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Designer Chumby up for sale: $600 never seemed so functional
Apparently Sara Antoinette Martin is quite the artist, and either her or Chumby (or both) are mighty, mighty proud of her handiwork. Available now for those unaffected by things like global recession and public opinion, the Designer Chumby pictured in the gallery below can be had for $599.95. Functionally, it's exactly the same as the vanilla Chumby -- which, by the way, sells for "just" $199.95 -- but we dare you to convince us the bragging rights attached aren't worth the extra four bills. Okay, we're convinced.%Gallery-42843%
Discover the wizardry of game design with WAR's Brian Wheeler
Gather around folks, get comfortable; we've got a tale of fantasy, kings and wizards to share with you. As seems to be the norm with our friendly neighborhood Mythic developers, Brian Wheeler has done his best to avoid bringing us a boring and straightforward Dev Diary, instead opting to explain his role of Senior Designer for Warhammer Online through a short story.It turns out that game designers are not unlike the great wizards Merlin and Gandalf (coincidentally, these two exist in the same space in Wheeler's fantasy world, and often enjoy a pint together) in that they come up with multiple ideas and solutions for a single problem, and present them all to the king to decide which will be used. They aren't necessarily ideas that the king couldn't figure out on his own, but the wizards can afford to spend all their time researching every possible strategy, giving the king the freedom to attend to other business. That's the short version -- to read Wheeler's longer and much more entertaining take, visit the latest WAR dev diary.
HP Vivienne Tam Edition Mini 1000 Digital Clutch now available
Well, we heard that the Vivienne Tam-designed Mini 1000 was coming in December, and here it is, available to order on HP's site. The custom 10-inch netbook is, as expected, sporting a 1.6 GHz Intel Atom with 1GB of RAM, plus an up to 60GB hard drive -- a little smaller than the 80GB we initially heard about. The fashion-conscious laptop is less than an inch thick and has a starting weight of 2.45 pounds, and though it's not exactly an example of "understated elegance," those who want to start (loudly) classing up their act can do just that for a starting price of $699. [Thanks, Matt]
Samsung's Armani Night Effect handset gets detailed, pictured
There was little doubt Samsung and Armani's latest tie-up was the real deal, but just in case you're more skeptical than most, the pair has launched a dedicated promo site to pump up the flashy candybar. The Samsung Armani Night Effect boasts a 2.2-inch OLED display, lots of LED accents, HSDPA support, a 3.2-megapixel camera, multimedia player, FM radio tuner, Bluetooth 2.0, USB 2.0, 120MB of internal memory and a microSD expansion slot. We're hearing that it'll be released this November in both black and white motifs, each running €300 ($439). Check out lots more delectable images over at Engadget Spanish.[Via Engadget Spanish]
Samsung's Armani 2 Night Effect is well branded, lacks style
Well it seems Samsung and Giorgio Armani weren't happy to see an end to the battle of the designer phone, so here they are again with yet another garishly branded phone. The Samsung Armani 2 Night Effect eschews tech and cool form for a lovely blue wraparound light, quad-band EDGE / HSDPA, 3.2 megapixel camera, FM radio, 120MB of memory with expansion via microSD, and Bluetooth for accessory connectivity. This handset should see the light of day in Europe come November with South East Asia and the Middle East getting their soon after.[Via UnwiredView]
Braid creator rips on WoW, talks artificial rewards and social gaming
In an interview with Gamasutra, game designer Jon Blow (who created the critically acclaimed Xbox Live Arcade game Braid) had a few things to say about World of Warcraft. His criticisms could be just as easily leveled against any Diku-based, WoW-like MMO.He began by saying that WoW employs "artificial rewards" as opposed to "natural rewards." In other words, players play WoW for achievements like leveling up that have little real meaning, and they'll sit through a lot of boredom to reach those goals. That's not an unfair analysis; leveling up is a very empty and artificial kind of catharsis. Perhaps the most controversial statements he made were related to the social aspect of the game. One of Azeroth's millions of citizens? Check out our ongoing coverage of the World of Warcraft, and be sure to touch base with our sister site WoW Insider for all your Lich King needs!
Official Asheron's Call blog is nostalgic
Asheron's Call's 100th update is imminent, and to celebrate, Turbine has started a "Nostalgia Blog" in which old designers of the game reminisce about their experiences of elation and tribulation. The first entry is now live. It was written by Allan "Orion" Maki, who worked as a designer on nearly half of AC's content updates. He also wrote a huge chunk of the game's ongoing storyline. That storyline has been an important reason for people to keep on playing the game after all these years.In the blog, he describes his first, disaster-laden attempt at design, names his favorite characters and quests, and gushes compliments at AC, saying "you never forget your first love." Now he's working on The Lord of the Rings Online, but one senses that he won't forget his roots.
Parrot offers up $450 Andre Putman-designed digiframe
Remember that Andrée Putman-designed digital photo frame that was showcased in the UK earlier this year? Even if not, Parrot would like to remind you of this apparently exquisite device, which features commonplace luxuries like a 7-inch 720 x 480 resolution display, Bluetooth 2.0+EDR, an SD / MMC card slot, an undisclosed amount of internal memory and USB connectivity. Oh, and did we mention the $449.99 price? Yeah, there's that, too. Heard enough, haven't you? (Psst... it ships on July 28th in the US.)[Via Digital Picture Frame Review]
AO designer says adieu, moves on to The Secret World
Anarchy Online content designer Nina "Aythem" Sund has been writing developer journal entries over at Ten Ton Hammer for several months, sharing game design wisdom and insider anecdotes with players. Her latest entry had a different tone, though. She used the medium to bid farewell to AO players as she moves on to work on Funcom's next MMO, The Secret World.As a parting gift, she spent the rest of her entry telling fans how they too can become game designers. Hers is good advice if that's an aspiration for you. Unfortunately, she didn't slip out any news or information on The Secret World, which as so far been very, well ... secret. Ten Ton Hammer attached two bits of concept art, though, so savor that!We hope Funcom will continue to support AO even though it now has Age of Conan and The Secret World to worry about, too. Sund was a popular quest designer at AO; we're glad she'll be adding her touch to TSW, but poor AO!
EQII dev Noel "Ilucide" Walling interviewed
EverQuest II developer Noel Walling (also known as "Ilucide") has given some of his time to let the fans find out more about him. His move into the gaming industry was born from a near-obsession with the original EverQuest, something that a number of readers may be able to relate to. After being a GM with EQ for a while, he moved to work on EQII before its launch, and has remained there since.Ilucide seems to have a hand in everything when it comes to EQII, performing many different roles some days, but enjoys designing group instances the most. He has a level 74 character in the game, and perhaps the reason he's not 80 is due to the amount of other games he is playing on and off: a lengthy list -- and a great list, at that -- ranging from other MMOs to console games. Have a read of the rest of the interview to learn about Walling's interest outside of games, including the ever-important question: "Regular or Decaf?".
TR's Tom Potter knows what it will take
There's been a fairly substantial amount of buzz surrounding Tabula Rasa over the past couple weeks. Ever since long-time designer Paul Sage was announced to be leaving the game to be replaced by designer Tom Potter, fans and observers alike have been left to speculation about the state of flux surrounding Destination Game's sci-fi MMO. To their credit, they've really stepped up to the bat, both with the recent War College meetings at their Austin studio, and with other interviews around and about the gaming media.Adding to this steady trend is this week's Feedback Friday, penned by none other than Tom Potter himself. Potter really goes all out and addresses many of our complaints, including the hyper-active enemy aggro, buffs to Logos users, a link loot system, and a true, blue repeatable end-game. Perhaps best of all, at least in this bloggers' opinion, is his acknowledgment that the crafting system needs a near-complete overhaul. Now, we have to emphasize that there is a serious difference between knowing what needs to be done with a game and actually accomplishing these changes in a reasonable amount of time. Now that we know Potter is wise to what's wrong with the game, we're expecting him to push the changes through, and soon!
AoC mount bug fixes and speed boosts on the way
If you already own a horse mount in Age of Conan, you are probably extremely unimpressed with your new companion's speed -- it almost seems like you don't move any faster at all. According to this post at AoC's official forums, this is in fact the case. One of the game's designers has confirmed that, currently, even the mighty horse trots along at regular run-speed. A proper fix for this is coming in a future patch, but a temporary workaround is shared for now (which a lot of people in the community had already figured out): simply sheathe or unsheathe your weapon while mounted, and enjoy the mount's speed boost as it was intended.Also included in the post is the fact that the speed boost itself will be increased very soon. Horses will be slightly faster, and Mammoths and Rhinos will get a smaller boost. As well as this, to address a complaint that those with Mammoth/Rhino pre-order privileges have, the riding skills (charging, attacks, etc.) associated with these mounts will be given automatically with the "/claim" command after a future patch, and those who already have the skills through buying Basic Riding will need to perform the command to receive them again.EDIT: Going by this forum thread, the mount speed increase is already in effect as of today's patch. Some in-game testing of our own shows that at the very least, the bug requiring weapon sheathing/unsheathing is fixed. More on these other undocumented patch changes shortly.
Parrot shows off Andre Putman-designed digiframe in UK
Indifferent souls may have no qualms just snapping up the first digiframe they see, but that sect isn't the target market for Parrot's latest. The Andrée Putman-designed device is being shown around the UK at the moment, and aside from boasting a 7-inch display, a glossy black motif, rear-mounted buttons, auto-rotation, 10MB of built-in storage, an SD expansion slot and integrated Bluetooth (but no WiFi), you also get to hand over £250 to take it home. Right now, the piece is only available in London's Few and Far store, but the company may try to roll it out nationwide if demand necessitates. Check it out on video in the read link below.[Via CNET]
Player vs. Everything: Those poor, poor designers
I've gotta hand it to MMOG designers. They really kind of get shafted. They spend weeks, months, and years fine-tuning tiny aspects of gameplay that you never even notice or care about (like the amount of silver that level 12 murlocs drop), coming up with interesting quests, trying to innovate the game enough to keep us interested, and developing a stream of content that's regular and enthralling enough to satisfy our all-encompassing hunger for more, more, MORE! While they do this, they have to pay attention to a million other things: time constraints, budget constraints, balance considerations, community expectations, and their pushy producers who want them to get the job done now, even if it means they can't include all of these cool features they have in mind. When they finally put the finishing touches on this labor of love that they've slaved away on for so, so long, they deliver it out into the excited arms of the community that's been eagerly awaiting the game since they announced what they were working on in pre-alpha. What happens then? Worst case scenario, everyone hates the game and it sinks like a stone to the trash pile of the bargain bin (along with the shattered hopes and dreams of the entire team that worked on the game). But even in the best case scenario, everyone loves the game for about two weeks until they notice all the little flaws that they don't like about your particular design. Then, they start picking it apart bit by bit. "Why didn't you do this this way?" they ask. "Why didn't you make this quest reward better? Why are Mages better than Rogues? Why isn't my +3 sword worse than a +3 axe against Ents? Here's how I think you should fix this awful, terrible, no-good, very bad game design."
A day in the life of an Age of Conan designer
Joe Hegarty is an AI Designer for Funcom's Age of Conan project. And, it appears, he loves his job. In a 'Day in the Life' article at TenTonHammer, Hegarty describes the sheer enjoyment he gets from breathing life into the inhabitants of Hyborea. From street preachers to wayward children, all the way up to Conan himself, his work makes the NPCs we'll be interacting with on launch day all the more meaningful. The designer gives several examples of where you'll see his work in action, and even describes some of the behind-the-scenes mechanics driving the NPC's decisions. The designers at Funcom have a series of tools at their disposal, from in-house software to theoretical constructs. Hegarty mentions Maslow's hierarchy of needs as one of these supporting constructs; NPCs essentially have a priority list of needs, ensuring that you'll see them doing a variety of activities as you move through a given area.Fascinating stuff, and with the Open Beta kicking off tomorrow, something we'll all be experiencing very soon.
Breakfast Topic: What's your favorite WoW holiday?
Zom over on the forums asks: what's your favorite WoW holiday? And the response is extra special because it's by Kisirani, who, you may know, is actually Blizzard's World Event Designer-- him showing up in your thread about holidays is kind of like God showing up on a thread about your favorite mountain range.Kisirani asks specifically for constructive, reasoned posts, but c'mon, he's asking on the WoW forums. Fortunately, this site is not the WoW forums, and our comments are more than capable of giving constructive and reasoned.. well...I kid! Tell the guy what your favorite WoW holiday is, whether it be the free epics of Hallow's End or the ticket grinding of Brewfest, and maybe the upcoming updates to Nobelgarden (we hope) will incorporate some of your constructive and well-reasoned ideas!Thanks, Joshua!
Vivienne Tam shows off "MP3walkman" concept device
It looks like you can add yet another designer to the list of those doing their part to make gadgets slightly more fashionable, with Vivienne Tam reportedly set to show off the above concept device at the Vivienne Tam flagship store in New York. Unfortunately, there doesn't appear to be any specs to speak of, but the so-called "TAM MP3walkman" (co-developed by Kitman Keung) does at least look a good deal better than some previous "designer" devices we've seen, even if it's still quite a ways from a finished product. Unless Sony actually has a hand in it, however, we're guessing that name will have to change before/if it's actually released.[Thanks, Alice]
Samsung and Giorgio Armani team up on mobile phones, LCD TVs
In an exciting peanut-butter-in-my-chocolate development, Samsung has announced its plans to manufacture new products jointly designed with famed fashion magnate Giorgio Armani (of course, we knew this was coming). According to reports, Giorgio and the company are teaming up for the development of a "luxury" mobile phone, as well as a "luxury" LCD television, both of which are rumored to be extremely "luxurious." The phone (which we first heard about in July) will make its first "official" appearance at an Armani fashion show in Milan, Italy, while the television will rear its gorgeous head sometime in January. "This powerful partnership will match great design with leading technology to ensure performance is as impressive as appearance," said Yun Jong-Yong, vice chairman of Samsung. Could this be the company's answer to LG's Prada mash-up? We think yes.
Hulger's confessional booth lets sinners vent on luxury handsets
Hey, we know that purchasing one of Hulger's avant-garde handsets could very well leave you feeling guilty considering the lofty pricetag, but the company is looking to give you sinners a way out with its communication-enabled confessional booth. The bizarre setup will be erected at Designersblock Milan 2007, and is being constructed in partnership with "communications specialist Associate" to offer visitors the chance to "play the priest or the penitent." Of course, we've no interest in interviewing with a unordained minister, but so long as the unit features Hulger's latest ASTOR & SOPHIA limited edition handsets (pictured), we'd most definitely stop in for a courtesy chat.[Via Textually]
Should game designers get celebritized?
Quick, name ten famous game designers. OK, now name ten famous movie directors. Which list took you longer? Even if you're a serious gamer, the list of movie directors probably came out quicker. Patrick Dugan helps explain why in an excellent post on the small but growing phenomenon of the celebrity game designer.While movie studios often sell a movie as the singular vision of a single auteur, games or more often sold as products than statements. With games, "it was far simpler to associate that content with a genre, or better yet, a franchise brand, than it was to associate it with a personality," as Dugan puts it.Perhaps this is for the best. After all, most modern games are produced by a large group of people, not just a celebrity designer that can serve as a public face for the project. Even this is changing, though, with high profile, independent projects like flOw and Super Columbine Massacre RPG being closely associated with a single designer (Jenova Chen and Danny Ledonne, respectively). In an internet world where anyone can easily make and distribute a game, literally anyone can be a celebrity designer.Personally, we just hope this growing trend of attention for the people behind the games doesn't grow into outright celebrity worship. The line between respect for a designer's vision and Us Weekly style obsession with everything they do isn't as thick as you might think.[Via Raph]
