Your Bizarre Eyes

'A short story of love and devotion' is how creator Shilov describes his latest game 'Your Bizarre Eyes'. It's a melancholic piece with a striking pixel art style, it finds you playing a devoted husband as you try to help your blind wife. In practice it's a frustratingly simply but rock-hard platforming game. Give it a try, it's free in-browser!

Thomas Was Alone Action Figures

I've mentioned before that I love Thomas Was Alone and when I heard that there were action figure coming out I ordered it for my mancave. Well it's arrived and I am very happy with it. It is signed by Mike Bithell (creator of the game) and Kerry Dyer (the action figure creator). I haven't taken the figures out of the box as it is signed by the Mike and Kerry and so opening it would lose the signatures. I have put it on my bookshelf and think it fits nicely with my Amiibo and comic collection.  

What Planet is Super Mario?

Gabe Perez-Giz is an astrophysicist who has received his PhD from Columbia University, he has  also worked as a postdoctoral researcher at NYU’s Center for Cosmology and Particle Physics. This is a guy who knows stuff! So when he looks into the physics of Super Mario World you need to listen. In his own words:

It's virtual so it obviously DOESN'T exist, but if it did, could Super Mario world be in our solar system? And what do the planet's dynamics reveal about Mario's crazy jumping ability?

Now I can hear some people saying 'Look it's just a game, what's the point?' but rather than thinking like that think of it like this: You are reverse engineering the underlying maths that went into the game and that is a great skill. Have a looksy and see what you think, the maths is impressive but goes wayyy over my head but maybe you will understand it better than I!

Dark Souls Graphics Shine in Design by Tettix

Judson Cowan, aka Tettix, is a huge Dark Souls fan. So much so that using his graphic design skills he has recreated Lordran in beautiful detail using just a little bit of creative license. He has created a few other art pieces and they are for sale as prints on his website. Have a look and maybe get yourself a piece of stunning game art.

Thomas Was Alone Deluxe Action Figures

Thomas Was Alone is a multi-award winning Indie game that has a big fanbase due to it's quirky characterisation of quadtrilaterals with the narrative read by Danny Wallace which tells a story rich with humor and emotion . The narrative is filled with basic but enduring lessons about friendship and human relationships. I played the game late last year when it came out on iOS and fell in love with it, even creating a title page inspired by the art style of the game. Well now Mike Bithell, the creator, and Kerry Dyer have created 'Action Figures'. Now you may ask 'Why are you buying a load of old blocks?' Well the truth is that I don't know but I can't not have them, it's like a need... the characters struck a chord with me, what with their quirks, flaws and general human frailties and foibles. How could I be without them in my mancave? The fact that they are signed by Mike Bithell is a definite plus too!

Each package contains four figures; Thomas, Claire, Chris and John.. for scale, Claire is 3.2cm tall.

They're signed by Kerry Dyer (the sculptor) and Mike Bithell (the bloke who made Thomas Was Alone).

The website even has a fun narrative to draw you in.

Thomas looked around his newly three dimensional surroundings. Had the world decided to, through waning success, swiftly build some kind of higher resolution re-release? Was this, he shuddered, fan art? He felt heavy, plastic. He was suddenly aware of the concepts of being both heavy, and plastic. It was with crushing dread, that Thomas realised he had become merchandise.

The website is linked below, I'm waiting eagerly for my figures to arrive and will share pics of them when I can!

LINK- Kerry Dyer Website


The Japanese Net Cafe Refugees

Shiho Fukada has created a three part documentary portrait series which looks at different aspects of Japanese culture. These are:

Overworked to Suicide

After the recession of the 1990s, Japan's white collar salarymen increasingly must work arduous hours for fear of losing their jobs. This often leads to depression and suicide.

Net Cafe Refugees

Internet cafes have existed in Japan for over a decade, but in the mid 2000's, customers began using these spaces as living quarters. Internet cafe refugees are mostly temporary employees, their salary too low to rent their own apartments.

Dumping Ground

Kamagasaki, Osaka, Japan used to be a thriving day laborer's town. Today, it is home to approximately 25,000 unemployed and elderly men, many of whom are also homeless.

These documentaries provide us with another side to Japan, a society of extremes. Of particular interest to me was the story of the Net Cafe Refugees, a short 10-minute documentary about the world of 24-hour Internet-connected cubicles (manga-kissas) that serve as cheap living quarters for many Japanese living on the edge of society with little money. It is insightful and darkly dystopian in tone but a riveting watch.

Zelda Livemap

A bunch of coders have teamed up to recreated the world of Zelda: A Link To The Past in browser using the JADSDS engine, a JavaScript animator. There is something empowering about swooping around the maps seeing the characters go about their daily life. As a piece of documentation on game design it is marvelous. Hyrule as designed in this game is a masterclass in world building and would fit in well with the RPG Maker lessons I planned, a perfect model of design. I'd recommend you check it out!

The Hedgehog Short Film

Winning plaudits and praise on the film circuit, 'The Hedgehog' is a short film created by Chris Lee & Paul Storrie, a duo from Upminster, East London. The film itself explores the idea of loneliness and reminds me of the film Somersault by Cate Shortland. 

Here is the synopsis from the website where you can watch the film for free:

A lone boy wanders the open landscape of a suburban park. Dressed as his favourite video game hero, he daydreams for adventure but the reality of his uneventful world disappoints him. He follows a strangely familiar man to an old house where he stumbles upon a peculiar truth to his lonely existence.

Play the Dizzy Games In-browser Now

Now it's no secret that I'm a huge fan of Dizzy, the puzzle solving egg. Last year I was lucky enough to meet the Oliver Twins and get my games signed by them (the article is linked below). Now some amazing individual has released the ZX Spectrum version of all the games on a website, the bonus is that they can all be played in-browser. No worries about emulation and downloading. How cool is that! My first port of call will be Spellbound Dizzy as I never had a chance to play the game on my Amstrad CPC 464 as I could never find the thing in shops. Now time to relive some old memories of Dizzy!

I'm excited to be finally playing Spellbound Dizzy!

Tie Fighter Short Star Wars Animation

'What if there was an Empire-focussed short Star Wars animation, drawn with the crazy detail and shading of classic 80s anime that's all but vanished from Japan nowadays?' This is what OtaKing77077 asks before sharing his 4 year labour of love, an animation showing the story from the Tie Fighter pilots point of view. The animation lasts under 8 minutes but took 4 years to make and its easy to see why. Check it out if you can.

Mike Carey Signed My Swag

I went down to Orbital Comics near Leicester Square, London to meet Mike Carey, get my comics signed and listen to his directors commentary on the finale for The Unwritten. There was a small crowd of people who were waiting to get their comics signed and a few, including me stayed behind from 7- 8:45 (ish) to listen to the interesting talk about the finale. Mike spoke about the creative process and how he worked collaboratively with Peter Gross, all fascinating stuff for anyone into comics. There was then a question and answer session which for a big fan of of his work, like me, was great. Anyways, he was a thoroughly lovely bloke and I had a wonderful time!

Mike Carey Signing in Orbital Comics, London

Mike Carey, writer of comic books, novels, and films, will be signing comics at Orbital Comics in London. For those who don't recognise the name Carey is the wonderfully talented author of works including Vertigo's Lucifer, Hellblazer issues 175 to 215 and most recently the highly literate The Unwritten. The event, which will run on Saturday 6th June from 6-7pm, will celebrate the release of the final collection of The Unwritten. Afterwards Carey will give a directors commentary on this final piece of work. So if you are free why not head down? I'll be there with a couple of The Unwritten and Hellblazer graphic novels.

Reverse Engineering Wipeout

WipEout was  one of the standout games in the early PlayStation era, it struck a chord with many for its distinctive art style and pumping dance music. Dominic Szablewski, (@phoboslab) really loved the game and has reverse engineered the game so that you can fly around the tracks. It's hypnotic and entrancing, best of all there is free mode where you can zoom in and out of the whole track to see the design of the tracks. This is a real labour of love and an impressive feat of reverse engineering. Check it out.

Miyazaki Inspired Student Film Is Stunning

French art student Gwenn Germain is a huge Miyazaki fan, so much so that he has created a wonderful homage piece to Ghibli films called Celles et Ceux des Cimes et Cieux (translated as 'Girls and Guys from Summits and Skies') As a solo piece of animation it is impressive, capturing the style of Miyazaki well. Apart from the faces the rest is very Miyazaki-esque.

He-Man Remastered Track was used in Mysterious Cities of Gold

If you've ever watched an old TV series from the 80's you've probably noticed that some of the sound FX and music is the same.  That's because a lot of the animation and dubbing was done by the same studios or using Movieola editors, not on digital audio workstation like many sound effects today. The studios used key stock effects as that's what they had.

Anyways, my favourite TV show of all time The Mysterious Cities of Gold not only shared sound effects with He-Man: Masters of the Universe but also music! Originally titled Subterranean Secret or The Burning Shield, the MCOG track was used occasionally in dramatic and atmospheric scenes in He-Man. Here, for the first time is a completely clean version of the music created by Dusan M, using the original cues from the score by Shuki Levy. No more horrible audio cues distorting the majesty of this wondrous track. Enjoy!

Monologue the Game

Monologue is a sweet free to play in-browser game created during a game jam by Phil Dougherty, Nick Heindl and Tyler Summers. The game itself is a simple typing challenge but what makes it stand out are the villains speeches.... very vaudevillian! If you liked Icarus Proudbottom and games of that ilk then this might be just the treat!

Beneath Floes

Beneath Floes is a Hypertext Novel which means the player clicks links to progress. When multiple links are presented, the player must choose between them to continue (sort of like the Choose Your Own Adventure Stories of old). Since Twine has brought this type of gaming to the masses there have been tonnes of Hypertext games produced but what puts Beneath Floes at the top of the pile is the subtle creeping dread you feel, Kevin Snow the author, really knows how to get under your skin. Priscilla White's soundscape and Patrick Bonaduce's illustrations add to the oppressive and murky atmosphere wonderfully. If you have a little time to kill what better way than to play this!