As mentioned before, I’ve been working on a silly web game — we’ve now submitted it to a contest and could use your help for votes!

http://musegames.com/community/immunitychallenge/

Hold down left mouse button to build up gas, release to let yourself fly. Spacebar restarts level.

It would be a HUGE help if you could register and vote for Poot! If we get enough votes, we’ll be one of the five finalists.

Our game just got put up tonight and other games have been submitted for weeks, so we need a lot of votes to catch up. Registration is simple/fast and it would be GREAT if you could help by voting for Poot!

We’ve only been working on it for a few weeks and it’s definitely not finished (working prototypes are all that is required for the contest). It would definitely be nice to win the contest though.

The video is of me playing — recorded and uploaded to youtube directly from the PS3.

I love trying out new game concepts and I love it even more when it’s cheap. This $5 game is unlike anything else I’ve played. You control two ends of Noby Noby Boy — his head and rear — with each analog stick. You can eat things, you can shoot things out your rear, and you can sort of fly, too. On a per-player basis, there’s not necessarily a point to the gameplay — just mess around, which luckily is fun enough. But you can report your length to Girl and, as a global community, everyone contributes to the progress — I assume we’ll unlock new levels etc, once the total collaborative length exceeds required amounts. I think there’s actually a ton of potential in this communal progress concept, so I hope Noby Noby Boy realizes it.

edit: trying out Vimeo for video uploading

I really dig the animation. I’m indifferent toward the music in the first half but overall I quite like the intro. It was originally shown on 1up’s second game night featuring Street Fighter IV.

UPDATE: HD version here — Intro & attract mode by DjMizuhara

The new kid on the block media streaming software specifically developed for Playstation 3 is available, for free, on Windows, OSX, and Linux — it is aptly named PS3 Media Server. Not only is streaming compatible formats made easier and more streamlined, but the software excells at transcoding — matroska .mkv files are a breeze. The software also equips users with a plethora of nice options, including priority audio/subtitle choices — or if you just want something up and running without any effort, the default options should work just fine.

I was previously using TVersity to stream media, but I’ve made a full switch to PS3mediaserver. It is perfect for my needs and makes the PS3 the best media streaming device that isn’t a PC.

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http://sackbook.com/

You can link your PSN ID to the sackbook website and fetch the screenshots you’ve taken. You can also browse levels and all that good stuff.
…To check out more pictures, click here!

LittleBig Train Heist makes another ‘Top Levels’ article — this time earning 18th out of 50. I had previously posted about how the level made a top 10 list from 1up.

Load in, drop a car into play, and zoom off after a speeding train full of point bubbles! This stage forces players to use plenty of caution when progressing through each of the train’s cars because they’re full of booby traps. And don’t die, because you’ll have to start the stage all over again while the train keeps chugging onward. We also like that the first time you jump to the train a well-timed photo op creates a keepsake actually worth holding onto.

The more exposure it gets, the more motivated I am to make appropriate improvements. One improvement will be to put the checkpoints in more intuitive locations: the article claims there are no checkpoints on the train, but there are two (three, if you include the one in the engine) — admittedly, it is a valid complaint, as they are easy to miss (again, the level is more a proof of concept — not a polished product). School has been swamping me the past few weeks and doesn’t look like it’ll be easing up in the immediate future, so it’ll be a priority of mine over christmas break.

Despite my LittleBigPlanet level being very much a proof of concept, it has found itself a spot on 1UP’s 10 Favorite User-Generated Little Big Planet Levels (So Far).

LittleBig Train Heist has over 12,000 plays so far. I’m looking forward to finding the time to make some refinements and upgrades to the level

LittleBigPlanet has finally arrived! I beat the story levels in a single sitting with a friend in co-op, and I must say, it really surpassed my expectations. The story levels in LBP feature some of the best platforming this generation.

I have finished the first version of my first level — I call it LittleBig Train Heist:

You start off chasing the train in the car. Once you reach the train, you’ll jump from the car to the train’s caboose (and my level will even snap a screenshot of this as you do it). Once in the train, you make your way up to the engine while you avoid obstacles. There’s a switch at the front of the engine: if you fail to pull the switch down in time, you’ll face certain death; but if you do manage to grab the switch in time, it’ll send the train on an alternate track to lots of prize points and the finish.

I’ll be publishing it online as soon as the servers are up. My PSN handle is dfyb, so you can add me as a friend and easily find it.

I’ll be moving Raket (the 2D sidescroller game) to Construct. It will likely take a while to port all the work done so far, but I think it will be very worth it. Construct is open source and free of charge.

Construct has quite a few advantages over my current engine as well. It’s hardware accelerated, so I’ll be able to have more going on on-screen. It also supports shaders, so I’ll have easy access to lots of nice visual effects. Construct can handle some primitive 3D objects that I can incorporate into my 2D game. I’m excited to start working with Construct for Raket and will keep the blog updated.

Teaser site – will update friday (I’ll probably update this post as well)
official teaser site

Info (all in japanese) from a special invite-only event. they’d get an invite and were told to go to a japanese cafe (with eastern indian style decor and food) where they played the game in a table cabinet. they specifically keep the genre and type of game it is a secret. They were unable to report what the game was about or how you play it at all. They just mention keywords like “rescue.” All these sites are reporting that it’ll be open to the japanese plublic on the 18th for a limited time.

gamestop japan link
famitsu link (copy paste link in browser – http://www.famitsu.com/game/news/1216412_1124.html)
gpara.com
mycom.co.jp
itmedia
watch.impress.co.jp

some pics (more in links) –

…To read more about the game and see more pics, click here!