Edgebomber by Sushigames is a gaming installation floating round the blogosphere at the moment (thanks We-make-money-not-art), that allows players to create their own levels by cutting out bits of tape and placing them on the wall. The simulation then detects the edges created by these bits of tape (webcam computer vision presumably) and turns them into the platforms for a straightforward platform game controlled by a joystick. This gives the players a nice sense of participation by allowing them to easily create their own environments, and gives the game a tactile nostalgic feeling, evoking memories of sticky-back plastic, scissors and coloured card.

It really reminded me of a the Alias R&D Disc I blogged a while ago, which featured some interface R&D work that they had carried out to attempt to transfer the “tape drawing” method used by vehicle designers to their software (presumably for studio tools). I’ve managed to dig out a paper here “Creating principal 3D curves with digital tape drawing” that covers this research and the prototype they created. From the abstract

Previous systems have explored the challenges of designing an interface for automotive styling which combine the metaphor of 2D drawing using physical tape with the simultaneous creation and management of a corresponding virtual 3D model. These systems have been limited to only 2D planar curves while typically the principal characteristic curves of an automotive design are three dimensional and non-planar. We present a system which addresses this limitation. Our system allows a designer to construct these non-planar 3D curves by drawing a series of 2D curves using the 2D tape drawing technique and interaction style. These results are generally applicable to the interface design of 3D modeling applications and also to the design of arm’s length interaction on large scale display systems.

Reading through the coverage of Toshio Iwai’s keynote from Futuresonic, I’m disappointed that he didn’t dedicate any time to his first (as far as I’m aware) commercial interactive software, a title for the Famicom Disk system called “Otocky” - one of my favourites of Iwai’s creations.

I first got hold of Otocky about a year ago, after an absurd about of web-trawling via ebay auctions, half complete torrents and repeated dead-ends. I was really shocked after firing it up. While the graphics are above-average famicom fare, reasonably nice abstract candy-coloured worlds, and while the sound and music really makes the most of the charming bleepy sounds capable of the famicoms sound chip, its the collision of interactivity with audio that sets it apart and makes it so significant in the historical development of interactive music and audio.

When I first played Rez, the connection between the audio and your ability to affect on that audio as the player really made an impact on me. The way that each level was constructed so that elements were created to guide you to add percussive events to the soundtrack and so that sections of the level corresponded to sections of the main track felt so unique and such a suitable marriage. The use of beat-snapping with the timing of your weapon made everything feel so well synced and made you feel that you really contributed to the composition. Its only after playing Otocky, created in 1987(!) that you realise that Rez certainly wasn’t the first to explore this area. One of the things I love so much about Otocky is that you can’t really go wrong with the composition you create. As you pass through the level, you pass through successive chord progressions, and the sounds generated by firing map onto a single note from the current chord, so its always in tune. It also snaps to the nearest beat so that the note always hits on time - so while you feel total ownership of the notes created, the notes always sound good.

Carnegie Mellon’s Game Innovation database now credits Otocky as the first Media art videogame.

I’ve got a (badly) cut together video embedded below where you can see the game in motion. God google video seems to have really mangled it. Its also a hell of a lot easier to trackdown online now for those looking to have a play.

The ever-intruiging PingMag has a great interview with Joe Nishizawa, about the photography covered in his book “Deep Inside”, covering the exotic and startling structures that exist under Japan’s crust. Many of the images look like film sets or renders from a CG sci-fi movie but are entirely practical, modern structures. I guess sometimes purely practical stuctures can be more breathtaking and surprising than the product of pure imagination.

The voice acting has to be a joke, the names are quite absurd, but a lightsaber game on the wii with a fresh visual style? Definitely one to watch.

World champion new-media artist/designer (and general hero to all) Toshio Iwai was at the Futuresonic festival in Manchester a couple of days ago, to provide a keynote. Toshio Iwai is the creator of many interactive installations and software exploring a wide variety of topics . Most recently, he created electroplankton on the Nintendo DS and has been working on the Tenori-On - a new musical instrument - for Yamaha. The talk covered most of his previous work, his childhood and his background - Chris has covered the event on pixelsumo and videoed the event , and regine has more coverage over at we-make-money-not-art.

Below is the footage Chris recorded from the event. Check back on pixelsumo regularly as he hopes to get full video of the conference:

As part of Valve’s summer announcement fanfare, they mentioned a game called “Portal”, a commercial update of the free student game “Narbacular Drop” by Nuclear Monkey Software. Built around the interaction of different Portals, it allows the user to weild a “Portal gun”, allowing the creation of portal entry and exit points on different surfaces. These portals allow objects (including the player) to pass between them, allowing the player to progress through each level by disabling obstacles and reaching the exit. It reminds me of Peter Molyneux’s “The Room”, which he demonstrated at GDC last year.

The trailer below definitely explains things better:

Thanks again fun-motion and Edge.

While the internet gets covered in residue from the Tomatina-esque slinging fight taking place in the war between HD-DVD and Blu-Ray camps, one of the key differences between the two formats, Interactivity, is getting very little mention - which seems peculiar given its potential significance.

Blu-Ray is the only format that supports Java for its interactivity, in the form of BD-J - based on Java ME (formerly J2ME). This compares to iHD, the version used by HD-DVD that is XML and JavaScript based.

What this effectively means is that while HD-DVD’s interactivity is a slight upgrade from the DVD menu options from the past, Blu-Ray players represent an entirely new interactive platform. This means that Blu-Ray disks could deploy unique and interesting applications and entertainment software that would play on all BluRay players, not just the Playstation 3. Add on top of this the ability to connect to the internet and the fact that you can download additional live content and you have a very fertile platform. While at first I’m sure that it will be used for simple features like interactive maps and the usual DVD-style quizzes, it has the potential to be used very creatively.

“The Blob” is a freeware game produced by a team of Dutch students to promote the development of the city of Utrecht over the coming years. From the creators:

The Dutch city of Utrecht is having a great make-over of the city-centre during the coming 10 years and this game is to show the player how the city will look in ten years. In our game, the player has to paint the new city centre as it will be 10 years from now.

The player plays a ball of paint that rolls through the streets. When it rolls over a paint-character, it absorbs its colour and grows. This way the player can become different colours. With these colours the player can paint the buildings, trees and cars in the city. Cars only start driving when painted. The main goal of the game is to paint the 14 landmark buildings that each have small puzzles to accomplish this. Sub-goals of the game are to paint all other buildings and collect all hidden coins.

It is the most outstanding student game that I’ve ever seen. Polished, balanced, fresh graphics, technically brilliant (it uses OGRE for rendering) and real fun to play - it has a much higher standard of quality than almost any commerical indie game I’ve played. The most obvious comparison is Katamari but the developers claimed not to have played the game before. Theres also elements of Marble Madness in their for good measure. The control scheme is a little awkward when turning sharp corners but in general works very well - just using the mouse like a trackball to roll the blob around in the direction you push, with the camera trailing behind.

You can read more about the game here and download the game for PC here (you’ll need a reasonable spec machine - the world’s pretty big). It looks like the team are thinking about starting their own studio - and if is their first dabble in games I’m sure they will go far.

Based on a Comic by Mike Mignola (Hellboy), theres a new pilot that has been commissioned for the Sci-Fi channel, featuring Paul Giamatti and David Hyde Pierce. From the introduction text:

In this hilarious send-up of Lovecraftian horror and steampunk adventure, President Abraham Lincoln’s top spy is a bodyless head known only as Screw-On Head.

When arch-fiend Emperor Zombie steals an artifact that will enable him to threaten all life on Earth, the task of stopping him is assigned to Screw-on Head. Fortunately, Screw-On Head is not alone on this perilous quest. He is aided by his multitalented manservant, Mr. Groin, and by his talking canine cohort, Mr. Dog.

Can this unorthodox trio stop Emperor Zombie in time? Does Screw-On Head have a body awesome enough to stop the horrors that have been unleashed? Where can we get a talking dog?

From the way the intro reads, this could quite easily be over-the-top try-hard crap. But its not. Its absolutely amazing. Original, weird and very very funny its a wonderful pilot and I sincerely hope that they commission it. Vote for it and give it high marks!

You can watch the entire pilot episode online here.

While watching a documentary on Studio Ghibli recently there was a section discussing a French film called “Le Roi et L’Oiseau” - a classic piece of French animation designed by Paul Grimault and penned by Jacques Prévert, based on a Hans Christian Anderson story. Looking at the imagery, its impossible to deny similarities with the work of Ghibli, particularly Miyazaki - and Miyazaki himself has stated its influence on his career - “One filmmaker who really influenced me was the French animator Paul Grimault.”

In searching for more information on the title, I stumbled on this interview with Miyazaki conducted at the first European screening in Paris. The Miyazaki-France connection is undeniably strong - he also had a joint exhibition with French comic artist Moebius. I love this quote from the interview:

How do you explain that the main characters in most of your films are young girls?

“That would be far too complicated and lengthy an answer to state here, so I’ll just suffice by saying that it’s because I love women very much (laughs)”

Miyazaki also names revered Russian animator Yuri Norstein (creator of the animation classic Tale of Tales) as a major influence.