Kill Screen Magazine's Blog, page 445

Watch the history of videogame graphics from the perspective of a cube

The cube gets no respect. Well, until now. YouTube video producers The Hamster Alliance have edited together this wonderful montage of various videogames that feature the versatile cube. From Mario’s question block to the collapsing florescent walls of Super Hexagon, our four-sided friend has played a prominent role in many, many games. Perhaps this is because originally all games were made of pixels, so the shape has subconsciously established some cachet. Or maybe they're just easier to render than circles. Either way.

Skullgirls is back, still has girls with skulls

Back in December, Skullgirls was unceremoniously yanked without warning from the PlayStation and Xbox stores. On Tuesday, for PlayStation Network at least, it’s back again, renamed Skullgirls Encore. The fighting game for fighting game enthusiasts by fighting game enthusiasts was originally published by Konami, but after they had a falling out with the developer Lab Zero, the game disappeared. That was just the latest in a long series of unfortunate events surrounding the game. But one thing’s for certain: this game is resilient.  

The lesson we’re learning the hard way is that digitally downloaded games can just up and walk out the door. As we saw late last night, the creator of Flappy Bird turned out the lights on his world-famous flapping game. Thankfully we got Skullgirls back. As for Flappy Bird, eh, whatever.

“Fart on a canine enemy while in Gnome form” and other absurd South Park achievements

If you’re planning on playing the new South Park RPG and are uptight about spoilers, or about life in general, stop right here. But for everyone else, the achievements for the game are too damn funny. Not unexpectedly, there’s plenty of farting involved. There is essentially an achievement for any type of creative farting. Irreverent, immature, and blasphemous? Sure. But also very funny. Here’s a complete list, but we handpicked the finest:

New Kid On The Block: Join the KKK.

Day Walker: Defeat the Boss Hall Monitor while wearing freckles.

 

Made This for You: Fling a turd that you created at an enemy in combat.

 

Are We Cool? Find Jesus while playing as a Jew.

 

Truth to Power: Fart on the Mayor, Father Maxi, Principal Vic, & Prime Minister.

 

Irritable Bowels: Shit your pants during a boss battle.

Dog Whistle: Fart on a canine enemy while in Gnome form.

 

Heisenberg: Defeat the Meth Tweekers while wearing the Evil Cartman goatee and the bald cap.

 

Animal Cruelty: Fart on animals 25 times.

And, naturally: 

You bastards! Have Kenny Die 10 times in battle over the course of the game.

Blizzard will now pay for you to play esports at the college level

We’re one step closer to realizing everyone’s childhood dream of getting a scholarship for playing videogames, as Blizzard has begun a campaign to promote and fund collegiate esports. The way it works is this: the Starcraft developer incentivizes campuses who sign up for their Membership Milestone Program, giving them grant money to throw pro-caliber esport tourneys. 

Part of the incentive program is aimed at college kids. If they form a club and register it through the program, they can earn website domains, cash prizes, mice, headsets, a trip to Blizzard, and most importantly, free t-shirts, because gamers love free t-shirts. 

Placing esports in colleges alongside sports like lacrosse seems like the right step towards esports becoming more widely accepted as a sport. Riot Games already has a similar program in place for League of Legends, and this will give official school-sanctioned esports a further push. If only they had Smash Bros. teams when I was in college.

The Museum of Parallel Art turns art appreciation into a bonding exercise

Bringing siblings together since, um, 2014. 

Goodbye forever, Flappy Bird

May you flap in peace, higher and higher, sweet creature. 

The problem with sports games and realism

A call to reel it in, a little.

Threes! is a lot more than addictive

Learning to hate 1s and 2s.

Last week in boardgames: Bruno Cathala's new game has men at work, elusive complexity

Celebrated game designer Bruno Cathala’s next game for Days of Wonder looks fantastically complicated. Not much is known about it, as it is still a prototype, but it has something to do with workers, and pyramids, and tile rotation, and a cup of espresso. Come to think of it that could just be someone’s drink. Cathala's resume includes Jamaica, Boomtown, and Cyclades.

Thanks to BoardGameGeek for the roundup.

img via TricTrac

After Amnesia Fortnight, Double Fine should just hire Pendleton Ward outright

Amnesia Fortnight is Double Fine’s annual internal game jam, where members of the studio cook up a ton of rough sketches for games that are far too zany, cutesy, and preposterous to otherwise exist, like this one about a horse-for-hire that saves clumsy heros. Then, for the next six days, they’ll ask you, their adoring public, to vote on which ones they’ll make.

It’s a great creative exercise that doesn’t always materialize into great games, but has produced some small gems like Costume Quest. This year, Adventure Time cartoonist Pendleton Ward (who we did this awesome interview with) is participating, and some of his ideas look pretty marvelous, because of course they would, such as this one about a cupid who makes people love inanimate objects. He clearly has the right mindset for making original games. (Although we did trash the last Adventure Time game, we doubt he had much at all to do with it.) So, Double Fine, hire this man.