king talk

The freeware »Mightier« is an independent puzzle action game developed by Lucas Pope and Keiko Ishizaka and was one of the finalists of this years 11th Independet Games Festival (San Francisco/CA). Play as the »Engineer« and the »Actionaut« to solve puzzles and collect items in each sector. First you have to print so called »puzzle« from within Mightier using a color printer. You have to solve the puzzle by drawing on the page with a dark pencil or marker. Scan the puzzle into the game using an attached web camera. A high-powered space laser carves the solution and the Actionaut is dropped onto the surface, which you have drawn before. Now it´s up to you. Take control of the Actionaut and collect all the »Datagons« in each sector. I think it´s quite fun to play otherwise the detour of the drawing via the web cam is quite tricky.

The way of converting the 2D images into 3D models reminds me of the »Teddy project« (1999) by Takeo Igarashi, a sketching interface for 3D freeform design. You can draw and configure your 2D sketch in space. If you test it online, you will notice that the interaction is very clumsy. The 3D library of Teddy is Open Source.

via Schröder+Wendt

I was really excited by the game »shout n dodge« today. A simple flashgame that reminded my a bit at the helicopter flash game, but this time you don´t have to click. (Fight the mouse!) After you allowed flash to use your microfone, you have to scream. The louder the higher your character will rise… Beware! Red quads trying to block your way… SHOUT LOUDER!… Puuuh…

This game and some more can be found at Sophie Houlden´s website. Her goal is to program easy to use games in 48 hours. Other games like Towlr Podge and Pineapple22 are also fun to play.

via momasurfer

Heading back to the KING TALK post last week about the increase of Augmented Reality interactive videos appearing everywhere, i thought i would show the extent of how AR is achieving by presenting another video of a nifty example of AR use.

The video below shows an open-source AR game being used to tilt and interact a game character in a cube like surrounding. The cubes control a link system that lets you walk through the integrated AR surroundings of each room by connection of the Cubes. The game is created and produced by Julian Oliver and is titled »Levelhead«. Currently the game is only available on Debian GNU/Linux and has not yet been developed as a installer program.

Its a really cool idea that enables great value to come out of current interaction design via AR compatibilities and explores what can be achieved with this fascinating controlled interactive data substance. More information can be found at: http://julianoliver.com/levelhead

Cheatcodes are so 90s! Today, you can cheat your way through classic games on the FCEUX NES emulator using simple drag and drop.

via Digital Tools

Augmented reality currently is the hip kid on the schoolyard that every other kid wants to be friends with. We’ve seen GEs Smart Grid and MINIs »Always Open« campaign. Both were nice to look at, but of limited value, as the only possible interaction was moving and rotating a virtual object.

But now, baseball trading cards vendor Topps has released a game that takes all the action right on your desk! You control a baseball player with your keyboard and see him wandering, pitching and striking in the real world (well, in an image of the real world that is being displayed on your computer screen, but anyway).

via NYT and theLager