A list of interactive grant recipients from the Danish government has outed Limbo developer Playdead’s next game. Code-named Project 2, the list describes the game as taking place in a 3D world but with 2D gameplay. The game will tell the story of a lone boy’s fight against an evil group that are trying to take over the world with “questionable experiments on human bodies.” The list includes one piece of concept art and says the game will be released on PC, Mac, PS3, and Xbox 360. [via Kotaku]

video The idea of 3D printing objects has prompted a lot of utopian daydreaming, but it’s also led a host of eager novices to realize they’re actually lousy 3D designers. Tinkercad is a web-based 3D design tool built to make designing objects a simple and communal activity.  Speaking in an interview with Wired, Tinkercad founder Kai Backman recalls the beginnings of the site.  In 2009, I started researching the new emerging 3-D printing technology and eventually bought my first printer by the end of the year. The device was assembled with great fanfare and my children eagerly looked forward to…

Many videogame fans are used to the government trying to regulate their hobby, but the Obama administration appears to be embracing the form. Speaking at the Games for Health conference in Boston, Constance Steinkuehler Squire, a policy advisor for the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, said “I can tell you the rhetoric around games has changed.” Gamasutra summarizes her presentation: The White House is interested in video games due to the economic strength of the industry, the 72 percent of American households who are gaming, and the closing gender disparity among gamers, Squire said.  Analog engagement strategies…

Get a helmet, there’s a big storm of game news coming. –The Dark Knight Rises gets a mobile game. –Journey‘s Thatgamecompany raises $5.5 million to help develop next game. -Microsoft drops support for Gamescom and Tokyo Game Show. -Nintendo’s Satoru Iwata admits the company almost abandoned Wii U controller concept over cost fears. -Supposed concept video for Thief 4 leaks.  Tomorrow we collect ruined umbrellas from the sidewalk.

Epic Games has created a new studio, Epic Baltimore, largely staffed by former Big Huge Games employees. Interviewed in a story for Eurogamer, Epic’s Mark Rein explains how Epic responded after hearing news of the studios demise. “Mike [Capps, President of Epic] is the total hero there. They called him on Wednesday, interested in using one of our IPs. He flew them up the next day and they met with a whole bunch of people, and the board of directors of Epic. We made the call right there: ‘These guys are awesome, we need to work with them.’” “We don’t…

Yesterday Blizzard finally launched the real money Auction House for Diablo III, an event the company had delayed a number of times, in part, to address issues with hacked accounts and people using improper gold farming techniques. While Blizzard continues to wrestle with these issues, the Auction House will initially be limited to equipment sales, with trade in commodities like gold being withheld until a later date. Tech in Asia has uncovered an interview with one Diablo III gold farmer, who claims to use bots in 100 different accounts to collect gold, grossing roughly 60 million gold pieces every hour.…

Must women protagonists be role models before they’re seen as individual human characters? Writing for Think Progress, Alyssa Rosenberg considers the challenges of portraying women heroes in pop culture. “First, members of a minority group, or of a group like women that are a majority but are poorly rendered in that space, get to be presented as admirable,” Rosenberg writes.  “Second, when they’ve achieved enough penetration into the culture, every portrayal of members in that group can stop being limited by the need to be admirable, to represent for everyone else.” Rosenberg notes that of the characterizations of the male…