Games as an Artform # 2

Botanicula (PC, Mac) is a beautiful 2D handdrawn game with cute and weird characters, funny scenes and loads of adventures in a lush environment. The game's basic style is point and click with exploration with the occasional puzzle solving, but it's all done in a real artistic way, you feel like you're inside an indie animated feature while you are playing, check it out:

Tearaway (PS Vita) hasn't been released yet, though I've seen the first images and videos about it more than a year ago - and mind you, this is not a GTA style huge game, it's for a handheld console, so it should take a lot less time to produce it. The interesting thing for me in this game is not only the style, but the way you play it. The PS Vita has a touch-screen like surface at the bottom of it and utilizing that you can "reach" into the game and interact with the characters in completely new way. I don't have a PS Vita myself but this game itself looks promising enough to make me interested.

Lastly here is Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery (PC, Mac,  Linux), it's also a point and click exploration style game but with pixel graphics.

The look of the game is amazing, every location is different and though graphically it's simple still there are enough details to keep you sucked in as you try to find your way out. Very cool little game, check it out:

Bot & Dolly - Box

This is an amazing little short which uses a lot of post-production, projection mapping, tracked camera movement and a lot creativity and style. I would go as far as to say that this is the most inventive way to use projection mapping yet, so enjoy, let yourself be amazed:

The 100th Post!

So here we are, the 100th post on this blog. I didn't think at the beginning that I will keep updating it, it was just a test to see if I will care about it enough to have something new posted at least every two or three days. I don't promote my blog, I'm not active online enough to do that. I just write whenever I feel there is something interesting that I can share with those few people reading my blog.

Thank you.

OldBoy Remake trailers

Back in 2003 when the original Oldboy was released it was a huge hit. It was artistic, witty, sharp, brutal, funny at times and it head heart. Hollywood waited almost 10 years to start working on the remake and it fell into the hands of Spike Lee, so we can hope for a worthy movie. Here are two trailers for the movie, it seems to hit a different tone than the original, but actually that's a good thing, it's hard to recreate a perfect film.

Full Length Snowpiercer Trailer

Looks awesome!

First Official AVGN The Movie Poster

If you don't know who the Angry Video Game Nerd is go to http://cinemassacre.com/ right now and find out. After many short films, web series, documentaries he is finally making his first feature film - actually not finally, since he started already back in 2007, and there is no release date yet, so who knows when are we going see it. Anyhow, here is the official poster which was released today along with a little update video on the film's status.

Function 2013 - Demoscene meeting

As I have already stated previously I used to be a demoscener, well hell, I still am and I visited the only regular Hungarian demoscene meeting that exists the previous weekend: Function 2013. When I started the demoscene around 96-97 there was like 6-8 parties every year, now it's down to one and a some demoshows and C64 meetings, but the scene is better than ever. Quality releases, a lots of foreign visitors, big names, old faces, it was great.

Here is the winner in the democompo from Fairlight, a norwegian demoscene and cracker group, hands down, it's a very cool little demo.

And for the first time I post something that I produced together with Nagz and Senderkatch for the wild demo compo, and it took the 1st place, so we are really happy. On the scene I'm known under the alias Immortal Rat, and this is our long forgotten demo groups first release since 2000 or so, here it goes: Touch Me by Greenroom.

Check out these pages for more info about Function and the Demoscene:

http://2013.function.hu/
http://www.scene.hu/
http://www.pouet.net/

New Interesting Trailers

The first one is called Escape From Tomorrow and it looks very weird. I don't know what to expect but I'll check it out for sure when it's out, maybe just to run away after 5 minutes, but hey, at least some people are still experimenting with films. By the way, it was shot in Disneyland, which fact in itself makes it a very interesting project.

The second one is a more generic looking claustrophobic space horror, but if it stays true to the genre and doesn't try to be more than it is could be a really fun ride, looking forward to it. Last Days on Mars.

Jurassic World - Pitch Video

This is a concept teaser / video from a possible fourth installment in the Jurassic Park series, it was shown at a convention in Germany, and it looks... eh, well, very bad in my opinion. Maybe it's gonna have a subtitle like 3DD or something, like the Piranha movies had. Anyway, I just posted this because it's curious.

Cornetto Trilogy Trailer

Edgar Wright finished his trilogy about apocalyptic visions starring Simon Pegg and Nick Frost. First there was Shaun of the Dead with the two anti-heroes fighting against hordes of zombies, and it's still considered one of the best horror comedies. Next came Hot Fuzz with crazy cult followers and ritual killings, a whole little English town went crazy, but our heroes dealt with the situation once again. Finally there was The World's End, the final piece in the trilogy. This time they are against blue blooded robots who came from outer space and the fun is still there. It's rare to find a director who's movies are all high quality, intelligent, entertaining and a pleasure to watch. Check out the trilogy's feature trailer, then watch the three movies all together on a fine Saturday afternoon and have a blast!

Robocop - Trailer

Here is the first trailer for the upcoming Robocop remake directed by José Padilha. It looks very different than the original Paul Verhoeven one, which is a good thing, I'm just a little worried about the PG-13 rating, for sure it's not going to be as brutal as the original, but let's hope it will make up for it in different ways. The movie will be filled with great actors (Micheal Keaton, Gary Oldman, Samuel L. Jackson, etc.) and the visuals also look promising. Coming next Feburary, check it out:

Gravity - Feature Trailer

After the three short one shot trailers here is the full feature trailer for the upcoming sci-fi movie, Gravity. The movie is already considered as of the best space films ever made and this trailer just proves that it just might be true. I'm really looking forward to it, check it out the full trailer:

Looper Music Videos

Here is a new music video from Dizzee Rascal for the track I Don't Need a Reason. The whole video is compiled from shorter or longer loops composed together in a nice fashion. You can't really see where one loop ends and another starts. Here is the video:

This video actually reminded of an old Chemical Brothers video: Star Guitar. The video is also compiled of loops creating an endless audio-reactive video experience, very different way but the outcome is even more impressive:

Finally here is another video from a decade ago, Kylie Minogue, Come Into My World, a really nice looper video, again using the technique in a very different but effective way:

Judith Ann Braun - Painting with fingers

Judith Ann Braun is a New York based artist creating geometrical style paintings on paper and canvas, the unique thing about her that she doesn't use brushes, she uses her own fingers to put the paint on the surface. At one point when were little I think all of us dipped our hands into paint and started creating an image, it's fascinating to see that this technique can be evolved into such level. She has some really interesting artwork, check out her website:

http://judithannbraun.com/

Asian directors 1. - Noboru Iguchi

Noboru Iguchi is a film director / actor, famous for creating the craziest movies in Japan, which is a big thing since the Asian cinema always been a little on the edge. His movies are not serious and not even good for that matter, but as a surreal gore-fest they really do their job. Noboru came from the adult video industry, his first "big hit" was Machine Girl, here is the trailer:

Later came Robo-geisha, putting the stakes even higher:

And finally here is his short film made for the ABC's of Death compilation horror feature, this just really takes the cake for me, F is for Fart: