Most alternate-reality games (ARGs) are focused on producing hype for a new game or movie. They take ages to play, and often only the smartest, most dedicated, or best-networked players get to the end. A recent ARG set in Japantown, San Fransisco, showed that ARGs can be hour-long events that people
Katamari Damacy creator Keita Takahashi has lots of ideas for creative play. He’s tried his hand at playground design, and helped make the Flash-based MMO Glitch. Most recently, several of his game concept designs have been put into action at the Babycastles Summit, an arty games festival in New Yor
Mass Effect was the subject of a lot of “videogames have arrived as a storytelling medium” claptrap over the past five years, and with good reason. The game had nuance and great characterization, fully-realized plotlines, and despite the protestations of thousands of ungrateful and petulant jerks wh
Online gaming is a cesspool of racism, homophobia and misogyny. But at least gamers know it! A survey of 874 people on the Internet by the Emily Matthew at Pricecharting blog found that 80% of respondents believed sexism is prominent in the gaming community, and 35% had been targets of sex-based har
Anindie developer has found an interesting approach to the marketing and price problem in videogames. The collection of irreverent minigames, McPixel, by SOS is promoting itself through the Pirate Bay, inviting those who can’t afford the game to pirate it this weekend. The idea is that more people w
Here’s the news that you probably should know about but were too afraid to ask: –Madden NFL 13 has sold 1.65 million copies, a significant increase from last year. –VVVVVV creator’s Super Hexagon is an abstract maze where lasting 30 seconds is a feat of skill. -GameStop wants to sell the Ouya in it
A new exhibition at Brigham Young University’s Museum of Art, 8-Bit Modern, plays with the simple iconography of early videogames. The artist, Michael Whiting, sees his 8-bit art in the context of the early minimalists: Video gaming and minimalism arrived at the same visual conclusion through differ
Making controllers accessible to people with arthritis or only one hand is… doable, but kind of hard. Researchers at Zhejiang University in Hangzhou, China, decided to forget physical controllers. They found a way for humans to control a flying robot with their minds. New Scientist reports: The quad