Village Gamer

Vancouver – A couple of months ago we told you about a new game called Raycatcher,  a title which syncs its gameplay with your MP3s.  Developed by Thinking Studios, Raycatcher allows the player to create custom playlists of his or her favorite music and play for as long or as short as you’d like. The goal of the game is to spin a colorful cluster of shapes to catch multi-colored rays. This causes the cluster to grow, evolve, and unlock 30 new evolutionary stages. Raycatcher is now available for purchase on Steam, Direct2Drive and Impulse.

Raycatcher Download Features

• Load in your own music: Raycatcher will accept .mp3 and .wav formats
• Beat detection technology: Changes gameplay to match your music in pleasant and creative ways.
• Make playlists of any length: Raycatcher is flexible and allows you to play for how ever long you want, and still feel like you’ve made progress.
• Original music by artist Noobie Noobinson: Music by a new up and coming band, some of which was created specifically for Raycatcher.
• 30 evolutionary stages: Complete with funny and enlightening descriptions. Raycatcher illustrates a cute and informative view of the kosmos.
• Range of difficulty: Easy to pick up, with 3 difficulty levels that range from easy-yet-challenging to insanely difficult.

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Vancouver – Do you know kids between the ages of 8 and 12 who like to play video games? If so, read the call for participation in the Play Together research project, part of Simon Fraser University’s School of Interactive Arts and Technology. Each participant will be compensated with a $10 gift certificate to iTunes or FutureShop. This project has already received SFU ethics approval and we are currently scheduling play sessions from now until June 2009.

Please contact the Play Together coordinator, Beth Aileen Lameman (beth[at]bethaileen[dot]com or 604-782-0051) for more information on the study.

More Information:
The Play Together research project is looking at and prototyping digital technologies that support cooperative team play for kids ages 8-12.
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Vancouver – I acquired Diamond Fever, the new iPhone/iPod Touch game by Ontario’s Howling Moon Games yesterday, and while the game play is very simple, putting the game down is not.

There are no special effects, no winnable power-ups, and the only options are to play – with the music on or off. This game is simply addictive, with the only challenges being to beat the game’s ten levels and best your own top score. Diamond Fever brings out the competitive nature of the player and as the difficulty of each level increases, the player is hard-pressed to keep those diamonds away from the crate of explosives in the middle of the screen. The game does save the last level which you successfully completed, and you are able to select any completed level as a starting point.

Game play is similar to that of the Collapse franchise, where the player must match groups of three or more game pieces to advance through the levels. While Diamond Fever is comprised of only ten levels, from level 4 onwards the challenges facing the player grow exponentially through the addition of more colours to match and the speed with which they are placed on the board. Eye-hand coordination and reaction time are put through vigorous testing as the player is required to keep all four corners of the mine cleared of diamonds. At a download price of only $0.99 from the App Store, Diamond Fever is a very affordable source of challenging entertainment, and as a fan of match 3 styles of games, I recommend it to others to try.

Toronto – JoWooD Productions and Canadian publisher DreamCatcher Games are pleased to announce they have signed Homegrown Games, a small independent Austrian developer, to develop the next chapter in the Painkiller brand. The new installment is called “Painkiller: Resurrection” and is set for release in Q4 2009.

Once more, it is up to the protagonist to find a way out of a grotesque world between heaven and hell, trapped between life and death. The development of Painkiller: Resurrection is based on the technology of the Painkiller engine, but with several improvements, including improved shadows, a higher texture resolution, moveable light sources, post processing, motion blur and ambient occlusion were implemented. In addition to these added features, the PK++ development team, lead by Steven “Blowfish” Wilkins, has set up a coop-multiplayer campaign mode.

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Vancouver – Anomaly is fusion of an art workshop and party to be held at District 319 in Vancouver on Saturday, April 25, 2009 from 6pm until midnight. This will be the first event of its kind featuring the best local artists and showcase live art demonstrations, keynote speakers, and a lounge party throughout the night. Presented by CG Movement, the purpose of the event is to bring 2D/3D artists together and provide a platform for inspiration and creativity.

Tickets for Anomaly are now on sale, available on the event’s website. Ticket price includes all presentations, a one year membership to CG Movement, event shirt, door prize raffles, snacks and after-party.

Ticket Prices:

Regular: $90.00 each
Groups of 5 or more: $85.00 each
Student: $75.00 (name of school and Student ID number required)

Anomaly is sponsored by: Mindseeker – Mitts Creative – Offload Studios – Zbrush – Annex|Pro

Featured Speakers:

Marco Menco – 3D Artist, Image Engine
Daryl Mandryk – Senior Concept Artist, Propaganda Games
Jeff Simpson – Concept Artist, Big Sandwich Games
Steven Chen – Artist, Blizzard Entertainment
Jesse Turner – Artist, Threewave Software
David Tran – Lead Character Artist, Smoking Gun Interactive
Peter Zoppi – 3D Character Artist
Julianna Kolakis – 3D Modeler and Concept Artist – Image Engine

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