The Making of Shadow of The Colossus
For me, Shadow of the Colossus was one of the best games on the PlayStation 2. It came toward the end of the console’s life and took full advantage of the technology. It was a game that was full of awe… an enormous landscape with nothing to do in it except enjoy the artistry of its design, and epic battles with larger than life colossi as your reward for navigating across the environment.
GDC Vault now has GD Magazine
Game Developer was an in-depth monthly magazine designed to expose ‘the art and business of video games’, and was published by UBM Tech (which also runs Game Developers Conference and Gamasutra.com) from 1994 to 2013. 19 Years! Unfortunately, it stopped publication just two months ago… but thankfully the GDC Vault has the whole backlog archived and available for free.
Humble Bundle 9
You’ve all heard of the Humble Indie Bundle right? It’s that radmania site that gives you the chance to buy a collection of hip to the max indie games for an unreasonably low price (or generously ginormously high price since it’s pay what you want). Well kids, if you haven’t heard of it yet you’re in for a treat.
Awesome Mighty No. 9 Animation!
I figured I’d call attention to some animation that was done by a friend of mine, Jay Edry. It’s only been about a week since Inafking‘s Mighty No. 9 Kickstarter launch, but already there’s been a bunch of fan art for the exciting Mega Man spiritual successor. Jay and I went to school together a few years back, but you might recognize him as the guy that brought you the awesome animation from (amongst other things) this year’s Guacamelee.
Happy 30th Birthday to the Famicom!
Being both Canadian, and younger than the Famicom, neither Matt nor I can share any first hand experience on the triumphant original release of the Famicom on 15 July 1983. I like to think that it just wasn’t worth being born until after Nintendo had worked a little bit of magic into the world.
Rockman 25th Anniversary Art Book
The past couple of days I’ve seen articles discussing the Mega Man 25th Anniversary Art book which will be “premiering” at the San Diego Comicon. That’s coo’. If you’re looking for a limited edition hardcover with foil printing on the cover, that’s probably going to be a great item to pick up.
Broken Games
One time, when I was a kid, I rented Super Mario Bros 3. The game unfortunately had difficulty working and when the old “blow on the cartridge” trick didn’t work I gave up and stuck my fiendishly small child fingers into that NES cartridge, and tried to clean it with my bare flesh. It actually worked. At least until I got to the 8th world. Then it was FUBARed.
The Art of Final Fantasy IX
Walking into a Coles Bookstore, my first year of college, The Art of Final Fantasy IX was probably the first art book that I had ever bought. It’s one of the favourite books that I continue to hold onto because I feel that the drawings are really charming and different. Unlike other Final Fantasy art books, there’s an extremely high ratio of traditional art in it versus cg, and it comes complete with turnarounds, and height charts that were especially great for me to examine when I was first beginning to take drawing seriously.
When People Do Cool Things
I’ve been a fan of the Guild Wars franchise since I first heard of it. Conceptually, I’d be interested in checking out games like World of Warcraft, or Final Fantasy XI. Final Fantasy XIV has magitek armor! FTW! But I also am a very cheap individual, and I refuse to play a game that holds my ability to play at ransom. If I buy a game, I expect to be able to play it, and the subscription model doesn’t work for me.
ROM City Rampage
Shamefully, I have to admit that I haven’t played last year’s Retro City Rampage yet. It’s a GTA III inspired retro game that was in progress back when I was still a teenager. As you can imagine, with something that took decade to develop, there must be an interesting story in there somewhere. I think that part of what’s interesting is the care that developer Brian Provinciano took to make it as authentic of an experience as he could manage.