maybe he hasn't seen Electroplankton or the bit Generations games?Hecker's rants from previous years were just as brutally harsh on Sony and Microsoft, but we're sure that will do little to tame the wrath of offended gamers. Bringing Spore to the DS might have earned him enough good will to make it out of the session unharmed, but he might want to avoid walking around GDC alone at night until this cools down.
