Its video like this that make me wish I was a better, more inspired researcher.  A great idea, designed and developed at low-cost to create a highly impressive Augmented Reality system.  Baring in mind that this is just a prototype, it really makes you wonder how much the digital world will merge with the physical world over the next few years.  AR technology is moving at such a fast pace, and in particular in the past year (co-inciding with the increasing power of portable devices like smartphones) it has really taken some leaps forward into becoming mainstream.  As well as filling our world with information and shared knowledge within seconds, it will also have great implications for gaming and I’m extremely excited for it.

The future’s bright, the future’s augmented.

Jordan Mechnar, creator of the classic Prince of Persia (which kick started the franchise), has published his old journals from back in the days when he was working on the original PoP game. They make for fantastic, nostalgic and insightful reading. Not only that, but he has also included original video footage which he shot of his brother running and diving around a park – footage which eventually became part of the digitised animations used in the game. Its incredibly strange after all these years to watch someone run around in real-life with those moves.

Reading these journals just makes me want to have some quality time to make a game.

(Thanks to Leila Johnston on Twitter (whose adventure book “Enemy of Chaos” I have just bought today) for tweeting about these journals, otherwise I might never have found them.)

A pretty excellent post from Cracked.com, with pictures showing what games would be like if they followed the rules of reality a  bit more closely…

Read the full post at Cracked.com to see more hilarious Photoshops.

Wow.

As Arnold Schwarzenegger once said… “This, is really cool!”.

It certainly is…

themostamazingwebsiteontheinternet.com

A very cool integration of FaceAPI and the Source engine to create head tracking movement in games using just a standard webcam.  Probably less convenient and more strenuous than using a traditional controller, but still cool tech nonetheless with a lot of potential for other applications.

Info link: http://torbensko.com/software/head_tracking/

I was a huge fan of id Software’s games when I was younger.  Games like Commander Keen, Wolfenstein 3D and Doom are probably half the reason why I wasn’t all that bothered about console gaming until about 5 years ago.  I realise now that was naivety; naivety coupled with the lack of being able to afford a console when I was kid and no one wanting to buy me one, since a PC was “more than enough”.  Anyway, these days I love reading about what went on behind the scenes back then, when 4 geeks could get together, drink copious amounts of diet coke, eat pizza, listen to Metallica at ridiculous levels and make damn fine games, without the need for huge studios or budgets.  Masters of Doom by David Kushner is a fantastic book, entertaining and insightful, about how id Software came to be and how their games were made, focusing mainly on John Carmack and John Romero.  A few days back, John Romero, currently working at Gazillion Entertainment, blogged about a video he’d come in to possession of, edited, and put up on Vimeo for all to enjoy.  Its some footage from 1993, while Doom was in development, which visits the id Software workplace and shows some of what went on there – most notably the music of Bobby Prince and John Romero showing off some Doom work-in-progress. Check it out…

A Visit to id Software from john romero on Vimeo.

John also recently blogged about an article from 1994, shortly after Doom was released, which Gamasutra recently republished and is well worth a read for further insight to the design and development of Doom.

Wordle generates a “word cloud” from whatever text or site you provide it with.  I decided to give it a go on this blog, and here it is:

Hmmm… I swear I’m not an Xbox fanboy.

*cough*

Gamesradar have a pretty excellent article online entitled 10 Reasons Why Its Hard Work Being a Gamer – definitely worth a read.  I can particularly relate to point 5, since my Xbox 360 pretty much died this week (without the 3 red rings).  It seems to have gained life again through some divine healing, but something tells me thats only temporary.  Good timing, what with Fallout 3 coming in 2 weeks :(

*fires up oven*