Philadelphia is proud to be participating in its third Global Game Jam this year. The Philly Chapter of the International Game Developers Association (IGDA) will be hosting two locations to Jam in – one in IndyHall in Old City, and the other at Camden county College in Blackwood, New Jersey. It will run from Friday, January 27 at 5pm until Sunday, January 29 at 5pm.

Global Game Jam is the world’s largest Game Jam, with the Philly and South Jersey sites being just two of over 220 locations this year. The Jam is open to anyone who is interested in making games – video, board, or card games – no matter their skill level or experience.

Whether you’re a programmer, a musician, or an avid board gamer, you’re welcome to come team up and make a game. Who knows? Maybe you could be like last year’s Jammers who created LangGuini, whose Kickstarter campaign just successfully ended.

Interested? More information and registration info can be found at the IGDA Philadelphia page  as well as the Global Game Jam site.

Center City Location
Hosted by IndyHall
22 North 3rd St, Philadelphia, PA 19106

South Jersey Location
Hosted by Camden County College
311 College Drive, Blackwood, NJ 08021

Tomorrow, tickets will go on sale for the epic musical event for the sophisticated gamer. The Legend of Zelda: The Symphony of the Goddesses features music that spans 25 years of the Zelda games and showcases Nintendo composer and sound director Koji Kondo’s vast work. A full orchestra will perform 4 complete symphony movements with a cinematic video presentation synced to the music.

Every previous performance has sold out so act fast! Tickets have a wide price range from $19.50 (for lawn/terrace) up to $95.00 and go on sale this at 10am. Don’t miss out on your chance to witness this truly unique concert experience!

For more information, visit the Mann Center’s official website. And list to a track in the video after the jump!

You may not know the name Nick Murphy but if you are an avid reader of the site or just into video games in general you are more than aware of his handiwork. Nick won a Geek Award last year for his trailers for Zelda (1987) and Indie God of War, and he has now tackled the game that seems to come on every electronic device from Nooks to microwave ovens these days… Angry Birds.

I spoke with him about directing his newest trailer and what goes into creating these little viral masterpieces. You can check out his newest parody at the end of the interview.

So how did you get started doing these game parodies?

I got hired working for the company Gamervision, they were setup already and they were like a video game news site and they had some web video content. They had this idea of combining Mario Brothers, but as Inglourious Basterds since the film was to come out.

So a friend of mine worked there and was like, I know my friend is a filmmaker lets bring him on. So they brought me in and I did it and it got like 300,000 or 400,000 views so it got passed all over the place and went pretty viral.

So right after that, they paid me for my time working on that, and they were like we want to hire you full time. So we kept making shorts.

It started there and we tried to keep that momentum going. It was a lot of fun.  I love it but it is such a niche thing. I am always trying to find that guy that loves video games, but loves movies the way I do too.

What do you think goes into a good video game mash-up trailer?

It’s hard because someone else did an Angry Birds thing and it has like 11 million views. But they did it in a way where it is super over the top. It’s like Michael Bay doing it. There was this government program that manufacture these birds to fight these pigs, who are the enemy.

For us that was an easy joke. We wanted to challenge ourselves and try and incorporated it into the real world. They came out with this Mortal Kombat realistic, gritty web series, so we thought if they can come out with something like that we can make Angry Birds gritty and visceral I guess. That is what I wanted, could this be a real thing?

So how did you come up with the concept for the ANGRY BIRDS video?

We usually take a while to come up with these. Angry Birds is everywhere so we wanted to try and make it so its not cutesy or dumb or over the top. What would be a really weird way to do it?

So we started brainstorming about birds, and what if they were girls? I thought it would be British since it is a bird thing and it would have to be directed by Guy Ritchie. It just started like that.

Then we just tried to work in the little things like the eggs and the pigs.

What was the biggest challenge of putting the video together?

It would have to be the scheduling, all the girls and getting the pigs together and all the locations.  We had those fake guns so I didn’t want to be outside with them, you don’t want to do that especially in a post 9/11 world.

So we rented a hotel room to shoot some stuff in there and then we just winged the rest.  That was the hardest part, getting everybody together and doing it so no one gets arrested or shot which is the biggest thing.

What was the budget for the trailer?

Like $200 maybe.

Someone had a brief case and we paid $70 to rent the hotel room.  It was a lot of my friend has this, these girls have these clothes, so we had to buy some pig masks and a Styrofoam egg.  Every one in it was a friend of mine, so we were like lets do this thing and I will buy you all dinner afterwards.

That is where our $200 budget went to a hotel room, food and pig masks.

How long was the shoot?

It was three or four days shooting but they weren’t full days.

But it took 2 or 3 months of post because I got bogged down with other stuff, the production part went really quick because of how it just came together. When I saw a commercial for Google Chrome with Angry Birds I realized I had to get this thing finished, because once something like this makes it on television everyone knows about it and it had to get finished now.

Any intention of doing anything longer like a web-series or something feature length?

I worked on a feature; it was like 45 minutes and there was so much invested in it. It didn’t turn out the way I wanted and I just got really frustrated with it. It seems like the short form just speaks to me a little better I think.

I really don’t want to work a year on something and have a diminished return. If I am going to put a year into something I want the world into it. If I put these little chunks of time into these little things I feel like for what we put in what we get out if far greater.

I do a web-series too where we review video games, so we have that part and we have this other part where we do these goofy videos. But I would like to get back into making a film that is my 2012 resolution, to make a short that isn’t based off anything and an original concept.

So have you beat Angry Birds? And if so with how many stars?

When it first came out I beat it, but now they have released all these things and stuff. I played it and enjoyed it, it’s a great time killer. It’s a perfect game. Its simple and complex at the same time.

But I really cant look at it the same, I really wish it was more like our movie.

So what’s next?

I want to do that film. I definitely have some ideas. We will still do the shorts and stuff, but I really want to focus on the film this year. I would really want to do the Philly Film Festival.

We still do that web-series and that is taking off, hoping to get a Geekadelphia award next year.

Reboot your auditory sensor modules with 8 Static.

The year has been reformatted and a new operating system has been installed. Your robot ears are in need of some nourishment. Don’t worry, 8 Static is back to reboot your brain with some amazing chiptunes. On January 14th, 8 Static will once again be vibrating the floors of Studio 34 with the rumble of 8-bit rocking.

This month features the audible stylings of Burnkit2600, a trio guys that compliment their circuit bent silicon instruments with drums, bass, and occasionally a flute. They bring a mash up of funk and psychedelic sensibilities to delight of your aural receptors.

Ever wonder who is straddling the chasm between punk and chiptune? Ponder no more because Graffiti Monsters are will be here to rock your face off with some classic 8-bit sounds wrapped up in a punk rock duvet. A duvet is punk right?

Maybe you prefer your 8-bit music a bit more thunderous, frenetic, and only made with a Gameboy Color. Enter Kool Skull. With nothing but a Gameboy, this guy will rattle your positronic brain within that bone casing you call a skull. And you will like it.

To delight your eyeballs, local artist and 8 Static veteran visual magician, enso will be on hand to provide an amazing light show.

As always, each show is preceded by a workshop showing you how to bend vintage hardware to your musical will and generally become a chip tune hero. This month’s is being presented by our friend Paul Weinstein AKA Chipocrite who created a rockin’ version of the Game of Thrones theme for The Philly Geek Awards. Before the show, he’ll show you some live Gameboy performance techniques.

Hopefully that will include how to play The Legend of Zelda theme behind your head with your eyes closed.

8 Static
Saturday, January 14th, 2012
7:00pm at Studio 34 – all ages!
$8 / $5 with RSVP right here!

For this week’s Geek of the Week, we talk to Matt Campana, local musician and composer. His work includes an arrangement for the Video Games Live orchestral show, and music cues for Drexel University.

I hope the name of this Drexel U and Berklee College of Music alum sounds familiar to you, as we posted about him back in September.

You’re known for your work in music, how did you get into it?

I started piano lessons in Kindergarten and I took them until 4th grade when we could no longer afford them. That hardship was actually a blessing in disguise. I didn’t play piano for a little because of this, but that’s when I began to develop my “ear” for music.

I started taking lessons again in high school. Due to my ear training any my lessons, I can hear music and play it almost verbatim as to what’s in my head. So, when I hear music it is easy to record it out on the keyboard, edit it, and eventually create a score from it.

At this point, how many instruments can you play?

I play the piano as my primary instrument. I realized that this would be my instrument when someone showed me you could digitally play other instruments using computer software. That’s how I achieve such epic sounds in my music.

However, I also love playing the guitar. I used to carry my guitar around campus so that my friends and I could jam. I was in the Filipino Intercultural Society at Drexel University (FISDU) for all four years of college. Guitar is a staple of FISDU hangouts. It helped me make friends.

I also know enough violin and drums to compose for it and enough drum technique to program for it when recording my music.

Tell me more about your work with Video Games Live. What did you do? I went to VGL once in Anaheim, CA at BlizzCon. Do you know any sweet Blizzard tracks?

I have worked with Video Games Live for 40+ shows. For the show, I have done everything from running a pre-show Guitar Hero competition, managing volunteers to actually intro MC-ing the show in front of 3,200+ people on Broadway. The largest credit I received was for my stage production work with them on their PBS national broadcast Blu-ray release. I helped in the setup and flow of the live event, ensuring on-stage events happened on time. It went beautifully and it’s available on iTunes!

Speaking of Blizzard, I was once backstage when three-time Emmy award-winning composer, Russel Brower (WoW/SC composer) walked over. He had his laptop with him and proceeded to show my boss, Tommy Tallarico, the then-unreleased theme of StarCraft II. I almost died, I was so glad I brought a change of pants. It was the “Wings of Liberty” title track; it’s incredibly intricate. That was definitely a highlight.

What do you currently do aside from composing music?

I’m heavily involved in Philadelphia outreach through my church that just launched a campus at the Prince Theater on Sunday nights. We feed people in Love Park, work with nonprofit organizations to help end human trafficking in the city and we’re beginning to work with the police to see how we can help by purchasing equipment for the officers.

Aside from that, I enjoy having fun with friends. I love going out on the town, whether it be for First Friday or finding new places to eat (I’m a huge fan of Starr Restaurants).

Ultimately, I’m going to stay local. I want to build a life around this city and help bring the gaming industry here in a big way. One day, I will open a game development studio. Until then, I’ll keep making music.

I caused the end of an established franchise, but I wasn’t that bad guys!

Alright, let me start this off by saying these aren’t the best games of 2011. In fact, they are far from it. When I think about the best games of the year, titles like Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, Gears of War 3, Fallout: New Vegas, L.A. Noire, Dead Space 2, Deus Ex: Human Revolution, Assassin’s Creed: Revelations, etc.

The games I’m about to ramble about? These are the best, tragically underplayed games. The titles you ignored because they got poor reviews or were released in the wake of large blockbuster titles (some in the midst of several). Games that had immediate price drops on Amazon and made you suspicious of their quality. Games that I actually enjoyed.

So read on, and feel free to hate. And if I missed a game you think should be included, leave it in the comments. I’m always looking for new games to play. Especially underrated ones.

Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine – Like I said in my review of this title back in September, Space Marine was the biggest gaming surprise of the Summer, end of story. And now that 2011 is coming to a close, I can say that it was the surprise of the year, at least for me. When THQ asked me if I wanted a review copy of this game, I scooped it up with intentions of just writing up a quick giveaway with some brief impressions (sorry guys!). I really didn’t think I’d end up playing it all the way through, as I assumed it was going to be… well, bad.

Man, was I surprised.

An intense third person shooter, Space Marine delivered a surprisingly engaging narrative (despite me not understanding much of the Warhammer lore), beautiful, albeit very dark and dreary landscapes, and voice acting that was shockingly decent. I poured a lot of time into the title, and tried to nab every achievement I could. The multiplayer was a little meh, but the single player campaign was engrossing enough to forgive that fact. And if you’re like me and seldom bother with multiplayer, it’s a moot point anyway.

Released around the same time as Gears of War 3, a title that Space Marine’s gameplay borrows heavily from, I had no doubt that this game would get lost in the shuffle. According to Joytiq, the title sold over a million copies, but I’ve yet to meet anyone in Philly who played it. You can score this title for around $30 – $40 these days, and it is worth every penny.

El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron – My pals over on Joystiq hyped the hell out of this title, and with good cause. Beautifully unique graphics, amazing gameplay, a powerful story. After all the hype, I had to buy it. In El Shaddai, we meet Enoch, a man who has to beat up a bunch of rebellious angels who have been influencing mankind to do wicked things. Simple enough premise, right? Right.

Now, normally I’m not a big fan of the hack and slash genre. Button mashing just isn’t my thing. While Space Marine certainly had some mashing elements, there was a lot of shooting mixed into the gameplay. So how does a game like this stand above titles like Darksiders, God of War, and other semi-mindless button mash games? The gorgeous GORGEOUS visuals.

You’ve never really seen a game like this. Just Google image search for screengrabs, and prepare to be awed. Bright colors, impressionist backgrounds… the visuals are stunning.

These days, you can score El Shaddai for $20 on Amazon, for both the PS3 and 360. Great buy, beautiful game.

Red Faction: Armageddon – This game got a lot of hate. A lot of unnecessary hate. Red Faction: Guerrilla had an amazing, open ended world that let you explore (and consequently destroy) just about everything.

Armageddon got rid of this, delivering a far more linear experience. For some odd reason, this change seemed to infuriate the hell out of the gaming community, despite the fact that the title had some really awesome weapons (magnet gun!), an interesting (though a bit convoluted) story, solid voice acting, and great graphics.

I’ve always been a huge fan of the Red Faction universe, so perhaps I was a bit biased going into this title. I even took the day off work to spend the whole day playing it. Breaks my heart to hear THQ is done with the franchise. You can score the final chapter in Red Faction for under $20 as of this posting (it’s $16 now). Totally worth it.

Transformers Dark of the Moon – You know what. You shouldn’t have played this game when it came out. As much fun as this title was, it was a criminally short game for a full $60 (I reviewed this title back in the Summer and said the same thing).

However, the gameplay is exactly like the smash War for Cybertron, which was an absolutely amazing breath of life into the Transformers series in video games. Gears of War-esque gameplay with robots? Sold.

Right now, the game is still priced about $35 or so. It’s worth paying if you’re a huge fan of the Transformers series, like Geekadelphia co-founder Tim Quirino and I are. But if you’re only slightly into those robots in disguise… wait til it hits $20.

Child of Eden: (@CollinFlatt) Child of Eden is the greatest videogame of 2011 that no one played. In fact, Child of Eden might be one of the greatest games ever made, period. Ultimately, the concept of gaming is to immerse the player into an environment that is interactive and engaging enough to leave the rest of the world behind. Child of Eden delivers on both of these concepts better than anything I’ve played before.

In it’s simplest form, COE is an on-rails shooter from the brilliant mind of Tetsuya Mizuguchi (Rez, Lumines), featuring gorgeous visuals and an incredible soundtrack. The story is geeky-silly: In the future, scientists are trying to save Project Lumi, the first human created in space, from a virus attack in an Artifical Intelligence environment.

What sets COE apart from everything else is the level of interactivity the game offers via the Kinect camera system for Xbox 360 (there is a Playstation Move version, but it’s much more cumbersome). Your right hand controls the aiming recticle for a lock on weapon to destroy enemies, while the left controls a more machine gun-like weapon to defend against projectile attacks. Both weapons are fired by thrusting your hand forward.

The anthemic music builds as you rack up points and combos, which combined with the ethereal visuals and interactivity with your extremeties creates the feeling that you’re conducting a futuristic orchestra all while saving humanity. When the Kinect promised Minority Report-like interactivity, I was skeptical to say the least. COE has proved me wrong, and shows that in the right hands, the Kinect has a very bright future. COE is definitely the most underrated game of 2011.

Contest Closed! Thanks for playing.

As you all clearly know, I love me some Halo. And if my full suit of Master Chief armor doesn’t hammer home that message, I really don’t know what will. The games, the novels, the movies (Legends wasn’t bad!), the comics… I just can’t get enough. And that includes the hilarious Red. vs Blue series.

Red vs. Blue: Season 9 continues the story of Red vs Blue: Revelation, and breaks the same rules that RvB:R did… we’re introduced to a story being told without the traditional Halo engine, and instead, are treated to pre-rendered CGI.

And while the story this series tells gets a little confusing at times (there are two distinct story arcs through the twenty episode series, one of which goes back and uses the Halo engine), the Rooster Teeth crew continue to deliver a hilarious narrative that Halo fans everywhere will love.

The DVD has all the usual suspects that Red vs. Blue releases tend to include. Hilarious director’s commentary, outtakes and deleted scenes, cast interviews, and the PSAs that Rooster Teeth is celebrated for. Since you can watch the series for free online, it’s a must to include this sort of stuff for fans. And they give you a lot of it, especially with the behind the scenes videos.

The folks at New Video Group were kind enough to send over a bunch of copies to giveaway. I’ve got three copies of Season 9 up for grabs here. Just leave a comment about your favorite game in the Halo series for a chance to win. I’ll pick one of you at random next week and drop a copy in the mail.

Be sure to scope out Rooster Teeth’s website for more information on Red vs. Blue. Old episodes, hilarious comics… they do some great work, those guys.

Today’s Geek of the Week is Greg Lobanov, a student at Drexel University.

He’s roughly a decade younger than the average Geekadelphia writer and already cranking out multiple video games, effectively making us oldheads look bad.

Are you currently in school? Where do you go and what for?

I attend Drexel University, studying Digital Media. I’m currently in my second year, and it’s been quite a learning experience thus far. It’s been my first time working with 3D modeling and animation, I must say it’s been quite a challenge.

How did you get into game design?

I can’t pin it to a single moment or reason—from a very young age I enjoyed making games, though back then it was with paper, cardboard and markers. Something about it felt very natural to me, defining rules of play and making the pieces. I also loved drawing comics and writing stories to go with them. When I started to get into computers and the internet, all those things got tangled up, until some point I was making computer games.

What kind of games or people inspire you?

I think the best (and most inspiring) games are the ones that give the best “feel.” You might be thinking that’s very vague, but I stand by it. I find a lot of games very interesting and effective for all very unique reasons. The qualities that make a good game are far from universal; they’re hard to define in strict germs. Generally, I think that you can realize a game is great from the point of being able to nearly feel the passion that the artists and designers put into it. That passion transfers into my own work.

I liken myself to director Quentin Tarantino and musician James Murphy in the respect that my inspirations are often shown very clearly through my work and combining them in unique ways.

I see you’re also quite the illustrator. Do you do more of the development side of things or design? Which do you prefer?

In most of my projects to date, I did just about everything. I’ll have to call it a 50/50. I honestly love both sides of making games, though I also would say that I’m not particularly the best at either. As I’ve brought on more talented people to help work on my projects, I’ve been gradually phasing out of the artistic end of things. That’s more-so because being “capable” as a programmer is is good enough whereas merely being “capable” at illustration and art starts to be detrimental when you start competing with truly talented visual artists.

I see a very strong separation from the visual art in games and the more literal “design” art in the layout, gameplay, controls, mechanics, levels, story. Etc. That particular aspect of games seems to be both creative yet logical. Those are the parts of the game-making process to which I’m most attached.

So what are you currently working on?

I’m making a role-playing game for the PC called Phantasmaburbia. It’s set in a suburban neighborhood, that’s most-obviously the Philadelphia region. Its plot revolves around teenagers who team up with ghosts of their ancestors or former residents of their homes. Players will protect their hometown from an invasion of ghosts and a particularly powerful and evil trans-dimensional demon.

You can check out my progress at Phantasmaburbia.com

—
Thanks for chatting with us, Greg. Keep up the good work! It’s awesome to have passionate game designers like yourself in our city. To keep up with Greg’s game-making progress and other things, you can visit his blog: http://banov.blogspot.com

Contest Closed! Thanks for playing.

Assassin’s Creed. I absolutely adore this video game series, and when Ubisoft released the outstanding Lineage mini-series, I was psyched. Live action Assassin’s Creed? Hells yeah. You can watch the full thing for free on YouTube, or if you’d like to scope it out on the big screen in HD… you could pick it up on DVD or Blu-ray.

Assassin’s Creed: Lineage serves as the prequel to Assassin’s Creed II, Brotherhood and Revelations. In the story we’re introduced Giovanni Auditore… Ezio’s father. Hunted in the midst of a conspiracy (a popular trope in the Assassin’s Creed series), he’s forced to fight for his life as he tries to expose a dark secret held by some of the most powerful families in Italy.

This is a pretty easy Blu-ray to talk about, considering the entire short film runs a little over half an hour. What you’re really paying for here is the amazing digital transfer (it looks gorgeous) and a number of short featurettes, including some making-of clips and developer diaries. All in all, with the series and the features, you’re looking at about an hour of content here.

On DVD, Assassin’s Creed: Lineage goes for a cheap $10, on Blu-ray, about $12 . The cheap price point, the solid story, and decent mini features, make this a great purchase for that mad Assassin’s Creed fan in your life, or even for yourself. It’s definitely worth the buy if you’re a diehard fan.

Now, for those crazy fans still reading, I’ve got THREE copies of Assassin’s Creed: Lineage on Blu-ray to giveaway. Just leave a comment about your favorite Assassin’s Creed character for a chance to win. I’ll email winners sometime next week.

Requiescat in pace…

Local game developer Cipher Prime, award winning creators of the games Auditorium and Pulse, have recently released an updated version of their addictive music/puzzle game called Fractal. Featuring colorful graphics, cool music, various play modes, and deceptively simple gameplay, Fractal will keep you hooked for hours.

Fractal’s main campaign starts you of creating “blooms”, which is when you connect a group of similarly colored pieces called fractals to create a giant hexagon cluster on the board. For every bloom you create, you also are rewarded with music. The more blooms you take off the board, the more music you hear within the level.

The catch is that you only have  a certain amount of fractals to put on the board while also trying to achieve a certain amount of points per level. As you move through the campaign, the difficulty certainly ramps up. Multiple colored fractals pop up on the board, suddenly making the player have to be aware that the upcoming fractal might destroy an attempted bloom combo.

While playing Fractal I was reminded of the game Lumines, but while that game had a style of gameplay very reminiscent of the classic puzzler Tetris, Fractal feels like it’s own thing. It has its own style  and pace. The campaign doesn’t have you trying to complete a level within a certain timeframe, nor does it suddenly ramp up the speed of gameplay. It all comes down to the player. How the player decides to interact with the level determines the tension and complexity of each level. Needless to say you can discover multiple ways of creating blooms within a level which certainly ups the replay value of the game.

The Campaign mode features 30 levels that keeps increasing in difficulty. Of course, you are given some help when bombs are put onto the level that helps you take out more fractals on a stage. Arcade mode ups the ante by being a time trials version of the main game. Finally, there’s puzzle mode which includes  six sets of levels each with their own batch of puzzles to complete. All of the various play modes and levels will continue to challenge the player again and again.

With Fractal, Cipher Prime continues to deliver immersive, solid gameplay with a great sense of style and design. Anyone who downloads this game will get their money’s worth and then some. You will lose many hours playing Fractal, and you will love it.