Thinking about cancer as an ecosystem is giving biologists access to a new armoury of mathematical tools for tackling it, such as evolutionary game theory
Tag Archives: game
Watch Dogs game true-to-life hacking developed with real security pros
Posted by Gsurface
on May 12, 2013
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The development team at Ubisoft have been working on the game Watch Dogs for an unusually long time. This hacker-themed game has been in development for 4.5 years, long enough for the original concept to have gotten so close to real life that its developers have been able to easily consult with a team of
In ‘Great Gatsby,’ the video game, Daisy meets Mario Bros.
Posted by Gsurface
on May 11, 2013
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Say the Same Thing: a self-explanatory mobile game from OK Go (video)
Posted by Gsurface
on May 10, 2013
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Bored of Words with Friends? How about a word game created by band (and internet neutrality advocates) OK Go instead of a floundering corporation? Believe it or not, the Grammy-winners have just released a free game for iOS and Android called Say the Same Thing, which actually has nothing to do with the group or its music. It lets you play with a friend or random partner as you try arrive at the same word, by each choosing a new word in common with your previous choices. We gave it a shot, and it’s actually rather fun — yours truly and random internet guy Jason H. each arrived at “Caddyshack” from “Bill Murray” and “movies” after four rounds. You can even play with one of the band members, though there was quite a queue when we tried — see how they roll in the video after the break, or grab the app at the sources.
Run away from bulls on Zynga’s latest “With Friends” game
Posted by Gsurface
on May 9, 2013
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The social-gaming company releases “Running With Friends,” a combination of its mobile franchise and the popular genre of running games. The title’s set at the annual running of the bulls in Pamplona, Spain. [Read more]
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OUYA Closes $15 Million In Funding Led By Kleiner Perkins, Boasts 12,000 Game Developer Sign-Ups
Posted by Gsurface
on May 9, 2013
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Today, gaming console and software company OUYA announced that they have closed a $ 15 million round led by Kleiner Perkins, and with participation from the Mayfield Fund, NVIDIA, Shasta Ventures and Ocean Partners. This marks one of the largest institutional investments to go to a project that had its humble beginnings on Kickstarter. OUYA is a company that launched back in 2012 on Kickstarter under the guiding hands of Julie Uhrman, a video game industry veteran who believes that gaming should be affordable and enjoyable for everyone. She and the team developed a $ 99 Android gaming console, which hooks into the TV and comes with automatic access to free-to-try games. It launched on the crowdfunding site to much fanfare, scoring $ 8.6 million in funding, which ends up being around 9x more than OUYA asked. Along with the $ 15 million round, which brings OUYA’s total amount of funding to $ 23.5 million, the company will also be bringing KPCB General Partner Bing Gordon on to the board of directors. Gordon brings with him years of experience from Electronic Arts. Here’s what he had to say about the funding: OUYA’s open source platform creates a new world of opportunity for established and emerging independent game creators and gamers alike. There are some types of games that can only be experienced on a TV, and OUYA is squarely focused on bringing back the living room gaming experience. OUYA will allow game developers to unleash their most creative ideas and satisfy gamers craving a new kind of experience. The OUYA hardware has proven its spot in the market with the successful Kickstarter project, followed by an institutional investment led by a firm such as KPCB. “The message is clear: people want OUYA,” said Uhrman. But the same story rings true for software, as the company has seen over 12,000 developers sign up for the platform to build games and monetize them in any way they’d like. This is up from 8,000 developer signups in March. And if that weren’t enough, OUYA has been picked up by major retailers like GameStop, Best Buy and Amazon, with availability beginning June 4. Clearly, the affordable gaming console speaks to people. But is it enough to make OUYA profitable? In an interview with TechCrunch, Uhrman explained that OUYA essentially breaks even on the hardware from the $ 99 gaming console, and that all games will be free-to-try. Curious if that
TechCrunch
Xbox 720 could get Project Gotham Racing launch game devs hint
Posted by Gsurface
on May 8, 2013
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Microsoft’s next-gen Xbox 720 could launch with a new Project Gotham Racing game, developers have teased, with Lucid Games promising that “mid-May will be interesting for the studio.” Lucid, which was formed from ex-Bizarre Creations staff, the studio responsible for the original Project Gotham Racing series, took to Facebook to tease a new 2013 title,
DICE says Battlefield 4 game engine won’t run on Nintendo Wii U
Posted by Gsurface
on May 8, 2013
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One of the most anticipated games for next-generation game consoles comes from DICE. That game is Battlefield 4 and fans of the Nintendo game consoles have received some bad news this week. DICE has announced that the game engine that operates Battlefield 4 won’t run on the Nintendo Wii U game console. The game engine
Caesars Palace deals Google Glass out of its game
Posted by Gsurface
on May 8, 2013
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A year before Google’s futuristic-looking, computerized eyeglasses are even expected to hit the market, they have been banned — again.
Computerworld News
Valve experiments with players’ sweat response, eye-tracking controls for future game design
Posted by Gsurface
on May 7, 2013
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Valve has a surprisingly varied staff roster. Mike Ambinder is the company’s very own experimental psychologist and he’s been outlining some of Valve’s work with biofeedback technology, including eye-motion controls for Portal 2 and perspiration-based gaming adjustments on Left 4 Dead. Mentioning these developments at the NeuroGaming Conference last week, Ambinder notes that both are still at an experimental stage, but that “there is potential on both sides of the equation, both for using physiological signals to quantify an emotion [and] what you can do when you incorporate physiological signals into the gameplay itself.”
In Left 4 Dead, test subjects had their sweat monitored, with values assigned to how much they were responding to the action. This data was fed back into the game, where designers attempted to modify (and improve) the experience. In a test where players had four minutes to shoot 100 enemies, calmer participants would progress normally, but if they got nervous, the game would speed up and they would have less time to shoot. When it came to the eye-tracking iteration of Portal 2, the new controls apparently worked well, but also necessitated separating aiming and viewpoint to ensure it worked. With Valve already involving itself in wearable computing, it should make both notions easier to accomplish if it decides to bring either experiment to fans. Venture Beat managed to record Ambinder’s opening address at the conference — we’ve added it after the break.
Filed under: Gaming
Source: Venture Beat
EA Is the Game Company Disney Was Looking For
Posted by Gsurface
on May 6, 2013
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An anonymous reader writes “Electronic Arts announced today it has landed an exclusive multi-year agreement to develop and publish games based on Lucasfilms’ Star Wars universe. EA said the it will create and publish Star Wars games for a ‘core gaming audience’ across ‘all popular platforms’ and genres. The EA studios creating those ‘core’ Star Wars games are Battlefield developer DICE, Dead Space developer Visceral Games and Mass Effect house BioWare.”
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Ender’s Game trailer teased on Google+, promises full preview on May 7th
Posted by Gsurface
on May 5, 2013
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Film promotion has changed over the years. Sure, there are still posters, trailers, TV spots, and radio and print ads, but now there’s also Google+ — at least for Ender’s Game. The upcoming film, based on Orson Scott Card’s award winning sci-fi novel, is using the social network to tease fans — flaunting a brief peek at the film’s trailer and advertising a Google+ Hangout with the film’s creators. Leading actors Harrison Ford and Asa Butterfield kicked off the hype machine by introducing a teaser trailer for the film, promising the full preview as a Google / YouTube exclusive next week. The entire clip (introduction included) falls under a minute, just long enough for die-hard fans to cry “the book is better.” You can take your continuity complaints to the film’s director, producer and star on May 7th.
Filed under: Google
The Philosophy Of Game Development By The Numbers
Posted by Gsurface
on May 5, 2013
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Editor’s note: Hassan Baig is an entrepreneur who runs White Rabbit Studios, a South Asian gaming startup he founded four years ago in Pakistan.
There are several metrics that game developers keep an eye on when tracking the performance of their games. Notions of creativity, novelty and fun are all confined within the prism of an analytics-centric approach: They have wiggle room as long as they improve analytics.
TechCrunch
Google Sets Its Sights On Gaming, Hires Noah Falstein As Chief Game Designer
Posted by Gsurface
on May 5, 2013
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MojoKid writes “Google has its hands in every other aspect of the tech industry, so why not gaming, too? It appears as though the company is eyeing a run at the gaming market by hiring Noah Falstein as its “Chief Game Designer”. Falstein’s LinkedIn profile has been updated to reflect his new title, which is the latest in a long career. He started out in 1980 and put in time at (the recently-defunct) Lucasfilm Games as well as 3DO and Dreamworks Interactive.”
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Sid Meier lets fly with mobile game — and why you’ll be happy to pay
Posted by Gsurface
on May 4, 2013
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CNET sits down with the gaming legend as he talks about his first foray into mobile gaming with Ace Patrol. [Read more]
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Ming Mecca modules steer whole game worlds through voltage (video)
Posted by Gsurface
on May 4, 2013
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Just about every gamer we know has wanted to alter a game world on the spot, whether it’s to cheat, fix game mechanics or experiment. Special Stage Systems’ Ming Mecca system is built entirely around that concept — and will definitely appeal to anyone with a fondness for analog electronics. Knobs and switches on its World Core synthesizer module adjust the game machine’s maps, graphics, characters and even physics through voltage tweaks. Players only have to load assets on an SD card if they’d like a different look, and they even have access to the firmware and schematics if they want to go completely off the beaten path. Input is just as unconventional: a Control Core turns NES-compatible gamepads into signal generators that can be used just as easily for music making as for playing. Ming Mecca isn’t expected to ship until summer 2014, and it won’t be cheap at an estimated $ 999 for a World Core and $ 350 for the Control Core. Even so, we’re sorely tempted to splurge — it’s not often that a gadget scratches so many of our nostalgic itches at once.
Source: Special Stage Systems
Call of Duty: Ghosts already best-selling game on Amazon
Posted by Gsurface
on May 2, 2013
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It’s been less than a day since Activision and Infinity Ward officially announced their next Call of Duty installment, titled Call of Duty: Ghosts, but it’s already the best-selling video game on Amazon right now. The online retailer began pre-orders yesterday, and it’s already on top in several countries. According to Amazon’s Best Sellers list
Microsoft IllumiRoom project turns room into video game
Posted by Gsurface
on April 30, 2013
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The IllumiRoom project from Microsoft Research turns a living room into a video game with projected images that extend and complement the main television screen. The realistic effect, if commercialized, could propel Microsoft’s gaming business far beyond its competition.
Computerworld News
OUYA reveals exclusive game Soul Fjord
Posted by Gsurface
on April 30, 2013
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The OUYA team has made a chipper announcement, unveiling an exclusive game called Soul Fjord, which isn’t yet available but will be in the near future. In case the game’s name and logo aren’t suggestive enough, the game has a distinct musical-aspect to it wrapped up in a fantasy-land shell that forms a mashup of
Portal co-creator unveils Ouya-exclusive game Soul Fjord (video)
Posted by Gsurface
on April 30, 2013
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It’s no secret that Portal co-creator Kim Swift has been developing an Ouya-exclusive game, but details regarding it had been kept under wraps until today. Dubbed Soul Fjord, the Airtight Games-developed title fuses Norse mythology with ’70s Funk and Soul, and charges its main character Magnus Jones with climbing the World Tree to demand an invitation to Ragnarok, “the party that will end the world.” Gameplay hasn’t been shown quite yet, but the experience is described as a dungeon-crawler with rhythm-based combat that’ll see players battle their way through randomly generated areas. Do the hustle past the break to catch the game’s first trailer and a developer video diary.
Filed under: Gaming
Beating Cancer at Its Own Game
Posted by Gsurface
on April 29, 2013
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Some cancer cell mutations can slow or halt tumor growth
A typical cancer cell has hundreds of mutated genes, but only a handful, known as drivers, are responsible for cancerous traits such as uncontrolled growth. Biologists have largely ignored the other mutations, believing they had little or no impact on cancer progression.
PlayStation Vita game Soul Sacrifice helps boost sales for the game console
Posted by Gsurface
on April 28, 2013
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NBC plans ‘The Million Second Quiz’ twelve day, 24 / 7 game show
Posted by Gsurface
on April 25, 2013
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Second screen experiences connected to TV shows haven’t exactly set the world on fire, but NBC will give it another try with a new game show this fall. The Million Second Quiz is being promoted as a non-stop, twelve day trivia game with an “unprecedented level of interactivity” for viewers. In a move that harkens back to our memories of 1 vs 100 on Xbox Live a few years ago, viewers at home can play along and possibly win a spot on the show. While the competition will go on around the clock, the show airs during prime time. It will broadcast live from an “hourglass-shaped structure” located in Manhattan where the four reigning champs will reside as long as they can stay on top throughout the two week competition. Once the million seconds are up, the four champions will face off for a cash prize of up to $ 10 million. We’ll need more details before we can decide if this is more Ultimate Ninja Warrior or Oh Sit! / Splash / Bet On Your Baby (these are all real game shows, we promise), but it’s one to keep an eye out for when the all new shows debut.
Filed under: Gaming, Home Entertainment, HD
Source: The Million Second Quiz (Facebook), Million Seconds (Twitter)
Unity stops offering Flash game engine licenses, cites a lack of Adobe love
Posted by Gsurface
on April 25, 2013
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The Unity 4 engine has given Flash gaming a lot of TLC by simplifying web ports of complex projects. If you ask Unity Technologies, however, that love isn’t being requited — and the company feels jilted enough to stop offering new Flash licenses, effective immediately. Adobe supposedly isn’t committed enough to the plugin, having halted work on both a re-engineered Flash Player Next as well as an attractive revenue sharing model. Unity is equally concerned about the broader developer community shying away from Flash at the same time as its own plugin, Unity Web Player, has soared past 200 million installs. While those with existing licenses should have Flash support for as long as versions of Unity 4 are in the field, the exit is bound to have game creators scrambling to find alternatives for any future web-based titles.
Filed under: Gaming, Internet, Software
Via: TechCrunch
Source: Unity Technologies
Skyscraper? Check. Giant joystick? Check. Game of Pong will be writ large in Philadelphia
Posted by Gsurface
on April 20, 2013
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A skyscraper-sized game of pong is ready to go in Philadelphia, hopefully under stars and not rainclouds.
FOX News
Art reveals the lengthy history of video game controllers
Posted by Gsurface
on April 20, 2013
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A jumbo-size poster sends the viewer on a retrospective journey through nearly six decades of video game input devices. What’s your favorite controller? [Read more]
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Giant Pong game on Philadelphia skyscraper kicks off tonight
Posted by Gsurface
on April 20, 2013
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Google Leak Hints At an Android Game Center With Multiplayer Support
Posted by Gsurface
on April 18, 2013
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An anonymous reader writes “Google appears to be preparing the launch of a game center for Android with an unknown name. It looks like the new hub will sport a slew of features, including multiplayer support, in-game chat, lobbies, leaderboards, and achievements. The leaked information come to us courtesy of Android Police, which amusingly stumbled on the details by tearing apart the apk file for MyGlass, the Google Glass companion app that launched earlier this week. The feature list was hidden within, though it’s not clear if this was done on purpose to build hype or entirely by accident.” While on the topic of Google-branded Android hardware speculation, this wishlist at The Full Signal makes some feature-list pleas for the rumored Nexus 5.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Iron Man 3 game trailer shows off in-app purchases
Posted by Gsurface
on April 18, 2013
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Girl Scouts to award badge for video game development
Posted by Gsurface
on April 18, 2013
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The youth organization is getting with the times by creating a new skill badge for girls who build their own video games. [Read more]
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Girl Scouts could get very own video game badge, STEM-approved
Posted by Gsurface
on April 17, 2013
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Girls are gamers, too — and not just the Nintendogs type. Though video games have commonly been ascribed a boys’ club distinction, the Girls Scouts of Greater Los Angeles and Women in Games International are looking to undo that common misperception. Working in conjunction with E-line, the publisher behind the government’s STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) initiative, the two groups are seeking to create a nationally recognized video game badge; a first for the Girl Scouts. Guidelines for the proposed badge are still in process, with WIGI molding requirements to fall neatly in line with the STEM program, even going so far as to use the same development tool, Gamestar Mechanic. If and when the program gets final approval from the Girls Scouts of America, it’d be the third such video game badge available to our nation’s young troopsters, as both the Cub and Boy Scouts currently offer one. So, no Rosa, it would seem the Girl Scouts do need those stinkin’ patches.
Backed By Greylock’s Reid Hoffman, Recurious Launches As A Game Development Platform For Curious Kids
Posted by Gsurface
on April 16, 2013
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Recurious, a new game development platform that aims to help kids rediscover their curiosity, is announcing $ 1.5 million in funding led by Greylock Partners (Reid Hoffman).
TechCrunch
Project Unity combines 15 game consoles into one cube
Posted by Gsurface
on April 15, 2013
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Hardware vs. software: Playing the PC sales blame game
Posted by Gsurface
on April 14, 2013
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Predictive Sports Game Startup PrePlay Raises $4.7M Series B To Build Out Its App Portfolio, Seize More Sports Fans’ Eyeballs
Posted by Gsurface
on April 12, 2013
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Predictive sports game startup PrePlay has closed a $ 4.7 million Series B round, led by Trilogy Equity Partners LLC. RSE Ventures, the VC fund founded by Miami Dolphins’ owner Stephen Ross and Matt Higgins, also participated in the round. ‘CodeSpells’ Video Game Teaches Children Java Programming
Posted by Gsurface
on April 11, 2013
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CyberSlugGump writes “Computer scientists at UC San Diego have developed a 3D first-person video game designed to teach young students Java programming. In CodeSpells a wizard must help a land of gnomes by writing spells in Java. Simple quests teach main Java components such as conditional and loop statements. Research presented March 8 at the 2013 SIGCSE Technical Symposium indicate that a test group of 40 girls aged 10-12 mastered many programming concepts in just one hour of playing.”
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Hackers Swipe Unreleased Game From Ubisoft
Posted by Gsurface
on April 9, 2013
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hypnosec writes with news that a group of Russian hackers have compromised the security of Ubisoft’s digital distribution platform, uPlay, finding a way for users of the service to download any of its games for free. What makes this particularly notable is that the hackers found a copy of Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon, an unreleased spin-off of Far Cry 3 that hasn’t even been officially announced (except as part of an April Fool’s joke. The hackers posted a half-hour of gameplay footage to YouTube, and Ubisoft took uPlay down to fix the security vulnerability. They say no user information was compromised.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Resurrecting the Linux Game Tome
Posted by Gsurface
on April 8, 2013
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First time accepted submitter jakimfett writes “On April 13th, The Linux Game Tome will be going dark, but there’s hope yet. The admin, BobZ, has an update for the community: ‘To everyone who is expressing interest in helping to continue The Linux Game Tome: thank you! But don’t tell me, tell the community! After this site is shut down, I will walk away from it. I have no plans to be involved in any effort to continue the Linux Game Tome legacy. If you are interested in continuing the legacy, please organize and make it happen.’ Following the announcement was an email with some ‘Linux Game Tome 3.0′ information. In response to the email, I’ve set up a site that can act as a discussion platform for anyone interested in contributing to the project.”
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Black Rock Shooter: The Game heads to PSN on April 23rd
Posted by Gsurface
on April 7, 2013
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Black Rock Shooter: The Game, spawned by the Japanese media franchise Black Rock Shooter and released by Imageepoch, will be making its way to the United States April 23rd via the PlayStation Network. It will make its way to Europe a day after. The game was initially released on the PlayStation Portable in Japan in
Torment: Tides of Numenera breaks record as most-funded Kickstarter game
Posted by Gsurface
on April 7, 2013
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InXile’s Torment: Tides of Numenera has made Kickstarter history by becoming the most-funded Kickstarter game ever. It initially only had plans of raising $ 900,000, but gamers were so impressed with the idea of the game that 74,405 backers ended up pledging $ 4,188,927 to support the project. The total amount InXile received is more than 4.5x
OUYA promises improved responsiveness, simplified game installs for June retail launch
Posted by Gsurface
on April 7, 2013
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The OUYA‘s off to a rough start, with reviewers — us included — encountering button sticking and faceplate issues with the controller, and a variety of complaints about the $ 99 game console’s OS software. A variety of backers also received their console in the mail with the controller’s removable faceplates already removed, having slipped off during shipment. OUYA’s addressing at least some of these concerns by the console’s June 4th launch, company CEO Julie Uhrman promises in a letter to backers on OUYA’s official site.
“Our software is constantly evolving,” Uhrman says. As such, OUYA has “a host of features” that it’s working on adding to the console ahead of its impending retail launch: “external storage for games, simpler game install process, more metrics for developers, controller support for video players, and more payment options.” But first, Uhrman says her team is “focused on optimizing the performance of our software (this mean responsiveness),” directly addressing criticisms of the console’s seeming lag between input and on-screen response. As for the controller, OUYA is “considering adding additional magnets” to help with the faceplate issue — the controller’s faceplates are attached via six magnets apiece, currently. It’s unclear if the controller will change in any other significant ways ahead of the console’s retail availability, but we’re hopeful that the button sticking issue is also addressed.
Filed under: Gaming, Software, HD
Source: OUYA
Giant game of Pong to take place on Philadelphia skyscraper
Posted by Gsurface
on April 6, 2013
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The Cira Centre, a 29-story skyscraper in Philadelphia, is about to become the surface upon which a giant game of Pong takes place. This will be achieved using many hundreds of LED lights that create a playable version of the classic Atari game, taking many residents through a trip down nostalgia lane. The game will
Philly pong: City gets ready to play iconic game on building facade
Posted by Gsurface
on April 4, 2013
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Disney zaps in-house game development at LucasArts
Posted by Gsurface
on April 4, 2013
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Walt Disney has shut down in-house development at LucasArts, the gaming arm of Lucasfilm, less than a year after buying its parent company.
Computerworld News
Disney halts game development at LucasArts, moves to licensed Star Wars titles
Posted by Gsurface
on April 3, 2013
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If you’re old enough to have played PC games for more than a decade, LucasArts (originally LucasFilm Games) likely has a permanent place in your heart after a string of legendary adventure and flight combat releases. You’ll unfortunately have to put the company as you knew it squarely in the past — Lucasfilm’s new owner, Disney, is ending internal development at LucasArts. The software house is shifting to a licensing model for Star Wars games, reportedly “minimizing the company’s risk” while expanding the range of games on offer. There’s a chance that in-progress titles like Star Wars 1313 will survive with outside help, according to a spokesperson in touch with GameInformer, but talk of layoffs from Kotaku dampens any chances for direct follow-ups to favorites like Grim Fandango. We won’t mourn too much when personas like Ron Gilbert, Lawrence Holland and Tim Schafer have long since moved on to other companies — still, it’s unquestionably the end of an era for game and movie fans alike.
Via: Joystiq
Source: GameInformer (1), (2)
Indies the Biggest Stars At Game Developers Conference
Posted by Gsurface
on April 1, 2013
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RougeFemme writes “Indies beat out mainstream studios for most of the Game Developers Choice Awards. FTL: Faster Than Light, an independent game financed by a Kickstarter campaign, won the award for Best Debut. Because of the growing success of the indies, Eric Zimmerman, game designer and instructor at the NYU Game Center, is canceling the Game Design Challenge that he’s held at the conference for the last 10 years. ‘The idea of doing strange, bizarre, experimental games is no longer strange, bizarre or experimental.’”
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
HBO Says Game of Thrones Piracy Is “a Compliment”
Posted by Gsurface
on March 31, 2013
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An anonymous reader writes “HBO programming president Michael Lombardo not only says that illegal downloading of Game of Thrones isn’t hurting the show, but goes far as to say it’s ‘a compliment’ and worries about the image quality of pirated copies”
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Apple again said to be planning game hardware
Posted by Gsurface
on March 31, 2013
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A new report says Apple is shopping around the idea of a physical game controller to developers, with plans to launch it next month. [Read more]
CNET News
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