There’s just no stopping Amanita’s point-and-click robot hero. After receiving widespread critical acclaim and being honored with over 20 gaming and design awards, Machinarium and its charming metallic protagonist will be headed to retail stores across the UK and Europe in the first quarter of 2010 for PC. Of course, the game will still be available to download via Amanita’s website, but the retail version will contain a few tasty extras that will definitely pique the interests of fans.
The box will include an art book filled with never-before-seen concept art, a poster, a printed walkthrough and best of all, a CD soundtrack of the game’s music, with 5 bonus tracks included. The game will be published by Mamba Games and is available for pre-order right now at their site. There’s no sign of a North American release yet, but I personally have no qualms about importing this snazzy package if need be. Machinarium hits European store shelves on March 5th.
It’s spreading. Slowly but surely, it’s infecting all of us. Can you feel it? No, not that weird rash on your inner thigh. That’s gross. In fact, you should probably get that checked out. I’m talking about Blip Fever, a highly metaphorical sickness I’ve made up for the purposes of this blog. Symptoms include dancing uncontrollably at random, vivid pixelated dreams and listening to this on repeat while laying in the fetal position in an empty corner of your bedroom. Okay, that last part was totally unrelated, but it doesn’t change the fact that Blip Festival is less than 2 weeks away and needless to say, things are getting pretty gosh-darn exciting.
Psilodump, Patric Catani, glomag and Eat Rabbit have filled the remaining spaces in the lineup, giving us a grand total of 32 performers at this year’s lo-fi festivities. And thanks to nearly 100 devoted supporters, this year’s Blip Festival has been fully funded through a fundraising campaign on Kickstarter, exceeding their $5,000 goal within a matter of days.
If you’re new to this sort of thing, here’s a brief history lesson: The chipmusic movement started in the late 90’s when a small handful of programmers began creating and performing music using the sound chips found in obsolete videogame consoles and computer hardware. Catalyzed by the distribution of homebrew software that makes these manipulations possible, chipmusic has catapulted itself out of basements and onto the stage, with hundreds of artists now incorporating 8-bit hardware into live musical performances. Now in its 4th year, Blip Fest is at the forefront of this movement, and continues to impress audiences time and time again.
This is the one event that truly encapsulates what chipmusic is all about. Whether you’re a veteran of the scene or just discovering what chipmusic is by reading this post, it’s definitely worth your while to journey to The Bell House in Brooklyn, NY on December 17th–19th and see what all the fuss is about. Check BlipFestival.org to find more info and buy tickets.
I almost missed seeing this the other day, but I’m glad I eventually did, because nothing toots my horn quite like the work of Craig D. Adams (aka Superbrothers). So you can probably imagine my excitement upon learning that the Canadian pixel artist is teaming up with both Critter Crunch developer Capybara and musician Jim Guthrie to create a new iPhone game entitled ‘Sword & Sworcery EP.’
It… is a game, isn’t it? To tell the truth, not much is know about the project yet. Superbrothers’ website describes it rather vaguely as “a brave experiment in I/O cinema. A crude videogame haiku about life, love & death. A choice cut of myth & dreams.” Mysterious, indeed. But given the immense amount of talent involved, I think we have something fairly exciting on our hands from this newly-forged indie trifecta.
Check out the project’s brief teaser trailer after the jump.
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The holidays are almost upon us, but before you deck the halls and bust out the egg nog, why not spend the last few days of Autumn reflecting on brisk winds and golden brown falling leaves with ‘Autumntunes,’ a seasonal chipmusic compilation available for free on Ubiktune.
The compilation features some fantastic new music from Jake ‘virt’ Kaufman, Alex Mauer, Zan-zan-zawa-veia, Syphus, Shnabubula, C-jeff and more. If you like what you hear — and I’m certain you will — be sure to check out the rest of Ubiktune’s catalog for more free music from great chip artists.
Download: MP3
Download: FLAC
Download: Original modules
I’ve already told you countless times about Blip Festival, the 3-day chiptune music extravaganza that’s coming back to New York City in just 2 short weeks. But I bet you never expected that the festival would be getting its own game. Blip Fest sponsors and creators of the Bit.Trip series Gaijin Games have announced that they will be teaming up with Robotube (Bloktonik, Zyrx) to create a game inspired by the world-famous micromusic meet-up.
The two studios have said that they will attempt to create their Blip tribute game, entitled “Battle of the Brands,” in just one day, and release the result to the public when finished, regardless of how horrible it may turn out. Gaijin has considerable ties to New York’s chiptune scene, having already featured music by Bit Shifter and Nullsleep, two of its most prominent artists, in their Bit.Trip series of games, so I’m pretty confident that 24 hours is all they’ll need to make something neat.
Remember: Blip Festival 2009 is December 17-19th at The Bell House in Brooklyn, NY. Don’t miss it!
Feathers were flying yesterday when a rumor got out that Silent Hill composer Akira Yamaoka would be leaving Konami, and in turn the Silent Hill series, permanently. Now OSV has received word from Yamaoka himself, confirming the rumor to be true. There are still no details on the reasons and conditions of his departure, but OSV has promised an “extensive interview” with the composer in the near future.
Without Yamaoka at the helm, it looks like the Silent Hill series will be truly dead in the water. After the travesty that was Silent Hill: Homecoming, I can’t really think of any redeeming qualities the series has shown in recent years aside from Yamaoka-san’s magnificent scores. But of course this doesn’t mean he’s quit music entirely, and at very least, we can expect that his future projects will yield interesting results.
If last week’s free Machinarium EP wasn’t enough to sate your craving for awesome game music, you’ll be pleased to know that indie developer Polytron is embracing the spirit of the season and giving us 3 free songs from their upcoming 2.5-D pixel platformer, Fez.
The songs, composed by Polytron’s resident chiptune musician, 6955, combine ambient guitars and singing synth with NES-style chip beats. In addition to downloading the album via Torrent or Polytron’s website, you can also order a physical copy of the EP in limited edition micro-CD from the PolyShop for $10. Thanks, Polytron! You’re definitely on my Christmas list this year.
Download: Torrent
Download: Direct Link
Buy: PolyShop (Limited to 250 copies!)
Oh, hi there. My name's Zen. 