Click here to view the embedded video.

This is a good time to share a trick I found online, enabling one to dive into the assets of many app-store games to get an idea of how they were created. Simply copy the app file (work with a copy so as to retain the original file, which you’ll find in your My Documents…\iTunes\Mobile Applications folder) and rename it from .ipa to .zip – from here it’s possible to explore the contents and view the available movies, images and animation frames with WinZip or similar.

It should be noted that some apps are better than others, (depending on how well-organised the developer is and, as far as I can tell, the bit-depth of the .png files), but there are some gems to be discovered.

The second one bears an uncanny resemblance to Star Trek’s holodeck, surely the ultimate goal for videogames?

[via Fubiz]

Click here to view the embedded video.

As much as I appreciate their balls though, I’m still unsure as to whether or not the development team can or should be sued for COMPLETELY AND SHAMELESSLY ripping off both the gameplay and visual style of Loco Roco. At least they improved upon their source material, and the Mr Scruff soundtrack doesn’t hurt either.

Now, Nintendo is second only to EA for peddling the same franchises year on year with only minor tweaks and updates, and Mario Kart Wii is no exception – but once again, (and I’ve been playing this same game since high school), it’s an absolute blast – especially in team mode (co-op). What impressed me most though, and therefore resulting in this post, was the online experience – my first with Nintendo.

Being used to XBOX Live’s often unsavoury company of middle-American cowboy attitudes further shielded by online anonymity, as well as the downright embarrassing experience of being a grown man playing with children, it was refreshing to simply play a game against complete strangers that could not be interacted with in the slightest outside of the actions presented in gameplay – ie. throwing shells etc. I used to hate the idea of Friend Codes, (Nintendo’s enforcement of only being able to choose online opponents you already know in real life), but when I come to think of it, I rarely play against folks outside private matches on Live due to the aforementioned issues.

Every race, I am shown the geographic loaction of each participant on a spinning globe, (and the matches are truly international based on when you jump online), with only their smiling avatar and name to distinguish them. No headsets. No trash-talking. No ChildKilla69 or Assr8p firing bigoted insults with every other headshot- just a clean, simple race to the finish with friendly folks sporting names like Bill, Jake, Canadagirl and WingMario. I fantasize that, unlike the petty XBOX crowd, I was playing against similar young professionals as myself. Doctors and lawyers, designers and architects all kicking back in their loft appartments after a hard day’s work – donning the Nintendo avatars of which we all share a particular nostalgia, or their own personalised yet similarly cute Miis.

Sometimes ignorance is bliss.

Click here to view the embedded video.

via Kotaku

I’ve always thought Mass retained something of the same look as all the other games rendered in the Unreal 3 Engine, but perhaps we did manage to put our own stamp on it with little tricks like the grain filter and custom depth-of-field, (the DOF in the image above was Unreal 3′s default at the time). And if I wouldn’t love to make a game locked at 24fps with motion blur.

As far as I’m aware, this is the first time they’ve run a cover story on videogame VFX, which is usually the territory of film and television only. Definitely a great step forward and some great recognition for the excellent work done by Shareef and the rest of the VFX team, even if they did kill the framerate throughout (and to a degree, post) production ;-)

Anyway, I wanted to write about this to draw attention to the amazingly comprehensive character-creation editor included with the upcoming APB debuted at GDC, (the animation-related notes of which I’ll be uploading as soon as I get the time), and created by my old buddies at Realtime Worlds back in Scotland. Check out the decal editor below, which can be applied not only to vehicles but clothes and tatoos too. While I love playing with customisation editors in other people’s games, it’s a real bitch to support in your own from an animation standpoint. One of these days I’ll have to work on a simple game that simply requires specific animations for specific, un-evolving characters. Chance would be a fine thing.