Intelligent Artifice » Fun

Competition: Imagine a ‘Pestschleuder’

Jurie — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 12:44:36 +0000

A friend of mine just used the German word “Pestschleuder”. “Pest” means, well, pest: plague, disease. “Schleuder” means “sling”, “slingshot”, but a a salad spinner is also called a “Salatschleuder”.

I liked the word (I tend to like certain German words), and imagined… something… when I read it. Something that had nothing to do with its real meaning. My girlfriend imagined something completely different.

So here’s a little competition: imagine what a Pestschleuder looks like and describe it here in a comment. On Sunday, April 5th Andrea and I will judge the entries. The prize is honor plus something not yet determined – it depends on who and where you are ;). It’s really supposed to be fun thing to do. At least I had fun imagining my Pestschleuder.

Game Development Failure

Jurie — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 14:48:54 +0000

Why did that take so long? Apart from legal issues I mean. I Get Your Fail is a blog showcasing failure in game development. The fun kind where you laugh, not the kind where you spend 3 years and 20 million dollars on a flop. Every game dev project has some good failures… often these are more fun than the game for a long, long time.

(Via Offworld.)

Jet set lifestyle

Jurie — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 11:13:39 +0000

Picture by my friend Michael. While I like traveling, I would like a little more stability. I am trying to avoid the “months in tiny rooms far from home” gigs, but the last two were just too hard to say no to.

Life-like 3D spider, built in Flash

Jurie — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 07:53:23 +0000

Here is a cool life-like 3D spider, built in Flash. The high-level animation logic is very nice.

(Via Boing Boing.)

Hilarity Comics

Jurie — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 07:42:46 +0000

Hilarity Comics is a comic about video games. But not an inoffensive, middle-of-the-road comic like Penny Arcade or VG Cats. No, this is an underground comic, testing the limits of your taste. I find it funny, but you might not. You have been warned.

Where the Hell is Matt?

Jurie — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 09:10:29 +0000

Where the Hell is Matt? Very, very cool.

Where the Hell is Matt? (2008) from Matthew Harding on Vimeo.

(Via Making Light.)

Limbo of the Lost

Jurie — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 07:00:33 +0000

I just came across the story of Limbo of the Lost, a game that has been in development in some form for 15 years, and that in its current incarnation for the PC appears to be the most awe-inspiring case of plagiarism since Giana Sisters. I mean, check out these screenshots.

On June 12th, the game was pulled from release when multiple sites and forums posted screenshots showing items, environments, menu graphics, characters, even fonts stolen from more than a dozen games as well as several movies. Similar screens revealed the company’s theft of graphics goes back even to the original version for the Amiga.

Every developer who’s been around for a while knows of studios that do so some bad things, but this… this is impressive.

Backward Compatible: GTA IV + Google

Jurie — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 05:32:25 +0000

Here is a comic that made me smile.

From Goichi Suda’s Wikipedia page

Jurie — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 06:02:50 +0000

Goichi Suda:

Suda was working as an undertaker, enjoying the booming Japanese arcade scene, when he noticed an advertisement for an opening at Human Entertainment, best known for designing the Clock Tower and Fire Pro Wrestling series’s. [Suda] received a call from Human, and was immediately hired. He began work as a scenario writer on Super Fire Pro Wrestling 3 Final Bout. The next game he would work on, Super Fire Pro Wrestling Special, remains one of his most infamous to date due its shocking ending, in which the hero commits suicide.

… No comment.

Moving Mario

Jurie — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 08:03:46 +0000

“Moving Mario” is a cute installation by Keith Lam, aka the Demos. It is easier to show than to describe:

You can read the slightly too elaborate description here. I guess you have to write that kind of stuff when you’re an artist – I’d have thought you just get it after seeing it for 2 seconds.

It strongly reminded me of the “Be Kind Rewind” exhibition at the Deitch gallery in New York. A friend of mine went there, and it sounded hilarious. Lots of crummy yet crazily inventive mechanical sets and backdrops that anyone can use to make their own movie.

I can’t find a decent description of it, but here is a video showing some of the backdrops:

I’ve been very interested in doing lo-fi stuff like this lately. It just seems like such a cool and natural approach for an indie game, or other online / interactive project of some kind. See also my earlier post about MUTO.