PC Gaming is not dead, as much as it’s debated about…and the best Game of The Year 2010 was not Starcraft II, or Black Ops, or Civ 5. The best Game of the Year was Minecraft, and it’s not even finished yet. It proves that the indie model of small teams, low budgets, cheap prices, word-of-mouth, and startling creativity is once again the true center of PC gaming.

Minecraft is providing bulks of inspiration for Indie developers world wide. It’s simple “dated” graphics, sandbox style game, wide accessibility, has become a global cultural phenomenon in as little as a year.

Yes, it proves, a lot, for game development, we need fresh new creative ideas, and having insane rendering methods like parallex bump mapping or specular models make no impact on the project’s success. “Gaming on the Cloud” is also the next true frontier. Steam is doing it, Facebook social games has it, and mobile gaming from iOS and Android markets. Minecraft is a game on the cloud, all you need is a web connection, a “$100 netbook”, and you can hook up with the millions of players from around the world..or still enjoy it offline.

“why make a game to cater to your target audience? why not make a game that I myself would want to play? and then cross your fingers that everyone else out there wants to play it too?”
- Mojang Specifications

“You, are the controller.”

taking a breather off work and was watching youtube videos and a new Xbox Kinect commercial came on, for the Kinect game Kinectimals.

i am no way taking sides on any company or ripping on anything here, but I felt I share how I still felt about motion gaming, which has been the latest fad in all things Gaming, after mobile gaming (like on the iPhone and Androids).

Really…rolling around, playing dead and throwing myself down on the floor infront of all my friends like a clown.. , that’s what Kinectimals brings us.

“call me old fashion”…but what i took away from my $3000 History of Gaming class, is that games from the very beginning of time, has been the interactivity between us and a subject or object..and, you need something physical to interact with. At the end of the day, we need a controller. Like the “Greek Gods playing bowling”, it was still a ball of a rock being pushed down a pathway to make it collide with several other rocks further down ahead. How we interacted with the ball in that few moments determines the follow through and the result, the ball has weight, gravity, physical real world forces that we make our bodies react to and overcome and “steer” to for achieving our goal.

As primitive as gaming roots get, like when we go out camping, and find a stone. We skip the rock over water and see who gets the most skips over. That rock we hold in our hand, is still something tangible and physical and has all laws of physics applied to it. Without any of that, how would we have been able to get the 4th or 5th skip over that water?

Motion gaming is the same. That is why Nintendo’s Wii motion gaming is so successful and makes all sense. At the end of the day, we need something real to interact with. You can’t just, game in the air. Baseball is swinging a bat to a ball, I can’t fake that with a motion camera like the Kinect. The bat has weight, it lets me understand what and how I should swing it. The Nintendo Wii’s Wiimote can replicate that physical weight of a bat in our hands, which boils down to still having a game controller. Microsoft’s Kinect can’t do that, it will have to take gaming in to an entirely new realm to create games catered especially for that kind of “virtual” gaming.

Gaming was defined by the 1983 NES Game controller. Ever since it debut, this pose of our two hands holding this object in our hands with thumbs on a few buttons has stood the test of time right up to today with the Playstation 3 Dual Shock wireless controllers. And noone can take that away from us, we love our controllers. Touch sensitive gaming still boils down to something we touch and feel…still like a controller.

Again, this was not a dissing of any form of motion gaming. In fact, I can’t wait for the day where gaming does reach that new realm…except with everything released thus far, I don’t feel contented to say it is the New Gaming.

Microsoft’s Kinect technology is amazing. The electronic gadget is actually like it’s alive, watching us, listening to us, and responding to us. Phenomenal. Kicking back to watch a movie is as literal as it gets with the Kinect. “Play”, “Pause”, “Next scene”, all done without a controller, with our voice, and in our couch. Awesome. I’m not surprised really soon I could be like, “bring me a beer!” and I’ll have one in my hand, without ever leaving my seat.

But for gaming…really…Pac-man..Donkey Kong.. Doom… Duke Nukem… Wolfenstein.. Half life.. Halo…Call of Duty… Modern Warfare…Gears of War..nah..no Kinection with that.

Read on about Game Controllers, and it’s fascinating history: http://gadgets.softpedia.com/news/History-of-the-Game-Controller-2737-01.html

ok so i had to write something about this…everyone’s talking about it, and i just can’t take my mind of it and its bothering me texturing work!

Basically, the recently launch “Kinect” system for the Xbox360 has been met with literally, love-or-hate comments from all over. From what i’ve read up, it looks pretty much like it comes down to the “gamers” (50 million people) and “the rest of the world” (60 billion people)..where gamers all rip on the motion-controller system, and the rest of whatever makes up the rest of the world says it’s the best thing they have ever seen. The “rest of the world” is what all their marketing targetted, and is what caused the instant-sell-outs around the world. Reviews from a gaming perspective have been all negative and dreadful.

Sources:
http://n4g.com/news/641222/kinect-sold-out-after-one-day-of-sales/com
http://n4g.com/news/642756/kinect-for-xbox-360-hardware-games-dominate-top-10-sales/com

The Kinect is a motion-controller, where it watches your movements and translates it into game actions, essentially making it “you are the controller”.

My thoughts? I’ll pass thanks.

I’ve looked at all kinds of reviews from IGN, Gametrailers, Kotaku, CNET, all our standard big-name reviewers, and me personally find it seriously dumb to have someone play a game, without holding or wielding anything physical. Games from the very beginning demanded us to use some kind of physical controller, a joystick and buttons to push…today we have our wireless controllers on the PS3 and Xbox, and the likes of the Wii and DS. Why take that away? Who thought that would be a great idea to “drive a car” with nothing to hold on to? and then perform all kinds of flips and stunts..@_@

i think, the fact that there’s literally nothing physical to interact with makes it utterly hard to kinect with. Play pingpong with no paddle, wield a sword without a handle(?), fire a gun without a trigger,…really?

So as far as gaming goes, Kinect fails to connect. And i join the rest on this side of the bridge, to say i hope the games all fail for Kinect, and they decide to pull the plug for it.

But.

as a breakthrough in technology, and the actual peripheral itself, i think it’s hands-down awesome. Voice command, total no need for a remote controller to watch movies, browse the net, shop online, it’s ability to recognize people of all shapes and color and lighting, it’s sooo awesome. i love it. love. it.

will i get one? not anytime soon.

where do you guys think Kinect is going? D: good or bad?

yep. Ilomilo has been released today, for Windows 7 Phones. Plus, it’s free!

i’ve been following this game for the longest time, ever since i first saw their debut trailer! Developed at Southend Interactive, and published (i think!) by Microsoft Game Studios, “Ilomilo” is a unique puzzle platformer type of game, with an equally unique art style!

really wishing now i had a windows phone.. lol.
those of you that have a w7phone, this is one title well worth checking out!

gorgeous art direction, game mechanics, and really light hearted music to accompany it..all love!

an XBox Live Arcade release is on the way as well!

simple but still an interesting game concept…not a mechanic we havn’t seen before though.

turns out i ended up getting a few really great rolls and kill streaks…epic game! and the break only lasted like..barely half hour lol..then it was back to work!

and omg the environments have insane amounts of details..from rubble, rocks, debris, tires, crates, with bump mapping and specular and everything…omgomgomg alll kinds of tiny details everywhereeee driving my senses nutss.

anyways, enjoy watching me get eaten and eating up others too :]!!

it’s all about epic mountains and waterfalls and hovering sky gardens ^^!

being developed by Wild Games Studios, slated for release only at the end of next year (end 2011).. =l
i wonder how big the team actually is..some pretty sweet environment work..ilikeilike.
gotta keep notes on this title! be sure to give it a look see

preview trailer can be found at the studio’s game site: http://www.dhailasadventures.com/

here’s another really good inspiration for aspiring game developers.

proven yet again and over again, and very strongly with MineCraft, you dont need good art to make a million dollar game.

all it takes is an idea, and then executing it.

Minecraft has been generating more and more news, accordingly, this independantly developed “game” has sold over 200,000 copies, and caused Paypal to freeze the developer’s account due to “suspricious activity”.

In September 2010, Paypal froze Notch’s account due to “a suspicious withdrawal or deposit”. At the time, Notch said there was about €600,000 in the account (about 750,000 US dollars). As of September 12, 2010, the account has been unlocked.

A recent update released for Minecraft which returned over 1000 additional sales instantly within 24hours…and has been steadily continuing to rise.

Games like Minecraft makes me think about Farmville..another absurdly successful game. Game art? Average..Game Design? Outstanding. 80million players for Farmville.

Check it out, there’s a free version of Minecraft too.
Minecraft
Read more about Minecraft and the developer:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minecraft

absolutely love the trailers. definite must see.
the Need for Speed series has been in the dumps for many of its cycles…this year it finally looks like its back on its feet with an all new Hot Pursuit.
http://www.gametrailers.com/game/need-for-speed-hot-pursuit/13358

the new Cool:

Trailers (crank that sh** up) :

and then, race it.

Racing like the way of Mario-Kart style “battle races”, you get special bonuses during races to take down your friends and boost yourself into the lead. The race tracks themselves are equally whimsical, with random obstacles sprawled all around the environment, shifting bridges, big air jumps…andd after you’re done playing, dive head on into the game’s seemingly-equally-robust racetrack editor! Build the track of your dreams, then share it online with your friends and loved ones, and take them on in your very own “home turf”!

This might just turn out to the competitor of Mario Kart! Only time can tell, ModnationRacers releases May 25th, 2010, on the Playstation 3.