Homeless Sims

techcrunch-homeless-sims

With ‘The Sims 3′ released just the other day, Technology blog Techcrunch have an interesting interview with Rob Burkinshaw, a game designer who created an experiment called Alice and Kev, which essentially tries to simulate homelessness in The Sims.

The results are quite astounding as you will find, and it is this quote that has stuck with me from the Alice and Kev website:

“What does it mean when a character you’ve created makes you re-examine your own life through their astonishing selflessness?”

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Love

Games, games, games, we’re on somewhat of a roll at the moment. Love is another independent game that encourages group exploration through a brilliantly aesthetic world. Using procedural algorithms to create content as you play Love has no story other than the one you create whilst playing.

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Fez

While we’re on the topic of video games, Fez is another that I’ve been keeping tabs on for a while. Developed by indie games developer Kokomori, Fez takes the gap between 2D and 3D graphics to a new level. The game is played in 2D however you need to solve puzzles by rotating the environment in three dimensions. Here’s a video of Fez in action.

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Geometry Wars

It’s not often that we mention commercial video games here on Hip.Young.Thing. but there’s something special about Geometry Wars that deserves attention. The graphics in this game are simply amazing and definitely not traditional fare for most games. The screen seems overwhelmed with colour and vibrancy making a beautiful collage from chaos. For those of you without an Xbox (I don’t have one myself) you can download Grid Wars, which is free for PC.

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Gravitation

Gravitation

We recently wrote about Passage an experimental art game by Jason Rohrer. Well, he’s done it again, releasing Gravitation a new experiment in mania, melancholia, and the creative process. The game itself is beautiful, go play it now!

Update: The Escapist has a great interview/editorial with Jason Rohrer regarding the pursuit of perfection when designing games. Well worth the read. (via Kotaku) 

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Levelhead

Levelhead

Levelhead is a conceptual game that requires players to utilise their spatial memory.  The player controls a man who is seemingly trapped inside a cube. By manouvering this cube the player must lead the man through seperate rooms in 120 seconds or less. The video for Levelhead is astounding and I find the concept very clever indeed, especially the real interaction between the player, cube and computer screen.

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Passage

Passage

Passage is a beautiful conceptual game created by Jason Rohrer. The game, which takes about five minutes to play, makes the player reflect on the passage of time and the passage of a lifetime. It’s a wonderful experience and a really creative use of video games as art.

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