Ludology.org

Tumblebugs mocks Zuma

Of all the Puzz Loop clones, Tumblebugs is my favorite. Even though I do carry Zuma on my iPod, Tumblebugs has a place in my heart probably because of its high production values. Maybe it's also due to the fact that Zuma shows an arrogant attitude towards Central American culture (its "Unga Shaka" soundtrack may sound exotic to gringos but has little to do with Mayan culture). In any case, Ernesto (a fellow game designer here at Powerful Robot) noticed today a joke on Tumblebugs' 7-2 level. A newspaper reads "Mexican spitting frog extinct!", in clear reference to Zuma's frog.

Blip Festival

The New York Times reports on the upcoming Blip music festival which will take place in New York City. It's the place to be if you are into hacking old consoles for creating or recreating electronic music. The best known Uruguayan band in the genre is Chocadores Electrónicos.

Trick Ink Spot

I could not resist buying this vintage Japanese practical joke at the flea market a couple of days ago. It's a dinosaur of a time that does not exist anymore (who uses inkpots nowadays?). The Engrish text is beautiful, too: "Just put this piece apound the mouth of the empty ink-pot tipped. He gets surprised. Try it - Funy Trick! S.T.K. JAPAN"

Spanish Civil War game

No pasarán! The Spanish Civil War is certainly fascinating. It not only had a deep impact in Spain, but also in Latin America where many people seeked for refuge. I learned about "Shadows of War" ("Sombras de Guerra") this morning on the NYTimes. The game just became available in Spain this week, so I didn't get a chance to play it yet. All I was able to see was its trailer and some screenshots. I was a bit shocked at how the trailer ends: with the shadow of the typical videogame hot babe with hot ass. That was not exactly what came to my mind when thinking about the Spanish Civil War. Be certain that I was not ready to dismiss the whole game just because of that shot but it actually surprised me a bit. But then, I thought that if this was a movie about the Spanish Civil War, chances are that the female protagonist would be way above average in terms of beauty: that's a staple in filmmaking, both in Hollywood and often in the indie scene. Still, this game's female character's ass was almost grotesque but, then again, videogame characters are generally caricatural. So, I concluded that what I saw in the trailer is not that bad, at least within the filmmaking and videogame standards. I still believe it's silly to sell videogames through female gluteal muscles and I'm looking forward to the day where videogame characters are just pretty, but normal people like Jade from Between Good and Evil.
Keep in mind that I'm not judging the game itself, only the trailer (even though the trailer should set the tone for a game). I'm still looking forward to playing it and I'm really thrilled about the existence of a game dealing with this particular moment in history.

Coming soon... A new newsgame

I am happy to announce that in the next few weeks, Newsgaming.com will be launching a new game called Global Warming. Yup, you guessed the topic! While September 12th was 100% political, Madrid geared more towards the emotional and now Global Warming could probably be described as educational. The game focuses on the main reasons for global warming, with the same premises of previous newsgames: concise and direct, while trying to avoid simplicity. In other words, we're back with the videogame cocktail: half videogame, half political cartoon.
Stay tuned, we're working hard to launch before the end of the year.

Plane hijacking game, 1982

During the 80's, Bandai released their solar-powered answer to Nintendo's Game&Watch: the LCD Solarpower series. One of their most interesting games is called Airport Panic. The player had two missions: boarding the plane while avoiding the bombs of the hijacker. And then, according to the English manual, "shoot at the hijacker and rescue the stewardess and the passengers".

Thanks to chococat, both the English and Japanese manual scans are available online, as well as a PC simulation of the game. If you play the game, make sure you extract the zip file with full path (and use SPACE to start and arrow keys to move around).

Suicide bombing in Halo 3

The title is catchy, the article is worth reading. Clive Thompson is, by very far, the best videogame critic out there. Let's put it this way: most videogame criticism only answers the question if you should buy or not a game. Good criticism makes you enjoy even the games that you are not going to buy. If you need to catch up with Thompson's writing, visit his blog.

WRONG!!!!

If you ever doubted of the need to beta-test your games, well, here's the ultimate proof (thanks Sofia).

Danish Radio Interview

I haven't been able to listen to it (damn Windows Media Player) but in case anybody is interested, this is the interview that I gave the day of my PhD defense (literally right after my presentation, since the journalist ambushed me the second I finished :)