Kill Screen Magazine's Blog, page 438
February 21, 2014
Wearable projector lets you broadcast the awful things you text to people right on your body
It’s hard to imagine that taking your phone out of your pocket would ever be considered “too much effort,” but should that happen, there’s a device disguised as a necklace that can project new messages directly onto your hand, or the ground in front of you. While the prototype is actually the size of a backpack, the team hope to get the technology to a point where it can also be used to give directions, and perform other smartphone-related functions.
The system would rely on specific gestures, each of which can be used to perform a different function. Theoretically, anything that requires you to look at a screen could be translated to work on this new device in the future. As Christian Winkler from the University of Ulm in Germany explains, "The projector gives you a window into the virtual world that you carry around like a flashlight, as a way of serendipitously accessing information.”
As reported by the New Scientist, William Coggshall, an analyst based in California is slightly more skeptical, and not just about the power requirements for a portable projector. His concern is that because the human hand “is not a very flat or uniform screen,” it could make a message of any significant length almost impossible to decipher.
Source: NewScientist
This post was originally written by Ross Brooks for PSFK.
With 50 Short Games, thecatamites becomes the Robert Pollard of videogames
Burning quickly and brightly.
Box Art Review: The Troubling Hypocrisy of Bioshock Infinite
A man has a gun and is angry.
The creator of XCOM has a new strategy RPG and it sounds spectacular
Back in the 90s, Julian Gollop created a little property called XCOM, easily only one of the most influential strategy games ever. So it's worth paying attention to his upcoming strategic fantasy Chaos Reborn, which is about to hit Kickstarter, and promises to be an absorbing, hexagonal, and beautiful turn-based affair.
If not, maybe the wizards will convince you. Yes, wizards—those long-bearded, robe-wearing men of the crystal talisman. While you may be thinking that sounds like typical Tolkienesque stock, the differentiator here is that wizardry isn't a tired aesthetic but a deep, mechanical obsession. As you can read about in the game design section of his site, wizards have the ability to cast 80 spells, 24 of which summon minions, including creatures you can mount. The potential here is vast.
February 20, 2014
A checklist for how not to get punched wearing Google Glass
It seems Google is aware that their newfangled augmented reality eyewear has a public image problem, with privacy issues surfacing around facial recognition software and the fact that early adopters are basically positing themselves as geeky, walking camcorders. So the tech giant has put together a list of dos-and-don’ts when sporting Google Glass, which cheekily addresses some rather serious concerns.
The dos start off positively enough. Wearers should use voice commands, explore the world, and make sure that they implement the lock screen, lest they lose their glasses and some stranger should have access to all the strange shit they’ve been recording, like the guy sleeping next to them on the plane.
Then there’s this gem: "Ask for permission. Standing alone in the corner of a room staring at people while recording them through Glass is not going to win you any friends." If you have to be told this, there’s probably no use.
The don’ts continue to move into more deleterious territory. You shouldn’t “Glass-out,” or zone out using Google Glass, because “you’re probably looking pretty weird to the people around you.” Also, don’t “wear it and expect to be ignored.” And when people aren't ignoring you, don’t be a “Glasshole. Respect others and if they have questions about Glass don’t get snappy.”
If augmented reality will help us realize the beautiful dream of having one foot in reality and the other in the cyber dimension, this is just a funny bit of errata for the future. If it never takes off ... well, this is still probably a funny bit of errata for the future. Win/win?
More mass transit should feature free augmented reality games
The public transit system in Aberdeen, Scotland has placed onboard entertainment on the backs of the bus seats.
Looks like live-streamers will make Daylight even more terrifying
Up till now, videogame live-streams have largely been a passive experience. Internet viewers are kept at a safe distance, where all they can do is laugh at how terrible I am at games.
But according to the official PlayStation blog, the developers of Daylight are going to change all that. Zombie Studios is experimenting with ways of inviting the savages of the online world into your carefully constructed play experience, which sounds terrifying and appropriate, considering it is a survival horror game.
While details are sparse, Zombie plans on letting viewers “control the actual scares in a streamer’s experience.” I imagine this could radically shake up the single-player experience, much like invaders did in Dark Souls, always keeping you on edge. As you may recall, Daylight is the next-gen game published by Atlus, where the player is armed only with a phone. My first thought was angry mobs of netizens calling to tell you that they know where you live, but it will probably be much, much nicer than that.
Dark Souls 2 will be a heartwarming tale of empowerment, apparently
The Dark Souls series has a reputation of being big, hard, grueling games, but the raspy, warm voiceover in this new trailer for Dark Souls 2 wants to assure you that it’ll be OK. The tone is inspirational in a “these teams made it to the championship game” sort of way, and motivational in an “enlist in the army” sort of way, which is to say it goes against everything I associate with the series, which is mainly trembling for survival as the world around you degrades. But uh, yeah, maybe it's also about the triumph of the spirit, who knows.
Prepare to feel empowered.
A new murder mystery from the Agatha Christie of adventure games is coming April 15th
Moebius: Empire Rising is the upcoming game by Jane Jensen, who is pretty much the Agatha Christie of adventure games, and not just because she’s written some of the Agatha Christie adventure games. She’s known for games about romance and thrillers and murder mysteries, just like Christie, such as the Gabriel Knight series—games from the '90s that feature the titular “most charming womanizer you ever met.” I mean, with a name like Gabriel Knight, how could he not be.
Since Jensen's days at Sierra, she’s pretty much exclusively used the genre as an outlet for evolving the murder mystery novel, which, let’s face it, could use an evolution. Her work draws out the point that murder mystery novels and shows were, deep down, always games at heart. You were reading and watching to figure out whodunit.
As for Jensen’s new game, the story has a Da Vinci Code vibe, revolving around an antiquities dealer ensnared in a government cover-up. It will be coming to PC and Mac and then move onward and upward to other platforms. It looks like it’s coming together nicely, and the timing is right, as Agatha Christie is having a bit of a renaissance.
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