Kill Screen Magazine's Blog, page 429

Cadence lets you engineer musical architecture in 3D space

Music games and music creation tools tend to be a one way street, running straight forward from front to back. Each step of a sequencer lights up and then dims after the beat hits. And Guitar Hero is a forward scroll with no backsies. But Cadence is an intriguing music puzzle game and music generation tool that asks what if music could be plotted to any point in 3D space.

It will probably help to click play on the video right about now, but the idea is that you can hang nodes in space and connect them to produce musical currents that flow any whichaway. Just looking at the strange kinetic sculptures reminds me of one of those games where you learn code by hacking, like Quadrilateral Cowboy, or Glitchspace; but cleaner and less intimidating with pretty sounds. The game is still a ways off, but is coming to PC, Mac, and iOS.

For Gonzalo Frasca, game studies means game production

Making and doing, in all its forms.

Yoshi’s New Island is a lesson in parenthood

It takes a village.

ALZ's glitch art pulses with tragedy

Human frailty, in videogame form. 

The bankrupt world of Thief

Stealing things, just because.

Frog Fractions 2 has twice the frogs, twice the fractions, twice the 2s

The first thing you notice in the announcement video for Frog Fractions 2 on Kickstarter is the Frank Zappa level of oddness about it. The second thing is that there is no footage of the proposed sequel to the Internet sensation Frog Fractions. It could be anything. But you already expect this if you played the original Flash game, which defies explanation and if I knew how to tell you, I couldn't anyway, because: spoilers.

Judging from the title you’d think you’d be safe in assuming it will still have frogs, and fractions; but if you read the fine print you discover that actually won’t be called Frog Fractions 2, so who knows. But the stretch goals give you some idea, maybe? Rock Band mic support. A sweet gravity gun. You get the feeling they have the feeling they won’t reach the $350 thousand dollars required for Oculus Rift support. 

The original Fractions was brilliant because it snapped your expectations like a bluesman snapping his fingers, which is to say repeatedly. The question is how will a game that was basically a joke—a good joke, but a one-time joke for 15 minutes—work as a $60 thousand dollar game. One hundred percent of the charm was in not knowing that the gags were coming, so it will be curious to see where Twinbeard goes with it now that we’re expecting a punchline. 

Oculus Rift game about hitchhiking zombies takes Best in Show in Kyoto

The Oculus Rift game Modern Zombie Taxi Driver has taken top spot at Bit Summit, the indie game festival in Kyoto. Yes, there is such a thing as Japanese independent games. Not much info is out there on this zombie-bussing game so far aside from a hands-on impression by Destructoid, which says that its basically the Sega's open-world racer Crazy Taxi with zombies in virtual reality. This admittedly sounds great because, I mean, it's Crazy Taxi with zombies in virtual reality. 

Over on its developer’s Vitei site, there’s also this gallery of pictures of zombies riding uncomfortably in cars, which exudes a cheerfully awkward Octodad vibe. A little bit of gaming history: that company was founded by the guy who Nintendo brought over to help them with Mode 7 technology and create their earliest 3D games, like Starfox, so it's in good hands. Let's assume that it will be seeing a broader release since it has a professional site, and since it won a best indie game award. 

Virtual reality dev continues to melt hearts with My Neighbor Totoro

The virtual reality developer Red of Paw continues to make virtual reality an altogether more whimsical place, blogging that they will bring the “bus stop” scene from Studio Ghibli’s My Neighbor Totoro to the Oculus Rift next. This is the memorable moment for fans of Japanese anime where the doe-eyed Japanese youth of that film offers the broad-bellied forest mammal a place under her umbrella. Yes, I fully expect it will give me rosy cheeks.

Reinterpreting the works of Hayao Miyazaki in three-dimensional space is becoming something of a tradition for Red of Paw. Last time we heard from them, they were delighting the hearts of Rift dev kit owners by recreating the “boiler room” scene from Spirited Away, complete with the adorable little Japanese supernatural spirits and the old bathhouse operator with a shoe-brush mustache and spider-like arms. Can we dream of a scene from Nauiscaa next? 

TowerFall Ascension is the new arcade’s Smash Bros.

Get stupid.

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Prepare to choose a table.