Boy, I haven’t been updating this website for ages! So here’s a new plan: monthly updates of things I’ve done and articles I’ve written. July was kind of quiet, but here’s what I still managed to produce!

XBLAFans.com

Scott Pilgrim confirmed on XBLA.

Review: Blacklight: Tango Down.

Bashers.nl (all in Dutch)

Digitale distributie van Hollandse bodem: de aanpak van Free Record Shop

By now, most of us are familiar with this polished up version of Quake Arena. Quake Live will allow gamers to play Quake III Arena over their web browser, with small and quick installation.

Not having announced any upcoming Quake sequel during the id Software press conference, John Carmack said this year is all about Quake Live, which took half a year longer to build then initially thought. Carmack did mention that he was still uncertain about the project’s success and his aim for Quake Live is to reach a broader market that wants to play an FPS game, without having to endure the FPS experience of installing, patching and finding suitable online servers. Once 100.000 players registered for the beta, everyone’s hopes at id Software got up.

“We’re hoping for 5 million or more people,” Carmack said, pointing towards the possibilities of expanding Quake Live to a broader market. The game will be “playing to the strengths the PC still has,” such as superior web browsing and the keyboard/mouse controls. Carmack finished his talk on the game by stating that there were no plans to create a new Quake Arena sequel, but that the success of Quake Live will definitely determine the future of that franchise:

“The door is not completely shut for another Quake project and I would say that probably the success of Quake Live will determine whether is going to be another Quake Arena project. If we do go out and get many many millions people playing regularly on Quake Live, then the publishers are unable to overlook this. [...] Right now, the publishers aren’t all that interested in a multiplayer focused game and they’re probably right.”

Update: Spent 5 hours playing Quake Live in the BYOC area at QuakeCon yesterday. I’m hooked.

So now Antwerp has some big e-sports event coming up in July. Great! Doing some little digging on the whole matter brought back nostalgic feelings of my own enthusiastic entrepreneurial splurges back in the day when I considered wearing white socks was the most normal thing on earth. Seems some fresh company called GameVibes is organizing the lot, doing a great job at it from the size of the prize vault & sponsors backing up the event.

But I was talking about nostalgia. Ah yes, the good old days. When making money out of e-sports seemed so realistic, pitching big concepts to new media illiterate conglomerates was a daily business and reaching CEOs for sponsorships was done in less then three phone calls.

So here’s the CEO of GameVibes, a young man called Steven Leunens, the person behind the successfull TEK9 e-sports team, who instantly gained my respect by stating that he speaks 5 (!) languages. Sadly, he has not been able to cover up his rather fresh nature, as you might notice from his distinctly ‘collegesque’ facebook picture ready to be Googled by any random corporate advisor. Luckily, it’s right in between a large collection of interviews and success stories that could easily balance off that greenish tint on the young lad’s apparel.

I wish the two lads from GameVibes a lot of luck with their event. Judging from their partners, they might just pull it off!

Don’t you just love to see young entrepreneurs going at it like that? Their moms must be proud.

The free segment is already a whopping 64 pages big, which also includes the fruits of the GDC coverage done by yours truly shaped into an article and an interview. My other three GDC related articles can be found in the premium part of the magazine. Enjoy!

*Click*

A few years ago, dark times had struck the Dutch game magazine world. Recently, it seems the empty void has given birth to a new breed of game magazines, popping up from different directions and taking back the territory of old legends such as PCZone and GamePro. Many speculated that their demise was caused by the increasing popularity of gaming sites such as Gamer.nl, Ownage.nl and Insidegamer. Content was online quicker, cheaper and extended with pictures, video’s and demo’s.

Yet strangely enough, Gamer.nl has begun to blow new live into the black hole they have been partially accused of creating themselves. Combining their offline and online activities, they have started a new breed of free game magazine, which is planned to be released twice a year.

In addition, we Dutchmen can rejoice with our very own magazine on game design and development: Control. A bold move for a magazine to appeal to such a niche market of people, but definitely one we can appreciate.

With both parties having chosen for their own distinct approaches and format, VGVisionary looked up the chief editors of both magazines to asked them for their own thoughts on this very positive development.

Just follow Demi .

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The art of booth design is a highly recognized craft in certain Asian countries. The Gameplay 2007 once again was one of many exhibits of this kind of game pr/marketing in action. We put on our analytical goggles and came up with the following conclusions. Reliable sources told us there’s also an official booth contest, so we’ll be sure to look up the results as soon as they’re in! Till then, here’s our two cents on the matter.

Demi, stop playing on your DS and show the people around! Thank you

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Pleasantly surprised. To summarize what went through me when I first stood in front of the new building of the Dutch Game Factory. A great new initiative funded by the Dutch ministry of Economics, Province of Utrecht, City of Utrecht and City of Amerfsoort and a pinnacle in the fruitful future of the Dutch game industry. Home of many fresh game organizations and centered in the gaming hart of Holland, Utrecht.

But Whiskey Tango Foxtrot is the Dutch Game Factory? I could try to explain it to you in my own humble words. Better let Viktor Wijnen handle it though. Old NLGD comrade, trusted friend and founder of the DGF.

After our Demi shows her lovely face for the sake of it!

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Great article by Javier Botero on the importance of valid research for game marketing purposes. Worth a read!

I’d give you a quick review on it. IF I had the time. Maybe later?

Nah.

Source: Next-Gen.biz

Last time I checked, I was playing Mario kart on the flight back from Tokyo. On a borrowed DS. Because the owner wanted to read a book. Before that, I think it was a weekend frenzy of borrowed Guitar Hero 2 on a 360 borrowed from the University library. Get where I’m going with this? And no, I’m not poor and could afford these machines if I had the money. I consider myself hardcore for several reasons, but playing everything fresh from release or finishing a game in 24 hours aren’t them anymore.

This is starting to look like an article. Demi?

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Oh joy! Special appearances by video games in popular TV shows. My second most favorite way of having videogames appear on TV! But wait a second. Is this  videogame controversy and prejudice I smell? Indeed. It is.

Demi has further information on the subject

Source: Secondlifeinsider.com (via Gamepolitics.com)

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As a Dutchman (we make great serious games), Digra day 4 was one of the most appealing days. Right next to the research done on game design and e-sports, which were really my personal top 3 themes. On another notice, I met Marc Prensky! According to pictochat, some academics didn’t really like Marc’s style. I don’t care, I enjoyed his keynote and took it as a wake-up call (small explenation after Demi). We ended this serious day with rather serious fun: Karaoke! There’s nothing better then a all you can drink, universal songlist included, karaoke session with other Digra attendents.

Oh the fun and joy. But since I really cherish the friendships I made, you will have to do some some ‘impressions’ on the VGV Flickr Digra 2007 set (long name for a stupid gallery isn’t it?).

Don’t whine about the lack of silly pictures. Just make sure you come along next time!

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A few days ago, I decided to pay Akihabara yet another visit in search for exciting stuff to add to my already exuberant collection of oldskool Japanese games. During my quest for more treasure, I accidentally stumbled upon a ‘Girl’s game shop’. It was a game shop alright, but a very unusual one. This one wasn’t meant for the likes of me. At all. Instead, it was filled with young girls and lot’s of pink packaged games, with titles I had never heard of before. I couldn’t believe my eyes! A game shop completely dedicated to our female counterparts? Crammed to the very edges with tons and tons of apparent girl oriented games!

You can find the complete article after the Demi

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Here’s an article on the difference between Pachinko parlours and the arcades I visited in Shibuya. Hope it gives some insight!

Oh yeah, and the VGV Flickr’s online. The damn thing only allows three sets. Meh, it’s free. All nice and updated with pretty pictures. Read the rest of this entry »