Kill Screen Magazine's Blog, page 428

Treachery in Beatdown City recreates an NYC childhood in 16 bits

“We’re in New York, the land of great character design.”

Your space gardening is most unwelcome in the mysterious Cosmochoria

Relax. Then fight space dragons. 

Pac-Man Museum has a dearth of worthwhile exhibits

Nightmare at the museum.

How M. C. Escher’s “little worlds” inspired the gorgeous upcoming Monument Valley

Not to mention Sonic the Hedgehog, Fez, Diablo II...

Tetris on the side of a skyscraper? Tetris on the side of a skyscraper

As part of a celebration of tech in Philadelphia on April 4th, the city is hosting a colossal game of Tetris on the side of a staggering piece of architecture. The Cira Centre, which stretches 29 stories into the night sky, will be lit up with familiar falling tetriminos. 

Those famous squares, L-pieces, and frustrating “z” and “s” pieces that you never know which way to flip will cascade down the structure, which is outfitted with 1,500 LEDs. The whole thing is programmed by a professor at Drexel University, who last year did something similar with Pong. This around time there will be a IMO much better game playing concurrently on the north and south walls of the building, so wherever your locale is in the city, you can look up and see Tetris pieces raining down, which sounds scary, but also amazing. 

The creator of the World Wide Web is calling for a Digital Bill of Rights

On this, the 25th anniversary of the World Wide Web, the man who invented it is calling for a higher order of net neutrality. No, not Al Gore. Sir Tim Berners-Lee, who facilitated the flow of “a ‘web’ of notes with links between them,” has posted on Google’s blog, saying that his original intentions to create a radically open system free to everyone has led to the blooming of culture online. See how that works? Create the Internet, become a knight.

But as revolutionary as the Internet has been, there are problems. He points out that over 60 percent of the world’s population is currently offline, echoing the concern of Pope Francis that people without access are in danger of being left behind. The Internet shows favoritism to the most developed societies, while other regions’ cultures are misrepresented through Western gaze. (For instance, Wikipedia is by and large the objective perspective of nerdy American guys.) Another risk is that the web will become even more walled off and restricted than it already surely is. 

So Sir Berners-Lee is calling for a digital bill of rights that will protect freedom on the Web and advance the agenda of open computer networks across nations. A bill of this magnitude would ensure net neutrality and makes sure the Internet we love will stay lovable and get more people in on the loving. Mark us down in favor of this one. 

This Twitter bot might be the world’s greatest pixel artist

I know that art is supposedly the ultimate expression of human emotions and whatnot, but THIS ARTBOT. Like clockwork, it creates and churns out abstract and frequently mesmerizing pixel art four times a day. It's called Great Artist and it lives up to the moniker. This is truly impressive work for a bot, or anybody for that matter. 

You understand why it’s so prolific when you learn the pedigree behind it. It’s pulling computer-generated imagery from the program created by the man with expertise in grotesque pixels doing strange things, Michael Brough. He, in collaboration with game developer Andi McClure, who likewise makes highly awesome stuff, created the software it pulls from for a game jam last year: Become a Great Artist in Just 10 Seconds. Is all great art headed toward automation? Maybe not, but this is incredible stuff.

Sony to blow lid off not-so-secret VR headset next week

Edge is reporting that Sony is indeed developing an Oculus Rift competitor and plans on lifting the lid on it next Tuesday at Game Developers Conference in San Francisco. (We’ll be there with bells on.) This news comes to us by the same wings it usually does: anonymous developers blabbing about hot prototypes and privy info. They claim that the new tech is on par with the new, Crystal Cove version of the Rift. 

The question is: how does this technological shift by Sony impact the future of virtual reality. Edge thinks that “it represents [its] greatest hope,” and to be sure it loans further legitimacy to the movement, which isn’t exactly grassroots to begin with. There are already big names with deep pockets industrywide that want to make virtual reality, um, a reality, Valve and CCP and John Carmack among them. Sony has also, of course, dabbled in augmented reality, motion wand controllers, QR readers, and so on, none of which really panned out for them. Still, it’s pretty exciting.

Rolling Stone tracks down Flappy Bird creator. Learns of his chastisement by old women

At this point, everyone knows the story of Flappy Bird. How could you not? But the question that remained is: Why? Was it nervous breakdown? Political pressure? Twitter death-threats? Severe chastisement from old women who don’t much care for videogames? 

Rolling Stone has tracked down the shy, home-dwelling Vietnamese wunderkind Dong Nguyen in Hanoi to find out why he pulled the plug on the strangest gaming craze outside Twitch Plays Pokemon. And his reason is as strange as anything else associated with this game: he kept receiving complaints that Flappy Bird addiction was ruining people’s lives. 

One is from a woman chastising him for "distracting the children of the world." 

Another laments that "13 kids at my school broke their phones because of your game, and they still play it cause it's addicting like crack." 

He goes on to mention e-mails from people who lost their jobs from Flappy Bird addiction, and mother who estranged herself from her kids for the sweet, seductive taste of face-planting a warp pipe. My first question is, What is wrong with these people? I understand that game addiction is a real issue and not to be taken lightly but being addicted to Flappy Bird is like being addicted to snapping and unsnapping a button on your cargo pants. My second: will we ever see Flappy Bird again? Although Nguyen currently has his hands full with an action-chess game and a game about a kitty on a jet-pack, he says he’s considering it. But he also says it will come with a warning label firmly affixed next time around.

Playlist 3/12: The Everloom sleepwalks, Towerfall Ascension powers up, and Out There drifts through space

Check out this week's picks!