Who needs all those high-end sounds and graphics on proprietary gaming boxes?! Dragon Gamez hosts the Flash game "Stickman Madness" which proves you don't need hi-res to have a lot of fun.
Stickman Madness is as violent as any other first-person shooter in the vein of Doom, all done in minimal yet ravishing red, black and white. Somehow reminiscent of joys found in the early Frog in a Blender Flash animation...but interactive!
Pepsi's Japan division has a simplistic time waster of a game up for your afternoon enjoyment. The game allows you to
run down a path punching walls of ice to the sounds of the usual viral music. Unfortunately I'm not exactly sure what
Pepsi Nex is supposed to taste like (I'd assume nastiness in a bottle, since its Pepsi), but the game is a great way to
waste a few minutes after lunch. Plus this is a great example of a Flash game that doesn't use stereotypical Flash
style. The game relies on the On2 video codec to display most of its animation with integrated video for a running
player and a bursting wall.
Please don't shoot this puppy... Please... ugh. Well here's a quick and very dirty Flash game for your late night fun.
The simple game is much like the Don't Click site but is way more annoying. Yes, I know I'm not really convincing you to
check out the game... once you click over you may want to come back here and let me know what you really think. Feel
free to drop me a tip to better game on the tips page.
Quasimondo has a site full of artistic experiments using Flash, Java and Javascript. His latest project dives into the
newly modified Flash 8 Camera object to create a fully interactive video game that is a knockoff of the pre-crime
system from Minority Report the movie (read the short story, its darker). The project grabs hand movements from the
user's camera to define how to turn a cube on the stage and even has a new option to add the user's photo (via the
camera) to the face of the cube. As usual this is not a spy program (as noted at the bottom of the developer's page),
unfortunately Quasimondo didn't pony up for Flash Media
Server.
The latest Japanese PSP firmware
adds Flash Player to the PlayStation Portable and Flaunt It's Alexander McCabe is testing the Player with various Flash
games and posting his impressions. He says its slow, has no streaming content, and has only limited Keypad interaction.
Also there seems to be an obvious limit on the amouth of memory the content can use. Jump on over to his site to see
full impressions and learn more about possible content. We have covered Flash on PSP here before and I still think this is going to be
limited to the possible accessories for the system and a possible API release from Sony. We should look forward to a
lack of user created content though, considering Sony's lack of hack support for the firmware already. The real concern
here is weather game developers with take advantage or the player to add content that takes the user out of the box via
the camera object that first appeared in Flash Player 6. In the mean time take some of your old projects modifiy them
for PSP displays and maybe add some sound fun just to mess with your users.
Another fun Flash platform game. Fancy Pants Adventure has some really nice animation, good physics too...what dynamic hair you have
Mr Fancy Pants! The credit here is to ArmorGames.com, but that site
seems to be just another aggregator site. Following the link trail though, I find a credit for "DrNeroCF." Anybody know the doc? Nice work regardless!
Check out this Flash
game from Jenova Chen! Flow has great gameplay
based on the theories of psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. If you've never taken the time to read
Csikszentmihalyi's Flow, it's worth a look. It's an interesting way of looking at interactive design in
general and game design in particular. Chen's application of the theory is somewhat literal here, but a great
illustration as well!
Fun to play and fun to think about! It has a really elegant design and like all great
games is deceptively simple.
Take some time to play and then take some time to read the thesis behind it.
Our big blog brother, Engadget posted a great
tutorial this morning showing you exactly how to run Flash (and therefore Flash-based-games) on you very own X-Box 360.
Head on over for the full tutorial. Unfortunately the Dashboard upgrade released today by Microsoft will break this
hack, but if you want to wait on the update try it out. I wonder if you could use this for basic FLV files too? If so,
this would be a cool way to stream Google video (via the online player, not the purchased kind) or YouTube video to
your X-Box 360 for HD viewing. Enjoy.
Stop
for a second and take a look at the image in this post. What you see is a backetball hoop and a nice, yet simple, 3D
animation of a simple looking basket ball game... but it doesn't stop there. In the bottom right of the screen is a
person. Slapping the ball. Literally. Yes this is the first (I think) major web Flash-based game centered on true human
interaction via web cam. PlayDoCam creator Andreas Rehnberg, which we
spoke of back in August, has taken his earlier idea to a new level and combined some Shockwave/Director ideas with
Flash 8 to create a very cool looking new basketball game in Flash. The game tracks the users hands and works like pong
to bounce a small ball into one of two hoops while avoiding absticles and trying to hit points on the way. All I can say
is very cool, and can't wait for the full version to come out next month. Head over to the official PlayDoJam site to watch the preview and drool.
Hey, two for the price of one, even! The folks over at Amanita Design have released the second the sequel to the original game, so you can play Samorost and Samorost 2 all afternoon!
I missed the original Samorost when it was released (even though it was a 2004 Webby nominee), but I am delighted to have found it now! The graphics are wonderful. I love the whimsical combination of photographic and vector elements. The gameplay is a little on the weak side, relegated to a hunt and click framework (at least in the first game...I'll admit, I'm only half-way through the first game, so...), but the design makes up for it. If you liked Myst, you'll love Samorost. (BTW, did you know you could get Myst for your PPC?!)
Macromedia...er..Adobe...has launched a new sub-site of the Mobile & Devices Dev Center devoted specifically to the new iRiver U10. In case you haven't heard the U10 is a portable media player that just came on the American market. FlashLite 1.1 is baked onto its ROM. Its UI is in FlashLite and you can load FlashLite content onto it (as well as you MP3s, etc.). There's a lot of potential with this little creature.
You can get Flash games for the U10 here and here.
To prove that Flash is used for all sorts of things (as if you needed that proof) I give you (against my better judgment, really) Mister Nice Hands.
You might want to wait till late in the day when you're a little slap-happy at the though of the weekend and maybe...just maybe...the silliness of this will be rewarding. Somehow, the music is so soothing too...
Feels like I blogaboutGrant Skinner all the time...but when you look at this site, you'll know why.
Grant has gathered together his Flash experimentations and put them all into one slick gallery. Revisit all of the webcam experiments, watch the flower garden grow or spend some time playing Puki 3D. Grant just seems to be the Energizer Bunny of the Flash world. Careful though...once you get in there, you may lose an hour or so without knowing what happened.
I love the tag line for the site too: Passionate Procrastination. Bookmark this one and come back when you need a little inspiration!
OK, this one is addictive...but aren't all good time-wasters?!
Philippe Seifried has posted a deceptively simple game called Drifts on his site, RepeatWhileTrue. Make sure to take the time to read the instructions since there are no second lives, just a game restart. (They roll by a little slowly for me, and I skipped them the first couple of times through...I know, I know...RTFM...) My additional instructional hint: when picking up the green bubbles, they can't be touching a purple bubble or...*POP*! Drifts even remembers your personal high score locally which is a nice perk since it will be a long while before I come even close to competing with "beejay"'s 1200.
Post your high scores here...and how long you played to get there...Good luck!
A friend of mine sent me this link today. BP, formerly British Petroleum, as this interesting "Carbon Calculator" on their site. It's an interactive Flash piece where you enter some facts about your house, then BP compares your carbon "footprint" against national averages. They even give hints at the end for curbing your carbon emission, and, of course, let you know what BP is doing about the problem.
The graphics are in the very popular pixel art style. I like the way the little people jump up and down with exclamation point bubbles as if they're having their own private conversation. And those jittery cars are clearly big carbon emitters...why else would they be so jittery!
Side note: It seems like every time I post one of these lately, at least one person writes me to tell me how old this site is. I guess I'm just behind the times at times. That's why I rely on you guys. So If you see something you think worthy of notice (and remember "worthy of notice" can be a positive and a negative thing), then let me know! That way I can stay on top of things!
Who needs all those high-end sounds and graphics on proprietary gaming boxes?! Dragon Gamez hosts the Flash game "Stickman Madness" which proves you don't need hi-res to have a lot of fun.
Pepsi's Japan division has a simplistic time waster of a game up for your afternoon enjoyment. The game allows you to
run down a path punching walls of ice to the sounds of the usual viral music. Unfortunately I'm not exactly sure what
Pepsi Nex is supposed to taste like (I'd assume nastiness in a bottle, since its Pepsi), but the game is a great way to
waste a few minutes after lunch. Plus this is a great example of a Flash game that doesn't use stereotypical Flash
style. The game relies on the On2 video codec to display most of its animation with integrated video for a running
player and a bursting wall.
Please don't shoot this puppy... Please... ugh. Well here's a quick and very dirty Flash game for your late night fun.
The simple game is much like the Don't Click site but is way more annoying. Yes, I know I'm not really convincing you to
check out the game... once you click over you may want to come back here and let me know what you really think. Feel
free to drop me a tip to better game on the tips page.
The latest Japanese PSP firmware
adds Flash Player to the PlayStation Portable and Flaunt It's Alexander McCabe is testing the Player with various Flash
games and posting his impressions. He says its slow, has no streaming content, and has only limited Keypad interaction.
Also there seems to be an obvious limit on the amouth of memory the content can use. Jump on over to his site to see
full impressions and learn more about possible content.
Another fun Flash platform game. Fancy Pants Adventure has some really nice animation, good physics too...what dynamic hair you have
Mr Fancy Pants! The credit here is to ArmorGames.com, but that site
seems to be just another aggregator site. Following the link trail though, I find a credit for "DrNeroCF." Anybody know the doc? Nice work regardless!
Check out this Flash
game from Jenova Chen! Flow has great gameplay
based on the theories of psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. If you've never taken the time to read
Csikszentmihalyi's Flow, it's worth a look. It's an interesting way of looking at interactive design in
general and game design in particular. Chen's application of the theory is somewhat literal here, but a great
illustration as well!
Our big blog brother, Engadget posted a great
tutorial this morning showing you exactly how to run Flash (and therefore Flash-based-games) on you very own X-Box 360.
Head on over for the full tutorial. Unfortunately the Dashboard upgrade released today by Microsoft will break this
hack, but if you want to wait on the update try it out. I wonder if you could use this for basic FLV files too? If so,
this would be a cool way to stream Google video (via the online player, not the purchased kind) or YouTube video to
your X-Box 360 for HD viewing. Enjoy.
Stop
for a second and take a look at the image in this post. What you see is a backetball hoop and a nice, yet simple, 3D
animation of a simple looking basket ball game... but it doesn't stop there. In the bottom right of the screen is a
person. Slapping the ball. Literally. Yes this is the first (I think) major web Flash-based game centered on true human
interaction via web cam. PlayDoCam creator Andreas Rehnberg, which we
spoke of back in August, has taken his earlier idea to a new level and combined some Shockwave/Director ideas with
Flash 8 to create a very cool looking new basketball game in Flash. The game tracks the users hands and works like pong
to bounce a small ball into one of two hoops while avoiding absticles and trying to hit points on the way. All I can say
is very cool, and can't wait for the full version to come out next month. Head over to the official PlayDoJam site to watch the preview and drool.
Hey, two for the price of one, even! The folks over at Amanita Design have released the second the sequel to the original game, so you can play Samorost and Samorost 2 all afternoon!
Macromedia...er..Adobe...has launched a new sub-site of the Mobile & Devices Dev Center devoted specifically to the new iRiver U10. In case you haven't heard the U10 is a portable media player that just came on the American market. FlashLite 1.1 is baked onto its ROM. Its UI is in FlashLite and you can load FlashLite content onto it (as well as you MP3s, etc.). There's a lot of potential with this little creature.
To prove that Flash is used for all sorts of things (as if you needed that proof) I give you (against my better judgment, really) Mister Nice Hands.
Feels like I blog about Grant Skinner all the time...but when you look at this site, you'll know why.
OK, this one is addictive...but aren't all good time-wasters?!
A friend of mine sent me this link today. BP, formerly British Petroleum, as this interesting "Carbon Calculator" on their site. It's an interactive Flash piece where you enter some facts about your house, then BP compares your carbon "footprint" against national averages. They even give hints at the end for curbing your carbon emission, and, of course, let you know what BP is doing about the problem.
