November 20, 2008 – 1:00 pm
Last night I had the chance to discuss Disney Interactive Studios’ Ultimate Band with Tim Huntsman (senior producer), Mark McArthur (development director) and Mike Thompson (art director) from Fall Line Studio. The game is launching November 25th on the Wii and DS. In case you don’t know, it’s a rhythm game with no peripherals but with actual songs to play.
The team at Fall Line Studio set out to make a performance based game to take advantage of the unique controls schemes offered on Nintendo’s platforms. Development began back when the Wii was still called the Revolution, Rock Band didn’t exist, and Wii Music was still a budding idea in Shigeru Miyamoto’s head. The game was designed for tweens and teens in mind, especially boys, so this appeals more to the younger generation.
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September 5, 2008 – 12:00 pm
Last night I had a chance to discuss all things 2K Sports’ NHL 2K9 with the game’s Producer, Ben Bishop, as well as the Online Producer, Jay Iwahashi. We talked about the changes made since 2K8, new control schemes, Wii features, and new online modes.
To start with, the game development has moved from Kush Games to 2K Sports in-house studio Visual Concepts. Almost everything started fresh, so you’ll notice tons of changes in the gameplay, AI, and presentation. With Visual Concepts handling the development, the NHL team was able to to work closely with the NBA team to get a lot of cool changes in the game’s presentation. Both the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions will be running at a crisp 60 frames per second in offline and online modes.
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April 22, 2008 – 10:00 am
We told you we would get some thoughts form the current Guinness World Record holder for fastest time through the first 5 stages of Tapper and we deliver. Look into the mind of man consumed by everything Tapper related.
Loot Ninja: Tell us a bit about yourself and how long you have been gaming.
Michael P.: I’m 25, and I’m from the middle of nowhere in western PA. I moved to NYC about 7 months ago, and I’m currently a graphic designer at a web marketing company in Brooklyn. I’m still trying to figure out what I really want to do though. I’ve been gaming for about as long as I can remember. Although my dad has long since stopped gaming, he is the one that got me started with ColecoVision. I can remember playing that obsessively until around 1990 when we got an NES. My favorite games for Coleco are Jumpman Junior, The Heist, Oil’s Well and Squish’em Sam. After SNES, I stopped playing the new ones so much. Every once in awhile though, I get really into a new game. I’m really into drumming in Rock Band right now. I love Mario Kart 64, and my favorite game ever might be Amplitude. I also like the color blue.
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March 25, 2008 – 10:00 am
We had a chance to speak with Matt Turner, Assistant Producer on Army of Two about all things related to EA’s newest coop shooter. From how they came up with the coop concepts to the game’s multiplayer aspects, check out everything we discussed.
[Loot Ninja] This game glorifies the challenging and sheer fun factor of co-op campaign play. Will these missions be strictly run and gun or will the two players have to work as the ultimate team in order to achieve their objective?
[Matt Turner] Rambo’s are not welcome in AO2! It’s really a tactical shooter and the players must use the aggro system to progress through the levels. If you try to run and gun you are going to pay the price…with death! We really wanted to emphasize the coop feel of the game to the point where it becomes a necessity and I think we achieved that.
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February 23, 2008 – 12:07 pm
Last night I had the chance to discuss everything 2K Sports’ Major League Baseball 2K8 related with the game’s producer, Ben Brinkman. We discussed changes to the game since 2K6 and what he thinks of all the new features.
In Ben’s opinion, 2K6 and 2K7 was just about getting the game right, with 2K8 being the year to refine gameplay and add new features. This was accomplished with a completely new simulation AI, including the batter/pitcher interface, fielding, and base running. New controls have been added, mainly in the pitching area, to make the game feel more realistic.
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December 14, 2007 – 12:53 pm
So is your Xbox 360 in the need of a little flavor? Yes you say? Then shoot on over to the Xbox LIVE marketplace and grab all of your Swizz Beats themes, pics and interviews. Fo Shizzle ma nizzle, It’s me snitches!
Although I think it is an interesting idea to put out these themes for download, I don’t get the idea of charging for them. These should be free and then you can sign me up, until then I will pass on Swizz Beats, unless they bring an all nude Fergie version, then we might talk again.
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October 5, 2007 – 7:37 pm
Gamers have sat back and received salvo after salvo of anti gaming flack ever since Sub Zero ripped Liu Kang’s spine out when Mortal Kombat hit arcades in 1992. Yet games have prevailed. We have withstood these so called crusaders such as Tipper Gore to Jack Thompson, err Chuckles. You may ask what is the thin line between sanity and chaos? Enter stage right: The ECA.
Anyone who considers themselves a gamer needs to read through this interview. It will open your eyes. Drunk pandas and myself both joined at the Digital Life. 20 dollars a year for a cause that we all care about its an investment in a way. An investment that there will be games in the future. Read on.
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October 3, 2007 – 12:01 pm
At Digital Life this weekend, we got a chance to sit down with Adam Mersky of the development team at Turbine who works on Lord of the Rings Online. We talked about the general aspects of the game as well as new features in the upcoming Book 11 update.
If you’re not familiar with the game, Lord of the Rings Online allows you to immerse yourself in the Tolkien universe as a member of one of the main races in the game. You interact through a storyline that takes place during the Lord of the Rings books. You’ll get to meet up with Frodo, Sam, Aragorn, and even Gandolf. The game is much more about exploration than player vs player combat, unlike many other MMO’s out there.
Adam walked up through the updates in Book 11 and what we can expect from the game in the coming months. The update will bring housing to the game for yourself and your kinship. You’ll be able to settle down in a town with your kinship and create your own house and yard and decorate it to your pleasure. Each player can own one house, but anyone in the world can visit your home. You can give other players permissions to make changes in your house, so don’t be surprised if you come home and find your walls a different color. The options for changing the interior of your house are very simple, and each element can be changed on a room by room basis. You can add many different types of furniture and artwork to each room. If you want to add a stone troll head on your wall as a trophy, it’s there for you to put up. Pricing for housing and different items will be determined in the next few weeks as development wraps up on the update.
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September 14, 2007 – 2:41 pm
We had a chance to sit down with the developers and ask some questions of them as they ran demo to show off the final build, here are some of the highlights:
Everyone wondered if there would be any wifi connectivity?
The answer is no, there will be no transfer of your Sims to anyone else.
Why did they choose not to use Mii’s?
The game was actually put into development back when the Wii was the Revolution and Mii’s didn’t even exist yet, EA also decided they wanted to stick to their own design and brand.
Why move away form the classic Sims look?
They tried to make this game look very much like a Nintendo game and was very influenced by Japanese art style.
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September 5, 2007 – 12:35 pm
You remember those insanely cool Xbox 360 faceplates we posted before? Well, we got a chance to talk with SpaceGhost2K about creating those faceplates, how he comes up with the great ideas, his gaming preferences, and what he thinks of the other current consoles.
drunk pandas: How long does each plate take you to create?
SpaceGhost2K: It depends a lot on the plate. There are multiple steps that each take their own time. Do I need a sticker mask to do the design? Do I have one already or do I have to have one made? Do I have to prepare the art? And then there’s issues with securing action figures or other parts and pieces needed to make the faceplate. Then if you have multiple paint ops, it takes time to dry between ops. I’ts possible to finish a simple plate in a day. There’s others that I’ve been working on a little bit at a time for a couple of months. Right now, I have literally a hundred requests for plates. At one a day, that’s over three months to do them all.
drunk pandas: Where do you get your inspirations for your faceplates?
SpaceGhost2K: I’ve seen an action figure and knew it had to be on a plate. I’ve seen cool kinds of paint, scrapbooking materials, tv shows, even certain fonts have triggered ideas for plates.
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