I had my doubts about Sleep is Death when i first heard about it. A story telling tool? What do I even do with that?

However, after reading the torrent of Sleep is Death (SID) previews I preordered the game with no hesitation. Rohrer’s been leading journalists through some pretty intriguing play sessions. Yet with $10 already spent I still had my doubts. In my video games experience, Effort has never been conducive to participation.
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I have to give thanks to my friend Minh for showing me Pixelante’s Immortall. You can find this quaint little flash game here. It casts the player as an alien who has crash landed on Earth and ends up experiencing a wide breadth of humanity. What follows is my brief discussion about whether the game succeeds or fails at its attempt in eliciting emotion so if you don’t want spoilers, first go play the game. It’s only about ten minutes long.
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Game designer Jane McGonigal argues that games like World of Warcraft attract players because the worlds allow them to 1) experience blissful productivity 2) engage in an online community/social fabric 3) feel urgently optimistic about winning and 4) create epic meaning. We play for the epic wins. We play to be the best.

An average gamer plays 10,000 hours of video games before s/he is 21. That’s the same number of hours that person spends in school between fifth grade until high school graduation. That’s the same number of hours of work that it takes to achieve virtuosity according to Malcolm Gladwell in Outliers. What if those same number of hours spent solving problems and achieving wins in our virtual worlds could move us closer to solving problems in our real world?…What if gaming could save the world?

While checking out SXSW ScreenBurn Arcade I came across the iVerse digital comics booth. The company is creating a digital comic reader for various platforms — including iPhone, iPad, and Android. Also, iVerse is one of the companies distributing comics to Sony’s PSN comic book store. To read more about it check out my full story over at ComicsPlusBlog.

The Splosion Man and The Maw developer, Twisted Pixel Games, debuted Comic Jumper gameplay for the first time today at the SXSW ScreenBurn Arcade. Michael Wilford demoed a preview build of their new game.
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Come listen to the pilot episode of our new GamesPlusPodcast as Chris and Ruben discuss gaming industry news, SXSW ScreenBurn, Flixel Game Jams in Austin, and male nudity in Heavy Rain and Dante’s Inferno. Trust us, this is very NSFW, NSFC, NSFKFC, and any other acronym you can tag on to NSF.

How do you make game development something anyone can do? SXSW ScreenBurn Panelist Michael Agustin is attempting to do just that with GameSalad. He discusses his company and his panel Anyone Can Make a Video Game.

Hey Gamers, it’s quite a lucky weekend for us all (if you’re in Austin), the fourth annual ScreenBurn has been opened to the public at South By Southwest.

ScreenBurn is an open floor event that takes place at the Austin Convention Center, from 2:00pm to 6:00pm on Friday, and 12:00pm to 6:00pm Saturday and Sunday. If you are interested in seeing what some well known game companies are up to (such as Twisted Pixel and Harmonix), as well as some more obscure ones, I would advise that you go check it out. I know it is probably difficult to pry yourself from Final Fantasy XIII, but if you manage to do it, you should drive, catch a bus, or even walk over to the Austin Convention Center and check out the floor, even grab some free key-chains and candy.

For more information, check out the official website. Also, keep an eye on our ScreenBurn coverage right here.

At the San Francisco GDC Adam Saltzman, co-developer of the popular iPhone game Canabalt, has announced that Flixel will be ported from Flash to the iPhone.
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The Warrior can throw axes relentlessly!

Playing through InMotion’s Catacombs is a bit like playing a sophisticated Galaga: you avoid an army of attackers while spamming projectiles. The whole thing might produce a Mazer Rackham-esque legend should the events of Catacombs actually occur (two points if you get that).
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