Over 91 members of pixel art community Way of the Pixel worked in concert to create this hallucinatory piece. Each artist staked their claim on a tile from the hex grid, using a 16-color limit and outlines from adjacent grids to guide their own contributions — because of how the project was structured, the participants didn’t even see each other’s completed work until the entire field was published.
As a result, you’ll see a nest of birds next to a mechanical hand with a chainsaw, a plate of spaghetti turning into a head of hair belonging to a topless girl, and other odd juxtapositions. You can see the full piece below, but you should really head to the forum to see a much bigger version. I’ve also included a poster version that one artist printed out.

[Via Minusbaby]

Original post by editors@gamesetwatch.com (Eric Caoili) and software by Elliott Back

[Continuing a set of interviews by Game Developer magazine EIC Brandon Sheffield for GameSetWatch, he talks to Thatgamecompany’s Kellee Santiago on a multitude of neat topics regarding downloadable games and the Flower creators’ future.]
Kellee Santiago is cofounder of Thatgamecompany, known for genre-shaking downloadable titles such as flOw and Flower, which both push the boundaries of games and their emotional resonance, but also give Sony something to point to in the way of artistry in the PSN space.
Thatgamecompany has been growing, slowly but surely, to where Santiago can now step out of the defacto-production role she often held on top of her studio running duties, so that she can now look externally, to see how TGC can potentially help other smaller indies, or expand the company’s offerings in targeted ways.
We spoke with Santiago recently about changes within the company, the potential of a Flower expansion, PSP Go and Project Natal, as […]

Original post by editors@gamesetwatch.com (Simon Carless) and software by Elliott Back

In an engaging retelling of his time at Atari, former programmer (now a principal software engineer at Microsoft) Landon Dyer revealed that there was a yet-undiscovered Easter egg in the Atari 400/800 version of Donkey Kong. Though he described the hidden message as “totally not worth it”, the fact that he couldn’t remember how to bring it up anymore surely compelled a few gamers to try and find it themselves.
Sixteen months later, Don Hodges has posted details on how he uncovered the Easter egg (displaying Dyer’s initials), though he didn’t find it after suffering hundreds of playthroughs. Rather, he activated the game’s debugger and sifted through over 25,000 lines to find the relevant subroutine.
According to Hodges, of all the game hacking he’s previously done, this find was the most rewarding and enjoyable for him. Here are his instructions for bring up Dyer’s initials:
1. Play a game and get a […]

Original post by editors@gamesetwatch.com (Eric Caoili) and software by Elliott Back

The vector art cover for Telltale’s PC DVD edition of Strong Bad’s Cool Game for Attractive People (which collects all five episodes of the series) is attractive enough, but pulling out and reversing that cover will reveal a fantastic alternate Atari 2600 version bullet-pointing the adventure title’s notable features: pointing, clicking, and pixels.
Sure, the Venture Brothers third season DVD set pulled a similar stunt with its jacket several months ago, but that homage didn’t sport a huge Videlectrix logo on the back (or the lurking, sinister shadow of Trogdor, the “beefy-armed dragon of legend “):

[Via Whimsical Phil]

Original post by editors@gamesetwatch.com (Eric Caoili) and software by Elliott Back

In this round-up, we highlight some of the notable jobs posted in big sister site Gamasutra’s industry-leading game jobs section this week, including positions from Blizzard, Microsoft Game Studios and more.
Each position posted by employers will appear on the main Gamasutra job board, and appear in the site’s daily and weekly newsletters, reaching our readers directly.
It will also be cross-posted for free across its network of submarket sites, which includes content sites focused on online worlds, cellphone games, ’serious games’, independent games and more.
Some of the notable jobs posted in each market area this week include:
Gamasutra.com - Game Industry Jobs
Volition Programmer
“Volition, Inc., a video game development studio in Champaign, IL, is seeking experienced C/C++ programmers to work on games for the Xbox 360 & PS3. Volition is one of THQ’s premier internal game development studios. We are the creators of such franchises as Saints Row, Red Faction, and the Descent/Freespace […]

Original post by editors@gamesetwatch.com (Simon Carless) and software by Elliott Back

After three years of putting on Blipfest — one of the world’s biggest annual chipmusic events — in New York City, Manhattan arts organization The Tank and artist collective 8bitpeoples is bringing the festival across the Atlantic to Aalborg, where they will put on a two-day version with Danish art and technology venue Platform4.
Taking place from July 24 - 25, Blip Festival: Europe will include U.S. acts like Nullsleep, Minusbaby, and Glomag, but almost half of its lineup will consist of European musicians such as Bodenständig 2000, La Belle Indifference, and Rabato. Japanese artist Hally will also deliver a set. I’ve included a flyer listing most of the acts slated to appear after the break.
Along with the nighttime music performances, the European event will have other attractions during the day such as a film screening of chiptune documentary Blip Festival: Reformat The Planet, a workshop on creating visuals […]

Original post by editors@gamesetwatch.com (Eric Caoili) and software by Elliott Back

[’@ Play’ is a monthly column by John Harris which discusses the history, present and future of the Roguelike dungeon exploring genre.]
We’ve discussed the information-heavy balance of the game Nethack before. How, once the player learns enough about the nature of the game world, all of the difficulty turns out to be front-loaded, before the player has had the chance to build up experience levels and equipment.
Recently, a couple of variants have arisen in order to remedy this perceived problem. Two years ago was the release of Derek Ray’s Sporkhack, and only this past month saw the release of another, UnNethack, created by Patric Mueller.
Nethack’s mysterious Dev Team is presumably aware of the problem, and though it is known that they’re still around, updating bugs and answering email, and thus we assume are still working on the game, it has been a very long time […]

Original post by editors@gamesetwatch.com (John Harris) and software by Elliott Back

Official BioShock site The Cult of Rapture has posted another batch of concept art for the upcoming sequel, this time for the series’s second most iconic characters, the Little Sisters. “They may be small in stature,” the site explains, “but their glowing eyes and eerie, echoing voices tell a very large and memorable story.”
The shots above show a Little Sister before she’s saved in the game (left), complete with a syringe gun, and after she’s saved. 2K Marin also shared close-ups of a Little Sister from the chest-up, and some thoughts behind the character’s outfit:

[Via Super Punch]

Original post by editors@gamesetwatch.com (Eric Caoili) and software by Elliott Back

[GameSetLinks is GameSetWatch’s daily link round-up post, culling from hundreds of weblogs and outlets to compile the most interesting longform writing, links, and criticism on the art and culture of video games.]
As we saunter happily into a long weekend in the States (yep, that July 4th thing in full effect), let’s bust out a new set of slightly extended GameSetLinks, headed by the latest GAMBIT/MIT Game Lab student title, which continues their customarily interesting attitude to experimental student games, with an oldskool adventure twist, even.
Also in the latest set of links - looking circumspectly at Okami, examining a book on ethics in video games, high-heeled claws, Japanese audio games, the apparently drifting delights of Afrika, and iPhone costume hijinks from the Dead Or Alive ladies, oh dear.
Yay hooray:
GAMBIT: Updates: Introducing Rosemary
More interesting student games from MIT GAMBIT: 'Rosemary is a point-and-click adventure game whose core mechanic is remembering events of […]

Original post by editors@gamesetwatch.com (Simon Carless) and software by Elliott Back

To celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Atari 7800 ProSystem’s release, the Atari Historical Society has unofficially released the source code for over a dozen of the system’s games such as Centipede, Xevious, Robotron, and more.
According to the Atari Museum site, the games were rescued from Atari ST format diskettes that were thrown out when Atari shuttered one of its offices in 1996. “I hope these will be great learning tools and the basis for code for many coders to develop on the 7800,” says Atari Museum founder Curt Vendel.
He continues, “And just as the Atari 2600 developers have stretched the boundaries and created games no one would’ve imagined in their wildest dreams, it is my hope that this same enthusiasm can carry over to an open and active 7800 developers community and bring forth games that would make even a NES owner envious.”
The Atari Historical Society also posted details […]

Original post by editors@gamesetwatch.com (Eric Caoili) and software by Elliott Back