A look into the design of in-game user interfaces.
Nintendo just announced that its interim net profit was cut by more than half to ¥69.49 billion (about $770 million), from ¥144.83 billion last year at this time
– Nintendo profits sink on declining console sales, weak game selection
Fancy yourself a crimefighter? Then this might be for you:
“The ‘Internet Eyes’ service involves players scouring thousands of CCTV cameras installed in shops, businesses and town centres across Britain looking for law-breakers.
Players who help catch the most criminals each month will win cash prizes up to £1,000.”
This has got to be either the coolest idea in crime prevention I have ever heard of, or the scariest breach of privacy rights yet. I’m still undecided on the subject.
Australia is a great country. Wide open spaces, a great coral reef, and a reputation for fun-loving, down-to-earth folk. And yet, in another shining example of myopia and undue censorship, the Australian ratings board has delivered the videogame industry another kick in the crotch.
Apparently, killing zombies is too much of a violent scenario to be allowed on the market. I guess all Australian gamers will be left with is the option to get a real gun and go shoot some dingoes.
A very funny example of turning the tables on a scammer.
Beautiful.
Mini-Review: My Brute for iPhone
If you’re into social “MMO” type games, the iPhone or iPod Touch are about as good a platform as you’ll find for your genre. Unfortunately, the kind of social games the App Store is awash with tend to be poorly-concealed clones of old staples like iMob, iMafia, iKnights, Vampires, Zombies and so on - barely more than re-skinnings of bug ridden leveling games based on barely more than HTML layouts.
My Brute is not one of those games. As a well executed iPhone adaptation of the popular Flash arena fighting game, My Brute brings with it a level of polish and adorability not commonly found in many of its peers.
The concept is simple: You start a martial arts dojo, choose your main fighting style, and create between one and three fighters, or ‘brutes.’ Then you pit these against others and watch them fight with an ever increasing variety of weapons and perks. You only get six fights a day per brute though, so choose wisely!
The novel thing about My Brute is that there is no actual fighting involved - the skill is in choosing the right opponents based on your own statistics, then sit back and watch the fight play out. The more you win, the better your fighter gets.
This simple premise is greatly enhanced by the game’s social aspect, which entails recruiting pupils into your dojo as well as finding a master for yourself. Interestingly, both the master and pupil gain greatly from this union, encouraging more widespread use of the social networking features.
The game’s social side runs on top of the increasingly popular Feint social gaming platform, which requires no upfront registration and provides gamers with lobbies, chat, and the ability to find each other. If you’re a Facebook or Twitter user, you can also log in with your existing credentials.
In a nutshell, the ability to maintain a dojo full of deeply customisable - yet always adorable - little fighters and compete against your friends for the most powerful dojo makes My Brute well worth the £2.99 (UK App Store) price of admission.
Give it a try, and if you’re looking for a dojo, our Angry Kitteh Dojo will welcome you with open arms - just enter the master code IFDIGHFE and you’re good to go.
My Brute for the iPhone and iPod Touch can be found here [iTunes link].
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Technology meets science-fiction, humour, gaming, art and media. A fresh take on what lurks beyond the mainstream.
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