Quba HQ

February 18, 2012
In Games, Gotta Play
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Dear Esther

Dear Esther. I sometimes feel as if I’ve given birth to this island. Somewhere, between the longitude and latitude a split opened up and it beached remotely here. No matter how hard I correlate, it remains a singularity, an alpha point in my life that refuses all hypothesis. I return each time leaving fresh markers that I hope, in the full glare of my hopelessness, will have blossomed into fresh insight in the interim.

Dear Esther is one of these titles that defy our common conceptions about what video games should be. It can be considered an anti-game, or perhaps a game that transcends the genre. Personally I perceive it as an amazing experiment in interactive storytelling.

February 3, 2012
In Games, Gotta Play
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PixelJunk Eden now on PC!

Around a year ago I published a Gotta Play article about PixelJunk Eden. It is a game that provided me with incredible amount of inspiration in my work, as well as hours of fun in my free time. A brainchild of Japan-based independent studio Q-Games and art director/DJ/multimedia artist Baiyon, Eden features possibly the most contemporary design I have ever seen in a video game.

Until yesterday, the game was exclusive to the PS3 platform, but now is available for all PC users through Steam. As a designer you owe it to yourself to check it out!

Check out and purchase Eden on Steam:
http://store.steampowered.com/app/105800/

Read my review of PixelJunk Eden here:
http://qubahq.com/2010/02/gotta-play-pixeljunk-eden/

For the first week, the game is offered at a 20% discount, bringing it to ridiculously low price of $7.99. You can also purchase the soundtrack. It’s well worth it.

January 12, 2012
In Featured, Games, imago, Motion, Video Bits
2 comments

AE64

Similarly to my 2005 piece entitled Demographix, AE64 is a tribute to the demoscene and to the legacy of world’s most popular microcomputer: Commodore 64.

While this video was created using the typical contemporary arsenal of tools (mainly After Effects and Cinema 4D), it conforms to most of the basic graphical limitations of the C64 such as a limited 16-color palette, low resolution, use of the overscan area etc. To maintain the spirit of the demo, I also created most of the effects using various scripts and code snippets, procedurally automating many of the tasks typically animated using keyframes.

April 23, 2011
In Games, Gotta Play
4 comments

Portal 2: Just the beginning?

It’s been a few days now since the launch of Portal 2. Looking back at the events leading up to the release I can’t help myself but awe at the skill and imagination of the Valve team. First came Portal (1) – an amazing game, introducing completely new gameplay mechanics to the FPS genre. It spawned cult following, multiple memes (The cake is a lie anyone?) and made countless players fall in love with a gray box with a pink heart painted on it. On March 1st, 2010 the first ARG was launched, eventually leading to the announcement of Portal 2.

The second ARG, running between April 1-18, 2011 sent users on a crazy scavenger hunt throughout 13 indie games (as well as real life locations) in search for the new clues about the sequel. The event culminated in a GLaDOS@home event where thousands of players contributed to releasing the game early. Finally came the game itself. I am not going to dwell on how good Portal 2 is – there are dozens of reviews all over the Internet that evaluate the game in-depth. All I’m gonna say is: if you haven’t done so yet, get it, play it. It’s well worth it. Hell, it is probably one of the greatest gaming experiences I had in a long time.

But is that it? The game is launched, single player and co-op campaigns are played through… I believe not. In this article I am going to speculate on what I believe is yet to come. Please, keep in mind that I am writing it assuming you have finished the game and therefore all matter of spoilers are to be found in the following paragraphs. If you haven’t played Portal 2 yet, do yourself a favor and do it first. If you don’t mind, however, hear out what I think is coming soon.

December 9, 2010
In Announcements, Games
12 comments

StarCraft 2 Guest Pass Giveaway: Ended

My Collector’s Edition of World of Warcraft: Cataclysm contained two guest passes for Starcraft 2. If you still haven’t played this amazing RTS, here’s a chance to give it a try. Each guest pass will allow you to download the game and play it for 7 hours or 14 days from activation (whichever comes first).

I have two of those to giveaway. Simply post a comment below for your chance to get one. You will have to be a registered user of this site in order for me to be able to send you the activation key. The two winners will be randomly chosen on Friday evening (GMT).

Update!
Thanks to the generosity of Michael Hoskins (http://www.pixelbath.com/), I now have one more key to give away! (that’s total of 3) I am going to extend the deadline to Monday, so all you less frequent visitors get your chance, too.

August 27, 2010
In Games, Webcomic
One comment

Bici Bee #145: Starcraft

I have been hard at work these past several ~~days~~ ~~weeks~~ months. My collector’s edition Starcraft 2 box is sitting right next to the computer, but I still could not even find time to finish the campaign (not to mention the multiplayer).

I usually manage to shell out half an hour a day or so, to watch some replays (comentated by Husky and HD Starcraft) of top tier players. This is my impression of how my game would look like.

May 17, 2010
In Games, Motion, Re:Post
No comments yet

Portal for Mac: Free until May 24th

Hello Mac people! It is not too late to still grab your free copy of Portal – probably one of the best games ever made, now available for OSX.

To celebrate the launch of Steam platform for Mac, Valve software made Portal free to all the Mac users until May 24th. They also produced this cute little infographic announcement animation, promoting the… promotion.

May 13, 2010
In Featured, Games
6 comments

Team Fortress 2 Spray Pack 1

A while back, I have created a set of spray images for Valve’s Team Fortress 2. It was released as the q3c’s custom sprays for TF2, but has since been taken offline. During the data recovery after the recent HDD crash, I came across these graphics, and decided to re-release them here at QubaHQ.

The pack contains a total of 11 sprays: One for each to the 9 Team Fortress 2 classes, with one extra medic spray and a little something for all the World of Warcraft players. Well… the ones who play the Horde, at least. All the installation instructions are included in the download.

April 16, 2010
In Games, Motion, Re:Post
2 comments

DAN the MAN

If you ever played classic 8-bit platformers, you know the drill. The hero fights monsters, defeats the boss and saves the princess. But what’s next? In video games you simply get a congratulatory message (“The Winner Is You”), but you never get to see how does “Happily Ever After” look like.

Well, thanks to Australian studio JOHO, now we can all learn. Their hilarious animation DAN the MAN is one of the best takes on the 8-bit gaming I’ve seen in a while. And, according to the YouTube comments, the sequel one is on its way! Video after the break.

April 11, 2010
In Featured, Games, Gotta Play
One comment

Gotta Play: The Orange Box

If you like gaming, have a PC that’s not yet a museum piece, but you don’t yet own The Orange Box (or all the games that comprise this amazing collection), do yourself a favor: Stop reading this article, go to the Steam page of The Orange Box, purchase it for for $30 and let it download in the background while you continue with this post. It’s that good.

Released in October 2007, The Orange Box is a compilation of some of the best titles produced by Valve Software: Half-Life 2, Half-Life 2: Episodes One and Two, Portal and Team Fortress 2. They even throw in a tech demo Half-Life 2: Lost Coast, just in case the rest is not enough for you. You will be playing this stuff for months.