stillalive
Latest
Telekinetic, terraforming action game 'Son of Nor' seeks Kickstarter powers
StilAlive studios has kicked off its Kickstarter campaign for the single-player and co-op action adventure Son of Nor with a goal of $150,000. The game has been bouncing around for a bit and the international team of developers says they've taken it as far as they can without help. Son of Nor features the last remnants of mankind fighting the lizard-man army of Sarahul using a combination of fire, wind, terraforming and telekinetic powers. In this dark future, it appears humans have learned to wield rocks with their minds, but have lost all ability to whack something with a stick. Maybe we should just let the lizard men win? The final version of Nor is targeted to be about eight hours, with a 50/50 blend of combat and puzzle exploration. If the Kickstarter is successful, the team plans to continue development through the year, updating its progress with developer diaries. A closed beta is planned for Q1 2014, with the final game scheduled for mid-2014. Head on over to the Son of Nor Kickstarter page for more details on reward tiers.
'Still Alive' played on 3D printed record, takes music piracy to complicated new levels
We're still in the relatively early stages of the 3D printer revolution, and as such, it's hard to say just how these devices will play a role in our daily lives. We've seen some really cool toys like turtleshell racers and Weighted Companion Cubes, but what about some everyday products? This 3D printed record keeps the Portal printer theme going by cutting our old pal Jonathan Coulton's "Still Alive" into its grooves. The single was printed over at Shapeways and played on a Fisher-Price record player. Video after jump.
Jonathan Coulton talks coding, Creative Commons and becoming an internet rockstar (video)
There are few ways of endearing yourself to the geek world more quickly than writing a song like "Code Monkey." The developer-friendly track was one of 52 released as part of Jonathan Coulton's year-long "Thing a Week" project and was later adopted as the theme song for a similarly-titled G4 program. The songwriter was just adhering to that old adage of "writing what you know," having worked as a full-time computer programmer prior to giving the music world a go -- though, as he readily admits, he still keeps it real by coding for his own site. We sat down with Coulton as part of this month's Engadget Show, discussing his midlife crisis-driven decision to quit his day job and the journey that the internet played in making him a star. We also discussed the musician's favorite tech, his love of Creative Commons and using gadgets to make music. Coulton also treated us to three songs, including "Still Alive" from the Portal soundtrack and two tracks off his brand new record Artificial Heart. Video of all that after the break.
See the Top 12 covers of Portal's 'Still Alive'
We've mentioned before that we worry the internet is close to killing the golden goose of Portal references, with no small amount of help from your friends at Joystiq. That doesn't mean, of course, that we're in any way tired of the game's big finale, Jonathan Coulton's brilliant song "Still Alive." YouTubers are just as smitten as us apparently, with enough covers popping up on the service for GameSetWatch to compile a Top 12 list.We think their #1 pick is pretty much irrefutably awesome, leaving us to debate only which cover makes us the most uncomfortable. We have selected the video above, a heart-melting salvo of earnest warbling and ... props. Don't worry, sweetheart. It's called an awkward phase because it will, eventually, end.[Hey visitors from Jonathan Coulton's blog! As Coulton himself pointed out, you probably shouldn't be mean to this young lady for sharing her song with the internet. She seems like she could be the world's sweetest human, and karma can be a real pain about stuff like that.]
