Culture

This Week in the Business: A Second Chance to Make a Bad Impression

What’s happened in the business of video games this past week … QUOTE | “‘We realize that those negative impressions exist.”—Precursor Games CEO Paul Caporicci, explaining that the company, composed mostly of ex-Silicon Knights employees, will make better games than the critical and commercial dud X-Men: Destiny QUOTE | “The disappointing launch of the Wii…

Do you like Kotaku‘s longform content? Be sure to check out Kotaku Longreads, our collection of in-depth reporting and research. And if you know of a story that you’d like to see us cover, let us know in the comments.

Turtles With Guns Are Top Of The Evening’s Food Chain

Based in Germany, Markus Lovadina currently works as both a freelancer and in the advertising business, but has previously helped out companies like Ubisoft, Activision and Acclaim. Lovadina’s done everything from environments to character design, so there’s a nice mix of styles and types of work below. To see more of his stuff, you can…

If You Play Board Games, You’ll Know This Man’s Art

Henning Ludvigsen is art director at Rock Pocket Games, so if you like the colourful, cartoony style of upcoming platformer Oliver & Spike, he’s one of the people to thank. You should also thank him if you’ve ever played anything from Fantasy Flight Games. For the tabletop and card game giants Ludvigsen has lent his…

Adding A Touch Of Class To Game Of Thrones

Natascha Röösli works at Rock Pocket Games, the developers behind the very promising indie platformer Oliver & Spike But that’s not why we’re here today. No, we’re here for her beautiful work on trading card games, like Game of Thrones, and board games like Arkham Horror. You can see more of Natascha’s work at her…

Tasteless Americans Choose Lay’s Cheesy Garlic Bread Chips

The votes have been tallied, and the results are in — U.S. potato chip consumers are boring and disappointing. The Lay’s “Do Us a Flavor” promotional contest saw folks voting for one of three user-generated flavors — Chicken and Waffles, Sriracha or cheesy garlic bread. I tasted them all, and the winner was as clear…

Batman, 80s Ladies And…Walking Sharks

Dan LuVisi is a concept artist who has worked in motion pictures, advertising and comics. He’s also done some video game work, for companies like Collission Games and Acony, the now-closed developers of Bullet Run A reminder: Fine Art showcases not just an artist’s professional work, but their personal projects as well (like his own…

The Week in Games: Forget That Mother

Few new games this week, probably because Mother’s Day is a week from now. And don’t you feel awful for looking for another video game to buy instead of thinking of a gift for her. Some PSN and eShop releases are accompanied the Steam release of Pinball FX 2 (and its Star Wars tables). That’s…

Sunday Comics: Canon Fodder

Welcome to Kotaku‘s Sunday Comics, your weekly roundup of the best webcomics, chosen by our readership. The images enlarge if you click on the magnifying glass icon in the lower right corner. Nerf NOW!! by Josué Pereira. Published May 2. Read more of Nerf NOW!! Penny Arcade by Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik. Published April…

This Week in the Business: What Have You Done For Me Lately?

What’s happened in the business of video games this past week … QUOTE | “If your latest game doesn’t do well that’s probably the end of it for you no matter whether you’re big or small.”—Dan Paladin, developer of Castle Crashers, talking about how unstable the industry is for both large and small developers QUOTE…

Having Helped Build Halo 4, He’s Now Building Worlds At Valve

I like to think of Paul Pepera’s art as the realisation of childhood dreams. Rendering what we imagined our LEGO constructions to be in our heads, not as they actually looked, all clunky and basic and sharp. Now an artist at Valve, Pepera has also worked at places like 343 Studios, id Software and Timegate,…

Bento Makes A Case For Why You Should Play With Your Food

Bento makes for an adorable lunch—many of us knew that already. It shouldn’t be surprising, then, that bento also makes for adorable stop motion animation. YouTuber Mari Miyazawa has a channel full of bento. Some of it features tutorials, and some of it is what she calls “Bento Theater.” Here are a few more of…

Gaming In 1982: Moustaches, Tiny Shorts & Colecovision

These two photos, belonging to Richard Braunstein, are perfect. Just perfect. Perfect because they capture what it was like playing games in the days before giant couches and giant TV sets. Perfect because these are two grown men playing video games in 1982, smashing stereotypes. And perfect because this is a photo of a Colecovision…

Even The Megacities Of The Future Are Crawling With Zombies

Just when you think you’ve seen every kind of zombie story the world can throw at you, it throws you one more. Past Away is a hybrid comic/adventure game being developed by Christopher Middleton, where you play as a futuristic pizza delivery pilot who has to survive the zombie apocalypse. Being essentially an interactive motion…

Amazing Mech Designs Hint At The Future Of Warfare (And Dogs)

Vitaly Bulgarov works at Blizzard, on the company’s world-renowned cinematics team. But we’re not here today to look at art for Blizzard games, or indeed for their fancy trailers and cutscenes. Instead, we’re looking at an amazing collection Bulgarov recently put together called the “Black Phoenix Project”. Teaming up with photographer Maria Skotnikova, the challenge…

For The Emperor! The Art Of Cody Kenworthy

Cody Kenworthy is currently art director and CVO of Blackbird Interactive, the indie studio made up of a bunch of former Homeworld devs, and also the team behind Hardware: Shipbreakers. Prior to his gig there he worked at Relic, and before that, Rockstar. Some of the game’s Kenworthy has contributed to include, of course, Hardware,…

Art Dealer Is Selling The World’s Most Expensive Screenshots

Art dealers Cook & Decker have teamed up with Irrational Games to sell some very large and very expensive prints, each displaying art from BioShock Infinite. Interestingly, the art isn’t taken from the game’s wonderful concept works. They’re screenshots, though the word does them a slight disservice. These are prints based on the super hi-res…

The Week in Games: All Aboard the Dragonwagon

Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon, whatever the hell that thing really is, reveals itself on consoles Tuesday and Wednesday. Soul Sacrifice for the PS Vita is another noteworthy release this week, along with Zeno Clash II on PC, 360 and PS3. Monday • StarDrive (PC) Tuesday • Zeno Clash II (360, PS3, PC) • Zombie…

Sunday Comics: Path of Least Resistance

Welcome to Kotaku‘s Sunday Comics, your weekly roundup of the best webcomics, chosen by our readership. The images enlarge if you click on the magnifying glass icon in the lower right corner. Penny Arcade by Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik. Published April 26. Read more of Penny Arcade Awkward Zombie by Katie Tiedrich. Published April…

This Week in the Business: ‘The Public Isn’t Aware the Wii U Exists.”

What’s happened in the business of video games this past week … QUOTE | “The fact is that the general public is not really aware the Wii U even exists …”—David Cole, analyst with DFC Intelligence, talking along with other analysts about Nintendo’s recent disappointing fiscal report and how Nintendo botched its marketing for Wii…