Apparently, you can now play those infamous Japanese claw games online. If you look around on Twitch, you can sometimes even see people playing them.
You get a webcam view of the front/side, control the arm, and if you win, it is dropped in a box and mailed to you. How crazy is that!
Based on watching them play, however, it would likely be much cheaper if they just bought the do-dad they were going for online for much cheaper. Still, there is that thrill of victory.
Tis the summertime again – and the homeless situation appears to be even more out of control than usual.
If you need to report illegal campsites, campers, and public nuisance, turns out there is a handy website for the city. This will help the city track what’s going on in the neighborhoods. If they are on public land, then you report them as a campsite. If they have squeezed themselves onto a business front/private property – then report a ‘Neighborhood Nuisance Complaint’ or ‘Neighborhood Housing Complaint’. If in doubt, file them as multiple and they will sort it out.
Neill Blomkamp (director of Chappie, District 9 and Elysium) sat down with Geoff Keighely during E3 Coliseum to talk about Oats Studios, his experimental film studio. When Blomkamp made the announcement, he said he wanted to focus on short films that could be supported, both financially and through potential collaborations, by the people who watch the films. It’s an interesting idea that’s been explored by other Hollywood heavyweights; Joseph Gordon-Levitt launched HitRecord, an online collaborative production company, with his brother in 2005. Since then, the brothers have released multiple short films, books, albums and more.
The difference between Levitt and Blomkamp, however, is the platform they use. While Levitt just uses his own website to produce and release projects, Blomkamp uses Steam.
Blomkamp said. “You think of iTunes but what you don’t get as readily as you can on Steam is like the first film we’re going to put out, or any of the films we put out, we’ll release the raw footage. We’ll release all of the 3D aspects we used to make the visual effects.”
“We’ll put up the ability for audience members who feel like they have an idea of where another film in that series can go and we can curate that inside Oats. I actually want to work with this user to see where that stream can go.”
Here’s their first volume – Rakka – with Siguorney Weaver of all actors. Is this the future of movie making?
Twitch gives you an idea of how many people are playing a game, but why guess how many concurrent users you have and the stats? This site live-tracks who is playing what – and gives you trending over time and has some great analysis articles. Pretty interesting reads on why some games fly and other flounder.
KillScreen does a great little write-up on the VR Short Pearl
Directed by Patrick Osborne, the same of the Oscar-winning short Feast, which screened before the Disney film Big Hero 6 in theaters, Pearl is a somber tale, chronicling the relationship between a father and daughter and their car. The short constrains the player to the hatchback, where the viewer can gaze all around the car, and even stick their head out the sun roof (if they’re watching from a HTC Vive, at least).
Be sure to scroll around with your mouse while watching.
Storm chaser Chad Cowan has spent over 10,000 hours documenting supercells across the United States. Here are some of the gems in his archives. Watch in 4K if you can.
