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Telekinesis Kyle is an upcoming platformer with psychic power
There aren't all that many games on the expo floor at Macworld/iWorld 2013 this year, unfortunately. It seems like a lot of game developers stayed home, as most of the apps on display are utility or productivity apps. There are a few games out there in Appalooza (as the app section of the show floor is called), and Telekinesis Kyle is one that stood out to us. It's an upcoming app from a company called Vellum Interactive, and it's based on a cool idea: You play as a kid who can not only jump around on various platforms, but he can also move various physics-enabled objects through the game's environments. The game is still in early production, so the graphics and the levels aren't at all finalized (and in fact, there was a bug in the scrolling mechanic in the part I saw in action), but the idea is a lot of fun. Jumping is handled automatically, so the only onscreen controls are to send Kyle left or right, and he'll go up on objects and platforms by himself. Once Kyle comes across an object to move, then, the player can just touch it on the screen, and then drag and drop it wherever it needs to go. The puzzle I saw consisted of two switches with two doors on two different levels. Kyle had to stand on the first switch to open the first door, behind which was a small crate. He could then use telekinesis to move the crate up to the second switch and open the second door, where there was a small gear he needed to complete the puzzle. Without leaving the first switch, he tele-moved the gear with his mind where it needed to go, and then he tele-moved the crate down to where he stood, so it could hold the door open for him as he moved through. As you can tell, Kyle's got an emphasis on puzzles and exploration rather than action, and that seems like a great fit for the iOS market. Later on, Vellum is planning to add puzzles with obstacles like lasers. The style of the game is done very well, too -- it's cell-shaded, and Kyle's relative physical weakness makes his mental powers all the more satisfying. Telekinesis Kyle looks like a great title -- it's due out near the end of March, so we'll look for it then. Oh, and of course I couldn't leave the booth without asking about the name. Yes, said Vellum, it is named after the famous Tenacious D lyric, but it doesn't have anything official to do with the song. The team just needed a name while they were working on the project, someone mentioned Telekinesis Kyle, and it just stuck. "It was one of those spontaneous things," a Vellum rep told us.
WoW Moviewatch: Honorary Wonderboy
Their journey was long and arduous, but for truth they hast now go. And so they traveled onward... ... for what they could not know. Today's Moviewatch isn't dedicated to a WoW machinima specifically but instead is a tribute to what should be immortalized in WoW in some way -- say, an expansion perhaps, in a cold north land. Where you got the power of flight. (That do anything for you?) Maybe include quests where you had to kill a yak from 200 yards away with mind bullets. Well, either way, this video should be considered the WoW movie before it ever comes out (if ever). It makes perfect raiding music to quell the nerves when on a hard boss, and the scenery is right out of Dragonblight. The story of the video could easily be a WoW quest series. Ladies and gentlemen, Conway Twitty Tenacious D and Wonderboy. Interested in the wide world of machinima? We have new movies every weekday here on WoW Moviewatch! Have suggestions for machinima we ought to feature? Toss us an email at moviewatch@wowinsider.com.
Phat Loot Phriday: Tenacious Defender
When last we left our heroes, they had captured Abercrombie only to find out he wasn't really working with Sylvanas. Instead, he was renting val'kyr from a lucrative Rent-A-Val'kyr service, which could really answer all of our prom date issues. "OK," Miranda said slowly. "Here's what we know. A demon working for the Forsaken is renting out val'kyr. We can't ask Abercrombie any more because Throgg knocked him out." "Accident," Throgg muttered. "Just trying to jog his memory. Maybe I jog him too hard." "However, we know that Vari-whatever betrayed Sylvanas," Miranda continued. "I'd say we could just ask Sylvanas," Lolegolas chimed in, "but it's not like our last attempt went swimmingly." "What's that?" Miranda replied. "You think that perhaps the Dark Lady of the Undead might hold a grudge against us because you spontaneously turned her into a puppy?" "It was a cute puppy," Lolegolas said meekly. "Outland," the Gilnean said quietly. "Dire fiends of that sort are most commonly found there. We storm the castle, so to speak, and start asking around with extreme prejudice." Miranda scowled. "I suppose." "What's wrong with Outland?" Throgg asked. "Nothing, really," Miranda said quietly. "I'm just not supposed to be there."
BlizzCon 2011 brings in Foo Fighters for concert -- and to fight the foo
Are you ready to rock? I SAID, ARE YOU READY TO ROCK? Oh, you are? Well then, you had better hope you already have a ticket to this year's BlizzCon, as the Foo Fighters are planning to take the center stage for a concert to end all concerts. The Foo Fighters join Ozzy Osbourne and Tenacious D as the latest headlining act for Blizzard's annual convention. It's become tradition to end the weekend with a huge concert, and Foo Fighters' Dave Grohl is prepared to give the crowd an experience like no other: "We're pretty sure that in the future, music historians will look back at BlizzCon 2011 as the unquestionable pinnacle of Foo Fighters' long and illustrious career. We look forward to living up to that prediction by bringing the Horde and Alliance together to rock the hell out of Anaheim next month." While BlizzCon is already sold out, there are virtual tickets and DirecTV options still available for die-hard fans. The convention will take place in California's Anaheim Convention Center on October 21st and 22nd.
BlizzCon 2010: Closing ceremonies
As BlizzCon 2010 comes to an end, Paul Sams (chief operating officer of Blizzard) started out the ceremonies. A series of intentionally bad gamer jokes followed as he got the crowd ready. He then took it to a serious note and thanked attendees both attending in person and at home. Blizzard used this opportunity to bring out the tournament winners. Warcraft 3 winner Remind (night elf) from South Korea and StarCraft 2 winner NEXGenius (protoss), also from South Korea, were presented with $25,000 for being grand prize winners. They will also be getting an eSports ring customized to their game that's the size of Superbowl rings. The WoW Arena tournament was still going on at this point (*aAa* vs compLexity.Red), so there was no winner to announce for it yet.
Breakfast Topic: BlizzCon Day 2 -- just wait, there's more
First off, the Cataclysm: Cinematics panel is today. The cinematic for the expansion is awesome and I'm not sure we really need to talk about anything else. Wait, yes we do. There are other panels ... what were they again? Oh, the class Q&A and some other stuff. Let's take a closer look and see what all is going on. For WoW panels we're just going to be sitting at the main stage for the first half of the day. We have the Cataclysm: Cinematics panel at 10:30 a.m., WoW Class Q&A at 12 p.m., and the WoW Open Q&A at 1:30 p.m. After that, we swap to the development stage for the WoW art panel at 3 p.m. If you keep watching the development stage you'll see -- or rather, hear -- a panel called Blizzard Sound that should touch on the making of the cool sound effects we're going to be hearing in Cataclysm as well as other Blizzard games. The night will be finished off with a performance by Tenacious D at 6:30 p.m. As Mike Morhaime warned us during the opening ceremonies yesterday, this band isn't not suitable for some audiences ... and possibly all audiences, but they should be a fun act to watch. Remember that all times and chai are Pacific. No, I wasn't mainlining caffeine when I wrote this last night. Well, maybe just a little. BlizzCon 2010 is upon us! WoW Insider has all the latest news and information. We're bringing you liveblogging of the WoW panels, interviews with WoW celebrities and attendees and of course, lots of pictures of people in costumes. It's all here at WoW Insider!
Tenacious D to rock the doors off of Blizzcon 2010
Blizzcon's beginning to develop a reputation for being a breeding ground for unmitigated face rocking. Last year, the show closed out with a performance by known World of Warcraft fanatic Ozzy Osbourne -- this year, the ending ceremonies will receive musical accompaniment from Tenacious D, whom we imagine are familiar with some of Blizzard's titles. We mean, just look at them. The duo will perform new jams and old favorites during the closing moments of the show on October 23. Of course, the event's been sold out since about fifteen seconds after tickets went on sale, so this news really only pertains to people who were agile enough to grab an entry pass. Or the diehard, presumably independently wealthy people willing to shell out $39.95 to stream the event on DirectTV.
Tenacious D performing at BlizzCon 2010
Blizzard announced today that Tenacious D will be performing at BlizzCon 2010. The pair will be performing the closing ceremonies, happening at the end of the event, Saturday evening. DirecTV subscribers and those getting the stream will be able to watch. Now for those of you who don't know about The D, well, I just feel sorry for you. Tenacious D is none other than the greatest band in the world. They know how to rock, how to roll and even eat up that classical sauce. Once you are in the presence of The D, you will no longer be just a normal human, but become something more ... something special ... something tenacious. What has The D done for you, you ask? They discovered Northrend. They invented the power of flight. They sang the greatest song in the world. And they even got you some food from Zanzibar. And they'll be performing at BlizzCon 2010. The full Blizzard press release, after the break.
The Queue: A trip down memory lane
Welcome back to The Queue, WoW.com's daily Q&A column where the WoW.com team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Adam Holisky be your host today. Let's get meta here folks. Zetathran asked a question about the history of this site, and it got me into a conversation with our Editor-in-Chief Liz Harper about the activities of old. WoW.com has a changed a lot in the past few years, and while the long dialog we had about past policies and editorial standards is probably of no interest but ourselves, the basic story of the site probably is, so we'll start off with that. Zetathran asked... "How did WoW Insider start? Who were the original bloggers?"
Rock Band Weekly: Tenacious D, Anvil, Dinosaur Jr., The Guess Who
Rock Band Weekly heads up to Canadia next week for a three pack from heavy metal band Anvil. There are also tracks from Brütal Legend "star" Jack Black's band Tenacious D. It'll actually be pretty quiet week, as the Wii doesn't add its usual mega-list of back catalog tracks and is in sync with the Xbox and PS3 versions. Check it all out after the break. Select a platform below to view complete DLC listing:
GameStop's Brutal Legend preorder bonus is a tribute
Here's some synergy we can totally get behind. If you pre-order Brütal Legend from GameStop, you'll receive an in-game Tenacious D guitar. According to GameStop, the axe was made "in close collaboration with Jack Black and Kyle Gass of Tenacious D" and features not just a customized appearance (with a sweet "Tenacious D" fretboard and image of the band on the body), but "new sound effects, new voice over work from Jack Black and Kyle Gass, a new visual effects suite, and new geeky technical stuff like unique textures, materials and shaders."Does that mean that both the in-game avatar and his guitar -- which features an image of Jack Black on it -- will have the voice of Jack Black? How much more Jack Black could this game have? The answer is none. None more Jack Black.
Tenacious D discovered Northrend first
For what ever reason I found myself looking at some Tenacious D stuff the other day, and came across the Wonderboy video (you'll have to visit YouTube as we can't embed the video due to copyright restrictions). Wonderboy is a great little song, completely safe for work and young bucks (however pretty much everything else that comes out of Jack Black's mouth is not).In the video they are going on "The Quest" for truth. And where does this quest take them? None other then high above the mucky muck. This mountain region has a surprising look and feel to it. That's right. The D discovered Northrend, before any of us.But wait, there's more.There's even powers that The D posses which are featured in Northrend. What powers are those, you ask?
The Wii gets a taste of Jack Black
One of the most recognized comedians in the world took the Wii for a test drive and the results are hilarious. Jack Black, best known for his band Tenacious D and several outlandish movie appearances, approached the Wii with a twinkle in his eye. He was ready to sweat with Wii Sports. He did let it slip that his newest film, The Pick of Destiny, is better than the Wii, but we'll let that one slide for now Jack. [Thanks JC!]
