Tag: 3D

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Find your favorite room amid the chaos of The Catacombs of Solaris

A strategy to use when exploring ruins in Dungeons & Dragons is to hug the wall. Have the beefiest party member (preferably a halfling barbarian) lead the way—not necessary, but a warrior knows how to survive. When presented with the option to turn either left or right, pick the latter. Always. The party will always find their way out eventually, even if it takes two hours. With this in mind, I travelled through the ever-changing environment of The Catacombs of Solaris. It’s a “mind-bending” first-person exploration game created by Ian MacLarty in which the goal is to “find your favourite…
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An awkward game about touching a woman’s body explores sensuality

Just Feel is a project created by a team of seven students whose aim was to “mention sensuality and the pleasure in a poetic and subtle way.” Although I wouldn’t use the word subtle to describe the game, the goal was to “show sensuality without taboo and vulgarity.” The experience is meant to be a virtual embodiment of caressing a body—more specifically, a female form. Delving into the concept of sensuality from an artistic angle, it appears the game is not concerned with any sort of social commentary. However, it’s hard to play this title and not feel conflicted.  an attempt…
Caffeine
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A beautiful 3D platformer to celebrate our worship of coffee

It’s almost surprising that there isn’t a giant Starbucks logo to be found among the pastel-colored environments of Caffeine shown in its first trailer. If it were made back in the ’90s, during the height of the genre it belongs to—the 3D platformer collect-a-thon—it would likely have some form of corporate backing. Like that Zool platformer I played on my DOS computer; the Chupa Chups logo shining like a flowery beacon next to the candy cane meadows and green jello mountains. I was four, maybe five, and highly impressionable. I licked a lot of lollipops that summer. But Caffeine isn’t from that…
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Videogame generates worlds based on your webcam, horror ensues

We drive into the future using only our rearview mirror. — Marshall McLuhan Ian MacLarty’s Reflections inspired one of those “whoa the future is here” moments in me. I remember years ago, I felt like I was in the goddamn Jetsons the first time I ever Skyped with a person half way across the world. I mean webcams—next you’ll be telling me we can talk to people on our watches, too! But Reflections is less cartoon sci-fi fantasy future, and more nightmarish surrealism made possible by technology. Like a mirror image of our mutated digital souls, Reflections generates a 3D landscape based…
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Artware finds a new home

Sign up to receive each week’s Playlist e-mail here! Also check out our full, interactive Playlist section. TRIP (PC, Mac)  BY AXEL SHOKK Originally released in 2012 without any fanfare, first-person “artware” game TRIP got a second chance recently with its arrival on Steam—a chance that its creator and avant-garde artist Axel Shokk jumped on. This re-release, as it were, has encouraged Shokk to treat TRIP as less of a videogame and more of a “3D art platform” that he plans to regularly update with new virtual art installations. These will arrive as singular worlds accessible from the game’s menu that all offer an abstract experience…
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SUPERHYPERCUBE is bringing telekinetic tetris to virtual reality

Very few games are telekinesis-friendly. Sure, you use your mind to move objects, but there is always a visible intermediary. Even the illusion of psychic ability cannot survive in most games.  SUPERHYPERCUBE, which has been in development since 2008, offers the promise of telekinetic Tetris. Since its original version, the game has promised to use 3D-depth to maximize and enliven the challenge of fitting blocks into walls. In earlier iterations, this was to be achieved through more traditional stereoscopy—the blue and red glasses variety. With the rise of virtual reality (VR), the game appears to have plumbed new depths, and…