SCAD Hong Kong Game Design and Development

I have something for everyone today!

This is what happens when you have too much power and a blind following!

It starts off about how EA what giving out bad coupons codes for Battle Field 3….

Kinect 2 so accurate it can lip read
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2011-11-25-kinect-2-so-accurate-it-can-lip-read

Miyamoto NOT retiring, role at Nintendo isn’t changing

http://www.destructoid.com/miyamoto-not-retiring-role-at-nintendo-isn-t-changing-217409.phtml

The Rise and Fall (and Rise) of Japan
http://www.1up.com/do/feature?pager.offset=0&cId=3169938

http://www.develop-online.net/news/40061/GDC-Japanese-dev-mocked-your-games-suck
GDC: Japanese dev mocked ‘your games suck’

http://unwire.hk/2012/03/10/gdc%E6%97%A5%E6%9C%AC%E9%81%8A%E6%88%B2%E6%98%AF%E5%BB%A2%E7%89%A9%EF%BC%9F%EF%BC%81%EF%BC%9F%EF%BC%81gdc%E7%8F%BE%E5%A0%B4%E9%9C%87%E9%A9%9A%E7%99%BC%E8%A8%80%EF%BC%81/game-channel/
「日本遊戲是廢物。Your games just SUCK」

http://nlab.itmedia.co.jp/nl/articles/1203/08/news098.html
波紋を呼ぶ「日本のゲームはクソ」発言――「数百人の視線と声で嫌な汗が流れた」

I wrote the Chinese articles

It is not low-tech at all. And it is not cheap. It costs 3799RMB ($600). It is not listed the supporting game. I am looking forward to seeing that.

http://kotaku.com/5907254/chinas-first-official-home-console-is-a-lot-better-than-anticipated/gallery/1?utm_campaign=socialflow_kotaku_facebook&utm_source=kotaku_facebook&utm_medium=socialflow

By Eric Jou
May 3, 2012 8:00 AM

China’s First Official Home Console Is Much Better Than Anticipated

When I first saw the Xbox Kinect, I was a GA (Game Advisor or peon) at GameStop,. I felt a sense of wonder and I thought, “This must be the future”. This morning, when I saw the finally released Eedoo CT510, I felt the same sense of wonderment that I had when I first saw the Kinect—except it was soon followed by disappointment.

At first glance, the CT510 looks exactly like the Xbox Kinect. Both look like black horizontal bars with embedded cameras, and both sit atop white boxes. Unlike the Xbox 360 and Kinect, the CT510 is not marketed or labeled as a game player, but instead as an exercise entertainment machine. Also unlike the Xbox 360 is the fact that the CT510 does not come or have any form of traditional game controllers, instead it only comes with the main system that plays DVDs, the camera unit, and a regular TV style remote control.

The main unit of the CT510 looks nothing like a game system, and at first glance, it looked exactly like a DVD player. Inside of the main body is supposedly the processor chips, a DVD player, and a 250 GB user exchangeable hard drive.

Despite all printed materials showing a black system, the only available systems are white; the camera unit only comes in black.

The flagship store salesperson, named Jin, helped me start up the system. Once booted, the Eedoo UI felt strangely familiar, and that’s because it felt like the old Xbox 360 UI with the “bladed” pages. Each “blade” had a different function: one was for games, another was for internet, there was even one just for Weibo, China’s Twitter.

Operating the CT510 felt like operating the Kinect. During my 45 minute play test that was interrupted a few times by shopping housewives and interested shoppers, I didn’t experience any drops in connectivity between myself and the system. It registered most if not all of my movements. The only hiccup I had was during game changes. Every time I backed out of a game, I would have to wave my arms left and right in exaggerated motions for the system to recognize me.

In terms of operation, I have to say that the CT510 is exactly like the Kinect. If the Lenovo group weren’t the people behind the money for the product, I can almost see Kinect camera guts inside the CT510. Holding out your hand on an icon and waiting a few seconds will record commands, changing screens requires swiping of your arm from left to right or right to left. All of these motions are very Kinect-esque.

During my time with the system, I got to try out 3 of the 8 game pre-loaded games. I played the comic book style side scrolling fighter game, a dance revolution-esque dancing game, and a sports game that reminded me of Wii Sports.

The fighter game literally takes the player and imposes them into the game. A simple wave of the arm and I would see myself performing aerial attacks. My only problem with this game was that it was a side-scroller. It felt awkward moving side to side while watching the screen, on top of that the CT510 registered all of my kicks but it couldn’t register my walking motion, I had to punch my way across the screen instead of just walk in place.

The dancing game was oddly accurate, the one mode I played was a Hole in the Wall style game with rupees.

The last game I played was a Wii Sports style sports game. This one game actually had avatars. For the most part the game felt very much like a Wii game more than it did a Kinect game.

These games, developed by Eedoo and third party game developers look polished, but they really aren’t. I normally don’t complain about graphics on games but for a system that costs US$600, I believe there needs to be higher production values.

Apart from the games that I played, there was one for kung fu and even a Wii Fit style yoga game called Maya Fit. On top of its gaming capabilities, salesperson Jin kept pitching to me the CT510′s ability to go online. According to Jin, the CT510 will have an online app store, and that any “first party” developed games will be either free or cheap. He also cited a partnership with Youpeng online video services that will offer video streaming directly to the device.

In my 50 minutes of play time with the unit, I can say that it was much better than I had anticipated. The motion tracking was for the most part worked, I was expecting much worse. At the same time the system felt too much like a me too system. It looks and feels way too much like the Xbox 360 and Kinect. There wasn’t really much innovation, and so far, I don’t believe it lives up to its 3799RMB ($600) price tag.

We’ll have an in depth review of the CT510 as soon as our review unit arrives.

Sadly as expected. The people in Zynga are smart enough to sell big portion of their stock before the company faces this downturn. But they are not smart in acquiring drawsomething at the first place.

Draw Something loses 4M users in the past month

http://asia.cnet.com/draw-something-loses-4m-users-in-the-past-month-62214737.htm

Interest in Draw Something appears to have peaked and then fallen off a cliff.

The wildly popular game, which most resembles the board game Pictionary, was released in February, and within the first two weeks, it skyrocketed with 10 million downloads. Quickly, both the free and paid versions were No. 1 on iTunes’ download charts.

By early April, the game had exceeded 50 million downloads and boasted more than 14 million daily users. However, in the past month, Draw Something has lost 4 million daily active users, according to data from market analyst AppData, which says it collects information directly from Facebook’s active users formula. The game has also lost 900,000 daily players in the past week, according to AppData.

The sharp decline marks a brief honeymoon period for Zynga, which bought game maker OMGPOP for US$180 million in March. Besides Draw Something, OMGPOP offers a host of other online games, including Checkers, Pool, and others. More painful than the Draw Something player dropoff is the decline in the company’s stock price. Since it’s acquisition of OMGPOP, Zynga’s stock has declined more than 38 percent. Shares closed today at 8.95, up 49 cents, or 5.8 percent.

CNET has contacted Zynga for comment on the decline, and we will update this report when we hear back.

Via CNET News

Interesting webtv episode by a group of creative and crazy people: VGHS Video Game High School. Following are the trailer and episode one which launched yesterday.

Trailer:
http://www.rocketjump.com/?video=vghs-trailer

Ep1:
http://www.rocketjump.com/?video=vghs-episode-1

The first episode of Rocket Jump’s flagship webseries!

There will be new episodes of VGHS every week for the next 9 weeks.

We used to call this episode “0″, as it was a short little prologue to introduce our main character and the world of VGHS. However it turned into something a bit grander and hopefully more fun.

Hope you all enjoy the first episode of VIDEO GAME HIGH SCHOOL.

A rocket jump is a gameplay technique where you point a rocket launcher at your feet, jump, and then fire, using the resulting explosive force of the rocket to propel you to unfathomable heights. Nooblets will say that Quake was the first game to utilize it, but the Truly Leet will scoff and say they were doing that back in Marathon.

Regardless, it’s about doing something crazy – something that seems like it shouldn’t work, but somehow does. We’re all about that over here.

Rocket Jump consists of the content creators and the audience that watches, reads, and listens to their stuff. Rocket Jumpers are a community of people willing to stand on that razor’s edge of the envelope that gets pushed outside the box. If that’s not you, that’s cool too.

While we hope to one day bring tons of people in the ranks of creators, this site was founded originally by the following fine-looking gentlemen:

Matt Arnold is the showrunner and a writer/director of VGHS: a show about video games, friendship and a couple kisses. He loves all things storytelling and spent most of his life playing, reading, or watching some capable hero conquer some completely possible obstacle. After learning stuff about cinema and economics at USC, he worked as an associate producer at Disney Interactive for 2.5 years. Now he works trying to make you laugh, cry, and say “that kicked ass”.
Freddie Wong is a co-creator of the FreddieW Channel on YouTube, which has resulted in a whole bunch of people tuning in to watch him be a doofy dude on a weekly basis. He has virtually murdered hundreds of bad guys, hung out with the Dalai Lama, and once, for one crazy summer, played Guitar Hero professionally. He also really likes RC planes and nice chairs.
Brandon is the other co-creator of the FreddieW channel on YouTube. He’s the mastermind behind the VFX and usually the one holding the camera while Freddie mugs for it. He is also a respectable amateur pyrotechnician, and has performed some gnarly stunts. His stress level is perpetually at zero.
When told as a child that his dream of becoming a creature-effects artist was futile (by the operator at Stan Winston Studio) he mistakenly came to the conclusion that becoming a director and entrepreneur would be easier. He studied film and business at USC, and then ripped his clothes off in a FreddieW video. The rest, as they say, is history. “As the de-facto strong man of the group, I vow to smash anything that stands in the way of a great story well told. My goals are to have a positive impact on the entertainment industry and grow a mustache. I want a big ass boat too. Boom!”

Why the Japanese Game Industry is Dying (sort of…)

http://gametheoryonline.com/2010/10/18/japanese-video-games-industry-dying/

Defending The Japanese Video Game Industry

http://www.1up.com/do/blogEntry?bId=9099162

Does console have a future?

http://venturebeat.com/2012/05/30/does-console-have-a-future/

Game Changers – the significance of casual games

http://www.screwattack.com/news/game-changers-significance-casual-games-0

Industry analyst Michael Patcher says the Wii U is not going to work for Nintendo

http://www.screwattack.com/news/industry-analyst-michael-patcher-says-wii-u-not-going-work-nintendo

Nintendo made Wii U Pro Controller to secure Call Of Duty

http://www.edge-online.com/news/nintendo-made-wii-u-pro-controller-secure-call-duty

Assassin’s Creed Dev: “Many Japanese Games are… Literally Gibberish”

http://www.blisteredthumbs.net/2012/08/assassins-creed-dev/

Title: Apparently the Dreamcast sucks…

http://www.screwattack.com/news/apparently-dreamcast-sucks

I find the following article worth reading because it shows how people’s tastes and judgements to games changed throughout the years, especially when certain old school classics were given low scores when those same old school games were re-released on PSN/XBOX LIVE etc. Are today’s “standards” of game making/design really the prime “definitions” of what makes a good game?

EA CEO John Riccitiello On Gaming Microtransactions

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZR6-u8OIJTE

I found this clip, I think it is evil….

Ethiopian Kids manage to hack their “One Laptop Per Child” tablets despite having no prior contact with the tech
http://updates.gizmodo.com/post/34694603553/ethiopian-kids-hack-their-olpc-tablets-in-5

Ah…. EA…. This is just too interesting….

EA upset at the low scores from game reviewers for Medal of Honor Warfighter

http://www.screwattack.com/news/ea-upset-low-scores-game-reviewers-medal-honor-warfighter

EA: Warfighter is better than reviews say, trust us!

http://www.destructoid.com/ea-warfighter-is-better-than-reviews-say-trust-us–237727.phtml

Gamebreaker – Innovation

http://www.screwattack.com/news/gamebreaker-innovation

Found a good video about the design of the Pokemon Franchise

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DSU19qzzV7g&feature=player_embedded