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Interview: Cave Story's salaryman designer, Daisuke 'Pixel' Amaya
Daisuke "Pixel" Amaya is one of just a few Japanese names in the indie gaming pantheon, after developing 2004's Cave Story entirely on his own as a labor of love. This year, he came to the Game Developers Conference to present a long-overdue postmortem about the development of Cave Story and to promote the upcoming 3DS remake, which he's working on with developer Nicalis and publisher NIS America. During this presentation, Amaya showed never-before-seen footage of a beta version of Cave Story, including locations, characters, and enemies that didn't make it into the beloved indie game. Soon after the presentation, we sat down with the game designer, and found out that despite the popularity of Cave Story, he still has a day job. For now. " I still work full time as a salaryman," Amaya told Joystiq, "but from April I'm going to be a full time developer." He explained that he planned to leave his job as a programmer for large-scale printing equipment a year ago, but "everybody was like 'are you really okay with developing games?' They weren't really sure if I could support myself." As he also had to train his replacement, his transition to full-time game designer was delayed. " I have a wife, I have kids, so [his co-workers] were a bit worried. It's not like they doubt my skill."
Cave Story before it was Cave Story
During his GDC talk "The Story of Cave Story," developer Daisuke "Pixel" Amaya revealed that two years into the development of his 2004 indie hit, he scrapped his game design and started completely over. He then proceeded to show a video of this beta. This version is very different from what we eventually ended up playing. It featured not only Quote, but Sue and a frog prince as playable characters, each of whom takes over at a certain part of the story. The famous rectangular boss Balrog is present, but he's named "Puu" and has a much less expressive face. He's occasionally seen wearing a scuba mask or other facewear. He's joined by another soap-bar guy named Oscar, who can ... transform into an angry cloud that shoots lightning. And, of course, the level layouts were all different. Weapons aren't upgradable, and are only acquired by purchasing them from shops. The music, however, sounded like what made it into the final game. We hastily snapped some pictures of the video in motion, so you can get a glimpse of this unreleased version in our gallery below. The quality isn't great, because, well, it was a video playing on a projector.%Gallery-118452%
Two hundred video game characters made into Mega Man sprites
Hey, here's that new desktop background you desperately wanted, even if you didn't know it yet. It's a gargantuan spread featuring over 200 characters from video game franchises, new and old, redrawn in the style of Mega Man. The image comes from pixel artist Chris Bringhurst, who released a compilation half this size last month. If he wanted to keep doubling it every few weeks or so, we would not hold it against him. Click here to see the full version of the image -- but be prepared to bid farewell to a considerable portion of your day. [Thanks, David]
Apple's dead pixel policy leaks out, up to 15 anomalies 'acceptable' on 22-inch and above screens?
There's nothing quite like coming home with a shiny new laptop only to find tiny black and white dots peppering your LCD, especially when the screen's manufacturer tells you that you're plumb out of luck. If you buy Apple, that scenario might honestly play out just the same, but the chart above could save you an embarrassing argument at your local Genius Bar. According to the allegedly leaked internal document, Apple has a set of precise charts that determine whether or not it will replace your LCD -- a single dead pixel will save an iPod or iPhone, for instance, and Apple will tolerate only two on an iPad IPS screen. We're sorry to say it's not the same if you buy Mac, as you could have a staggering fifteen dead pixels on that pricey Cinema Display and still have to pick up the tab. Hang on to those receipts, folks.
TUAW's Daily App: Game Dev Story
Man, I love everything about Game Dev Story -- from the excellent premise to the cute, pixelated aesthetic to the great simulation gameplay. The idea is that you run your own game studio, and that idea is executed flawlessly. You hire your staff, choose a game genre (or do some contract work if you need extra cash), and then build up your game in terms of fun, graphics, sound, and gameplay, all while trying to keep your staff paid and avoid bugs when possible. Finally, you ship out your game and hope the reviews come back well, even while you're planning out your next title. It's incredible fun, and the great chiptunes and graphics bring a lot to the table. There's a wild sense of humor in the mix here, too. New consoles are released into the market, a video game magazine comes every month, and you slowly build up your own studio's fanbase. Game Dev Story is a ton of fun! It's somewhat pricey at US$3.99, but honestly, if you're a fan of the game industry at all (there's even a fake E3 where you can promote your games!), you'll find a lot of joy in this one. It's a very, very cool title.
Nicalis confirms Cave Story DSiWare, European release for WiiWare version
That small piece of artwork in the Nintendo Power table of contents today didn't represent a new look for Cave Story -- it was actually art by Mikael "Orioto" Aguirre, commissioned by Nicalis in honor of the announcement of the DSiWare version of the game. In an email statement, Nicalis confirmed said DSiWare version, saying that "the game is actually DONE, we're currently in final testing internally." In addition, the long-awaited European version of the WiiWare game (even longer-awaited than the North American version!) is "still scheduled to be released." Update: Nintendo Life posted three screens, revealing the "classic" Cave Story look, with an added map on the DS's bottom screen.
TUAW's Daily App: The Incident
The Incident makes for one of the best reasons to be a gamer and own an iPhone -- it's a purely indie affair, with excellent pixel graphics and game design by Neven Mrgan and Matt Comi and terrific chiptunes by Cabel Sasser. And it's a wacky little concoction that doesn't sound like it will work, but of course does, and well. You play a little guy who, standing in the street one day, is suddenly assaulted by falling objects from above. There's a little bit more to uncover, but that's really all you need -- you can tilt the iPhone back and forth to move your guy around in 2D, and tap on the screen to jump out of the way of falling objects above, marked by a warning flash on top of the screen. It sounds strange, and it is, but it works. The controls are responsive, the graphics are colorful, and the game perfectly captures that "one more try" feeling as you ascend through the seven levels, climbing up on the fallen objects all the way to the top of the sky. There are lots of coins, med packs, and extra lives to collect as you go, but the tough part is just staying out of the way -- three hits on the noggin costs you a life (and gives you a trophy to remember what wacky object killed you). There are many, many objects in the game, too, and you'll undoubtedly be surprised by what falls on you next. It's a great game, worth every cent of the US $1.99 they're selling it for in the App Store. Terrific little indie games like this are what make the iPhone platform really shine.
Visualized: Douglas Coupland's pixel orca
Douglas Coupland (yes, that Douglas Coupland) created this pixel sculpture which lives outside of the Vancouver convention center. He should meet these guys.
8-bit Gary and real Gary compete for our affection
Kiel Johnson and Klai Brown built this 8-bit costume for a Toshiba ad. Made of bits of high density foam glued together, the wearable, pixelated version of Gary looks surprisingly like the actual Gary, though possibly a bit handsomer (in our opinion). Hit up the source for a lot more photos of the process of Gary's construction. Also hit up the coverage link for videos of the Garys in action.
Pixel casting machine creates pixelated vases for our pixelated flowers
We're going to give it to you straight: if we had the room for this beast, we'd totally kill for one. It's a pixel casting machine, meaning that it creates beautiful, pixelated ceramics -- like the ones you made in grade school, only way, way more awesome. Hit up the source link for creator Julian Bond's website where you can see many more photos.
Shawn Smith brings 8-bit art into three dimensions, one tiny block of wood at a time
Austin, Texas-based artist Shawn Smith creates sculptures of things like vultures, sharks and hats on fire, and they're seriously awesome, 8-bit style extravaganzas. The pieces are largely created out of small blocks of wood, and then painted. Hit the source (the artist's website) to see many, many examples of his stunning and beautiful work.
Russell Kirsch helped create square pixels, now he wants to kill them off
Did you know that we're only 53 years removed from the very first digital image? I know, with everyone on your street having a good 2GB of Facebook-uploaded, privacy-be-damned photos, it all seems so pedestrian, so typical. But back in the monochromatic 1950s, when Marlon Brando and Elvis were still young whippersnappers and the UK was busy crowning a new Queen, Russell Kirsch became the first man to create a digital picture, by scanning in a photo of his baby son. Now, half a century wiser, Russell is back to apologize for introducing that cursed square pixel into our lives, and to try to remedy all the jagged little edges we've been seeing on our screens ever since. According to old Rus, squares were just the logical solution at the time, but now that we can splash bits and bytes around with reckless abandon, he's come up with a new algorithm to smooth images beyond what's possible with simple squares. His new idea inserts 6 x 6 masks where there once was just one pixel, with adaptive calculations making for a more realistic representation of the underlying optical data. The sample above shows what improvements this new technique can deliver, with Russell's son doing the posing once more -- you'll find his decidedly younger visage in the 176 x 176 proto-pic after the break.
iPhone 4 pixel density examined (video)
Sure, you've seen our iPhone 4 hands-on... but have you seen it through a retina display? We put the new device next to our trusty old iPhone 3G to get a feel just how different the screens look with twice the pixel density and shot a little pseudo-macro video. There's a marked difference in the screens, even side-by-side with the EVO 4G, and we found that even from a distance we were able to read bodies of text we'd previously had to squint to discern on our classic iPhones. Hard to capture, it really is something you have to see first-hand... but until you get that chance, live vicariously through us after the break.%Gallery-94640%
Breaking: Dog plays iPad Air Hockey
Sure, you've probably seen the video of a cat playing around with an iPad by now, but what about our other four-legged friend? Well, wonder no more, because Pixel the dog has now stepped up and shown cats how it's really done by not only playing Air Hockey on an iPad, but winning. Video after the break.
New glasses-free 3D tech uses per pixel prisms for zero crosstalk, audience flexibility
Try as manufacturers might, attempts at autostereoscopic (glasses-free) TV have been subpar; existing tech typically makes for messy images due to ghosting, only provides a 3D effect if you're standing in one of a very few predetermined spots (usually 8-10 viewing angles, though we've heard of 64), and reduces display resolution -- all because only some pixels can be seen from each spot. With the occasional exception, it's not terribly impressive. Scientists at the National Chiao Tung University in Taiwan are looking to change that. Rather than block light with a parallax barrier, their screen uses a matrix of specially cut prisms to reflect it, reducing ghosting to nil and maintaining display resolution by sending the same image to each viewer. Though there are still a fixed number of viewing zones, the prisms are so tiny that manufacturers can simply add more prisms to each pixel to increase that number -- with 11 prisms per pixel, researchers say such a system could support 100 simultaneous 3D moviegoers. We've no word on whether the tech is affordable or when we'll see it, but we expect it to handily beat cyborg eyeballs to market.
GDC 2010: Canabalt postmortem
"What kinds of games do you like?" Adam "Atomic" Saltsman asked of his panel audience at the Canabalt postmortem during the Game Developer's Conference in San Francisco. "Role-playing" was yelled out, as was "puzzler," and eventually Saltsman picked "platformer" as the genre. Without another word, he quietly went to work on a laptop. Then, his partner at Semi Secret Software, Eric Johnson, took the podium to tell us all about what it was like to make one of the App Store's most popular games. He started by saying that the game was originally developed in just "five very long days," and was created for the Experimental Gameplay Project and based around simplicity -- it only uses six colors and, obviously, the one button. For a game that's so simple, it actually had a lot of complex influences. It drew from older games, like Another World and Flashback, as well as modern works, like Half-Life 2 and District 9.
Pixel LV-WI Wireless Live View Remote Control: look out, family self-portraits
We've been live viewing our photos on our fancy new-gen DSLRs for a couple years now, even piping that live sensor data into our computer with a first party app, or, gasp, shooting video our magical newfangled cameras. But we haven't done this yet. Pixel Enterprise Limited has just announced its new LV-W1 Wireless Live View Remote Control, which beams a live DSLR view over that well-worn 2.4GHz channel to a handheld remote with a 3-inch 960 x 240 LCD. It seems like a great idea, and while the future might make even fancier dreams come true -- like a live WiFi 2, The Sequel-beamed image to our Windows Phone 8 Series handset, for instance -- but for now this $335 kit should provide for some pretty spectacular Canon or Nikon moments.
New Arkedo Series game on XBLM: Pixel
If you spend much time checking out Indie Games on Xbox Live, there's a considerable chance you've stumbled upon the Arkedo Series of games. Fans will be happy to hear that Arkedo and Pastagames have released a third in the series. Entitled Pixel, the game features slick dot matrix graphics and simple platforming action. The game also has a nifty feature that allows players to zoom in on certain parts of the background and explore them at the pixel level. Check the game out in the video above and enjoy some screens in the gallery below. You can snag the trial version through the link below and, should you enjoy it, the full game is 240 ($3) or, as Arkedo puts it, "approximately the asking price for a nice latte." Shortcut: Add Arkedo Series - 03 Pixel to your 360 download queue [Via Xbox.com] %Gallery-81087%
Cave Story coming 'after the new year' with new difficulty modes
Cave Story, first announced in October 2008 for release that same year, has missed 2009. In a blog post, Nicalis confirmed that the remake of the brilliant freeware title won't be available until "after the new year." The last we'd heard, it had been submitted to Nintendo for approval in November, so it's likely that the holdup is with the platform holder. In more positive news, Nicalis also revealed what the deal was with the alternate-color Quote sprite that it's been teasing on its Twitter account: it's the outfit the player character wears in the new Easy mode, one of three difficulty modes. Hard Mode, which gives you only 3HP and no missiles, features Quote in blue with blonde hair. The developer also has "a LOT" of DLC planned, "AND we're taking possible requests." Finally, as a little stocking stuffer (or ear stuffer), Nicalis posted three remixed Cave Story tunes. Huzzah for the holidays!
Another Cave Story screen as the game nears completion
Nicalis has posted its weekly Cave Story screenshot, and we have, as usual, been staring at it for a good few minutes, just taking in the lovely backgrounds and the detailed sprites. More details are starting to be filled in as the game approaches release: as Nicalis's Tiffany points out, the weapon icons have been updated with new graphics, and the UI text is back in its proper pixelated form, rather than the "smoothed" look it previously had.Tiffany also mentions that "the MIDI player is ready to go and the new music is on the way." Finally, the weak link in the WiiWare Cave Story experience, the music, is getting fixed! It sounds like the game is getting very close to release, and we could not be more thrilled.%Gallery-33861%
