Seaside Born
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“In any relationship, there will be frightening spells in which your feelings of love dry up. And when that happens you must remember that the essence...”
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fit-to-row: Ingredients for pesto sauce.
It’s so good, how did they invent it??
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Run Katniss RUN!
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Pushing Daisies!
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Layers upon layers of paint with a splash and splatter here and there…our stores’ spring windows are in homage to Abstract Expressionism and a...
You betcha.
Hey check out this awesome book made by a few friends of mine on Zelda and Theology. It’s edited by Jonny Walls (husband to the wonderful Emily who wrote that rad Unemployment bit) and the awesome cover art designed by Jake & Jamie of A Pair of Pears!
“The level of interactive adventure, exploration, immersion and storytelling The Legend of Zelda brought to television screens across the world was unheard of and it planted an integral seed in the garden that one day would grow into the diverse gaming landscape we know today. Far from stopping there, The Legend of Zelda series has continued to release top-shelf games adored by critics and fans alike. Zelda, like all of our greatest fairy tales, legends and myths, presents that elusive and exclusive kind of enlightenment that only the fantastic can provide. In this collection, various contributors explore the connections between this cultural zeitgeist and theology.”
(via Amazon.com: The Legend of Zelda and Theology edited by Jonathan L. Walls)
The Video Game Art of Fumito Ueda
“As video games have become more and more popular, the medium’s defenders have developed a misguided tendency to point to the ways that games are useful, practical, functional. I do not know if Ueda’s games will make you smarter, or improve your vision, or promote world peace. I very much doubt, in fact, that they will do any of those things. Emphasizing the ways that games are tools for instruction—whether intellectual, physical, or moral—is an unfortunate residue of their origins as children’s playthings. Abandoning it will be the sign, maybe the last one, that this new form of storytelling is all grown up.”
- Chris Suellentrop on the video game art of Fumito Ueda
Love this!
Really amazing concept art by Craig Mullins
Cool concept art by Sparth
Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP from Toronto’s Superbrothers and Capybara Games is the video game I always wanted but didn’t know I wanted until it existed. I’ve hyped the game pre-release in the past, but now that’s out (it’s been available on the iPad for weeks, but today it is available for iPhones and iPods Touch), I am happy to report that it’s a wonderful, unique gaming experience — pixelly, musical, funny, stylish, and strangely immersive.
My own work is heavily influenced by the style, humour, and pacing in the old pixelly Sierra adventure game Space Quest 2. I played it start-to-finish repeatedly as a kid, and it’s a style of game I am sad has fallen out of favour with the advent of first person shooters and 3D graphics. It was a game that involved reading and taking an active part in a narrative. And casually exploring the 2D environments was like being able to walk around a picture book. It’s a game that dropped you into a world that you had figure out on your own through exploration and play.
Enter Sword & Sworcery, and that feeling is back. With its singular artistic vision (Craig D Adams aka Superbrothers), its short tweet-sized text elements, and its minimal style in both design and gameplay, Sworcery almost has more in common with comics and picture books than it does with most of today’s crop of videogames. I hope it inspires and influences more games of its kind. It is a poem when other games aim to be epic novels.
It’s a narrative experience that Craig calls I/O Cinema, and it somehow succeeds where motion comics and other forms of interactive fiction have failed, mainly by not trying to be a digital version of something else.
I must also mention that much of the game’s success is due to musician Jim Guthrie’s contributions; the music and sound effects take this slow-paced, meditative walking-around game and make it epic and beautiful. Animators take note: good music and sound design does half your job for you.
App Store links: Universal version for iPad and iPhone | Micro version for iPhone & iPod Touch
Here’s another spoilery video to whet your appetite:
Yay it’s finally out, I cannot WAIT to play this!!
Batman: The Brave and the Bold Game NEW SDCC video (via dx23)
Another trailer our video game came out today for SDCC. A little less fancy this time but you get to see more gameplay. All my fat, winged bubble babies and Aquaman’s fishy pals are movin!! ♥
