laughing squid:

Record dramatic images of war, save them in-game, then edit the results into a compelling frontline TV news story. Beam the results to global audiences on the web. No two WARCO stories will ever be alike. It’s an edge-of-seat gaming experience – and a powerful entry-level training tool for future combat reporters. WARCO is perfectly timed to take advantage of the convergence of games and movies, journalism and online communities, in a world undergoing massive social, geo-political and technological change.

In June 2009, Zynga came out with the app that would make it a household name among social-network users. While the company had already enjoyed some success with its earlier offerings, FarmVille was a blockbuster hit. But for those with eyes to see, it bore remarkable similarities to a precursor.

That precursor, Farm Town, was developed by a little-known Florida company called Slashkey. It featured a number of clever gameplay mechanics, chief among them real-time crop growth that requires players to regularly return to the game to tend their farms. Zynga’s version, launched months after Slashkey’s, would likely be indistinguishable to most players.

Link: FarmVillains – SF Weekly

Flidby, Hench77, Ratbanjos, RYCART1, S3R4F1N0W1C2 and triggerhappydom play a secret level designed by Stephen Spielberg and Tom Hanks…

Link: Call of Duty: Secret Spielberg Level Unlocked from FoD Team UK – Video

Link: Touch me I’m slick: Daniel Johnston rolls toward Laurie in Hi How Are You | Offworld:

if you don’t need that introduction1, then you probably will have by now had the same reaction I had several months back when I heard whisperings that Peter ‘Dr. Fun Fun’ Franco and Steve ‘Smashing Studios’ Broumley — former art and technical director, respectively, at the now-defunct Austin branch of Midway — were working on a game featuring Daniel Johnston’s art and music: I’ve more or less been waiting for this day since the early 90s.