Minecraft-modding is the new sport. This is a more advances example of what you can get. This mod uses a GLSL-Texture, to achieve that surreal, drug-like aesthetic (skip to the middle of the video, there the things are getting much better).

Here is a thread in the Minecraftforum, showing how to work with GLSL-Shaders. And this is a pastebin of the actual code, that was use for this mod.

Here’s also a cool video for people who wants to get started at adding textures.

CityHero, the game that you play with your friends and your city, is finally available in the AppStore! The game is a little like a mix of Foursquare (checkin-based stuff), Monopoly (become the greatest and richest) and Sim City (build the most interesting town). One of the main goal is, to build the city with the highest value. You also play with your friends: if with them or against them – this depends on your choice! There is a global hiscore-list and a hiscore-list of your friends.

Gameplay: You basically do checkins at real places to earn virtual money: the so called coins. With that coins you can buy yourself real-places in the city, that go directly into your personal virtual portfolio: displayed as iso-view. Now every item in your city has a coin-value – calculated upon the number of actual checkins. So the price of each item in your portfolio changes every day! At the same time: if somebody checks-in at a place you own, you will earn some money automatically. So having popular places is the key, to get successful in the game.

Socialize yourself: CityHero is also a social tool. You can use CityHero, to check-in at Facebook Places, Foursquare or post your checkins to Twitter. You can browse your surroundings and get dynamic information, i.e. from Facebook. You can also use CityHero to check, if your friends are nearby. So lots of stuff to explore!

I am one of the developers and co-founders of CityHero, so there is a very good chance, that you get exclusive and news early on CityHero on this blog Digital Tools – besides the CityHero-Website, CityHero-Twitter or the CityHero-Facebook page.

Right at the moment, the app is currently available only with a German UI. That means, that you can play the game on the whole world, but the UI is in German. But we are already working on the localisation of the UI in other languages.

People who love pixels, should check out the game Thor, published by Marvel. It’s a pretty much straightforward platformer, with a nice and colorful pixel-style. Read more about the game here.

It looks like, there is a build of MilkyTracker for the Android freshly available. I found nothing about it yet on the official website of MilkyTracker, but I guess it will come. Meanwhile the news is making its way through the web. (via) (via) (via)

Still fresh but enormously promising is the Monocle GameEngine – an open source project, that makes creation and editing of 2d-games real fun. Most communication about the project takes place at the BitCollective Forum – most of the website is still at an early stage. The driving force behind the engine is Alec Holowka aka Infinite Ammo and Matt Thorson. Why make this engine, and not use tools like Unity? Alec says in the video, that Unity gets weired, if trying to make 2D-styled games. So making an engine for exactly this purpose is the main-motivation. And it looks really convenient and responsive!

The Next Level Conference Blog (a nice and fresh welcome on the Digital Tools Blogroll as well) posted a feature of interview, that people from the Cologne Game Lab made at the Game Developers Conference. Just go there, watch and listen.

Software meets things – this could be the subtitle of this freshly released book “A Touch of Code” from Die Gestalten Verlag. This 256 pages book is an exploration into “interactive installations and experiences”, that has code as one of their foundation. Art as a medium of pushing new boundaries of technology?

About the book:

“Thanks to the omnipresence of computers, cell phones, gaming systems, and the internet, a broad audience has traded its past reservations against technology for an almost insatiable curiosity for all things technical. Against this background, unprecedented new tools and possibilities are opening up for the world of design. In addition to sketchbooks and computers, young designers are increasingly using programming languages, soldering irons, sensors, and microprocessors as well as 3D milling or rapid prototyping machines in their work.”