Game design is sedentary work. Generally its practitioners do their work with their butts planted securely in front of a computer in an office (be it home or away) as their muscles and verbal skills atrophy. Even game journalists are prone to this condition. Not so with Colin and Sarah Northway (pictured below), the husband and wife team behind NORTHWAY Games. Not only do they make really cool indie games, but they do it with just a laptop while traveling the world meeting indie developers of...
For more than a decade, Interplay was arguably the best video game publisher in America. Their list of games is a who's-who of the most creative and forward thinking games of the '90s, including everything fromOut of This World to Alone in the Dark to Earthworm Jim to Descent. They've been around since 1983, but have fallen on hard times since 1997, when they became a public company. They were acquired by a French publisher who then went bankrupt. They were forced to close their internal deve...
While using Google+, it's been apparent that there are two types of posters. There are the people who post thoughtful, serious posts about everything from tech to dealing with cancer. And then there are the meme propagators, the people who decide to rick roll others (ahem, +Bryan Crow), and constantly put up animated gifs. Sometimes they are the same people, and this is where it gets a little controversial.
This week's roundup features three games that I've either never bothered to play, was unable to play due to PC technical limitations, or haven't played because they've just been released. None of these three games cost more than $15.
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.
Video games were blamed in the death of Chris Staniforth last May, but now things have gotten worse as video games take the blame for a more recent tragedy...
Since the beginning of last year, every six months or so the fine folks at Wolfire Games have gathered indie developers together to release a combo gaming pack called Humble Indie Bundle. Not only are the included games good, but the way one buys them is what makes Humble Indie Bundle one of the coolest products in games. Even better, Humble Indie Bundle #3 just came out last Tuesday and is available here for two weeks only.
Most stateside gamers have probably never heard of Level-5. If they have, it's more than likely due to the charming and maddening line of Nintendo DS puzzle games, Professor Layton. Some might even remember Dark Cloud and its sequel from the early days of the PlayStation 2, and all eight of you PSP owners in the U.S. might recognize the epic Jeanne d'Arc. These games alone make Level-5 a noteworthy company, but they've quietly surpassed "noteworthy" status to become one of the largest and gre...
See how to bake without butter, sugar, eggs, dairy milk and more. If you think it’s impossible to bake without butter without losing flavor and texture, then keep on reading. Even if you already substitute butter in your cakes and cookies, there may be some things in this article that you haven’t tried yet.
For a long time, video games manuals were serious business. Especially for strategy games and RPGs on the PC, the manuals would often run to a hundred or more full-color pages in length. They explained in vivid and well-written detail the history of the game world and every facet of the gameplay system. There were pages upon pages of appendices explaining the statistics of every unit, faction, and terrain type. They were majestic, and I would spend an hour or more poring over each one before ...
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.
Every Friday here at Indie Games Ichiban, I will feature a sampling of reviews from the mountains of indie and vintage games that have crossed my internet connection in the past week. Each week will have some sort of theme, this week being old school turn-based strategy games available on Steam.
Advancements in technology usually lead to the miniaturization of old technologies, and video games are no exception. Since at least 1990, game hardware manufacturers and enterprising DIY electronics enthusiasts have poured their efforts into making full-size video game consoles smaller, even handheld. And for good reason—who would have ever played a black and white Game Boy if they could have had an actual NES in their pocket?
Aside from food, oxygen, sunlight and water, there are other necessities that humans arguably need today to survive—clothing, love and shelter among them. Almost everyone wears clothes, needs somebody (or something) to love and a place to call home. And what's the one thing that connects all three? Something we all have? Keys.
Death is tough for the living, and those who mourn do all sorts of odd things to cope with it. Some keep mementos, some build towering statues, others create memorial paintings or write sad songs, all of which are healthy in moderation. Honoring the dead has been around for so long, it's part of what makes us human. Recently, the practice of memorializing the dead has spread from the arts, religion, and ceremonial burial to video games.
Video games consoles have long wanted to be more than just consoles. Nintendo Japan called the NES the Famicom because they wanted to make it the sole family computer. Obviously that didn't work out, and most efforts to make consoles into all-in-one entertainment systems have had similar fates. Sony has done the best job with the Playstation consoles, probably because they have experience with other types of electronics that most video game companies do not.
In my earlier post about long-term strategies I promised I’d ask some of my neighbors who do what I call factory chicken farming (Let 1000 Chickens Bloom) if the coyotes that have shown up will change the way they play the game. The one guy who replied in any detail said that he wasn’t sure what he was going to do yet, but he thought that he was losing 50 chickens each time he harvested them pressing “Collect Bonus” using a coop.
A devastating tragedy occurred in Japan on Friday when a monstrous 8.9-magnitude quake hit, causing a 10 meter (33 foot) tsunami to engulf the northeastern coast of the country. There are reports of over 1,000 people who have lost their lives, tens of thousands evacuated, and massive damage. Whether you have a lot or a little to give, here are five ways you can aid in the relief effort this very moment, without even leaving your couch.
Sure, you go online to email and shop and do research. But have you ever been curious about how the internet actually works? Don't worry, you don't need a degree in computer science to get a handle on how your info gets from point A to point B. Learning the basics of the internet will give you a whole new appreciation for all those emails and chat messages that seem to magically appear. Get ready, because we're about to enter the wonderful world of digital data!
Welcome back to the two-part series of Ten foods to eat for clear, acne-free skin. Check out part 1 here.
Bird spotting is a fun and also fascinating pastime that is definitely expanding in reputation. Not simply can you watch spectacular birds, but you may appreciate the wonder of the open air as well as unwind in the clean air. Having time to view birds in there natural place or in their nesting behaviors can be a great way to escape the headaches of the planet for a little bit and simply experience nature.
When I heard that a man wearing a pink wig and matching PVC dress won the 2010 National Scrabble Championship yesterday, I wasn't that shocked. After all, it was Halloween. But it turns out that it wasn't just a Halloween costume. In fact, it's a way of life for this champion scrabbler.
Posted with permission via HereComeTheYanks.com Have you recovered from that heart attack inducing, hell of a game?? I am still riding high and, as such, may ramble a bit on here. But stay with me...I'm a die-hard fan!! What else do you expect??
"Life is difficult." That's how Scott Peck's best-selling book, "The Road Less Travelled", begins. That life is difficult is not news. Over two-thousand years ago the Buddha said it too: Life is suffering. The sanskrit word the Buddha used for suffering is dukkha. Dukkha doesn't refer to physical pain, necessarily. It refers to something more akin to our English word 'dissatisfaction'. Adages abound in our language which attest to the universality of dissatisfaction in our daily lives. "The g...
Posted with permission via HereComeTheYanks.com I will get this out of the way early and then not mention it again...the referee for the USA vs. Slovenia game was awful. He missed key plays and called back the goal that would have sent the USA to victory. Nothing he did was good...as evidenced by FIFA's (supposed) forthcoming grade of a "poor performance" and relief of all further World Cup center refereeing duties. He was horrible, and cost us the win...for the most part.
Chi gyo ichi nyo is a familiar expression in the dojo. The word chi means knowledge. Gyo means doing, or action. Ichi nyo means inseparable. Action and knowledge are one! Acting without adequate knowledge or understanding is a constant source of frustration and problems. In our lives we are often busy and active without really understanding the basis of our actions and their full impact. Some people practice karate without really knowing why they are training. In class they do the techniques ...
Microsoft SharePoint is a business management system introduced by MICROSOFT. It has many build in functions to work in web based environment easily. Microsoft SharePoint 2010 is released on April 17, 2010. It is introduced with the promise of better performance than its predecessor version for both developers and IT professionals. It is entitled as “Business Collaboration Platform for the Enterprise and The Web”.
Up On the Roof: Urban Rooftop Farming and The Brooklyn Grange So sometimes something inspires me so much that it makes me want to run to the rooftop of my eastside L.A. apartment and shout out at the top of my lungs "LOOK AT THIS, THIS IS AMAZING!". The Brooklyn Grange is one of those kinds of things.
So far in this game, my score card: 0-1 from saving a guy from coyotes. My first ever fail in the game.
A look at Aquaria Last week I made a post about the Humble Indie Bundle (http://www.wolfire.com/humble). It's a small online charaty drive where you could buy five indie games for any price you wanted.
As 2009 comes to a close, the Telegraph presents a compilation of this past year's wackiest inventions. As always, here at WonderHowTo, we are inspired and impressed by ingenuity. The contraptions below range from utter silliness (engagement ring bra) to downright amazing (see-through concrete). Check it out.
Get lots of bright snow gear including a survival backpack and the necessary thing u need to survive in a blizzard on your own. Have tins, cans ice pics, whatever hanging from your backpack. Have a separate big bag kinda like a duffel bag attached by a rope to your harness on your waist. Go downtown where there's lots of people and walk like your in a blizzard (maybe have snowshoes on?). Or you can take that idea, erase the part about the duffel bag on the back and put 3 other people dressed ...
Get Google Chrome Download and install Google Chrome.
If your PS3 is YLOD (flashing the Yellow/Red/Green Light Of Death), try sticking it in the oven. Why does this work? Instructables user formulajake88 explains what causes YLOD and why the oven re-flow method will (likely) work:
Hello to all my readers, this is Kalsoom Nafasat. You all will be amazed to know that you can create some great nail art using needles. Although toothpicks are used more commonly in nail art, needles can be used for the tiniest of details. A needle is the best tool for creating sketches or painting faces on your fingernails. Isn't that amazing?
Fire. It’s everywhere— always has been. From the Ordovician Period where the first fossil record of fire appears to the present day everyday uses of the Holocene. Today, we abundantly create flames (intentionally or unintentionally) in power plants, extractive metallurgy, incendiary bombs, combustion engines, controlled burns, wildfires, fireplaces, campfires, grills, candles, gas stoves and ovens, matches, cigarettes, and the list goes on... Yet with our societies' prodigal use of fire, t...
The worst can always happen. Even if you think you're absolutely prepared, you can somehow find yourself stranded in the middle of nowhere by yourself. It can happen. Without a map, without a compass, without a cell phone... without food and water.
So, you scratched up your $500 Adobe CD and now it's unreadable. You could go buy a new one, but you already purchased it! Searching The Pirate Bay and downloading some Adobe software can usually be easy enough, but what should you watch out for?
As hard as you try to protect your valuable information with strong passwords and anti-doxing measures, there's nothing you can really do when someone else gives up your goods. And that is the case with the recent Global Payments breach.
Everyone's been in the following situation. You're sitting there at a nice bar, chatting up a smoking hot member of the opposite sex when all of a sudden they drop this bomb: "Can you engrave on wood in Photoshop?" The next thing you know, the night spirals into blackness and you wake up in a puddle of your own tears with some half-eaten beef jerky hanging out of your mouth.
