action

Interactive gaming screensaver

ScreenPlay Pong performs double duty as a screensaver and a video game. Users with a nostalgic streak for long-forgotten video technology will love this primitive combination.

The program's interface is thankfully just as bare bones as the actual imagery onscreen. Users set up their screensaver much like any other, by navigating a small bank of radio buttons that control timing and color. We did not see a Help file, but this program is so basic, it didn't concern us. When working, the screensaver looks like the old video game Pong. A simple ball bounces among the screen's … Read more

More than a matching game

StoneLoops! of Jurassica is a fun and smartly designed arcade puzzle game, a refreshing, prehistoric-themed take on the now-classic rolling-colored-ball-shooter genre. Fans of similar games will immediately recognize the gameplay: you have to shoot colored balls into a winding column of slowly advancing balls, trying to match three or more of the same color in a row to destroy those balls--ideally setting up chain reactions ("chains") of other nearby matches. In StoneLoops, you move left and right while shooting from the bottom of the screen, with several controls to choose from that incorporate tilt, touch, and touch-screen buttons. … Read more

Electronic timer

VersaTimer aims to keep users on schedule with a generous clock face and some added features. Users of all skill levels will find it a reliable tool for staying on track of multiple tasks at once.

This free program appears as an enormous digital clock face with red numbers. Below the cycling numbers are large buttons for starting and resetting the clock. The upper left of the clock face has a pull-down menu that lets users select different clock presets. Within the clock's Settings menu, VersaTimer transforms itself from a simple timer into an advanced reminder system. Users can … Read more

U.S. National Design Policy initiative poised to 'redesign America's future'

Design is not the answer to everything, but it certainly has an important role to play in almost everything that holds a society together.

In light of the current economic crisis, several U.S. professional design organizations (AIGA, IDSA, and others), design education accreditation organizations, and Federal Government officials have seized the historic opportunity and joined forces to launch an initiative to shape a U.S. National Design Policy. In a moment of great global uncertainty and an erosion of national confidence, designers are perfectly positioned to take on a leadership role in "Re-designing America's Future," and … Read more

Time is of the essence

Time Crisis Strike Lite is a fun, free preview of the first stage in Time Crisis Strike, an iPhone and iPod Touch adaptation of the classic arcade game series, in which you fight against the forces of the evil mercenary Wild Dog. Like its stand-up arcade forebears, Time Crisis Strike is a "rail shooter"--a first-person shooter in which you are moved from one static fight scene to the next--but instead of pressing a metal pedal to take cover, you tilt your iPhone or iPod Touch forward to duck and reload (or you can change the settings so … Read more

Superman gets sold

Looking at that picture on the left, I'm reminded of the days when buying a comic book and keeping it in pristine condition was the most important thing in my life. Didn't matter which comic, either; all of them were treated with the same reverence. Ah, the good old days when I actually thought my comics would be worth something.

It's those first appearances you had to get in on. The most important first appearance took place in 1938 in "Action Comics" No. 1. That was the first appearance of Superman. Today someone will attempt … Read more

More popular games coming to a browser near you

Several announcements today further cemented the fact that the Web browser is the new game console.

"Quake Live" will enter public beta on February 24, offering players a stripped-down version of the full game. (Side note: interesting use of social-media tools Twitter and Facebook to promote the launch.)

Square Enix announced a deal to offer some of its games on Steam's Valve platform.The first Square Enix game to be available to Steam users will be the Unreal Engine 3-powered role-playing game, "The Last Remnant." It will release on Steam on April 9, days after … Read more

Web-based game portal promises InstantAction

Game developers looking for a new way to get their work in front of large audiences may soon have a new tool that could allow them to bypass the restrictive and risk-averse world of retailers.

A new service, known as InstantAction, is set to officially launch Tuesday. It aims to free developers, both inside and outside big publishers, from the traditional distribution constraints of selling PC- or console-based games.

The idea behind InstantAction is to provide developers with an end-to-end process for putting their games online, making them browser-based and making it possible for players to easily join their friends' games at any time, without the need for a proprietary service like Microsoft's Xbox Live.

And unlike the growing number of casual games, 2D virtual worlds, and Flash-based virtual-world platforms, InstantAction promises to support complete versions of just about any full-scale, or AAA, game a publisher wants to make available online. Brett Sayler, vice president of technology for InstantAction, said the service offers the first high-quality 3D games on the Web.

While the service's technology could, in theory, support a game like "World of Warcraft" or any number of titles from a publisher like Electronic Arts, it's more likely that, in the early going, at least, the service would be utilized by less-established publishers.

"The people this would likely appeal to are major publishers and game developers who," said Sayler, "are unsatisfied with the gaming-(distribution) options available right now."

Good match for Atari? As a hypothetical example, Sayler pointed to Atari, which, in its current iteration--wholly owned by Infogrames, it is not the high-flying company it once was--has struggled to find substantial traction with retailers and consumers.

"Atari is a well-known brand with good (titles)," Sayler said, "fighting a losing battle at retail."

Working with InstantAction, Sayler said, still speaking hypothetically, Atari could make some or all of its games available to consumers via the Web in a matter of months, bypassing big-box retailers and game-centric franchises in the process and, therefore, being able to concentrate more on building its games.

Another advantage that InstantAction offers its partners, Sayler said, is browser-based. Because the games are played--and authenticated--through a Web browser, they are intended to be much harder, if not impossible, to pirate, meaning that publishers can stop worrying about digital rights management. That, said Sayler, is something that has bedeviled PC game makers. … Read more

Obama Inc. - Web activism for profit

A few months after Barack Obama’s historic election, and a couple of weeks after the release of Barry Libert’s and Rick Faulk’s book Obama Inc. (and, of course, Obama's inauguration), the first start-ups are popping up that directly apply some of the widely heralded business lessons emerging from the innovative campaign. The fact that most of these lessons lie in the marketing domain supports the view I’ve expressed earlier and on numerous occasions: 1) Marketing will (again) become the number one change agent in business, 2) when it follows the new rules of “marketing with … Read more