Michael Silverman

Interesting article over at Gamasutra. A company, headed by a professor, has decided to reveal its successful XBLA pitch.

Reading the pitch has been illuminating into the process. Still, I think there are some issues with getting an XBLA deal that those two documents gloss over. Of course, if any of our own pitching veterans want to drop some pearls of wisdom in a reply, feel free!

For Tracy's course I've been analyzing the formal elements of Lego. I decided I would try to convert them as well as I could into a digital format. The result is Desktop Bricks. The game is for Windows Vista and XP and includes an uninstaller.

Left click moves bricks, right click detaches them, and escape closes the program. If you are interested in the design decisions I made you can check out the write-up I submitted to Tracy.

I'd appreciate any feedback anyone has to offer. Also I'm always looking for new features. A way to save your brick configuration is one I'm thinking about starting to work on. Also a way to copy and paste your bricks into a chat window to share them with other people might be fun too.

This indie game is a little obscure, but worth checking out if you like platformers. Cave Story does some interesting things with its ending though its a somewhat traditional title. Also, it was done by a one man team over the course of five years.

The game is Japanese, and following the link above will take you to a site where you can download the original version. I managed to find a site with pre-patched English versions, however. For PC grab the game here. For MAC grab the game here.

Even if you don't want to play the game, you should still download the soundtrack which is excellent.

Firstly, I'd like to thank Tracy and Logan who led me to include the chant: "For Love. For Honor. For Mankind." in this game. It is a tagline from the 1998 film Armageddon.

BARMAGEDDON is a drinking game simulation of saving earth from certain destruction. It is designed to be a good way to unwind and socialize after a hard days work. The players compete against the system as a team, to help avoid interpersonal competition in a non-work setting. The spectacle style gameplay attracts other people at the bar to enter play, adding a social aspect to the game beyond the initial clique that started playing. The game encourages drinking but can be played with each player, aside from a designated driver, taking only one shot. The DD drinks nothing of course.

The objective of BARMAGEDDON is to get a certain number of bar nuts into empty shot glasses. These nuts represent shooting missiles at a gigantic growing asteroid that is approaching earth. Once the ``asteroid'' is hit by enough ``missiles'' the game is won, earth is safe, and all players get free wings.

In case anyone missed the following interactive media experience:

http://www.youtube.com/experiencewii

Via Kotaku:http://kotaku.com/5053598/wario-land-marketing-shakes-up-youtube

Here was an interesting TV moment where the Pleo joins the ranks of Hollywood celeb and gets interviewed by Letterman and a Monster truck.

Gizmodo:http://gizmodo.com/5029130/letterman-mows-down-a-pleo-with-a-1000-rc-monster-truck