Indie Games Mag Issue 9

Issue 9 of Indie Games Mag (the one with my BeeAppi article) is on sale now!

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Lego Universe Trailer

I’m already sold on Lego Universe, but this cute trailer is worth watching just for the dark, evil Lego-men holding up cardboard cutouts of the happy, dancing Lego-men.

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Robot Dance-Off

Ok, so it’s not a game, but who doesn’t love dancing robotic hexapods?

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Indie Game Mag, Issue 7

The next issue of Indie Game Magazine is out!

Issue 7 contains a review of Monkey Island (Episodes 1-3, not just Screaming Narwhal), my Slide Colors review, other game reviews, and new articles on indie games in general.

Via Issue 7: November / December 2009 | Indie Game Magazine.

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Alice and Kev

Just in case there’s someone who’s not yet reading Alice and Kev, go check it out!

RoBurky created Alice and Kev as an experiment in what Sims 3 capabilities and personality traits can do, creating two homeless sims and blogging their actions. RoBurky isn’t cheating by sending her sims out to collect valuable finds, either. Blogging a game character often seems like the worst case of let-me-tell-you-about-my-level-80-paladin ossed with blogging from the pet cat’s point of view,  but it’s an amazingly engaging story on so many levels.

RoBurky created Alice and Kev as an experiment in what Sims 3 capabilities and personality traits can do. The original Sims was more of an exercise in putting out domestic fires — sometimes literally — than actually seeing your sims’ personalities, but in Sims 3 the focus is off keeping your sims from starving to death, and on creating interactions.

I blogged the other day about emotional games, and how the personality traits of Sims 3 could have emotional implications (Watch your significant other manage a Sims couple sometime!). The story of Alice and Kev turns personality algorithms into an alternately hilarious and depressing storyline.

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Indie Game Mag, Issue 6

Issue 6 of Indie Game Mag is out today!

I reviewed Faerie Solitaire a while ago and I’m so happy to see this game made the cover of Indie Game Mag.

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Indie Game Mag, Issue 5

The newest Indie Game Mag comes out today. Issue 5 promises to have some great games and interviews, including my piece on Wonderland Adventures: Fire Island.

The July/August Issue of the Indie Game Magazine hits news stands everywhere today. In Issue 5: We have a brand new roundtable feature where 4 reviewers rate 10 of the latest indie game demos. This issue is chock full of indie goodness with over 20 indie games featured. We have an extensive interview with Edmund McMillen, Fling around bodies in Ragdoll Cannon, Solve some family friendly puzzles in Wonderland Adventures, Build an empire in Romopolis, and take a look at the IGF student finalist City Rain.

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Restaurant Empire 2

Paradox Interactive — the people behind the upcoming Majesty 2 and East India Company games — is releasing Restaurant Empire 2 today.

Paradox Interactive today announced that Enlight Software’s Restaurant Empire 2 has been released worldwide. Restaurant Empire 2 builds on the highly popular Restaurant Empire franchise, a title that has already sold over 300,000 units in the United States alone.

With two handfuls of cash and a dream of creating a legacy; build, cook and hire your way to the very top of the culinary world, where tasty food is king and smart management reels in the dollars. If you’re skilled enough in the kitchen and behind the management desk, you just may go further than any aspiring restaurateur before you and cement your status as a true legend of cuisine.

You know what they say about keeping your fingers in as many pies as possible? It pays to diversify. In Restaurant Empire 2 you get the chance to grab a slice of the lucrative café and dessert house markets. Both types of establishment are available when playing the sandbox scenario, or throughout the second campaign, where you must help Delia carve out her own business empire.

Sprinkle your magic on a failing franchise, yet be wary of spreading your finances too thinly as your empire grows. Tailor your menus to include the very best and most popular beverages from teas and coffees to shakes, coolers and smoothies. Whip up some tasty treats for your customers in the form of sandwiches, salads, ice-creams, cakes, tarts, pies and many other items. Then set about decorating the interiors and exteriors with more theme-specific items, some of which must be unlocked through game events. Finally, invite the very best entertainers to perform exclusively in your outlets, making them stand out more from the competition.

If you still believe running a restaurant empire is as easy as baking a cake, here’s your chance to step up to the plate.

Via VerticalWire .

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Target Discount For Pre-Ordering Games

Target announced today a new reservation program that offers guests a chance to reserve the biggest and most popular video game titles. Beginning April 19, Target guests can purchase a collectible reservation card, only in stores, for $1. When they bring the reservation card back within seven days of release to purchase their game, they will receive a $5 Target GiftCard to put toward a future purchase.

So you pay $1 to reserve the game, then when you come in and buy the game, you get a $5 gift card. Not bad!
via VerticalWire.

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New Indie Game Magazine

The new issue of Indie Game Magazine comes out today!

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Cooking Mama

Bento boxes are a cute, stylized Japanese lunchbox. They use food to make cheery pictures, think smiling apples or rice balls with veggie hearts and stars. Of course, some people turn bento into edible art. Like this Cooking Mama bento box!

Awesome! Anna The Red also has Pikachu, Yoshi and an awesome Katamari Damancy bento.

Via bento#23 Cooking Mama « AnnaTheRed’s bento factory.

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Gamer Razor?

I hate to post a link to blatant advertising, but I just saw the Gillette “Gamer” razor. (It’s not shaped like a controller or anything,  seems like ti’s just a name) Not entirely sure what gaming and razors have to do with each other. Unless, it’s just that men play games and men have to shave!

Personally, I’m waiting for Lara Croft shampoo.

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Thoughts On Casual Games Dev

Game development isn’t exactly my strong suit. Personally I prefer to let other people work long hours, pouring their heart and soul into a game, and then I play it and complain about what’s wrong with it. Hey, that’s where my talents lie!

But I do have huge admiration for indie developers, and I hope to focus on lesser-known titles here on ThumbGods.

Cliff Harris of Positech Games talks about making independent development profitable. Cliff is behind the Positech Games titles Democracy 2, Kudos (and Kudos 2!) and others. The entire interview is worth reading, if you’re all interested in what makes a game succeed, but one statement really stuck with me.

Who will survive in the casual game business in 2010?

Big Fish Games, Popcap.
I think I’ve got the full list there.

Big Fish Games is an awesome casual games portal. The “new game every day!” works perfectly for repeat business.  They’re a total giant, even my mother-in-law has a Big Fish Games account. But I worry that massive portals like BFG (much as I love them!) and now Amazon are making it harder for the guy-with-website development model to succeed.

Not to be all doom and gloom, because as Cliff’s interview shows, an indie game developer and creative marketer can still do very well.

Via Interview with Cliff Harris (cliffski) from Positech Games | Sell More Games.

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Character Art

Do you love your role-playing character? What about your WarCraft toon? AvatarArt offers portraits of your role-playing characters. You describe your character, and they’ll make it into a pretty picture for your game room. Or wave your nerd flag at work by framing your picture of Gudrun the dwarven warrior, and having it on your desk where your co-workers have pictures of their wives and kids!
AvatarArt also offers a character life insurance policy:

One improvement this policy has over a real policy is that it doesn’t cost you $100 per month.
A second and even better improvement this policy has over a real policy is that you don’t have to die to collect
This wonderful policy is offered as a free rider to any conventional character portrait package offered by AvatarArt. To wit: if/when your character dies AvatarArt will, free of charge, remit to you, free of charge, one portrait of similar style to the one that you purchased, which was therefore not free of charge, illustrating your character’s death. Free of charge!

Would you get your favorite character’s portrait done?

Via Avatar Art.

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Battlefield 1943 Trailer

The ladies of PlayGirlz have the trailer of EA’s upcoming Battlefield 1943. Here it is!

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Board Game Photos

I saw this cool project over on Photojojo to make an old game board into a picture frame. Sounds weird, but it would look awesome in a gamer’s bedroom or study, or bring it to work and hang it over your desk. They have pretty detailed step-by-step instructions, with photos. This would be a great use of a favorite old game, once you’ve lost a couple pieces. I especially like turning the Scrabble letters — or any other game tokens — into pushpins to easily update your gameboard photos.

What do you think?

Via Photojojo » Turn a Scrabble Board into a Picture Frame. (Thanks to Wonderlandkat for the tip)

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Mario Is A Menace

Fortunately, I played Frogger so I know how to dodge cars.

(This picture has been forwarded to me a bunch of times, I guess all my friends know I’m a nerd.  If anyone knows where to attribute this photo, let me know and I’ll link.)

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Level 1 Human

How cute is this? A WarCraft onesie, perfect for a little nerd baby! I don’t have kids myself (I’m going to wait until I can keep a plant alive before moving on to mammals) but I love seeing stuff like this that shows you don’t have to give up your gamernerd side when you get married and have children.

$15 seems a little steep to me for essentially transfer-paper letters on a baby onesie, but I don’t really know the going rate for onesies. I’m mostly proud that I know the word “onesie”.

Via Etsy :: Teedious :: Level 1 Human – Nerdy baby onesie, organic cotton (h/t MissElle)

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Twoof!

InsideSocialGames.com talks about the new blend of tweeting and gaming:

The sharing concept of Twitter is what Twoof expands upon, and rather than simply dealing with 140 word text-based posts, this website connects Twitter friends via Flash-based games. The site works similarly to most other social/casual gaming sites, but rather than creating a whole new social system, it connects various Twitter users together with its social gaming experience.

I already waste more time than I should on Twitter, so this would be a slippery slope for me. But what better way to not be productive than to play games with friends! What do you think?

Via Twitter + Social Gaming = Twoof

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Video Game Warning Labels?

Gamertell talks about the proposed videogame warning labels:

I read the report posted on CNet by Don Reisinger which indicates that on January 7, 2009, Joe Baca, a democratic representative of California, introduced the H.R.231: The Video Game Health Labeling Act of 2009 bill to 111th Congress requesting to make it mandatory that video games that have received a rating for violence to display the following warning:

WARNING: Excessive exposure to violent video games and other violent media has been linked to aggressive behavior.

I thought it was funny. At first. Then again, (according to a report card published by the Nation Institute on Media and Family in 2008) if we can’t get parents to read the labels that are already displayed on the packages now, how would this be any different?

I don’t believe videogames provoke violence or aggressive behavior — I think the cause goes the other way, that aggressive teenage boys are attracted to blowing up pixels, not that blowing up pretend people makes you want to blow up real people.

It’s the same thing as when people worry that Barbie is going to give little girls warped self-esteem. Um, Barbie is pretend. Videogames are pretend. I hope that kids can sort out the difference between real and pretend, and it seems like a gross failure of parenting if they can’t.

So, warning labels are a total waste of space. Good parents talk to their kids about what they’re playing, and don’t need it,  and bad parents probably wouldn’t be swayed by a little warning sticker.

Via Opinion: Warning labels!? Don’t even pretend video games are as bad as cigarettes – Gamertell

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Grand Ages: Rome

I love the Romans, so of course I’m excited about new Grand Ages: Rome game coming out this March. Here’s the trailer:

I do think some of the battle shots looked a lot like Rome: Total War. What do you think?

Via Gametrailers.com – Grand Ages: Rome – Trailer

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“Hardcore Gamer” Mag For Sale

No, really. The whole magazine is for sale. Kotaku explains:

Now isn’t the best time to be buying into the games mag business. Times are tough. But hey, if you’re not swayed by this harsh reality, Hardcore Gamer are for sale. And for only $42,000!

And that’s not even the best part. No, the best part is that owners Double Jump Books are selling the magazine on eBay. So to get it, you’ll have to bid. $42,001 is as good a place as any to start.

With more and more magazines going entirely digital or just going under, this is definitely a creative way to solve financial problems!

Via Kotaku Magu: Want To Buy A Games Mag? Hardcore Gamer Is For Sale (On eBay)

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Driving Games Teach 6-Year-Old to Drive!

  Ok, Grand Theft Auto gets a lot of trouble for encouraging kids to violence. I don’t really believe that videogames encourage violence, I think if someone’s going to actually commit crimes because they saw that in a game, well, they’ve got more problems than gaming!

But this kid was clearly influenced by GTA in some way:

A 6 year-old boy in Virginia missed his school bus so he decided to take his parents’ car to school. During his time behind the wheel, he passed some cars, made a couple of 90º turns and ran off the road a few times. He eventually crashed after driving almost 6 miles, but suffered only minor injuries. His parents were then charged with child endangerment when it was found that his mom was asleep during the incident. The funny part of the story was that he told police he learned to drive while playing Grand Theft Auto and Monster Truck Jam.

So mom was asleep and the little boy just hopped in the car without her noticing? I think we can use this as a valuable lesson about not leaving children unattended.

As Playfeed points out, this little boy must really like school!

Via Boy Tries To Drive After Playing Video Games | Playfeed

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11,000 Gamers Attend Virtual Wedding

Ah, gaming romance. I love stories like this, because they ruin the stereotype of anti-social gamers, and the stereotype that all gamers are men.

LAND O’ LAKES, FL– JANUARY 12, 2009– Artix Entertainment’s MMORPG AdventureQuest Worlds was the setting for the December 29th wedding of longtime Artix gamers Bello and Merca which was broadcast live starting on www.aqworlds.com with over 11,000 gamers in attendance.

The bride, who is a retailer, and the groom, who is a pre-school teacher, have been avid Artix gamers for three years. They live in southwestern Missouri and decided to share their union with fellow gamers worldwide.

“We thought this was a unique opportunity to do something memorable,” said Bello.“We decided to go with AdventureQuest Worlds because we’ve been playing Artix games for years now and almost feel like we’ve been a part of Artix Entertainment’s maturation as a gaming company.”

Read the rest at OVER 11,000 GAMERS ATTEND ADVENTUREQUEST WORLDS ONLINE WEDDING Gaming Industry | Press Release by MCV

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Fake Call Of Duty Beta Emails!

I heard some Twitter rumors and then read this on IAMfourzerotwo. If you get an email inviting you to a new Call of Duty beta, um, it’s a fake. It’s hard to tell if this is a virus or a not-terribly-subtle phishing scam or just a prank, but at any rate, it’s not a beta invite.  (picture from 402 also)

Via IAMfourzerotwo · Beware of fake “COD5″ Beta Invites

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