A $7000 new monitor from Swedish maker Tobii uses eye-tracking technology to control the on-screen cursor. While it probably won’t be a boon for first-person shooter fanatics, the technology will be great for those who couldn’t traditionally use a mouse. “We have already seen massive interest from t
“Work and play are words used to describe the same thing under differing conditions.” — Mark Twain
PopCap Games, makes of the popular Plants Vs. Zombies and Bejeweled franchises, are taking a note from the Disneys of the world and creating a much smaller studio to deliver one-offs and other creative projects that might not fit under the larger brand umbrella. Titled 4th and Battery, the mini-lab
Documentarian Danfung Dennis wanted to find a more realistic way to cover the conflict zones that he found himself filming. His iPad app in development, Condition ONE, uses both cameras on the device to expand the field of view. We could see some interesting uses of this for war games as well.: Con
Over at the BBC, Banksy has apparently left a mark of his affection for the platform puzzler Lemmings, which recently celebrated its 20th anniversary. A member of staff who has seen the graffiti said: “This image seems to have sprung up in the last day or two, so may well be Banksy’s own tribute to
“Physics is imagination in a straight jacket.” — John Moffat
John Irwin takes a closer look at the oft-overlooked home screen in the 3DS. What he finds is a world of childlike wonder and majesty: These moving placeholders-a swirl of photos represents the camera application, for instance-float within some cauterized, antiseptic arena. The place has volume. Th
David Simon’s The Wire may be one of the greatest tales of any sort committed to media of any kind. Jason Mittell at the Electronic Book Review sees parallels in the HBO classic with the type of play found in simulation games. Certainly, the “rules of the game” that embody the code of Baltimore co
Machine learning is always a fascinating field especially when it pertains to games. Creating difficulty curves that actually match player’s abilities is the Holy Grail of single player games. So a researcher from Mexico and another from Spain set out on the simplest of quests: to make a game of P
The devilishly simple Drop7 is a puzzle game par excellance. If you have not played this wonderful game developed by NYC studio Zynga New York (formerly area/code), then you should download it immediately. Savannah College of Art and Design professor John Sharp takes a closer look at the game. Unli
So don’t tell the Prince, but Princeton researchers have found that clutter affects our ability focus. Essentially, the chaos of being messy distracts you from processing key information. Over at the Unclutterer, they give this breakdown: The clutter competes for your attention in the same way a to
“In every real man a child is hidden that wants to play.” — Friedrich Nietzsche
Random House is looking to videogames as potential home for their work. A story in the Wall Street Journal indicates that THQ and Random House will co-publish properties together. This was already the case for THQ’s Homefront, which had a prequel, Homefront: The Voice of Freedom. As Lenny Brown of
Today, our visual art columnist Kyle Chayka takes a look at Minecraft through the world of the landscape painters of the Hudson River School and the Dutch Baroque: Minecraft is a revelatory genre of landscape art, with its interactivity and wide-open canvas of possibilities. But the concepts of natu
To combat the view of being stuffy, private institutions, museums are using some of the language of game designers to bring visitors more inside of their world. We would call that “immersion,” the idea that you can be lost inside of place that is not your own. Museums are pursuing engagement and tr
If you haven’t seen these interactive white boards, they’re something out of Ghostwriter. First of all, the boards are called Prometheans which is amazing. Second, they emulate what can be done on the computer screen with a pen so it’s a bit like a Cintiq pad. We’re excited for things like this as
We like the idea that when James Cameron heard the term “cinéma vérité” he thought that it meant literally making real life. In any case, we game fans like watching film directors quixotic quest for verisimilitude as it matches game designers dogged obsession with realism. In any case, Cameron is ap
We commissioned Richard Hogg, designer extraordinaire, to make this shirt for us. He is an artist and illustrator who also makes games in collaboration with Honeyslug such as Poto & Cabenga and the forthcoming Hohokum. There are apparently 20 videogame references in this shirt. Check it out!
We have a fondness for bands with videogame names that don’t make chiptunes, so Brooklyn-based proto-punk band Mr. Dream is certainly in our wheelhouse. It certainly helps that the band’s drummer Nick Sylvester wrote an Angry Birds review for us a few weeks back (and for the sake of disclosure was a
Do videogames count as design objects? NYU sociologist Harvey Molotch certainly thinks so as we are prone to think of videogames as another form of entertainment. But much like videogames, design faces the same problems of anonymity, disrespect, and cultural bias. However, design is now ascendant a
Videogames graced the cover of ARTnews this month with a lovely roundup of all the games-related projects that have been appearing over the last few years. Carolina A. Miranda gave this succinct description of Feng Mengbo’s Long March: Restart (pictured) which closes at PS1 this week. Clever culture
From Esquire UK for their 20th Anniversary Take Cover project: When you look at their impressive body of work, Grand Theft Auto, Red Dead Redemption, Max Payne and LA Noire (coming in May), we suspected the results weren’t going to be straightforward. This, however, was beyond what we hoped for. As
So there’s the website called Metacritic. They aggregate reviews and rate things. Lots of things. Books. Movies. And most importantly, videogames. But unlike other industries, people who make games get their bonuses tied to the Metacritic scores. Understandably, game designers were none to pleased
So despite the name, and we hate to be sticklers, this is more of a Streets of Rage thing, but, you know, no big deal. French electropop trio We Are Enfant Terrible generated this homage to the brawler genre, only with more Francophilia, keyboard solos, and style. Also, yeah yeah, this came out last
So Color is an iOs app. According to its description: Color (Colour) is fun way to create a public photo album with your friends using multiple iPhones. Everything is instantly shared among everyone taking photos and videos using the Color app. Pretty straightforward, right? Social networking with
