Skyland: starts on TELETOON, April 22nd

Set your TiVo or DVR, program your VCR, or block off your Saturday night, Skyland is finally here! This upcoming Saturday, April 22nd at 7h30 pm, TELETOON will finally air the series. The big question is will they be reruns of episodes 1 & 2, or will this be new material.



As soon as I have word from my source, I'll let you know. In the mean time, enjoy the 2nd episode (in French since it also aired on France 2). I can't wait to see what happens next!

EVE Online: meet your worst nightmare...

I just love this shot of my Daredevil! I guess you could call it a self portrait, well kind of...

That's the fun thing with EVE Online as opposed to other MMORPGs, change ship, and you've got yourself a whole different experience. Fantasy MMORPGs don't have that luxury - once they've chosen their profession, well then that's it, their a paladin, or a fighter, or rogue, and they have to stick to that. With EVE, switch ships and you're a hauler, change a again and you're miner, or a mercenary - all in the same game session, with the same character.

Gaming: more on Game Design, Will Wright and Spore

Funny how things come and go, and come back again. A few posts ago I wrote about a year-old GDC presentation on a new game concept from Will Wright called Spore. Then a few days after my post, a bunch of new and interesting articles come out on this very subject, including one from the man himself in Wired magazine and another over at GameSpy. Call it blogger intuition.

The article in Wired, is a look at the possible future of gaming, when players will be asked to take a greater role in the building of the game and it's content. Greater freedom will be given to players to utilize their creativity " to help build, design, and populate our digital worlds."

In his article he also explains how games are a completely different way of learning which may not be evident to older generations. He call it the generational difference. The current status in today's media is mostly negative, and it has a lot to do with this difference, this gap. Wright puts it plainly when he writes,

Society, however, notices only the negative. Most people on the far side of the generational divide - elders - look at games and see a list of ills (they're violent, addictive, childish, worthless). Some of these labels may be deserved. But the positive aspects of gaming - creativity, community, self-esteem, problem-solving - are somehow less visible to nongamers.

Which reminds me of an article from the Economist I posted about last year about research on this generational gap.

Now back to game design, research and Spore. At this year's GDC in San Jose, Wright had a presentation on doing good research before building a game and how that will impact the game design. Read all about it over at GameSpy.

Here's an additional 25min video of some Spore game play, from last year's GDC.(It's nothing new though and if you've seen the full presentation, then you've already seen it)



Last not but least, here are a list of other recent articles you'll definitely enjoy:

• GDC 06: Will Wright and Spore (IGN)
• Will Wright explains the origins of "Spore" (ZDNet)
• GDC 06: His Spore-ness addresses adoring throng (Gamespot)
• Wikipedia: Spore (computer game)
  

This should keep you busy reading up on it until the game comes out, or close to it!