Sunday Links #4

Round 4. This time with a bit more audio material, so enjoy the pretty pictures, videos and tunes. Also note that since I will be at GDC next week I won’t be able to provide you with a link list for next weekend. I will however try to tweet during the conference to keep you people updated. Follow me at @mnerurkar. Regular programming will resume afterwards however.

Link: Mapstalgia Tumblr

Mapstalgia is a blog about video game maps drawn from memory. It’s an excellent insight into how people perceive spaces and the topic of “cognitive maps“. Also there’s some sweet nostalgia in there such as the map of the Maniac Mansion pictured above.

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Sunday Links #3

Welcome to another installment of Sunday Links ™. Today I have a pretty eclectic mixture for you. Not all of it is games but (as usual) all of it is interesting. Either that or your money back!

Image: Polygon Heroes: The Hulk

This is from a series of pictures from James Reid. I love the way it creates a retro polygon aesthetic. It’s not unlike the resurgence of pixel art as a style to abstract everything. Maybe the “another world” graphics will make a resurgence. I wouldn’t mind.

Also note that I’ve been using Pinterest a lot lately. You can find this and more nerdy graphics (among other things I pin) on my personal Pinterest account or by checking out the Pinterest widget in the right hand column.

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Sunday Links #2

Welcome to another installment of the Sunday Links. This time with a bit more explanation and personal opinion for each of the different links:

Video: Van Gogh – Starry Night, interactive art

A wonderful example of what people can do with technology – as far as I know it was done with Kinect. For some reason it also reminds me a lot of flOwer. Even though it’s not a game I could easily imagine games with a similar painterly artstyle using lots of particles.

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Sunday Links #1

Picking up an idea from Gunnar Lott / Herr Kaliban I’ve decided to compile a list of all the interesting things I stumble upon over the week into a weekly digest. Not all of this will be games, but all of it should be interesting. So here we go, the first installment of Sunday Links:

Video: Sequelitis review of Mega Man X.
An excellent look at teaching gameplay without text. I’ve looked at some other videos in the series and can recommend all of it so far.

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Redefining public space as play

Granted, this is not technically news but I just now stumbled over it. Summer 2011, the swiss city of Luzerne launched an initiative (together with ) to clean up it’s streets by “gamifying” their trash bins. Not only is this awesome, it also looks damn cool and it a wonderful example of the power of simple lines to redefine (public) space.

Granted there’s little in the sense of feedback or actual goals but still it’s a neat idea. Unfortunately I have not found any information on the effectiveness of this campaign. Since it’s been out there for a while I’d be curious to know more. Regardless, here’s some more pictures of the 15 changed trash bins.
Luzerne City (Bild: Manuela Jans/Neue LZ) Luzerne City (Bild: Manuela Jans/Neue LZ) Luzerne City (Bild: Manuela Jans/Neue LZ)

Source (German)