Wow

Two things to mention in this post, and both are truly original and inspiring (at least to me!). Both are straight out of Japan.

First, I heard about a new puzzle game coming out for the PS3 that's supposed to be very different. It's called Echo Chrome. Here's a link to it's preview video on YouTube. The first time I saw that, I said just "wow" out loud - somewhere there's a developer with a very twisted mind! The great part is that the original idea, or at least one who took the idea to the extreme, was from M.C. Escher. Making an animated, changeable, puzzle game out of it is quite outside the box.

Anyway, after a little more searching, I found the website of the original developer of the idea, and it turns out you can play around with the original system online! Scroll to the bottom of that page, and there's a link to download it for the PC, or even play it online in a Java applet. It's mind-bending to say the least.

The other thing that has me excited is a video called Missing Pages. I recommend it to everyone! You can download it for free or watch it on YouTube. There's an interview with the guy who wrote and directed it at CGChannel. The way in which the "movie" was put together is creative and somewhat different, like those 3d pictures you see on History channel documentaries sometimes. It's all photos, 3D compositing, and some animation - almost like an animated comic book.

The film really makes me want to load up Shake again and play around with it - I'll need to make some time for that before the summer is out! Sure, he used After Effects, but they can both do the same effects.