Freedom mobility and old gems

Music games might not need consoles in the future says  Harmonix creative director Josh Randall:

"Your instrument can have all these songs and you just plug it into your TV. I’m sure it [the genre] is going to start to move in weird ways that no-one’s even thought of yet."

Well maybe hooked to a PC? Or -sorry- to a media streaming center web interface that could do games and download content too? I totally see that happening without the hassle for the consumer that is to choose one console and stick to it. Bill Gates thinks the same for Project Natal. It’s so expensive from the complete Wii set (4 remotes 4 nunchucks power station SDs Wiiboard Wiimotionplus) to the full PS3 one ( 4 gamepads HD all the way). Long life to the generic, refrigerator-like computer. No brand, just plain usefulness. When are we gonna hit this stage in the geeky world?

About brands and iphone dev, fifteen games from the top twenty are selling at the 99 cents price point. Pretty hard to earn something now that the number of games did go from 6,000 to 13,000 in a couple of months, especially with the same problem we encounter in brick and mortar business model. While the 3GS expands the market, it also fragments it a bit especially for little developers: it’s something to do an app for one device. When it’s three or four different it’s not the same. I have some audio fxs for our upcoming game in 32KHz and the ipod Touch don’t do that (don’t ask me why the iphone can) for example. Or how it’s difficult to manage dev over OS updates with the ones you have to pay for on ipod Touch.

i think I want one.

During this time HTC and co are full speed on Android. The last attempt the HTC Hero would let me say that it’s becoming damn mature on the Google side. Ok I already have say so a few months ago but this time it’s real!

The only bad thing about it is that the heavy java based dev environment makes a lot of coders run from this platform for more C++/.NET/Objective C.

“Researchers at North Carolina State University and the Georgia Institute of Technology have received a $1.2 million grant from the National Science Foundation to study whether and how video games can boost memory and thinking skills in the elderly – and then to use their findings to develop a prototype video game to do just that.”

Full story. Elderly is the new black. It’s a multi-billion market untapped here! I feel concerned about this because like Will Wright said recently:

"If you look at what people are doing with this technology it is, or has been, mostly directed at 12-year-old boys. But it has the potential to do a whole lot more."

Word.

”I want to be a ninja!” #1stdraftgamelines

Like the artist who did this portrait of Mr Threepwood I don’t really dig the Disney/Dreamworks cartoon-ish style of the “HD” version (and can’t stand the 3D version but it’s selling well and I’m fine with that).

Lucas Arts is re-releasing all of his old adventure games on Steam. Now a game that would really benefit from HD (because already in 3D) is one of the best game ever: Grim Fandango. PLEASE LUCAS DOIT.