Angry Birds and FarmVille have become two of the biggest game franchises in the world. And recently their creators, Rovio and Zynga, have hit the news again, but not because of anymore major game announcements.
It's a hell of a lot easier to make money selling an indie game now than it was four years ago. But it's still a rough game.
Japanese game shows are legendary for being more extreme (and absurd) than their American counterparts. Chris Farley immortalized the concept in a classic SNL sketch, and MXC and Ninja Warrior have both achieved great success dubbed and subtitled on American television. A big part of their appeal is how demanding they are compared to U.S. game shows. Only a few people have actually won Ninja Warrior in its 23 seasons on the air, and MXC is a constant comedy of failure and pain.
Making a video game requires an incredible amount of work. It requires people skilled in many disciplines to work together for thousands of hours merging visual art, computer programming, game design, sound design, and music composition into a fun game. The Indie Stone is a Scottish indie development studio started, like so many others, by industry vets who were tired of corporate restrictions and wanted to make the crazy games they had always imagined.
Mediocre free Flash game websites are all too common. Many of them thrive off peddling the same few popular games to fans who have slim cause to pick one over the other. They thrive off the indifference of casual gamers and an environment that does not have to stand out to survive, only appeal to the lowest common gaming denominator with tower defense clones and brightly colored Peggle knockoffs. In that context, what Nitrome is doing seems downright commendable.
Different genres of social media have changed the world, but they are not omnipotent. In most cases this is a good thing, but not in the case of Operation Rainfall. It has been a purely well meaning social media movement that should have led to a great boon for the North American gamer public, but instead has served as a reminder of how stone aged Nintendo of America's (NOA) corporate thinking remains.
Anybody who spends most of their day on the internet should know all about lulz. Lulz are most often jokes made at the expense of web users, as popularized on 4Chan. Today, a consortium of hackers called LulzSec is attempting (and in some cases succeeding) in efforts to shut down some of the games that offer web users a giant share of their online fun. World of Warcraft, League of Legends, EVE Online, and Bethesda Softworks have all been targeted by LulzSec's hacking efforts in the last week,...
Netflix may be killing its competitors, but they're losing fans thanks to their reputation for rolling out interface updates without user knowledge or consent. PlayStation 3 owners were upset at the Netflix interface change earlier this year, and now nearly 5,000 diehard Netflixers are irate at the website's new look for its Watch Instantly section.
If you're a lucky owner of the iPhone 4, you know that the upgrade to its camera app includes a front-facing camera feature which acts like a video cam on your computer. Apple, of course, intends the front-facing feature to be mainly used for the FaceTime application which enables you to hold video phone conferences with other iPhone 4 and Mac users who have FaceTime installed on their device. This is all well and good, but there several other ways the front-facing camera can be used.
First off, let's explain the story that inspired the phot I'm using for the post. Friday night, restaurant gig at Vallartas Mexican Restaurant in Lutz/Land O' Lakes, and I was making balloons for all the children throughout the evening. As I'm about halfway through my shift, I approach a table with two little girls (and their parents). One girl was about 6 with straight blond hair and the second girl, like pictured, had the most adorable little blond ringlets bouncing around her face as she g...
USE WINDOWS 7 ULTIMATE x64 w/ all the latest updates always OF COURSE AND... USE THE ASTON 2 SHELL REPLACEMENT, MENU, DESKTOP, W/ THEMES...
Well, we have had a pretty basic story structure in the previous couple of blogs. However, for the third act there is considerable leeway on how this story can play out. You can turn a story like this into a tragedy or comedy. Remember the line from the film Stranger Than Fiction "Tragedy, you die. Comedy you get hitched." Well in the Action/Adventure story, almost anything goes. For instance, GUY does not have to die, but CHICK could perish tragically. However, avoid cliches like someone jum...
So what if he's right just 39% of the time? On Wednesday, February 2nd, when poor old Punxsutawney Phil crawls forth from his simulated tree stump in Gobbler's Knob, we'll be watching. After all, if an octopus can predict the outcome of the World Cup, we fail to see why a sedated marmot can't predict the weather.
Oh Data, You so Awesome! We are going to use Node.JS to gather us some data. Given nodes plethora of well abstracted network abilities and it's deep evened nature, it will make quick work of plugging into various data sources and gathering / making good use of said data.
Again, there are tons of events this week, and as usual, most of them are caused by Jupiter's moons. But there is some happenings with Venus, too, so don't miss out.
This week, there's a lot going on in the skies above, with at least one event per day! There's also an equinox, which only occurs about twice a year!
There's not much going on this week in the skies above, but there are a lot of conjunctions to take a peek at! And of course, there's the comet Garradd that's still showing its tail to us down here on Earth, so make sure to catch it before it's gone. The rest that's going on this week:
The comet Garradd is almost at its peak now, plus there's plenty more events going on this week, so be sure to observe!
Remember—winter is the perfect time to observe! There are a lot of events going on this week, so pull out that observing chair. Here they are:
Social networks like Facebook and Google+ are great for staying connected with family, friends and coworkers—even fans. But sharing and communicating with practically anyone in the digital realm has alienated us from most of the flesh-and-blood beings we see everyday—our neighbors. How well do you know your neighbors?
1/3 of the city gone, the red colored buildings and homes are the ones that got destructed in the fire..
Since the release of Microsoft's Kinect, there's been no shortage of useful and fun hacks. In the past, we've seen the Kinect modded for things like x-ray vision, World of WarCraft gameplay, air guitar and 3D video. And now there's even a use for all of you MineCraft gamers!
I remember once listening to a Christian comedian making fun of the way some Christians pride themselves on all the "evil" things they don't do.
Announcement #1: Holiday season is here! Every Wizard101 account that logs in between December 21, 2010 and January 1, 2011 will receive a silent nightcap, which is different for both boys and girls! Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
The Earthen Ring Quartermaster is as elusive as a long-beaked echidna, so how do you find him in World of WarCraft: Cataclysm?
The DROID 2 from Motorola came out last August, but it's just now exploding— literally. The 33 News reported yesterday that a Motorola DROID 2 smartphone exploded in the hands of Aron Embry from Cedar Hills, Texas. He was making a phone call outside his home when he heard a POP sound— blood was dripping down his face and the glass was broken around the phone's speaker— his DROID 2 cell phone actually exploded against his ear. He ended up getting 4 stitches and a CAT scan, but thankfully, he d...
You Will Need an artificial flower
I took a class in the fall entitled Writing for Television at Bentley University in Boston. Much of what I learned has helped me through my first year of creative writing. One of the keys to writing television that we learned in the class was that a television show follows the traditional three act structure that any story follows, except for the fact that in a television episode, many questions are allowed to go unanswered.
I have been writing since I was a little boy. I remember watching South Park at age 9 and writing my own episodes. Aside from some curse words and sexual humor that you don't expect from a nine year old, there really was not much there. In middle school I used to write short stories, usually about myself and some of the things that had happened to me. To this day no one knows that a lot of the events I have written about are true. This is something that people have always asked about. I remem...
There is a wonderful site that just launched with the youth sports community in mind. The site is http://YouthSportTravel.com , a collaboration of youth sports coaches and a major online travel brand. They offer arguably the best prices on hotel and motel rooms anywhere. For proof, I tested a number of locations with www.hotel.com, Expedia and Travelocity in comparison with YouthSportTravel and in each case; YouthSportTravel was equal to or cheaper than the competition. But this is not all th...
How to Write a Wedding Invitation The wording you use for your wedding invitation is very important. Follow these steps to help ensure that your invite is as formal as the big day.
This tutorial demonstrates how to make a yearbook of momentous events. You make tags with the year the event took place. Notebook rings and ribbon bind your yearbook together. Make a yearbook.
The relationship between developers and publishers in the video game industry has always been awkward. Many great game developers such as Bizzare Creations, Clover Studio, and Bullfrog Productions have been disbanded due to corporate shenanigans involving their publishers and owners. The indie game movement has risen largely as a response to this.
Arceus is the 493rd pokemon added to the National Dex. It can be encountered at level 80 which is the highest level wild pokemon in the game. This video will show you exactly how to find and catch the legendary god pokemon Arceus.
Single-cell electroporation (SCE) is a specialized technique allowing the delivery of DNA or other macromolecules into individual cells within intact tissue, including in vivo preparations. The distinct advantage of this technique is that experimental manipulations may be performed on individual cells while leaving the surrounding tissue unaltered, thereby distinguishing cell-autonomous effects from those resulting from global treatments. When combined with advanced in vivo imaging techniques...
There are a lot of events going on this week! As I mentioned last week, there will be new features from now on. Check them out in the info section below!
Google+ is taking over more and more of Google's core properties. This week, we've seen several announcements from Google blogs about new products, new features, new looks, new integrations. If you're like me, you actually want to know where to go for all the latest information on Google products.
Apple's "Let's talk iPhone" event has just ended, and the information isn't anything that wasn't already anticipated. Much to everyone's hopes, the iPhone 5 was not the headliner of the event. Instead, Apple's new CEO Tim Cook unveiled the iPhone 4S to the 250-seat audience, a speedier version of the iPhone 4. Here's the details.
This week's 6-part series on Making Art on Your iOS Device comes to a close today with our last segment: a collection of useful apps for touring museums, galleries and street art. The apps below cover some of the world's greatest art meccas, so read on if you're planning an upcoming trip, if you live in one of the destinations listed below, or if you simply want to see what a faraway museum has to offer—from the comfort of your couch.
Minecraft is the most basic and barren open sandbox building game. There are a limited number of materials and recipes to craft. But with these few building blocks, people have been able to creatively build some amazing structures and cities. There is a physical limitation, but the beauty of the game is turning that limitation into a strength.
