hustler of culture

LA - Street Fighter IV Event (06.25.09)

LA - "Jottobots" (06.13.09 - 07.08.09)

WiiSpray

WiiSpray Teaser from Martin Lihs on Vimeo

Leave it up to Martin Lihs, a graduate student at Bauhaus University to create something so damn cool.  Game developers, will you look at this?! Forget about games as art. Imagine the hours of  non-trad game play?!  More geek graffiti, FTW! I can't get enough of WiiSpray 2nd edition:

WiiSpray – a technical experiment

Wii Spray was developed in the course of the “Information Places” project in the spring of 2007 by students Martin Lihs and Frank Matuse of the Media Department at the Bauhaus University Weimar. However, the original idea of the project was founded much sooner.

LA - Nintendo DSi Event (04.04.09)

Space Invader #763

SPACE INVADER #763
Uploaded by extermitent

Enjoy this clip of Invader's 763rd invasion of Paris on Freeway A3.

"Game Over/Continue?"

March 27, 2009 - 7:13 p.m. - San Francisco, CA

We attended the "Game Over/Continue?" art opening at GRSF. Tons of game developers and industry peeps came out to support friends who worked on the group show which paid homage to the "massive influence and continuous evolution of videogames."  There was interactive art to tinker with and lots of illustration, painting, sewing, and indie comics to browse.

The show is up from March 27, 2009 to April 15, 2009.

GRSF
618 Shrader Street
San Francisco, CA 94117
415-876-4773

Nebmobile

March 26, 2009 - 12:17 p.m. - San Francisco, CA

SF - "Game Over Continue?" (03.27.09 - 04.15.09)

"Watchmen: Justice is Coming"

March 5, 2009 - 10:13 p.m. - Santa Monica, CA

As seen above, Sean challenging Silvio to a fight on Watchmen: Justice is Coming for the iPhone and iTouch. Let the trash talk begin! Launched in conjunction with the world premier of the film, Watchmen the MMO is available for 99 cents for a limited time only. Download today!

RELATED: Watchmen: Justice is Coming iPhone MMO

Watchmen: Justice is Coming iPhone MMO

Silvio's secret project has finally been announced! His studio, Last Legion Games created Watchmen: Justice is Coming, a multiplayer online adventure fighting game developed exclusively for the iPhone and iPod Touch. Inspired by the Watchmen film, pretty soon players will be able to chat and battle other players while wandering 1970s New York City.

The game is still under Apple's thumb (waiting for approval) and will be available at the iTunes App Store in March 2009. Check watchmanjusticeiscoming.com for more deets! Please spread the word. I'm not sure anyone knows about this IP yet and I'd really like to give the film and its accompanying game a little press!

UPDATE: The game is now available at the Apple Apps Store!

NYC - "The Aesthetics of Gaming" (02.10.09 -03.03.09)

Creative Cabal: Doug Church + Silvio Porretta

January 27, 2009 - 9:55 p.m. - Santa Monica, CA

Eye Spy 2008

(almost) a photo a day by hustler of culture and silviothemilvio.

RELATED: Eye Spy 2007, Eye Spy 2006

Experimental Gameplay 2009 Call for Participation

Game designer/developer and friend Jonathan Blow would like to remind all of you that the Experimental Gameplay 2009 is now taking submissions:

The Experimental Gameplay Sessions occur every year at the GDC; it’s a two-hour showcase of unusual and cutting-edge game designs. Each designer gives a ten- or fifteen-minute presentation of each game, including a live demo.

We’re now looking for submissions for the 2009 workshop, which will be happening in March. If you make unconventional kinds of games, I encourage you to apply. Our Call for Submissions document discusses everything in more detail:

Experimental Gameplay 2009 Call for Participation

Third Place Sports Influencer: Tony Hawk

Tony Hawk on Japanese television in 1984 (part 1) by Tony Hawk

Forbes has named skate champion Tony Hawk the third most influential athlete in the world beating out other sports megastars such as baller Shaquille O'Neal, race car driver Dale Earnhardt Jr., and multi-Olympic gold medalist swimmer Michael Phelps. Aside from his winning slab superstature, Tony's rise in influence and fame rose with the help from the blockbuster videogame franchise, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater -- a game my husband Silvio is proud to have been the lead artist for, for the first couple of iterations. What a long way, skateboarding has come. And videogames too.

Good pal and tech journalist Daniel Terdiman interviewed Tony for cNet. Tony talks about technology, entertainment, charity-work, and skateboarding. He says, "More kids are skating than playing little league now... the same cities that are discouraging them aren't providing facilities for them. So I wanted to help bridge that gap and provide skate parks in low-income cities." Huh, really?! Wow, cool!

Marvin Minsky... Just Think About It

December 12, 2008 - 6:37 p.m. - Monterey, CA

With the help of Emotiv's co-founder Tan Le, Marvin Minksy demonstrated how a new headset for human computer interaction worked at Entertainment Gathering 2008. The Artificial Intelligence godfather and co-founder of MIT'S AI Laboratory wowed the audience by rotating a cube and making it disappear simply by thinking about it. Just, so future... now. Emotiv hopes to develop this technology for future game play. I can imagine so much more. Want!

Save the Videogame

Richard Lemarchand from gamecity on Vimeo.

There's no question, videogames have influenced my life. I fondly remember spending many hours with friends and family hovering over the Atari 2600, Atari 5200, and the Commodore 64 growing up. Many allowances and after school hours were spent at the arcade. I often took ideas from the computer to the real world -- completing virtual adventures, outside. I married a game developer over 10 years ago and we've since hosted hundreds of game nights together. We have nearly every major game console launched in the past 30 years gathering dust in our garage. I was once a games journalist. Our cat's name is Atari. Videogame royalties bought our home. We have been hosting an annual post E3 barbecue for the past six years. Some of our best buddies, like Richard (above) we met through the interactive entertainment industry. Without games I'd be without a lot.

Tell people about the National Videogame Archive and register to help save the videogame today. Please spread the word. Thanks!

Paddington - "AVATAR the new you" (09.05.08 - 10.04.08)

AVATAR the new you
Friday 5 September to Saturday 4 October 2008
Tue - Fri: 12.00 - 7.00pm, Sat & Sun 10.00am - 6.00pm

Gallery 1 & 2

MYFANWY ASHMORE (CANADA), ARAM BARTHOLL (GERMANY), TOBIAS BERNSTRUP (SWEDEN), ZENG HAN & YANG CHANGHONG (CHINA), DANIEL HANDAL (USA), CLAUDIA HART (USA), CEES-JAN KIEWIET / WYRIHAXIMUS (NETHERLANDS), DAVID MELÉNDEZ (MEXICO), STEVE MILLER / ARAHAN CLAVEAU (UK), MELISSA RAMOS & RHYS TURNER (AUSTRALIA), JUSTIN SHOULDER (AUSTRALIA) TALE OF TALES GAME DESIGN FORUM (BELGIUM)

Curated by Malcolm Smith

The original Avatars came from Indian mythology; they were the bodies the Gods used when they chose to walk upon the earth. Today the term Avatar is more commonly associated with the graphical action figures we use when we play games in online worlds. Like virtual alter-egos, our avatars can be whoever we want them to be; musclebound commandos, lithe blood elves, penguins or Pokemon.

Asian Squat Contest

August 23, 2008 - 10:24 p.m. - Culver City, CA

Because Michelle and I will compete in the most random things, at anytime, we decided to bust out Asian Squat Contest. She told me Souther is the reigning champion clocking in at one hour+. That's incredible. I was feeling the burn after six minutes! Which was about the time that Ori gave up. I didn't last much longer. Michelle totally took home gold on this one.

I've been working on an Olympics of sorts with games like this. Please let me know if you have a good contest to share. We've already got "Standing on One Leg Longest", "Asian Squat Sumo Wrestling", "No Hands Eating Contest" and there is an unnamed secret tie-breaker game, only for when it's necessary. If you're interested in sponsoring this Olympics, let me know (we've got a few sets to build and a few trophies to buy), thanks!

Siggraph 2008: 3D for Gaming and Alternative Media: How 3D is Changing the Way We Play

August 11, 2008 - 4:35 p.m. - Los Angeles, CA

Steve Schklair of 3ality Digital System conducts a live 3D broadcast during the 3D for Gaming and Alternative Media: How 3D is Changing the Way We Play at Siggraph 2008.