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MTV’s Multiplayer blog had the chance to talk to Takanori Ishikawa, developer of Sega and Platinum Games’ upcoming Wii game MadWorld. Ishikawa reveals some interesting tidbits of the process at Platinum Games and the reasons and influences for the heavily stylized visuals of MadWorld.

“The Wii is the ideal console to express white and black graphics,” he told [Stephen Totilo] during the announcement of the partnership between publisher Sega and the Platinum Games studio where Ishikawa, formerly of Capcom, now works. “For consoles like the 360 and PlayStation 3 the level of high-quality graphics is so extreme. I wanted things to be simpler than that.” He said he had been told that he needed to make a Wii game. “We thought about ‘What can we do that’s new on the Wii?’ And we came out the white and black graphics.”

Since its debut last week, “Madworld” has drawn comparisons to “Sin City,” the famous graphic novel that was also rendered primarily in black-and-white. Ishikawa says the comic was just one inspiration for the game. “‘Sin City’ is really what graphic novels and American comics represent,” he said. “So, yes, ‘Sin City’ was one of the graphic novels we looked at. But the direction ‘Sin City’ goes and ‘Madworld’ goes are completely different.”

The article also goes into the graphic violence featured so heavily in the game, as well as what to expect to hear in the soundtrack. Definitely worth the read for all interested parties!

[MTV Multiplayer]

Tags: MadWorld, Platinum Games
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Here’s some news - the Independent Gaming weblog is moving to a new domain and becoming IndieGames.com: The Weblog, as part of the CMP Game Group (Independent Games Festival creator)’s outreach into the independent gaming scene.

Please change your bookmarks to point to IndieGames.com: The Weblog at http://www.indiegames.com/blog - indygamer.blogspot.com will no longer be updated. The Feedburner RSS feed for Independent Gaming has been automatically switched to point to the new site. Comments are being migrated as we speak.

Thanks to the CMP Game Group and Simon Carless for the invaluable support and hosting of the new site; we promise to continue to serve all your indie games news and review needs as we have done before. Here’s a word from Simon about this change:

Simon: “Hey folks - you may know me already from running GameSetWatch and also helping to manage various other Game Group properties like Gamasutra, Game Developer magazine, and - of course - the Independent Games Festival, which is definitely the most relevant for this announcement!

This whole concept started a couple of months ago when Tim announced that he might have to shut the Independent Gaming blog unless he got some help in hosting and partly paying for his time working on the site. We wanted to help out, and we’d already launched IndieGames.com to help educate people about independent games, so having him move his blog over here made a lot of sense.

So nothing is really changing here - Tim’s still got an open editorial remit to blog and interview who he likes, and we may occasionally pop in to mention IGF and other Game Group-related news - which is likely of interest anyhow. We’ll also be working with him to look at whether we can help to better develop the indie scene through setting up better distribution mechanisms for independent games - though we’ve only just started thinking about this.”
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After receiving a letter accusing them of patent infringement, Activision filed a declaratory judgment action March 12, 2008, against Gibson Guitars, asking the court for finding of invalidity and noninfringement. Gibson is asserting that it has a patent on a musical performance simulation, which Gibson alleges Activision infringes via its popular Guitar Hero games.

The lawsuit was filed in the Central District of California. The patent is U.S. Pat. No. 5,990,405, entitled “System and Method for Generating and Controlling a Simulated Musical Concert Experience,” issued Nov. 23, 1999. At a glance, the broadest claim appears to be:

13. A system for simulating participation of a user playing a musical instrument in a pre-recorded musical performance having audio and video portions, the musical instrument producing instrument audio signals at an instrument audio output when the instrument is played, comprising:

a. a source playback device for playback of the audio and video portions of the pre-recorded musical performance through corresponding source audio and source video outputs;

b. a source audio control device for controlling one or more characteristics of the audio portion of the pre-recorded musical performance during playback, the source audio control means operably connected to the source audio output and to the instrument audio output and having a controlled audio output; and

c. the source audio control device is responsive to the instrument audio signals whereby at least one characteristic of the audio portion of the pre-recorded musical performance is controlled by playing of the musical instrument by the user.

We’ll keep tracking this case and let you know of any major developments.
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Filed under: Sony PlayStation 3, Action

If you haven’t been getting along with Metal Gear Solid’s blend of neck-snapping stealth and expository blabbering, the fourth (and sort of final) game in the series is unlikely to sway your opinion. CVG reports that Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots features 90 minutes of cutscenes and… wait, hang on. It doesn’t contain 90 minutes of cutscenes, but rather, alleged 90-minute cutscenes. If your interest or your attention span doesn’t stretch that far, you’ll probably have a better time watching a Slinky make its way down a short flight of stairs.

Removing the element of sensationalism, however, it should be noted that the article fails to mention where said lengthy cutscenes (which can now be paused) fall within the game. For all we know, they’re at the end — you know, when you’re done playing. Even so, this revelation is unlikely to turn away longtime series fans. If anything, we suspect it’ll have them even more interested. We certainly are!

In other “Why am I waiting so long?” news, alleged images of a Metal Gear Solid 4 store display box have surfaced online, showing a required 4.5GB installation. We’ve requested comment from Konami.

[Thanks, Hashbrown Hunter]

Read — Loooong cutscenes
Read — Biiiig installation

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Online Videos by Veoh.com

Well now we have a treat for you this week on ‘Sega Game Endings’. Not one, not three, but two whole game ending videos. However they are for the same game, NiGHTS on the Sega Saturn.

As you all should know NiGHTS into Dreams allowed players to take control of two different characters, Claris and Elliot, who both have different levels, bosses and more importantly (for this feature at least), two different endings.

So for anyone who has not been able to get their hands on this Saturn classic, here are the final FMV sequences. You should notice that though the endings differ, they do both come together and cross paths at a couple of moments.

Elliots ending after the jump:

Online Videos by Veoh.com

[Videos originally from Game-Endings]

Tags: , NiGHTS into Dreams, Sega Game Endings
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Yahtzee’s review of Grand Theft Auto IV officially puts him in an interesting position: It affirms that he doesn’t care for the wai-wai technocolour of Japanese-produced games, but neither is he firm and erect over brown-and-grey gaming.

So I guess he’s a moderate? Balderdash. Who has time to sit on the fence these days.

He brings up a great point about the trees in GTA IV. My family used to vacation on a beach; every time we had a small thunderstorm (mommy said thunder was God was flushing His toilet), the native poplar trees would lie flat on the ground in terrified surrender.

Tags: grand theft auto 4, media

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Winter’s Heart is probably my favorite of the over 100 Game Maker winter contest games I’ve played so far. It’s made by Bit Pimp aka Darthlupi, who is responsible for some of the best classic Game Maker games (such as Mage Craft, Raging Skies, The Cleaner, and Legend of Shadow). It fits in no one genre, it has puzzle and action elements, and RPG-like upgrades.

Use Z to hoist and then strike with your staff, holding it longer produces more forceful blows. This however cannot harm enemies, but it can be used to knock snowballs into them, which can create chain reactions and temporarily stun enemies — and while they are stunned, use the staff again to banish them. You can also use X to roll up snowballs for this purpose if you run out of a level’s starting set, although this drains your freeze meter. Press C to use a spell (which takes away from your score), and press A and S to cycle between your spells (which you can buy and upgrade using your score).

I like that it isn’t just a set of levels, but there’s a background story, bosses, and really great music. One thing I like about the game is that it’s very economical with its elements, you only have two meters. The freeze meter doubles as health (you have to restart the level when it fills) and, because it’s constantly moving down, also triples as your time limit. Your score and doubles as your magic points, because you use it up when you cast spells, and it triples as your currency, because you use it to buy new spells and upgrade them.

Name: Winter’s Heart
Developer: BitPimp/Darthlupi
Category: Arcade/Action/Puzzle/RPG
Type: Freeware
Size: 3.2 MB
Direct download page: Click here
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Sorta a selfish version of RPS’ ‘The Sunday Papers’, time to round up the remainder of the original articles we’ve published this week on sister sites like Gamasutra and Game Career Guide, yay.

Some of the highlights - WildTangent’s Alex St. John is still grumpy as all get-out, we analyze Konami’s epic Gamer’s Day presentation, and a wannabe developer rages against the game industry machine for not letting him play, or similar.

Ready, steady, cook:

Interview: High Impact’s Lesley Matheson On New Studios, Tech, And More
“Los Angeles-based High Impact Games are behind Ratchet & Clank: Size Matters and the upcoming Secret Agent Clank - and Gamasutra chats in-depth to design director Lesley Matheson on the PSP, game engines, and the LA dev scene.”

ION: WildTangent’s St. John Declares Consoles Dead, Claims PC Renaissance
“Console gaming is dead, declared typically brazen WildTangent CEO Alex St. John at his ION conference closing keynote, telling his audience how to harness what he claims is online PC gaming’s renaissance with statistics and advice on maximizing ad-supported play.”

Op-ed: From the Outside Looking In
“Brian Nathanson attended a game school and feels it left him underprepared to apply for jobs in the game industry … or is he not getting interviews for jobs because game studios won’t take a chance on an inexperienced candidate? In this op-ed, he airs the conflict as he sees it.”

Analysis: Konami Gamer’s Night - Business As Usual?
“As recently reported, Konami has unveiled its lineup for the remainder of 2008, including new peripheral-based rhythm title Rock Revolution, and Gamasutra was at its pre-E3 Gamer’s Nights to evaluate the company’s line-up - from Iga to Kojima and beyond.”

Building a Mindset for Rapid Iteration Part 2: Some Patterns to Follow and Pitfalls to Avoid
“Following his initial take, EA veteran and Emergent VP Gregory completes his look at rapid iteration by examining methods for seeing asset change swiftly in your games.”

Games For Health: Casual Gaming’s Effects on Mood, Stress
“Surveys have suggested that gamers play certain casual games to reduce stress and improve mood, and a PopCap-funded East Carolina University research team presented research results at the 2008 Games For Health conference - Gamasutra has full specifics.”

Q&A: Pogo’s Kerpelman On The State Of Casual Gaming
“How can casual developers stand out in a crowded field? Todd Kerpelman, creative director for the EA-owned Pogo.com, talks in-depth to Gamasutra, giving his thoughts on casual business models, Facebook gaming, and the swift cloning of game concepts in the casual industry.”

Educational Feature: Three Novice Mistakes In Game Design
“Inexperienced game designers are prone to making certain mistakes, says DeVry University instructor David Sushil, and in the latest feature for educational site GameCareerGuide, Sushil compiles three favorite repeat offenders of fledgling designers.”

ION: BlackStar Designer Reinhart On Design Doc Alternatives
“Particularly for large scale projects like MMOs, design documents can be an ineffective way to convey vision, said Spacetime lead designer Brandon Reinhart at his ION conference session, suggesting, in addition, new tools to focus both development teams and players.”

Q&A: FlowPlay’s Morton Talks ourWorld Online Environment
“FlowPlay recently launched its youngster-targeted online world ourWorld in an open beta, and the company claims ourWorld differs from competing virtual environments, with players not only able to build customized avatars, but take in-game jobs, play games from “leading online game developers” and even view YouTube videos in an in-world theatre - we talked to FlowPlay co-founder Derrick Morton about what it is that sets ourWorld apart.”

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I’m operating on a strange wavelength today. It’s Memorial Day in the States, but not in Canada. My brain’s in limbo between work and vacation.

GameTrailers has the latest part of their Metal Gear Solid retrospective ready. This week: Metal Gear Solid 2, featuring the series’ most hated prettyboy, Raiden.

His naked humiliation does not slake the hatred many fans harbour for him. I remain indifferent.

Tags: media, Metal Gear Solid, Metal Gear Solid 2, Raiden

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TIGSource, your source for indie games information, has arranged a videogame development competition centered aroung procedural generation, the favorite topic for a lot of roguelike developers!

It will run from May 5 to June 2. If you are interested on participating just head over to the TIGs forum and yell!

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