Trailer on EurogamerTV: echochrome, a game with MC Escher-inspired level design. Huge trailer here if you want to see it in more detail.

Since about ten years Theo Jansen is occupied with the making of a new nature. Not pollen or seeds but plastic yellow tubes are used as the basic matierial of this new nature. He makes skeletons which are able to walk on the wind. Eventualy he wants to put these animals out in herds on the beaches, so they will live their own lives.

[UPDATE]

• See tour dates here
  

• Union Chapel gig review. (thisislondon.co.uk).

• Daniel Johnston, Union Chapel, London (Financial Times review).

• Live: Daniel Johnston @ The Union Chapel (Amelias Magazine).

• Daniel Johnston…(Happy Clap Music Blog).

The show became magical when Johnston was joined by lo-fi folk stars Adem and James Yorkston. Their guitar and pump organ on one of Johnston’s most loved songs, Some Things Last A Long Time, was nothing short of breathtaking. Johnston physically shook as he sang. “Are you still with me?” he asked, unaware that grown men were dabbing at their eyes.

Johnston has been described as, ‘one of the world’s greatest living songwriters by a who’s who of rock luminaries including Tom Waits, Kurt Cobain and David Bowie. Artists indebted to his sound include Beck, Jeffrey Lewis, The Flaming Lips and Mercury Rev.’ Even The Simpson’s creator Matt Groening is a big fan.

Still some available tickets on ebay.

This is not about sophisticated flash games with use of physics and 3D, this is more about building a very special game. Read more here.

The past two weeks loads of new things have happened around, I’m not talking about Adobe Apollo which it’s public alpha release has been already covered for the whole week all over the place without interruption.

The week started in a new office with loads of work to do, new people coming in, and the discovery of a new (I mean ‘new’ for me) music band which maybe is not ‘Avant garde enough’ for some people, but caught my attention dramatically.

This week I had the opportunity to play for the first time with the Nintendo Wii . Yes, I’m aware that playing with the Wii is nothing specially new , but I’m coming from a place where important things are around this instead of the latest video game technology, so my delay in this matter is completely understandable.
I have been thinking for weeks to buy a new PS3 but after playing with the Nintendo Wii I have decided that my money is going to end up in Nintendo’s pocket rather than Sony’s bault.

In terms of work and ‘Flashy stuff’ as I wrote above, the release of Apollo public beta hasn’t been in my priority list since I don’t have time to play around with it. This does NOT mean that I consider Apollo a good tool or not, I just simply don’t know and I don’t need Apollo for my daily work yet (I would give it a try soon).

Three blog entries from 3 different blogs in my daily “must read because this guys can go bananas” list caught my attention last week when I think in ‘Flashy stuff’, all of them are related with flash and 3D:

• Papervision3D runs inside a commercial project for the first time, Read more here.
• WiiFlash and Papervision3D, pitch and roll rotations. Read more here.
• AS 3 Biped Rig by the almighty Jim Armstrong, I just can’t wait to see the final result of this project.
  BTW: Do not miss his online publications, specially the Computational Geometry TechNotes.

More on paper, vision, and 3D:

Costume Transformers

We have been very busy the last few days moving all the stuff to our new studio.
Here there are some pictures of what is going to be our new working place:

Phone: +44 (0) 207 729 7658
Fax: +44 (0) 207 729 4770
Less Rain LTD
5 Calvert Avenue
E2 7JP
London.

The YouTube videos posted here previously have been removed due to copyright issues. Watch it instead on Eurogamer.

Seems like after the music and film industry now the video game industry follows suit. Well.

Microwaveable.

Not sure what to wear this summer? Jay’s Funky Duds t-shirt blog is here to help you choose. If that’s too much choice, how about this one:

There are cars as skateboards, crazy skateboarders, classic skateboards, and now human skateboards:

Link found via thefwa.

UPDATE:

Mikkel just pointed me to this older human skateboard stop-motion animated gif

Dynamite Surfing