new posts in all blogs
Viewing: Blog Posts Tagged with: games, Most Recent at Top [Help]
Results 1 - 25 of 219
How to use this Page
You are viewing the most recent posts tagged with the words: games in the JacketFlap blog reader. What is a tag? Think of a tag as a keyword or category label. Tags can both help you find posts on JacketFlap.com as well as provide an easy way for you to "remember" and classify posts for later recall. Try adding a tag yourself by clicking "Add a tag" below a post's header. Scroll down through the list of Recent Posts in the left column and click on a post title that sounds interesting. You can view all posts from a specific blog by clicking the Blog name in the right column, or you can click a 'More Posts from this Blog' link in any individual post.
The line between animation and video games has long been blurred. There was the Saturday Supercade on CBS in the mid-80s, where Frogger, Q-Bert and Donkey Kong starred in short segments. A handful of years later, Fox ran the Super Mario Bros. Super Show! and NBC had Captain N: The Game Master. All of these shows were relatively short-lived marketing methods of pushing Nintendo further into homes and the minds of children. But lately, the animation and video game industries have united under the banner of nostalgia, appealing to adults whose childhoods were spent chasing down the aproned token keeper in the local arcade.
This nostalgic trip is partly due to a major shift in demographics. Generation X and Y, the first to experience video game-filled childhoods, have grown up, and many of them now have young children of their own. It explains the broad appeal of Wreck-It Ralph—a father who spent countless hours feeding quarters to a PacMan arcade game was just as likely to be entertained by the film as his child. In fact, Disney succeeded in creating faux arcade games that felt so real, adult audience members were convinced to the point of feeling nostalgic. Fix It Felix Jr., the game in which Ralph was the villain, felt ripped from your childhood arcade.
You could assume this nostalgia trend would’ve peaked with Wreck-It Ralph, but it shows no signs of slowing. Ratchet & Clank, the series of Playstation games initially released in 2002, is finally receiving the animated film adaptation that its fans have craved. Rainmaker Entertainment and Blockade Entertainment plan to produce the film for a theatrical release in 2015. Fortunately, the fan base has grown right along the game. Says one commenter on The Nerdist : “The twelve year old in me (currently 23) just stood up and yelled, ‘Finally!’”
Then there’s game developer WayForward, set to release a remastered version of DuckTales, Capcom’s hit that originally sold nearly 3 million copies on NES and Game Boy. It was and is exceedingly popular, with gamers still raving about the game’s tight handling. Among 8-bit musicians, who derive their tunes from the sounds of Nintendo, the DuckTales soundtrack is a unanimous favorite. Some even say that the Nintendo game eclipses all other aspects of the DuckTales franchise, including the animated series.
What’s most incredible about this project from WayForward is its unabashed pandering to a nostalgic audience. WayForward’s remastering remains true to the original, with whole levels of the game completely duplicated, save for enhanced background graphics. According to an article on the Verge, Disney even went so far as to provide original art assets and the voice actors from the DuckTales animated series, including 90-year-old Alan Young as Scrooge. “We’re really trying to make it play as identical to the original as possible,” says WayForward’s Austin Ivansmith. “We thought, well if the original developers could make this again today, what would they do?”
There is no doubt that DuckTales was a major keystone of early video game history—I even revisit my own copy once every few years. Young parents who grew up playing DuckTales on NES will leap at the chance to reintroduce the game to their kids on the contemporary consoles of today. These sorts of modern reinterpretations can certainly yield some fresh, artistic perspective. But the relationship between the animation and video game industries is becoming more blatantly based on the desire for financial sure-bets. And if we know anything about Hollywood, where movies based on boardgames are greenlit, audiences will continue to be encouraged to wallow in childhood nostalgia.
Double Fine has released a teaser trailer for its point-and-click adventure game Broken Age, which raised $3.3 million on Kickstarter last year (a record for games at the time). The game is the parallel story of a young boy and girl:
The girl has been chosen by her village to be sacrificed to a terrible monster–but she decides to fight back. Meanwhile, a boy on a spaceship is living a solitary life under the care of a motherly computer, but he wants to break free to lead adventures and do good in the world.
Video gameplay is about to get a lot more realistic. Game producer Activision unveiled this new demo yesterday at the Game Developers Conference. Uncanny or not, the progresss in computer animation has been remarkable. Real-time rendering techniques today look far more impressive than any rendering from a decade ago:
This animated character is being rendered in real-time on current video card hardware, using standard bone animation. The rendering techniques, as well as the animation pipeline are being presented at GDC 2013, “Next Generation Character Rendering” on March 27. The original high resolution data was acquired from Light Stage Facial Scanning and Performance Capture by USC Institute for Creative Technologies, then converted to a 70 bones rig, while preserving the high frequency detail in diffuse, normal and displacement composite maps. It is being rendered in a DirectX11 environment, using advanced techniques to faithfully represent the character’s skin and eyes.
More details on Jorge Jimenez’s blog.
New Monopoly Token Writing Prompt: Goodbye to the iron, and hello, kitty!
Fans of Monopoly voted out the iron player token, and voted to add a new player token, a cat. The cat beat out a robot, guitar, diamond ring, and helicopter with 31% of the vote. The lowly iron came in last with 8% of the vote, with the wheelbarrow and the shoe just squeaking through the elimination to remain in the game.
So today's Writing Prompt puts the vote to you. Which token would you choose to eliminate from the current Monopoly game, and which token do you think should be added?
— Sonja, STACKS Staffer
Photos courtesy of Hasbro
By: Vanessa G.,
on 2/6/2013
Blog:
Ink Splot 26
(
Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags:
Games,
Reads,
Add a tag
Game Changers Book #2: Play Makers by Mike Lupica
Attention, sports fans! For those of you who love a good sports story, the latest book in Mike Lupica's Game Changers series is out now! It's called Play Makers.
Ben McBain and his friends are still riding high after winning their football championship, but basketball season isn’t going as smoothly, especially when their cross-town rival, Chase Braggs, starts causing trouble on AND off the court.
Read an excerpt.
Head over to the STACKS Sports site to play the new Game Changers basketball game! How many shots can you make?
-- Vanessa, Scholastic Staffer
I know nothing of video games or Playstation… but this trailer for the just-released Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch has me very intrigued.
Not sure if this is Ghibli’s first foray into video games, but it’s the first one I’ve seen that looks like the real deal (even the music is by Miyazaki stalwart Joe Hisaishi). I’d love to hear more about the game itself from those who’ve already played it.
Disney announced today that they will shut down Austin,Texas-based Junction Point, the game studio that had developed the Epic Mickey gameseries. Disney acquired the studio, founded by Warren Spector and Art Min, in 2007.
In an emailed statement, the Disney company said:
“It was with much sadness that we informed our teams today of changes to our Games organization, which include the closure of Junction Point Studios. These changes are part of our ongoing effort to address the fast-evolving gaming platforms and marketplace and to align resources against our key priorities. We’re extremely grateful to Warren Spector and the Junction Point team for their creative contributions to Disney with Disney Epic Mickey and Disney Epic Mickey 2.”
Spector will no longer be involved with Disney. The Disney Company announced earlier this month that they were developing a new gaming initiative called Disney Infinity.
Deltora Scavenger Hunt Answers
If you're into magic and monsters, good vs. evil, and just plain good fantasy, chances are you will love the Deltora books. And chances are you did our Deltora Scavenger Hunt last week. And chances are we've got the answers below!
- How many books total are there in the Deltora series (counting the bonus books)?
ANSWER: 17! Deltora Quest has 8 + Shadowlands 3 + Dragons 4 + 1 Travel Guide + 1 Book of Monsters. Whew! That's a lot of Deltora books!
- Watch The Golden Door trailer and finish this sentence.
“What terror lies beyond ___ _____ ____?”
ANSWER: The Golden Door.
- The author, Emily Rodda, lives in what country?
ANSWER: Australia.
- In which game do you catch rats with your “mouse?”
ANSWER: The City of Rats. Scroll down to see all the games!
- Read an excerpt from Deltora Quest Book I: The Forests of Silence. Who dies on the first page?
ANSWER: The king (King Alton). Check out the Deltora Books page to read excerpts from the other books too.
- Name three of the main characters.
ANSWER: All the main characters can be found on the Characters page. Scroll down to see all the main characters.
- How many levels are there in The Dragons of Deltora Adventure games?
ANSWER: 4! If you log in to the STACKS, you can save your game stats on your Profile.
- From whose point of view is the book The Secrets of Deltora told from?
ANSWER: Doran the Dragonslayer. He is the greatest Deltoran explorer ever, and a friend of the dragons.
So go forth. Fight evil. Slay dragons and monsters. And let us know what you thought of this Scavenger Hunt!
—Ratha, Stacks Writer
I SPY a Challenge!
'Tis the season for games! Video games are on many holiday wish lists (including mine)! Some of you may even have a couple I SPY games on your lists. If you do, Scholastic has a special treat for all the I SPY gaming fans out there. For the first time ever, Scholastic has released I SPY game packs on Wii and Nintendo DS that offer double the fun with two complete I SPY games in one. The Wii game pack includes Ultimate I SPY and I SPY Spooky Mansion, while the Nintendo DS pack includes I SPY Fun House and I SPY Universe (all rated E).
Did you know that the covers of all the I SPY video games are designed so that you could play I SPY on the cover? It's true! There are numerous objects hidden within each I SPY cover and you could play I SPY on each one. So in honor of the game packs and for some fun (not to mention extra challenge), we've developed two I SPY riddles to solve across the Wii and DS games. Are you up for the challenge?
Yes? Alright! Ready, set, go!
I SPY CHALLENGE #1
Click to enlarge the image.
I spy a horseshoe, a cymbal, a bell, a little red bug, and a brown pot that fell; a tower, a diver, a rocket, a hat, a hidden sailboat, a key, and a rat.
I SPY CHALLENGE #2
Click to enlarge the image.
I spy a jack, two balloons, a drum, a plane, a ringed planet, and a little candy cane;
Two ice cream cones, a dog with a hat; a letter, a snake, two balls, and a cat.
Did you find all the objects? Let us know in the Comments below. And, for extra fun, get creative and write an I SPY riddle of your own using these covers!
—Amabel, Scholastic Media
Lately I've been interested in Kickstarter, and I keep finding interesting Kickstarter projects to back. This is my second Kickstarter post recently, and I don't want to turn this into a Kickstarter blog, because that would change the purpose of the blog. So instead, I decided to start a new Tumblr called
Kickstarter Addicts to post those projects I find interesting.
To kick things off, I wrote about a really exciting project called The Game of Books. It sounds like a fun game that both kids and adults would enjoy, and I want to play it! The picture above is my game card from the demo of the game. If I remember right, I entered
Ratha’s Creature,
Dune,
Dust & Decay, and
The Hobbit. I may also have entered The Hunger Games but I can’t remember for sure.
Read more about it on my Kickstarter Addicts post!
While you're there, I hope you'll follow my new Tumblr!
By:
jrpoulter,
on 12/14/2012
Blog:
Jrpoulter's Weblog
(
Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags:
Uncategorized,
art,
Christian Bocquee,
colour-ins,
competitions,
Deborah Abela,
games,
Hilary Badger,
Jennifer R. Poulter,
Julie Fisan,
Kerry Brown,
Lucia Masciullo,
Martin Chatterton,
Petr Carnavas,
Poetry,
Stories,
Terry Denton,
Tristan Bancks,
Wendy Orr,
Add a tag
The Untangled Tales website is the best of the Summer Reading sites. Going over the site, was like being in one of the famous ‘But WAIT, there’s more!’ advertisements! At every click of the mouse, there was more! There is something here for children of all ages [preschool, primary, secondary], for their parents, teachers and librarians. The site is gorgeous [literally] to look at, easy to navigate, entertaining in content and layout and engagingly informative!
The Celebrity Corner questions brought out the creative quirkiness of authors and illustrators in a very entertaining way and featured a very diverse group of creatives!
The Untangled Tales game is a blast – great fun! It challenges memory and prods research capabilities and informs about other cultures, their customs and attitudes as reflected in their fairytales and legends.
Check out the side tabs and their drop down menus – there is heaps and heaps of fun activity, fantastic tales, playful poetry and fanciful stories, arty opportunities, creative competitions in writing and art activities and painless learning along the way!!
Our favorite game is ending tonight—forever. At 8pm Pacific time, the lights will blink out across the land of Ur, and Glitch will be no more.
Yeah, we’re pretty sad. We’ll be signing on to say our goodbyes. Will we hear the Good Night Glitchen song one last time? Will you?
By:
Lou Simeone,
on 9/1/2012
Blog:
Samalou too
(
Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags:
games,
samalou.com,
video game,
Lou Simeone,
parody,
angry birds,
spoof,
samalou,
game,
Add a tag
Angry Birds as seen on the ID Network. Feel free to share if you'd like.
"Once upon a time, there were three hungry Dinosaurs: Papa Dinosaur, Mama
Dinosaur . . . and a Dinosaur who happened to be visiting from Norway.
One day—for no particular reason—they decided to tidy up their house, make the beds, and prepare pudding of varying temperatures. And then—for no particular reason—they decided to go . . . someplace else. They were definitely not setting a
This entry is sponsored by Sony Pictures Animation.
For these free Hotel Transylvania-themed games, it's a race against the clock!
When you get the chance to peek inside the cobwebbed halls of this new movie from Sony Pictures Animation, you'll become well acquainted with a handful of spooky creatures that have been lurking in the shadows for centuries. For a little taste of online monster fun, check out these FREE Hotel Transylvania games now.
Match Game: It’s the Monster Match
Where have I seen this face before? Test your memory and match your wits against these crafty creatures!
Suitcase Sort
Time to get (bell) hoppin'. Snag these suitcases and see that they get to the right room. Or else!
Monster Quiz: What Monster Are You?
Got fur? Got fangs? How about a favorite monster meal? Take the quiz!
Dracula's Maze Game
This one is tricky! Move your mouse to tilt the floor under the Count’s feet. And do it quickly, will you?!
Images provided by Sony Pictures Animation. © 2012 Sony Pictures Animation. All rights reserved.
Right. This is what you will do on the weekend from the 14th this month:
Come to South Bank and play games. Hide and Seek, the famed and excellent makers of social games and playful experiences, are running one of their best-of events on Southbank, London.
There will be games for every taste, stategic and silly, with varying degrees of running around, creativity and all other good things to do with play. Children and adults welcome.
And there will be my game: 150m of cardboard turned into a corrugated labyrinth. ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY. That's a lot of cardboard.
Hide and Seek's Holly wrote about it:
Treasure Maze is a massive winding installation and a game all in one. The game itself is simple – collect treasure in the maze while avoiding the roaming shark. There are safe places in the maze where you can shelter, and of course you can always leave the maze, if you can find the way – but if the shark gets you before you make it out, then all the treasure you’ve collected is lost. So when you play there’s a classic balancing act between sticking around and collecting more treasure, or getting out while it’s safe instead of risking everything you’ve accomplished so far.
It’s a game that children and adults can play together on a pretty even basis, which is rare – adults might be better on average at plotting and doubling back, but kids can get into the safe spaces much more easily.
What really makes the game special, though, is the physicality of it – squeezing through corridors, crawling into safe caves, feeling the burr of movement as other players move past on the other side of a corrugated cardboard wall (or is it the shark?).
We ran it before at the National Maritime Museum where it really took off--- literally, I sometimes had to herd it back into place because it was physically running away, full of people excitedly hunting treasure and each other.
This time it will be sat in the Clore Ball Room, which in itself is amazing.
Also, I will take a whole day to paint the thing as well, and we will have to cut it up on the last evening - you can reserve your favourite parts during the weekend, and take them away Sunday night.
Intriguing trailer for a forthcoming PlayStation Network game called The Unfinished Swan. The mood and visuals suggest an indie animated short as much as a video game. It’s being produced by Santa Monica Studio and Giant Sparrow.
(via Super Punch)
I have blisters on my hands, my fingers are glued together with paint, my back hurts, my clothes are covered in paint blobs.
I spent all day painting 150m or cardboard together with the help of my friend Matthew (he painted that whale).
So you better come to the Royal Festival Hall this weekend to see it all, RIGHT?
If you come around Sunday afternoon when it all ends you can pick a bit of the maze and keep it, I believe, maybe for a small donation, maybe for free, anyway, its a fine way to get a huge painting, if you like sealife.
This entry is sponsored by Sony Pictures Animation.
Hotel Transylvania App
Help Dracula run a lavish 5-stake resort for lovable, quirky monsters, in Hotel Transylvania Dash! As Dracula, you’ll book rooms, deliver room service and luggage, and attend to your guests’ needs. Mayhem ensues when human Jonny stumbles into the hotel - the first human ever to discover the monsters-only retreat! The game is available in the App Store.
This entry is sponsored by Sony Pictures Animation.
Images provided by Sony Pictures Animation. © 2012 Sony Pictures Animation. All rights reserved.
By: Jerry Beck,
on 9/20/2012
Blog:
Cartoon Brew
(
Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags:
Games,
Add a tag
I know nothing of games, but this debut project from Australian development collective, League of Geeks, looks pretty neat. Or at least the trailer is cool. Armello is a digital card & board game “of swashbuckling, character-based high adventure, set in a fairy-tale animal kingdom” and should be released in 2013.
League of Geeks collaborated with Sydney-based 12 Field to bring this beautiful trailer to life.
By:
KidLitReviews,
on 10/15/2012
Blog:
Kid Lit Reviews
(
Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags:
Interviews,
Middle Grade,
author interview,
fair food,
fairs,
Frank W. Dormer,
games,
Leslie Bulion,
middle grade books,
Peachtree,
relationships,
rides,
Add a tag
……………………. Leslie Bulion The Universe of Fair Peachtree Publishers website: http://www.lesliebulion.com/ ………………………….. Please welcome our guest, author Leslie Bulion whose new book, The Universe of Fair, is starting a virtual tour this week. Follow Leslie as she makes her way around various book sites. Her publisher, Peachtree, has the schedule of events HERE! A review [...]
By:
Melissa Wiley,
on 10/16/2012
Blog:
Here in the Bonny Glen
(
Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags:
Assorted and Sundry,
Books,
Games,
Picture Book Spotlight,
GeekMom,
Miss Suzy,
monthly subscription boxes,
Sprig Box,
Zelda,
Add a tag
Sprig Box contents, before we devoured them. Rose totally wants a subscription to this.
The Earworms app continues to be a great vehicle for Rose and Beanie’s German studies. They can now order a beer in any German restaurant with complete confidence.
We spent much of yesterday morning cataloguing the contents of a number of monthly subscription boxes for a big GeekMom series I’m doing—services like Knoshbox, Wonder Box, BabbaBox, La Bella Box, and a bunch more. BEST JOB EVER. Rilla spent all afternoon busy with art projects from the various kids’ boxes. I developed an immediate and passionate addiction to the Just Good snack mix in the photo, thanks to Sprig Box. ::shakes fist at Sprig Box:: ::kisses Sprig Box::
Of course the best part of the day, the best part of any day in which it occurs, was the reading of Miss Suzy, which I really think my be my favorite October book. Not that it’s only an October book, but that seems to be when I think of pulling it out. (The best part of my Miss Suzy post is when the author’s granddaughter leaves a comment!)
The girls finished Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (the Wii game) yesterday—a feat years in the making. “I still remember the day the package arrived,” said Rose. “Cold and rainy and miserable. And then suddenly we were in that lovely village, throwing chickens.” (Cue gales of laughter from Bean.)
I added yet more entries to the Giant List of Book Recommendations yesterday. Still a chunk of archives to go. Boy do I talk about books a lot.
By:
KidLitReviews,
on 11/12/2012
Blog:
Kid Lit Reviews
(
Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags:
5stars,
Library Donated Books,
NonFiction,
Abraham,
animals birds,
arts,
Bible stories,
biblical times,
book tour,
children's books,
Egyptian slaves,
games,
gaming,
Harod,
Jesus's time,
Kregel Publishing,
literature,
Noah,
puzzles,
religion,
Solomon,
theology,
where's waldo,
Add a tag
5 stars Bible Detective: A Puzzle Search Book Peter Martin Lion Children's Books 48 Pages Ages: 4+ .............. ……………………. Are you a super sleuth? Have you got an eagle eye? Back Cover: This book is a treasure trove of fabulously detailed pictures from the world of the Bible. You’ll have hours of fun trying to [...]
Chris Gardner, who drew our beautiful Drawn logo, shows some sketches and preliminary work for a logo he drew for a new iOS word game called Letter by Letter that launches today.
I’ve been playing a closed beta of the game for the past few weeks, and I’m complete addict. Its the perfect mix of Scrabble, Boggle, and Risk with short, but challenging turns that require some crafty strategy and a healthy vocabulary.
I know, I know. It's only the third of December.
Traditionally (a tradition of 24 years standing this year), we have four birthdays in January. So I am preparing about ten days earlier than everyone else. (Who else saw that hilarious Kikki K insert in The Age on Saturday? that calendar had NO TIME FOR SHOPPING in it. Just 'list' seguing effortlessly into 'wrapping'.)
Some of these are quite old. So forgive me if you have seen them already.
If you are feeling the pull to slow down over this busy time of year, the ABC has been running a program introducing meditation over the past six weeks. I heard about it through the Melbourne Meditation Centre, but it may well have been bruited elsewhere. Here's the toolkit. (You can easily trawl down the page to week 1 and begin at the beginning.)
I was interested to see this app, Flipboard, mentioned on the Killings blog by publishing researcher Caroline Hamilton, as I follow one of its developers on Twitter. And it looks to be a very pretty way of aggregating all your stuff on your iPad, too.
Caroline also mentions a 2010 article by Craig Mod that I really thought I'd read already. As it's not in my bookmarks, then I guess I will have to read it now, but it sure looks familiar...Books In The Age Of The iPad.
It's probably a bit late for Australians to order these and have them by Christmas, but this gorgeous Swiss toymaker's website is fun to look at, and I dare you not to order something one day. Via Things magazine. (Being the non-starting quilter I am, I have this on the wishlist.)
Something else I still haven't read - Terry Eagleton's review of a new bio of Derrida, from The Guardian.
Robert Crum, a couple of weeks back, had things to say about book marketing, coming up as a result with a list of lit-labels of his own which included the rather clumsy 'lit-lit':
The development of the literary marketplace in the past 30-something years has been echoed by a new, and acute, sensitivity to the place of genre within the trade. In a market-savvy creative economy, you could say that genre has become everything. I have been able to identify 15 contemporary shades of "literature".
I'll leave it to you to decide if his colours of writing are to your taste. Happy Christmas - if Typepad is listening, I want a better clipping tool, please. Like the one I have already on this blog, where, regrettably, you will be more likely to find me in the lazy, hazy days of summer. Thanks for reading the very intermittent postings here this year.
View Next 25 Posts
