http://alt-games.com contrarian game culture Fri, 04 Aug 2006 12:46:43 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Outbreak: the Game is part of the Serious Games Initiative. This Outbreak requires players to respond to the apandemic like the Avian Flu virus and its impact. The game's website has more information: http://www.outbreakthegame.com/ The game is still in development but, like many serious games, it already raises interesting ... http://alt-games.com/2006/08/04/outbreak-not-the-resident-evil-version/ Arcade style shooters are a dying breed, falling victim to the flash of three dimensions and a market's neverending thirst for realism. Off the top of my head, I can name only two or three recent big-budget shooters, and none have received the praise they once would have. They seem ... http://alt-games.com/2006/07/12/rip-strike-back/ Mainstream media keeps picking up stories on serious games--mainly on games for health or games in relation to politics (including the ever-popular video games and violence issues). And, now mainstream game journalism has entered the mix. The CMP Game Group has released Serious Games Source. While Serious Games Source went ... http://alt-games.com/2006/06/15/mainstream-media-on-serious-games/ Hopefully everyone catches the title allusion to those tomes of forbidden humor that all the kids in my grade school coveted in the furthest corners of the playground. This is what The Turds feels like to me, the sort of terrible, terrible humor that I know full well I shouldn't ... http://alt-games.com/2006/06/06/truly-tasteless-games-the-turds/ The Sex in Videogames conference is coming up later this week (June 8-9, 2006). While sex and games has gotten a lot of press with the Hot Coffee mod, there's been less press on the potential for games to deliver sexy and informative content. For informative content, Iser games has just ... http://alt-games.com/2006/06/03/sex-and-games/ Retro Remakes is a new contest that runs from June 1 (today) through August 31. The contest wants games that are remade with accessibility in mind. Specifically, the contest wants: "Good remakes of good games that anyone can play, regardless of their ability." They're interested in games that limit the ... http://alt-games.com/2006/06/01/designing-with-restraints/ In addition to mainstream games and indy games, like the games designed by girls, a number of designing tools, including new ways to learn programming are in production. Many are aimed at interesting atypical programmers. Projects like Mary Flanagan's Rapunsel Project, which aims to build a software environment to teach ... http://alt-games.com/2006/05/30/learning-games/ Plasma Pong is a completely tripped-out version of regular Pong that incorporates fluid dynamics. In addition to deflecting the ball with your paddle, you can now use jets and vortices of fluid pressure to help guide the ball. And all of this is rendered in a super-colorful "plasma" style. If ... http://alt-games.com/2006/05/30/plasma-pong-tripped-out-fluid-dynamics/ First released in July 2004 by David Münnich, a German artist, musician, and game creator, Not Pr0n is billed as "the Internet's hardest riddle." Not Pr0n was conceived after seeing an earlier game, This Is Not Porn, which, in Münnich's opinion is "pretty unfair and rather boring." To make a ... http://alt-games.com/2006/05/30/classic-alt-gaming-not-pr0n/ Millions of Games is just that: A web database cataloging as many browser-based games as the collective Internet can spew forth. What a lovely thing! It's kind of like New Grounds meets Digg with a little Shadows thrown in for taggy-meta goodness. Right now there are not quite 7000 games ... http://alt-games.com/2006/05/23/millions-of-games/