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IGF Awards Semi-liveblog Challenge
The Independent Games Festival is underway, giving the indie game developers of the world a chance to accept awards in t-shirts, possibly recently washed. Let’s list the winners! Since I’m doing it on an iPhone, it should be interesting. The Digipen students walk away with first kudos for Tag: the Power of Paint. Possibly the…
By Michael McWhertor Published March 25, 2009 -
Guitar Hero’s World Tour Plays Final Show for PC, Mac Fans
It’s company policy at Activision to exploit franchises. And you can’t very well exploit Guitar Hero: World Tour if it’s not on PC, can you? So Activision are bringing the game to PC (and Mac!). Aspyr (who brought Guitar Hero III to the PC/Mac) will be handling the port, which will feature all the on-disc…
By Luke Plunkett Published March 25, 2009 -
Little King’s Story Screens From The Heart
Here’s a lovely batch of screens from Little King’s Story for the Nintendo Wii, which could be the prettiest strategy title ever created. Little King’s Story, formerly known as Project O, isn’t a game that I’ve paid much attention to up until now, which is strange, considering it’s exactly the sort of quirky strategy title…
By Mike Fahey Published March 25, 2009 -
Hands On With iPhone’s Star Defense
I was able to spend a few minutes earlier today with Ngmoco’s upcoming tower defense game, Star Defense and was pleasantly surprised with the iPhone game’s potential. Star Defense is a classic tower defense game set on a series of planets. Instead of defending your base from a line of encroaching enemies from a top-down…
By Brian Crecente Published March 25, 2009 -
Come Touch Hideo Kojima At San Francisco’s Apple Store
The man behind Metal Gear Solid and Zone of the Enders is making a more public appearance at GDC this week, giving San Fraciscoans the chance to meet Hideo Kojima in person. Kojima will be following up his GDC keynote on Thursday with an appearance at the San Francisco Apple Store on Friday for “a…
By Michael McWhertor Published March 25, 2009 -
Nintendo’s GDC Keynote Round Up: Link’s On A Train
Here’s a round up of all the stories that sprung forth from Nintendo President Satoru Iwata’s keynote speech today, which brought us a Wii storage solution and an all new Legend of Zelda adventure. Of course if you joined Kotaku’s liveblog party, you already know all of this. Things kicked off with an early reveal…
By Mike Fahey Published March 25, 2009 -
Bungie’s Hiring And Here’s How They’ll Own You
Bungie producer Allen Murray won’t say a word about how the studio’s new project is going — but he will tell you how they’re getting it done. Murray first joined the team at the tail end of Halo 2‘s development. He described it as a “big disaster.” Everyone who’s ever worked in production knows that…
By AJ Glasser Published March 25, 2009 -
Activision Moves In To Home With ‘Backstage With Guitar Hero’
PlayStation Home has a new tenant in Activision. The publisher is bringing the Guitar Hero franchise to the halls of Home with “Backstage With Guitar Hero,” a space for fans of the ultra-popular rhythm game. While the majority of Home will be a hang out space where one can do the Running Man with friends…
By Michael McWhertor Published March 25, 2009 -
Watch The Valkyria Chronicles Anime Trailer
This April, PS3 exclusive Valkyria Chronicles is getting an TV anime. The teaser trailer was shown at the International Anime Fair 2009 in Tokyo last week, and now it’s online. The anime is produced by A-1 Pictures under the direction of Yasutaka Yamamoto (episode director of xxxHOLiC: Kei, Big Windup!). The theme song will be…
By Brian Ashcraft Published March 25, 2009 -
Incredibly Awkward Moments From GDC: When East Meets West Meets Fallout
Pro tip: when two Japanese video game designers are your co-panelists, mind your references to the atomic bombing of Japan. It makes talking about future game development… weird. Unfortunately, Fallout 3 designer Emil Pagliarulo from Bethesda Softworks unintentionally referenced that very subject during today’s “Evolving Game Design: Today and Tomorrow, Eastern and Western Game Design”…
By Michael McWhertor Published March 25, 2009 -
Say Goodbye To FileFront
A popular online destination for the latest computer game demos, patches, and mods, FileFront has announced that come March 30th it will be no more. Visitors to FileFront today are being directed to a farewell message, explaining that the current economic environment has forced the website to close its doors indefinitely. Members of the site…
By Mike Fahey Published March 25, 2009 -
GDC Panel: Fulfilling the Massively-Single Player Promise – How’d We Do?
Forget Metacritic scores – the real test of Spore’s popularity is how many people show up to their talk when Suda 51 is on a panel across the hall at the same time. Doesn’t help that he has a new game coming out, while Spore launched last year. Still, the online community for the game…
By AJ Glasser Published March 25, 2009 -
Nintendo Plans “Nintendo DSi Enhanced” Game Cards With DSi-Only Features, DSi-Only Games
Masato Kuwahara, project leader of the Nintendo DSi Hardware group, responsible for the development of the new Nintendo handheld, says that the company is planning “Nintendo DSi enhanced game cards,” offering DSi hardware-specific game features. That means games that play on both the Nintendo DS and the Nintendo DSi, but have features that can’t be…
By Michael McWhertor Published March 25, 2009 -
All Aboard The Zelda: Spirit Tracks Trailer Train
Listen to the crowd roar as The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks is revealed in trailer form at the 2009 Game Developers Conference Nintendo keynote. Fan reaction to the announcement might be a bit mixed, but industry professionals and the gaming press really seemed to get a kick out of this new entry in th…
By Mike Fahey Published March 25, 2009 -
Lunch With Luminaries: Wright, Perry, Fargo,Young and Spector Chat
A small group of journalists and developers were invited to sit in an informal lunch discussion with some of the biggest names in the gaming industry today. The luminaries this year are Will Wright, Brian Fargo, David Perry, Neil Young, Rob Pardo and Warren Spector. The talk will be chaired by Gary White. Follow along…
By Brian Crecente Published March 25, 2009 -
The Pitt Is Back In Business
After corrupted files ruined yesterday’s launch of Fallout 3‘s The Pitt DLC for Xbox 360 players, Bethesda saves face by quickly getting a non-broken version of the update uploaded to Xbox Live. The solution to the missing textures, incomplete geography, and freezing issues that plagued yesterday’s launch to The Pitt for the Xbox 360 is…
By Mike Fahey Published March 25, 2009 -
Team ICO’s Fumito Ueda Tries To Describe His New Game
At today’s Evolving Game Design panel, featuring Emil Pagliarulo of Bethesda Softworks, Goichi Suda of Grasshopper Manufacture and Fumito Ueda of Sony, the creative lead of ICO and Shadow of the Colossus discussed his future. It was actually Suda who asked the question on everybody’s mind “Can you tell us about the new games you’re…
By Michael McWhertor Published March 25, 2009 -
Indie Game Fest Winners Get Special iPhone Treatment
The iPhone game winners and finalists for the 2009 Independent Games Festival recently popped up in Apple’s App Store in their own section. The IGF Room shows up in the App Store’s Featured section. A large box on the top of the New section sends iPhone owners directly to the room where they can purchase…
By Brian Crecente Published March 25, 2009 -
Scenes From Nintendo’s 2009 GDC Keynote
You’ve read the liveblog, now peruse images from Nintendo President Satoru Iwata’s mostly exciting keynote speech, direct from the 2009 Game Developers Conference. Witness people standing on a stage as slides go by! Feel the excitement of seeing the logo for The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks! It’s almost as good as being there yourself.
By Mike Fahey Published March 25, 2009 -
Downloadable Final Fantasy Abounds On The Wii
Final Fantasy fans will have plenty to download on their Nintendo Wii consoles this year, with two WiiWare titles and the appearance of the original games on the Virtual Console. Formally announced at Nintendo’s keynote at the 2009 Game Developers Conference, Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a Dark Lord is the follow up…
By Mike Fahey Published March 25, 2009