Kill Screen Magazine's Blog, page 435

Videogames enter the post-WASD era

In praise of walking and looking. 

These low-poly animal sculptures are straight out of a PS1 game

The New Aesthetic continues its synthetic, eye-catching overgrowth into the natural world with these striking statues by Ben Foster. They may have a low poly count, but that just makes his sculptures of PS1-era dogs, horses, and marine mammals stand out all the more from rustic, snowcapped backdrops of New Zealand. The animal forms are actually constructed of white aluminum, not polygons, but it’s nice to imagine that all those creatures trapped behind the screens of your favorite games have been released. Run free, Epona. Run free!

You can check out the rest of his work on his website.

The Cyberpunk Game Jam satisfies our cravings for cyberpunk, games, and jam

Ready yourself for a influx of games about hacker cowboys getting ethereal in the psychedelic constructs of digital space, because there is a Cyberpunk Game Jam happening on March 1st - 10th. This sounds like a mighty long time to stay jacked into the matrix. Let’s hope things stay safe and no one’s neural implants get baked. 

The website for the jam is encouraging participating devs to bone up on seminal works of cyberpunk, such as Burning Chrome, Netrunner, and The Lawnmower Man. I pity the dev unfamiliar with the genre who randomly selects Lawnmower Man from the list.

Whether you can’t get enough of cyberpunk, or think that devs have went to that well once too often (I somehow simultaneously hold both opinions), this could prove to be extremely worthwhile. Something awesome always comes out of these lengthier game jams, like Zaga-33, Superhot, or Receiver. 

Nova-111 is a turn-based RPG that happens in real-time. Wait, what?

Nova-111 looks like a valiant stab at solving the dilemma RPGs have faced ever since D&D hit the computer screen 30-some years ago: turn-based or real-time? Turn-based systems allow players sufficient time to strategize, but real-time just feels more alive. But it turns out you don’t have to commit to one or the other.

Funktronic Labs' latest, out later this year, occurs in a “real-time/turn-based time-vortex” that proves these are not mutually exclusive and that time is much stranger than anyone originally thought. How this works isn't exactly clear, but you can glean from the video that some enemies can attack you willey-nilley, while others are confined to moving step for step. It sounds interesting, and the trailer makes me think of rougelikes such as Michael Brough’s 868-HACK, only set in a brighter and happier submarine place that totally fucks with your conceptions of time.

Babycastles and the hunt for new arcade spaces

Creating a more permanent place to play. 

The first holographic system actually has some games for it now

As pointed out by Hyperallergic, the hypnotic holographic system called the Voxiebox was shown off a week ago at Indiecade East. This marvelous volumetric display has been around since Maker Faire 2013, but has recently made mucho headway in terms of people actually programming games for it—classic-style games composed of cubes of blistering light that occupy physical space. 

At Indiecade, it was Voxatron, the voxel-based twin-stick shooter (maybe?) that’s still in alpha but sure looks voxel-y. There was also a version of 3D Pong made for Global Game Jam 2014. And a galloping red horse. All this makes my eleven-year-old self incredibly happy, especially the horse.

Playlist 2/26: Oquonie reincarnates us, TxK modernizes, and Angvik hops about

We pick 'em, you play 'em.

Watch the devs of The Last of Us wrangle over the differences between film and games

The Last of Us has been getting a lot of buzz lately, with the Left Behind DLC and whispers of a sequel whetting our appetites for a second helping of what may be the grimmest buddy film/game. 

Luckily, you can sink your teeth into this nearly two-hour documentary on the making of it. There’s a lot of footage of guys from Naughty Dog sitting on the couch, but that’s OK because they’re generally talking about interesting stuff, like what does and doesn’t work in a novel, and an action movie, and a videogame. They also talk about how they feel they succeeded at telling a story through gameplay. It’s fuel for ye’ ol’ longstanding, heated narratology/ludology debate. 

Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2 is as grotesque as it aims to be

Whip it … not very good.

We could be dead by the time Persona 5 gets here

Time to start eating right. Seriously. After Atlus announced yesterday that Persona 5 was coming to North America for PS3, yes PS3, in 2015, I just hope I’m still alive and kicking when it gets here. I could suffer a drawn-out terminal illness and be long gone by the time it appears. Or more likely my PS3 could die.

Atlus seems sympathetic to the lag, thankfully, and are bringing out a whole slew of Persona titles for North America while we emaciate, uh, I mean wait. These include Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth (a Persona-fied Etrian Odyssey) and Persona 4 Arena Ultimax (the Persona-fied fighting game) in fall, and Persona 4: Dancing All Night (the Persona-fied beat-matching game) in 2015, presumably before the big one hits.

Now I understand why the teaser imagery is of a ball and chain. It’s like a prison sentence waiting for this thing to drop. And you know what happens in prison. No, not that. The other thing. You die.