game

“Ori and The Blind Forest”.

I’m not much of a computer or console gamer any more. I used to play a few games on the PC but I really haven’t played much of anything beyond my phone or iPad in quite awhile. That doesn’t mean that I don’t appreciate the art, craft, and storytelling that go into making a game that really stands out. With that said I might have to pick up “Ori and The Blind Forest” when it comes out this fall, if for nothing else than the beautiful artwork it contains.

Four years in the making, and advances in computer technology have allowed Moon Studios, and Microsoft to create something that really is visually stunning. A platform game that pays homage to 8 and 16 bit games of the past, “Ori and The Blind Forest” truely raises the bar visually to an entirely new level. Below are images, and the official trailer for the game. The look of the video is what the actual game will look like, and frankly I think it is pretty exciting.

Over the past four years, Moon Studios has been feverishly working on Ori and the Blind Forest.

At Moon Studios, we all grew up playing games like Super Metroid, Zelda: A Link to the Past, etc. and with Ori, we wanted to recapture the magic of these games.

Ori and the Blind Forest is a bit of a genremix – It’s a ‘Metroidvania‘, but with a stronger platforming focus and light RPG elements, all set within an atmospheric world.

Naturally we tried to push 2D gaming forward on all fronts: We tried to make every single screen in Ori look like a painting come to life while making sure that the controls are still pixel-perfect.

We’ve been taking lessons from games like Super Metroid and A Link to the Past in order to really bring back this sensation you had when you played the games Nintendo was building in the early 90s. The level of polish and the execution of design in these games – we feel – was extraordinary. We felt strongly that children and adults today should get that same feeling again. Remember the first time you played Zelda or Metroid when you were a child? We hope that years from now people will also remember the first time they got to play Ori and the Blind Forest.

We also push the story angle really hard. We explored some new ways of telling stories within 2D games and we’ve been heavily influenced by Ghibli/Miyazaki as well as by great animated films of the 90s like The Lion King or The Iron Giant.

Ori is a bit of a coming-of-age story. The player is put into the role of a forest spirit, who – over the course of his journey – has to find out more about his role within the world he’s living in. We tried to create memorable characters in an atmospheric world and to craft a story that players will truly care about!

Got GAME? If You Golf, You Should.

I’m not a golfer. I don’t own clubs and I can’t even remember the last time I was on the fairway or even at a driving range. It doesn’t mean I don’t like the game, it just isn’t in the forefront of things I do. If you are a golfer “GAME”, which has managed to raise 127,000 in funding on indigogo is probably something you are going to want.

GAME is a dynamically connected product that tracks, maps and records your round of golf automatically logging each stat. The wearable device connects to your smart phone or computer allowing you to review the entire game and improve skills. In addition it is socially aware allowing you to share your results with social network giants like Facebook and Twitter. GAME records every club you use, every swing you make, and calculates the key stats for each including your scoring, the number of putts, greens in regulation, driving accuracy and more.

The device is the brainchild of Galway, Ireland, John McGuire and a small team of engineers. The physical design of the product is by Yves Behar which gets extra points from me.

Mad Men, The 8-Bit YouTube Game.

If you are a Mad Men fan, you know that last night marked the return of the highly acclaimed series after a year off. The show debuted with a two hour show, that kicked the season off in true Mad Men fashion.

To help promote the return of the series, TheFineBros have developed a YouTube based advergame for AMC. “Choose Your Own Adventure” is an 8-Bit game where you play Don Draper helping to rescue the agency after Lucky Strike betrays Sterling, Cooper, Draper, Price. At the end of each level you choose the path you want to take to play the game out. There are 40 videos that play out three different endings depending on your choices.

The game is less than a week old, and it has already generated more than 370,000 plays. The concept is fun and engaging, and the 8-Bit feel gives it a strange retro feel, that is oddly compelling.