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Viewing entries tagged with 'games'

I, Robot

Machinarium

I just came across a really nice game today: Machinarium. A little roboton a big adventure. This is a nice little point and click adventure game with very beautiful design made in Czechoslovakia.

Funny enough I could say the exact same thing about a game called Little Wheel, except that that's from Slovakia. Both are definitely worth a look. I wonder which was first.

Little Wheel

Cyclomaniacs

Cyclomaniacs

I hardly ever play Flash games, but this one got me hooked: Cyclomaniacs

The gameplay couldn't be simpler: cycle, jump and spin. You get extra boost for stunts (sommersaults and wheelies), access to new levels and cyclists if you accomplish special goals (finish in 60 seconds, do 3 forward sommersaults, etc...) and with price money you can buy speed, acceleration, spin etc... Overall there are 20 cyclists on different bikes and all of them behave differently and are more or less suitable for each of the 26 different tracks.

And in a strange way one of the cyclists, Farty Pants, strongly reminds me of my former animation teacher Mr. Felix – now out and about for the last 6 years or so cycling Southeast Asia.

Here is a little Making of... from the developers of the game.

Highly recommended, especially if you actually have tons of more important things on your plate!

Metaplace

Now this sounds interesting: Metaplace. Still under development with not much information yet. But the little information that's available for only 2 days now sounds promising. Metaplace is

  • a virtual world platform
  • massive multiplayer out of the box
  • easy to set up
  • heavily customisable for people with programming knowledge (rumours say the programming language is Lua)
  • different virtual worlds can connect
  • based on web technology (low minimum system requirements, even possible for mobile phones)
  • can be implemented into a website
  • different styles: 2d, 3d isometric, 2d, 2.5d heightfields, 3d
  • interaction with the web (such as RSS feeds)
  • created by a team of former Ultima Online developers and others (Raph Koster, ...)
  • etc ...
  • and it's free!


As I am currently working for an educational institution it is just obvious to investigate Metaplace for educational purposes such as distance learning or online components for face-to-face courses - as soon as it is available for the public.

It might beat other systems such as Second Life in terms of the ease of use for the not-so-computer-literate (i.e. the majority of all computer users) and the common problem of minimum system requirements.

It's still all rumors; however, I am looking forward to test this thing.

via this article on BBC news

Here is some more insider information.

Aller Anfang ist schwer.

RätselrennenLater today in Munich you will have the chance to watch a rare species of riddle freaks waiting in a queue for the earliest issue of tomorrow´s Süddeutsche. The Rätselrennen, Germany´s most difficult riddle, will keep them off their work and holiday for three weeks again. Keep a level head, freaks!

Papal Bowling

walkcycleSome nice games found on idleworm. Next to the animations and games there are also two animation tutorials on how to animate a bouncing ball and the more complex walk cycle. Following a few links I also found the the animation learners site, a quite detailed tutorial on drawn animation and animationmeat, a site with notes from professional animators, model sheets and good links.

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