Shared posts

14 Apr 14:27

Ten games in one week: #GPCv3

by McFunkypants

The Valentine’s day edition of the Game Prototype Challenge is over.  This was a week-long game jam where participants were challenged to create a game prototype based on the themes “loneliness” and “dimensions”.

Check out the ten awesome games that were made during this week-long game jam!

The Mirror by Alex Camilleri is a haunting and poetic piece of game-art where you travel the road of life surrounded by your friends.  One by one, friendships fade, followers are lost, and the leaves in the trees fall.  As in life, nothing lasts forever.  Or does it?

The Lonely King by Bryan Winters features some really cool cube-shaped characters, with dream-like missions provided by the inner thoughts of NPC characters.  Watch out for the deadly drops of blood!

Deepth by Lee Zhi Fei is a puzzling 3d platformer that requires three hands.  It requires the latest version of Unity3d, so you may have to upgrade your plugin.

World Of Crates by Kyle Rodgers is a bright and lively flash platformer game featuring smooth-as-silk framerates and really cool film-grain effect.

Outcast by Keith Thomas is an art-game that explores the concept of feeling like a loser in a cold harsh society.  Will I never find love?  You’ll have to walk to end the find out if there is a happy ending.

For You by Damian Sommer features really great artwork and is inspired by games such as Knytt by Nifflas, Monochromatic Grotto by b_man or Changeling by White Wolf.  It may not appear to be a game about decisions.  Truly awesome graphics, perfect sound effects, and a shocking and terrifying twist ending.

N?na, Ha?e F?aith by Alexander Martin is a cool flash game with strange spelling where you can take alternate forms depending on whether you close your eyes to dream or not.

Castles & Trains by Michael Todd is a cool puzzle game where You are a strange engineer, wandering through infinite dimensions, building castles and trains.  You gain points by placing tiles in the correct positions.

Spoli by Jason P. Kaplan is an adventure in space where you are, like the Little Prince, the master of tiny planets.  Try to launch your rocketship along the perfect trajectory.  Space can be a lonely place!

Unfinished Platformer 16 by Cale Bradbury is a really great-looking flash game prototype featuring excellent graphics and a character who breathes bubbles which working in a Biotek co. facility on a floating island in the sky.

12 Apr 21:55

NPR Shares ‘Secrets From the Potato Chip Factory’

by EDW Lynch
Andy Moore

Aubz will like this

In this fascinating short video titled “Secrets From the Potato Chip Factory,” NPR’s Planet Money looks at how technological innovations have transformed the production of potato chips. Some of the key food-making technologies are explained with animated GIFs in this companion article. The video was shot at the Herr’s factory in Pennsylvania.

Secrets from the potato chip factory

The OptoSort photographs the potato chips, identifies off-color chips, and blows them off the line with air jets.

Secrets from the potato chip factory

The packaging machine heat seals bags of chips at the rate of 100 bags per minute.

08 Apr 22:43

Japanese Teens Stage Harry Potter Quidditch Games in Photos

by Kimber Streams
Andy Moore

yess

Quidditch

photo via 2ch

The past few weeks have seen the rise of creative photo memes like staged Dragon Ball Kamehameha attacks and Vadering, and Kotaku reports on the newest photo trend that features Japanese teens appearing to play Quidditch, a fictional sport from J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter universe played on broomsticks. The photos, first posted on Japanese bulletin board 2ch, have gone viral and inspired the Quidditch photo meme. Kotaku’s Brian Ashcraft has more on the meme.

Quidditch

photo via @katsudon34

Quidditch

photo via English Russia

Quidditch

photo via @Lavienna_renren

Quidditch

photo via @mizukuma57

Quidditch

photo via @Aki72726718

via Kotaku

08 Apr 20:10

Molalla the Baby River Otter Gets Swimming Lessons From His Mom

by Rusty Blazenhoff
Andy Moore

omg so cute

At the Oregon Zoo in Portland, North American river otter mom Tilly teaches her 2-month-old baby Molalla how to swim. Zookeeper Becca Van Beek states, “A lot of people don’t realize it, but swimming doesn’t come naturally to river otter pups. They have to be taught to swim by their moms, and so far Tilly’s been an amazing teacher.”

“It might look kind of scary to a casual observer,” Van Beek said. “She’ll grab Mo by the scruff of the neck and dunk him in the water. But that’s a very natural behavior. Baby otters are extremely buoyant, so Mo has built-in water wings for his swim lessons. This is how baby otters learn to swim, and it’s exactly what we’ve been hoping to see.”

via MetaFilter

08 Apr 19:08

Gizmo the Cat Touches a Hazelnut After Being Told Not To

by Justin Page
Andy Moore

PETULANT CAT

Margery C. captured footage of her disobedient cat named Gizmo touching a hazelnut after clearly being told not to.

via Cute Overload

08 Apr 19:05

The Condom Applicator Slingshot Gun

by Kimber Streams
Andy Moore

ahh hahaha this guy

Nothing fascinates male human beings more than guns and sex.

Germany-based Jörg Sprave of The Slingshot Channel has designed a humorous new type of condom applicator as part of the Gates Foundation’s challenge to design the “next generation condom.”

via Reddit

21 Mar 16:26

Diving Under Waves

by jeff
Andy Moore

Looks so cool!

Check out these pictures of bodysurfers ducking under waves.

I grew up body surfing and boogie boarding in Southern California.  Riding waves is exhilarating and its the #1 reason you are there but there’s one other unforgettable experience that comes with it and that’s ducking under a passing wave.

A crashing wave is an awesomely powerful thing.  So its such an incredible feeling of freedom that with just a little agility and perfect timing you can get yourself down below a 1 or 2 foot protective layer of water where all of that massive power can only just roll over you at most gently rocking you forward and back.  And then you pop right back up to the surface to get ready for the next one.

With bodysurfing this is everything:  ducking under waves until you are in position to catch just the right one.  With boogie boarding there’s a little bit of paddling in between but the board is still small and light enough that when necessary you can get under even the most threatening wave.

But for sure the hardest thing about surfing is that this manoeuver is no longer available to you.  For one thing you would be putting others in danger if you bail off the board and let the wave throw it around.  But anyway the board is so bulky that the wave is going to drag you along with it.

Forget about learning to ride a wave.  That’s as easy as anything else when you can get enough repetitions in.  The bloody hard thing about surfing is that it can take months to get that many repetitions in because every time you fall you have to paddle back out through those waves.  Yeah there are still tricks (turtle roll, duck dive), but even getting good enough at those for them to be useful takes weeks. The first few weeks you are lucky to get into position for 1 or 2 shots per session at actually catching a wave.

Chullo chortle:  Kottke.


14 Mar 02:09

Photo

Andy Moore

OH man. so sad.