Spotlight Awards Search Results

How To: Get the StarCraft II "Training Day" Achievement

This will show you how to earn the Training Day achievement in StarCraft II on the newest patch, 1.1.2. It's slightly different than before, whereas the Terran Barracks now requires a Supply Depot before it can be built. You can most likely do this faster, as there are a couple of errors here and there, but I scraped in producing the tenth Marine at 4 minutes and 15 seconds - five seconds inside the time limit of 320 seconds (5 minutes 20 seconds) - so it can be done! Races: Terran v Protoss ...

News: The GOP Race

It seems the Republicans aren't happy about Obama. But then again, they never will be. As the time for re-election draws near, the Republican Party is scrambling to chose their candidate who will beat Obama. So far, Mitt Romney (we'll discuss the candidates soon) has somewhat dominated the scene, with spurts of awesomeness from Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich. Ron Paul stays steady, currently holding the second most number of delegates (yes, we'll go over terms also).

A Closed World: MIT Video Game Confronts Sexual Identity Issues

University video game design programs have been spreading like wildfire around the world over the last ten years. They allow students, researchers and game developers to work on their craft in an academic environment away from the harsh realities of the market, and have led to some interesting products like Fl0w from USC and Ulitsa Dimitrova from Germany. Both games take on topics not often addressed in mainstream games and do so in simple, poignant ways that aim to influence the rest of the ...

News: Special Edition Gold PS3 'Ni No Kuni' Bundle -- Another Reason to Move to Japan

Studio Ghibli is the most well known anime feature film studio in the world. For over 26 years, their films have represented the peak of mainstream anime, and since Disney began distributing their films in America back in 1997, they've become a household name here in the States—not just in Japan. In 2001, they even bested Disney and Pixar, taking home a Best Animated Feature Film Academy Award for Spirited Away. Eight years later, Ghibli and Fukuoka-based developer Level-5 announced that they...

Octodad: An Award Winning Game… From College Students

Fatherhood is difficult, especially when you're an octopus. That is the moral of the 2011 IGF Student Showcase winner Octodad, available for free from its website. This hilarious little title was created by a team of interactive media students at DePaul University in Chicago, and is the latest in a stream of successful indie games to come out of collegiate video game design programs. In fact, it's so successful that a sequel is in the works.

News: Video Games Deemed Art AND Protected Free Speech!

It's been a great year for video games, kind of. Sure, the AAA release lineup has been a trainwreck and hacking has been a bigger problem than ever. But two things have happened involving the federal government that have made video games more legitimate in the United States than ever before. The Supreme Court ruling establishing that video games were the equivalent of movies and books, not porn, was the more significant decision. But in May, the National Endowment for the Arts made another si...

Community Byte: HackThisSite, Realistic 1 - Real Hacking Simulations

Community byters, it's time to get serious. We are finally moving on to the realistic missions in HackThisSite. This is where the learning gets intense and where we can apply real knowledge to extremely realistic situations. We will also be continuing the normal Python coding and hacking sessions. These sessions are created to bring our community together, to learn from each other, and grow together. Everyone is welcome, from novice programmers to aspiring hackers.

News: Free Protein Folding Game Cracks HIV Molecule Riddle

Foldit is definitely a niche game. The sole gameplay mechanic is attempting to fold complex proteins into smaller and more efficient shapes following the rules of molecular physics and biology. Points are awarded based on how small one can make the protein. Online leaderboards track players' relative progress and allows them to view and manipulate other players' completed designs. It's original, certainly, but no developer is going to ship a million units of a game about molecular-level prote...

News: Has SimCity Been Destroyed for Good?

Yesterday, Electronic Arts had a nice sale on Steam for 40-60 percent off some of their Sims titles, which included The Sims 3 (along with its DLCs) and SimCity 4. I've never been a big Sims fan, especially with the slew of virtual people games in the last decade, so I didn't realize until now that Maxis had stopped making their SimCity games; They haven't released any city building Sim games since SimCity 4 eight years ago. There was SimCity Societies in 2007, but it was made by a different ...

Creator Spotlight: Matthias Wandel, Prolific Woodworking Machinist

You've seen his explanation of a combination lock's inner workings. You'll never lose another game of Jenga, thanks to his winning wooden pistol. And nearly 4 million YouTube users have marveled at his wooden marble machine sculpture. He's Matthias Wandel, and he's accomplished what most only dream of—turning a hobby into a career. Matthias has been tinkering in woodworking since he was a child, with unrestricted access to his father's workshop, permitted to use power tools unsupervised from ...

How to Play Stupid Zombies: 3 Stars on Levels 1-60 in Chapter 1, Stage 1

Looking for another Angry Birds fix? Well, drop the lame birds and pick up the zombies—Stupid Zombies, that is. You'd think that killing "stupid" undead beings would be easier than knocking off a few "angry" vertebrates, but it's actually more challenging—and more fun! Who wouldn't enjoy killing zombies with a shotgun blast and watching their heads roll? Armed with a shotgun and a strategic mind, your goal is to take out all the living dead with as few bullets as possible, trying to achieve t...

How To: Create Realistic 3D Shadows

Setting up shadows takes just as much time and attention as setting up lights. You can think of all of your illumination as one half of your lighting design, and shadows as the other, equally important half. Shadows can add richness to the tones and shading of your image, tie elements together, and improve your composition. Besides their artistic importance, rendering shadows is a key technical area to master. This chapter will explore both the visual and the technical sides of shadows and oc...

How To: Earn Money for Creative T-Shirt Designs

Why T-Shirts T-shirts are a great way for people to express themselves, and like other art forms, unique t-shirt designs are becoming more and more popular. Websites that specialize in just t-shirts are popping up all over the internet with tons of opportunities for designers, and artists from all over the world are now considering t-shirt design as a way to expand their portfolios and make some cash.

News: The Top 10 Must-Have Skyrim Mods

Skyrim really took the cake this year. With its awe-inspiring gameplay, much improved combat and leveling system, and a fresh new look, it's no wonder the game has already received a Game of the Year award. But for hardcore gamers, the fun may be over. You've played the game for thousands of hours, and have exhausted the entire game's main and auxiliary quests. You need more.

News: Lisa Nichols, Contributing Author of The Secret Discusses Continuing Education

Lisa Nichols, contributing author of The Secret and one of the great inspirational speakers of our time, believes the best way to stay motivated when continuing your education is to “begin with the end in mind.” Pushing forward through challenges is what makes accomplishment so gratifying. Every accomplishment leads to personal growth. Nichols believes that making the completion of your degree “non-negotiable” means that you will not settle for anything less.

News: 3 Long Awaited Indie Games at PAX That Should Be Released Already!

The small size of most indie game development teams is a strength, but also a weakness. It allows them to take risks and explore revolutionary ideas that a larger company could never justify to its shareholders, but also means they must navigate the game development labyrinth with minimal help, taking much longer than those with big development teams. Some of the most exciting indie games currently in development have been so for years, or look like they will be.