Gaming News Message Board older than one year ago

Amazon Italy has listed Dragon Age III: Inquisition for Xbox One, suggesting BioWare’s RPG is shifting to next-gen.

Armed officers assaulted Robert Bowling's Robotoki studio following a panic button mishap.

LAPD swarms game development studio, guns drawn after mistaking Call of Duty statue for armed man. Polygon's got the full story. Shades of our infamous 2009 Bungie adventure.

It's Spring Gamers, starring Games Franco! This is a thing I want that I never knew I wanted. iam8bit is doing a parody film of the surprisingly amazing—aka not just stupidly amazing—Spring Breakers. The teaser scene you see above is a gamer's recreation of the real scene where James Franco's thugged-out character brags to his newfound groupies about all the gun-swag he's got. Except in this edition, it's all games and gamer swag. He even has that awesome Triforce lamp! I have no idea if this parody will be any good. I just know I loved Spring Breakers like I haven't loved a movie in some time. And the simple memory of it makes this teaser a beautiful thing. To contact the author of this post, write to tina@kotaku.com or find her on Twitter at @tinaamini.

The web series has gone from strength to strength, and despite the best efforts of those who’d oppose it, it shows no signs of stopping. This is why it matters to gamers.

A rechargeable mouse with frickin' laser beams. Amazon has the newly-released Logitech G700s Rechargeable Gaming Mouse for $80, 20% off what everyone else is selling it for, and tied for the lowest it's been so far. 8200dpi, multiple profiles, optional wired USB connection if you prefer that to wireless, this one has all the trimmings. What I really like about it is that it doesn't look like a neon robot about to kill you. If you're looking to upgrade your input, it's an easy recommendation. [Amazon] Here's the current Moneysaver roundup, and here's a crazy awesome Playstation 3 bundle. Keep up with Shane Roberts on Kinja and Twitter. Check out Dealzmodo for more great tech deals, and Deals.Kinja.com for even more discounts. This is a Moneysaver One-Shot, a post focusing on a single deal, sale, or category. Join us every weekday at 2:15pm ET for the full Moneysaver roundup, brought to you by the Commerce Team. We're here to bring Kotaku readers the best gaming deals available, and to be clear, we also make money if you buy. We want your feedback.

Here's what's going on at Talk Amongst Yourselves, Kotaku's reader-written blog: GiantBoyDetective flexes his gargantuan smallness at the digital versus physical conundrum, Jbronin puts the fate of the entire gaming industry in the hands of Sony and Microsoft, and Zarnyx calls for the community's ideal anime waifus and husbandos. And you can always go join the voices talking about video games and life in TAY Classic and in the TAY: Open Forum.

Anyone can strike a pose, but to properly cosplay the out-of-control virtual athlete of brilliant flash game QWOP, one has to be in total control of their real body, like this guy right here. The footage was captured by YouTube user ProTekProductions at Anime North 2013. Comparing the cosplayers' performance to last year's event, his routine got much much better, easily topping the valiant try of this fellow back during Comic Con 2011. Let's just hope he won't switch to Surgeon Simulator next year. QWOP Cosplayer at Anime North 2013 [YouTube] To contact the author of this post, write to gergovas@kotaku.com

The Famicom Test Cart was used to, well, test Nintendo's Family Computer. It might be rare, but it's certainly not exciting. But it is somewhat interesting! And probably more so for hardcore collectors. As Famicom World explains, there were test cartridges for the console itself as well as ones for the controllers. Have a look at the test cart in action: On Yahoo! Auctions Japan, someone is trying to unload a Famicom Test Cart for controllers. The opening bid is 120,000 yen or US$1,200. As of posting, there are zero bids, but four days left. Four days, people, four days! ヤフオクで幻のファミコンカセット『HVC検査カセット』が12万円で出品されているらしいｗｗｗ [DSPSP初心者講座] To contact the author of this post, write to bashcraftATkotaku.com or find him on Twitter @Brian_Ashcraft. Kotaku East is your slice of Asian internet culture, bringing you the latest talking points from Japan, Korea, China and beyond. Tune in every morning from 4am to 8am.

Brad bursts into flames as he struggles to put the elements of ELEMENT4L together.

Earlier this spring, a group of Japanese schoolgirls uploaded photos of themselves imitating anime style attacks. The photos spawned numerous imitators, ended up on television, and spread beyond the country's borders. And now? Now, band nerds are involved. The original meme initially referred to Dragon Ball and, later, Street Fighter attacks. When it reached Western shores, however, it was reworked as "Vadering". In the past few weeks, Japanese kids in their school bands or music clubs have been uploading their latest twist on the meme: "Tuba Gun" (チューバ砲 or "Chuuba Juu"). And, of course, there are twists on this twist. Very clever. These Japanese school kid photo memes are endless! More recently, teens in Japan created a sideways studying photo meme and a human-eating giant one. Photos: smsm1683, Ren565, rysk0320, tim_gh8, yu1aaa, Ren565, MkHr0318, asukaredtomato, kasundaaaaa, hornhrk315, minimumtuba, Bergamot624, CityTuba, 9220Shiho, misoshiru753, matome To contact the author of this post, write to bashcraftATkotaku.com or find him on Twitter @Brian_Ashcraft. Kotaku East is your slice of Asian internet culture, bringing you the latest talking points from Japan, Korea, China and beyond. Tune in every morning from 4am to 8am.

Chinese Internet Cafes aren't the best place for minors; so much so that legally they're not allowed to let them in. Unfortunately for Chinese parents, there are a few "black" Internet cafes that operate unscrupulously. Luckily, one mother was able to win her fight against a conscienceless net cafe. On Thursday, the Guangzhou Daily reported that a group of internet cafes in Foshan, Guangdong province were raided by the police for conducting "illegal" business. Eight illegally operated net cafes were shut down and 15 suspects were detained by the police. The cafes were shut down because they didn't have any business licenses and they were allowing young children in. The police raid was authorised as a result of an investigation following a post written by a mother desperate to "save her son". The woman, whose son is still a minor, was at her wits' end with her son's gambling habit, which he had developed by playing an online slot machine game at the internet cafe. According to the woman, her son had started visiting an internet cafe to play games with his friends. Over the course of his visits, the boy started getting attached to the cafe, spending most of his time there. He would steal money and various smaller electronic devices to] pay for his net cafe expenses. The mother said she visited the net cafe and asked the owners not to allow her son in anymore. Sadly, her request was denied, and she was also asked to leave so as not to disturb the other customers.The mother's post was sent to police by socially conscious netizens, and the police went and did their thing. It's unknown if the minor is back home being weened off his "gambling" habit, but hopefully he'll be more careful in the future. Kotaku East is your slice of Asian internet culture, bringing you the latest talking points from Japan, Korea, China and beyond. Tune in every morning from 4am to 8am. [未成年儿子混迹黑网吧 绝望妈妈发帖求解救] [Guangdong Daily via Tencent] Eric is Beijing based writer and all around FAT man. You can contact him @ FatAsianTechie@gmail.com or follow him on Twitter @FatAsianTechie.

One Piece creator Eiichiro Oda has been accused of copying others before. So please don't be surprised that people online in Japan are doing that today. Above you can see the cover for One Piece Chapter 526, which was titled "Adventure in the Great Prison" and released in 2008. 2008? Goodness. And now years later, it seems, someone on 2ch, Japan's largest online forum, has gotten around to posting an compilation image that shows how the cover totally copies the great Japanese artist Kawanabe Kyosai. Below, you can see how Oda was supposedly inspired by the 19th century artist, blatantly stole from him, or a bit of both. On 2ch, some people seem to think this is okay—that this is an homage—and chided folks for hating on Oda. Defenders pointed out that, sure, the composition was similar, but it wasn't a copy. "It's not like he's tracing," one commenter wrote. Others, however, thought it was indeed a rip-off. Previously, Oda was called out for "copying" Disney cartoons. And there, there was that compilation of real-life people who might have inspired One Piece characters. Copying or not, these comparisons certainly add another level to Oda's work: You can see where he's pulling from. Or that is, where he might be. Still, you'd think the guy could at least fully recover from his illness before people on 2ch started accusing him of this! That's the price one pays to rule the manga world, I guess. 尾田栄一郎ついに浮世絵までパクリだす [2ch] To contact the author of this post, write to bashcraftATkotaku.com or find him on Twitter @Brian_Ashcraft. Kotaku East is your slice of Asian internet culture, bringing you the latest talking points from Japan, Korea, China and beyond. Tune in every morning from 4am to 8am.

Nothing like creating fast food websites that can make your customers feel ill! Warning: this post contains imagery that actually might make you dizzy or sick. Are you ready? Here we go: These illustrations are the work of Akiyoshi Kitaoka, who is a psychology professor at Ritsumeikan University that studies visual perception. Above, you can see a warning for the site, telling people not to look at it too long. That's popstar Kyary Pamyu Pamyu, whom Kotaku has featured a few times before (here, here, and here). The warning actually pops up after the site is opened for less than a minute. "Kind of them to give us a warning," wrote one commenter on 2ch, Japan's largest online forum. "I feel like I'm gonna barf," added another. KFC shouldn't make you barf! Neither should these Krushers! Though, this might be the first fast food website that actually makes people truly ill. Here is the KFC commercial that the website is based on. This is part of KFC's "kurakura" (クラクラ) campaign. In Japanese, "kurakura" can mean "dizzy" or "giddy". Here, it's used in a wordplay, because "Krushers" is written as "Kurasshaazu" (クラッシャーズ) in Japanese. Click Here IF YOU DARE [Krushers] To contact the author of this post, write to bashcraftATkotaku.com or find him on Twitter @Brian_Ashcraft. Kotaku East is your slice of Asian internet culture, bringing you the latest talking points from Japan, Korea, China and beyond. Tune in every morning from 4am to 8am.

In Japan, they're making a live-action Kiki's Delivery Service movie. Today in Japan, a photo of Fuka Koshiba, the actress playing Kiki, was released online. The photo was taken on the first day of the movie's principal photography in front of Kiki's house in the movie. So, I guess, that means this is the final costume. And it's a horrible costume! Look at those shoes. Look at them. Also, why's her bag so damn dark? And where's the ribbon? Online in Japan, some seemed upset that the movie Kiki doesn't have a big bow in her hair and trashed this press photo because of that. Others noted that the movie cannot look too much like the anime, or Studio Ghibli, who's not connected to the movie version, might get upset. Some, however, said the movie version looked fine. Who knows, maybe the movie will be terrific. Yes, Kiki's Delivery Service was originally a book—a book that, as noted above, Studio Ghibli adapted into a fantastic anime. That's what this movie has to overcome: an iconic anime that has since defined the book. This makes the decision to do a live-action version even more puzzling. The anime is great, so what's the point of a live-action flick? 実写版『魔女の宅急便』待望のキキ写真解禁！ [Excite] To contact the author of this post, write to bashcraftATkotaku.com or find him on Twitter @Brian_Ashcraft. Kotaku East is your slice of Asian internet culture, bringing you the latest talking points from Japan, Korea, China and beyond. Tune in every morning from 4am to 8am.

In a conversation with IGN, DrinkBox Studios co-founder Graham Smith confirms that the studio is thinking about doing a sequel to Guacamelee.

Justin Murray, a concept artist who worked on Injustice: Gods Among Us, sent us some pics over of his contribution to the game. But he didn't just send the art. He brought it to life. With cosplay. Teaming up with his girlfriend Jia Jem, Murray went down to the same Chicago locations they shot scenes from Chris Nolan's Batman movies, where photographer Kyle Johnsen captured Jem - in full Harley Quinn outfit, as per the game's designs - hanging out with Justin's concept art images. They're edited to blur the lines between the two worlds; at first glance it's got a bit of a Roger Rabbit thing going on, but the closer you look, the more you see Jia is becoming concept art at the same time. It's certainly...different, but I like it! There's only two of these composite images; the rest are Justin's "normal" work for the game. You can see plenty more at Justin's site. To see the larger pics in all their glory (or, if they’re big enough, so you can save them as wallpaper), click on the “expand” button in the bottom-right corner. Fine Art is a celebration of the work of video game artists, showcasing the best of both their professional and personal portfolios. If you're in the business and have some concept, environment, promotional or character art you'd like to share, drop us a line!

If you suffer under the yoke of AT&T, and enjoy tales of their suffering, this will cheer you up: back when Empire Strikes Back launched, an automated call-in line designed to market the movie broke part of the network. How? This was 1980, and the technology for that sort of stuff just wasn't there yet. The plan was simple: stars of the film recorded a short piece of dialogue (some hilariously half-assed), fans could call a number and hear that message, free of charge. In reality, though, AT&T's network couldn't cope with the demand, and in some places just...fell over. A former of Lucasfilm's fan relations explains: ...the first week the system went live, so many people called the number, AT&T couldn't handle it. They were so overloaded, the system couldn't even handle generating busy signals to all of the calls. The 800 system for Illinois crashed and shut down for several hours. AT&T insisted that we add additional phone lines and issue a press release taking the blame for it. Weep wail. Poor us. We contritely agreed to issue a press release to all media saying we were sorry that Star Wars fans were so eager to get information on the sequel that wouldn't be out for five months, their calls overwhelmed the phone company. And you could call yourself, now that we'd increased the number of phone lines, and listen to the messages [at the number]. The story, of course, got covered everywhere. Best publicity we could have had. Fascinating. You can listen to all the recordings yourself in the video up top. In 1980, the Star Wars Cast's 'Empire Hotline' Broke AT&T [Motherboard]

We drop the hammer and go head on with GRID 2 then Brad shifts into some CastleStorm.

Last time we took a look at The Stomping Land—that DayZ-like survival game, only with dinosaurs—we learned about the general ideas behind the game. This time around, we have a couple of videos which detail hunting tactics, setting up camp, and customization options and more. So far, still looks great. Of course, I'm less interested in this stuff than I am what happens once you start playing with other people—because remember, you're kind of in competition with other folk for the same things. What kind of scenarios will play out? Still, I'm surprised to see so many customization options—and not just for yourself, but for your camp, too. Neat. You can vote for The Stomping Land over at Steam Greenlight here.

Today on televison, somebody said something reasonable about violent video games. Karl Marlantes, an author, marine veteran and author of the book “What It Is Like to Go to War” fielded a question on C-Span2 about the long-term effect that unrealistic depictions of war in media and specifically gaming will have on the military. Despite referring to them as ‘anti-empathy machines’, he was quick to make a level-headed argument which is all too absent in the current media landscape: that the focus should not be on violent games, it should be on how parents react to and interpret that violence to their children. “It’s not just the effect on the kids — it’s the effect of the parent’s interpretation of those machines on the kids.” I'm not saying I agree with him on the empathy bit, but I will say that it's one of the most rational statements I've heard about video games on television in a while. And honestly? We should be listening to our veterans. In the hemming and hawing over depictions of war in games, the mainstream media very rarely goes out and asks the people who would know best: veterans and soldiers. It’s a perspective we just don’t get as often as we should, and a conversation we should be having from people that might know a thing or two about war. Maybe if we did, we'd learn a thing or two. To contact the author of this post, write to chrisperson@kotaku.com or find him on Twitter @papapishu

Retailers' placeholder prices for Sony and Microsoft’s new consoles suggest what kind of money we can expect to spend this generation.

"Look, we just made $70,000! Not that I have it up on auto-refresh or anything…" That was beloved game designer and Double Fine Games founder Tim Schafer watching the growing total for Massive Chalice, less than an hour into the company's latest Kickstarter game development funding campaign. Double Fine, of course, helped birth the onslaught of crowdfunded video game projects with last year's record-setting campaign that netted them more than 3 million dollars. So why go back again? And what were the hopes and fears associated with returning to Kickstarter and crowd-funding? "The first time we did it," Schafer said, "you try really hard not to let yourself hope for anything. People ask you, 'what do you think it's going to do?' And you can only answer, 'I don't know.' I don't want to know. I want to be surprised." This time, there could be different surprises waiting for the folks at Double Fine. Massive Chalice aims to tackle a new genre of game and, besides that, the funding campaign for the title has launched at a time when hundreds of game development crowdfunding campaigns are trying to grab people's attention every day. And some people are probably wondering why Double Fine needs more money from them a year after the significant success of their first round of passing the collection basket around. Today, I talked to Schafer and Massive Chalice project lead Brad Muir about going back to Kickstarter, what it would take for Double Fine to accept publisher funding again and whether the company's games will wind up on the PS4. Their answers were honest and enlightening. Is there an element of wanting to top what you guys have done before—or others have done—since in terms of Kickstarter totals? Like, "Screw you, Brian Fargo! I'll show what real crowdfunding looks like! I'm coming back for my crown!" Is there a competitiveness to it or are you too neurotic to even go there? Tim Schafer: My long-term goal is that I hope I want every Kickstarter to do better than the last, just because I want Kickstarter projects to grow and grow to the point where we're making pretty big games using crowdfunding. I want each Kickstarter to do better than the last, in general. So, that's why I'd be super-happy if this Kickstarter was even bigger than our last one. But, I also know that it was really new and had this novelty the first time we did it . I'm just happy that we had the ability to do this again and fund games like this in the future, because we love the relationship that [crowdfunding] establishes with our players and our fans. If there's any competition, it's definitely very friendly, because when Brian Fargo does really good with his Kickstarter, that brings more people to Kickstarter. That means there's more people there to back our project. That definitely helps us and it helps him when we do well and all around. Cyclical crowd-funding—where you go back for more than one project—is still relatively unmapped territory. inXile's been doing it. Now you are. Given how unpredictable people's whims are, do you think you can keep doing things this way? It seems like there's a magic lamp quality to it, where you get three wishes and that's it. Do you feel that there's a way around the idea of crowdfunding as a limited resource? Schafer: I don't think it's limited, really. I see a big future for it. It only feels like a magic lamp now because it's new and people haven't really figured out all the different ways to make it work. I think we're collectively figuring that out now. We definitely have to treat each one like an original story. Each Kickstarter pitch is a story and I think we have a different one this time, with having a fresh-faced project leader like Brad Muir doing it. And he's doing it with a new IP that's not a sequel or an old genre like I was doing [with Double Fine Adventure]. Brad Muir: I think the whole 'rising tide raises all ships '… is that the right saying? I think that's applicable. Kickstarter's drawing more people to it and it's better for everyone. What would it take for you to accept publisher or platform-holder funding again? Have there been offers? If so, why have you rejected them? Schafer: We still work with publishing partners that we like and who are good. The difference now is that we get to choose to only work with the good ones. We don't have to take a bad deal just to stay in business. We have this other funding option. The deals are going to have to get better in order to lure us back to a situation like that. The things you have to give up are often, like, IP rights and you don't get any royalties until you recoup, say, three times the investment for us to except them. All these nasty things. It'd have to be a pretty sweet upside to compensate for all of those. Or maybe the development deals that publishers will offer won't have requirements like that anymore. That's what I hope. They're not good for anybody. "Each Kickstarter pitch is a story and I think we have a different one this time..." It seems like the expectation and reception gap might be a bit more difficult to navigate with crowd-funded projects. There's more faith given to a project creator without the bureaucracy that's so easy to blame. But there's more backlash, too, if a project doesn't hit a funding goal or winds up being not what people wanted. Can you talk about the risk/reward there? Schafer: You mean for Double Fine or for Brad? Both. Schafer: I think we're definitely putting ourselves out there saying, 'hey, we wanna do this thing.' If this didn't work out, we'd do another thing. Brad had, like, five different ideas this year for games. If this didn't work out, we'd try to learn the lessons why and try to apply them to the next thing we're interested in and then pursue that with just as much excitement. At least we didn't have to make the game and find out at the end of it that no one liked it. We could find out that no one liked it now! At least 2,000 people like it now. Muir: And that's really nice and validating, to see the numbers going upwards right now. If it didn't work out, then I'd take a week off and get really drunk. A lot of projectile vomiting. Schafer: You're probably gonna do that anyway… Muir: But there are a lot of ups and downs trying to get a project off the ground in this industry. It's pretty volatile and weird how things work out. There's a lot of projectile vomiting that happens. You've got to try to be resilient about it and roll with it and hopefully the next one works. Schafer: There's a lot of risk with this but there's a lot of risk when you go with a traditional funding deal, too. Those are set-in-stone known risks. Like, you know you're going to get screwed on royalties. You risk not making any money because they took it all. And so I think it's less risky this way. It's more publicly embarrassing if you fail. We had long talks where people were worried about even doing another Kickstarter. I just had this feeling [we could count on] the great relationship that we have with our backers. It feels a little bit like a trust fall. Or stage diving. I feel like the fans will catch us. Where's Broken Age at, in terms of development? Schafer: It's coming together very well. I think it's really beautiful. It's got some really funny cutscenes in it. I like that it's an adventure game that's not just nostalgic; it's modern and pretty and I think it's going to be great. We're currently re-adjusting our schedule and talking about when exactly it's going to come out. But the backers who are watching us have this great level of transparency. If people want to know how the game is doing they can just find out from us. We do a weekly update on our production and it's going well. "We still work with publishing partners that we like and who are good. The difference now is that we get to choose to only work with the good ones. We don't have to take a bad deal just to stay in business." What about the Amnesia Fortnight games? Schafer: We did a bunch of great prototypes the we included in the Humble Bundle that we just made. People really enjoyed them and responded to a lot of them. We're pursuing our option with those and we don't have anything yet to announce. But they all turned out really great. We'd be proud to make any of them. Double Fine is stretching its legs with Massive Chalice, in that it's the studio's first turn-based strategy game. Was there a sense that fans only want you to hit their nostalgic sweet spot? It's something that I personally observe with a lot of these Kickstarters. It's like a nostalgia carousel, where people just want the thing that they liked re-packaged and remade by the people who made it the first time so it'll run on modern hardware. Schafer: The thing to remember is that Kickstarter isn't just one homogenous community. The people who got into Torment, those were the Torment fans. And they weren't necessarily the people who got into Double Fine Adventure. There are people who back projects like FTL that are brand-new and they got the game that they wanted. The people who really like turn-based strategy and are excited by Brad's pitch will back this one. So, I don't think that all of our 'adventure games only' fans are a lock for this one. Muir: Also, I think that there are a lot of people waving the new IP flag but publishers aren't necessarily listening to them. It feels cool that we can bring this new game to a potential audience and go, 'Hey do you like this? Does this sound awesome? This is a game I really want to make.' If people are excited about it and excited about the newness, then that's just another avenue to take Kickstarter down. I don't think it has to be a nostalgic thing. There's all sorts of stuff that you can do on Kickstarter. Schafer: Yeah, I think most of the projects outside of games aren't nostalgic… Muir: And hopefully this is one of them. Does self-publishing on the PS4 mean that you'll be bringing Double Fine games to that platform? Schafer: We'll definitely be real interested in the PS4. We've already talked to them about the console and our expectations and hopes for it. They've been really open to indies like us and I think that bodes well for our games being on that platform. But right now, for Massive Chalice, we're talking about PC, Mac and Linux. That was part of a larger meta-question I had about the back-catalog as an asset. Finding new audiences for older works is something that book publishers and music companies have done for a while and it seems like game creators are beginning to do that more, too. They're tapping into their older games as a reple replenishable asset. Are you going to put Double Fine games anywhere where they'll run? The catalog-as-asset paradigm? Do you have resources for that? Or will you wait to see what the install bases for upcoming platforms look like? Schafer: The great thing about having ownership over most of our IP is that we care about it and we put the energy into keeping it alive and fresh and re-packaging it. Keeping things like Costume Quest, Stacking, Psychonauts and Brutal Legend out there for people to enjoy on new platforms. Because our base technology is everywhere—or aspiring to be everywhere—it doesn't take too much to bring new games to new platforms in the future. "It's very frustrating to hear people how they want something old like Grim Fandango to run [on modern hardware] and I have to say 'I can't do anything about that.'" We're on PC, Mac, Linux, tablets, iOS and all three consoles now. It might not make sense for the bottom line of a big publisher to port any one of those particular games to any one of those particular platforms. If it makes $200,000 or something, it's not enough for a big publisher. But that's a reasonable amount of money for us. So we're really motivated to keep those games around. And we care about them! Doing that also tackles the archiving dilemma that plagues older games. You have a game that you loved 10, 15 years ago that ran on specific hardware that can't be emulated now because of some weird quirk of code… It seems like you guys are a lot more likely to dodge that bullet than some other developers… Schafer: It's very frustrating to hear people how they want something old like Grim Fandango to run [on modern hardware] and I have to say 'I can't do anything about that.' Our games, we can keep them running, maybe even with—down the road—some help from the crowd. Do you ever yearn for the days when the company and the dev process were less transparent? It seems like the power of surprise is lessened by being a more open company now? Today's announcement was a surprise but it wasn't entirely out of the blue with regard to Double Fine going back to Kickstarter. Schafer: Yeah, but if it wasn't a surprise that's because people were just following some sort of reasonable chain of thought, not necessarily because of transparency. The transparency we've experienced ever since Double Fine Adventure has been really great. It's sometimes uncomfortable when you're talking about schedule and budget and cutting something from the game and you know that players are going to watch that. They talk about it and it's definitely a lively discussion on our forums. In the balance, they're always really supportive. We had one big meeting where we talked about needing more money and were thinking about what we were going to do and what we were going to cut. We expected people to freak out and most of the people just said 'how can we help?' 'Can we buy more stuff from the store? How can we send you guys more money?' So, it's just been a positive thing. Brad, it's Tim's company and he's very much the face of Double Fine but this project is very much on your shoulders. You've been at the head of a project before with Iron Brigade but this is on a different sort of stage with more visibility. How nervous are you and how are you managing that? Muir: I'm probably going to spend a lot of time throwing up right after this phone call. In terms of Kickstarter, I'm actually really nervous. Watching the numbers right now is super distracting. But if it does get funded, I'm excited to have that transparency and work with the community. One thing that I loved that happened during the Amnesia Fortnight stuff was this great reflection with the community. It was the kind of thing where I'm excited about the game and I'm posting stuff on the forums—or we did some livestreams through Twitch where I was coding and designing—and it was just so cool. I'm excited and they're excited and they're excited that I'm excited and it's just this great back-and-forth thing. I haven't done anything like this before, in terms of having the process of development be out in the open and getting other people's involvement and feedback. It sounds like a lot less pressure because you know that all these people are behind you already. Working on Iron Brigade, we just went underground to work on it. With all the games we previously worked on—and in a more typical development process—you work on them and you hope that people will like them. But you're not even sure if people like the core idea… Schafer: Here, the risk is settled up front. Muir: Here, we have the core idea of Massive Chalice and we're putting it out there. If people are willing to take a little bit of a chance and put their money up front, man, that's amazing. That tells me that they're along for the ride, that they're into it and that they love the concept. It just removes that [uncertainty of] working on it underground and building up to the announce and not knowing how it's going to go over. That is nerve-racking. So I really like that this way, it's like, 'Man, I already told everybody my idea. That's out of the way!' Hopefully, they like it enough to put their money upfront and we'll just make this thing for them. That part—the making it—just sounds super exciting. I'm looking forward to that. Schafer: I think since we launched it and it didn't read 'zero' for very long, that instantly took a huge amount of stress off both of our shoulders. Now we didn't have the record-breaking worst Kickstarter of all time. Muir: An hour after we launched it, it is not at zero. Schafer: I think if you keep talking, it'll hit $100,000… Like an inverse filibuster? There's an interesting psychological component to what you guys have been talking about. This could be a burnout-resistant method of development, right? The light bulb went over my head when I realized that we should Kickstart this thing, instead of all the other options we had for Brad. There was some thought to trying to find a publisher or going out and pitching some more. But, part of it was wanting Brad to experience what I experienced, which is that our community has a ton of love and energy to give us. That was something that I maybe knew in the abstract but I experienced it every day when we launched that first Kickstarter. The comments from people about how they feel when they backed it… they're just the best. Our fans are just the best. Muir: And I'm jealous watching the Broken Age team work with the community and they're super-open about what they're working on. We have some journalist friends and it always sucks when they ask 'what're you working on?' and we can't tell them. Now, it's like 'Tim, what're you working on?' 'Well, Broken Age.' We're talking about Spaceboy [the nickname for one of the Broken Age protagonists] and other stuff and everyone can know that in the community. Or they can know about it if they want to. Schafer: It's a relief when you realize you don't have to keep it a secret.

We've been covering the delightful A Hat In Time for a while now, but not only have the developers recently launched a Kickstarter to help fund the development, I also finally got a chance to play it. Now I can tell you that without a doubt, this is project worth supporting. If you've not heard of the game before, it's a "collec-a-ton" platformer, whose influences—Wind Waker, Banjo-Kazooie, The Legend of Zelda and Super Mario 64—are readily apparent. Hat girl, the protagonist, moves much like Mario does—to the point that I almost expected her to be able to do all of Mario's moves. There are slight differences of course: Hat girl, unlike Mario, can immediately double-jump—just as an example. She also has stuff like a pogo-stick/Umbrella and a hookshot, which aren't things Mario can use. This might make her cooler than Mario, even if she doesn't move quite as fluidly as Mario does (not yet, anyway). She's definitely cuter than Mario, at least. Anyway, you use those moves and those tools to traverse across levels. Here's where things get exciting. The world in of itself oozes so much charm that I found myself immediately experimenting with the platforming and seeing where the game would allow me to go. I would try to climb structures and see all the nooks and crannies simply because they existed—even if this meant swimming off into the distance to see if I could get to a far-away island. The view, after spending a while swimming: Few games seem to tap into that sense of wonder nearly as well—and this is that I've only tried a preview build which isn't finished and doesn't have all the assets. Oh, and sure, I collected some orbs along the way. Why not? But mostly, I wanted to get lost in A Hat In Time's world. It's a place that reminds me a lot of Delfino Plaza in Super Mario Sunshine, though that might just be the tropical theme. Later levels take you into outer space, the desert, and a spooky forest: I didn't get to see most of these locations, although they sound enticing. While playing, I noted that Hat girl could punch things—but she's just a kid and most things seemed to hurt her if she got too rough. Instead, what seemed to be most effective was jumping on top of baddies—most of which seemed to be the same Mafia dude. That part is disappointing, although I realize that it's a small team that is making the game. Still, I hope they're able to put in some more renders for variety's sake. And to their credit, the Mafia dudes are kind of funny (this is after a comment that implied they're not bad guys): ...yeah, they're jerks. I didn't get to see this in the build I tried, but the game's Kickstarter promises that there will be time travel. The premise: Time is falling apart and it is the job of the brave interstellar-travelling Hat Kid to collect all the time pieces and put them back together! But watch out, you're in a race against the evil Mustache Girl who wants to use time for evil! If the devs manage to raise enough money, they'll also include co-op. For now, what you can bank on is a delightful game with five chapters, and these chapters have different acts—think doing different stars on the same level in Super Mario 64. They're hoping to release A Hat In Time in early 2014 for PC and Mac. You can vote for it on Steam Greenlight here, and you can donate to the Kickstarter here.

Today we demonstrate the importance of fighting as a team. Repeatedly!

At D11 on Thursday, Motorola CEO Dennis Woodside finally confirmed the existence of the X Phone.

"Both kink and games involve and even require co-operation and trust: between the player and the author, between the players themselves, between someone experiencing pain and someone inflicting it." Game developers Porpentine and Merritt Kopas talk about the intersection of kink and video games over at Trash Babes. It's a must-read.

Tomb Breaker's innovative puzzle mechanic helps it stand out in a very crowded category. Don't miss this polished mobile time-killer.

Sure, the original version of Get Lucky is catchy—but Pharrell's smoothness is no match for K.K. Slider's animalese vocals. It's not even a fair fight. This video by Alex Romero proves it. Awww yeaaaah. Truly, K.K. Slider has come a long way: (Source unknown, but can update this post if that changes.) Get Lucky feat. K.K. Slider [Alex Romero]

You know what, it's hard to argue with some of the stuff in this (spoilery) Iron Man 3 video from How It Should Have Ended. Specifically, how it calls out the movie's biggest WTF moment. I liked the movie a good deal, but I had the same question at the end: Why on Earth did Tony blow up his suits? I get the gesture, and it's sweet and everything, but dude… you're probably going to need a suit at some point. Maybe even soon! Evil can be somewhat unpredictable, after all.