Super Pikix is the name of a new super-exclusive VJ-tool by Pikilipita (all the names are also very cool!). It’s a homebrewed thing, that takes place on a Caanoo, an “open-source, Linux-based handheld video game console and media player created by GamePark Holdings of South Korea” (sounds cool, as well)! Look at the video, it start a little too gentle, but keep on watching: you can really make some serious visuals with this tool. The advantage is its mobileness and exclusivity!!

The ultra-tiny FAQ at the website goes:

“But I thought a MacBook Pro was the best for live visuals…
…And it’s also very precious, so leave it home when performing for that no budget warehouse rave party…
Just bring your Caanoo and show you can do more with less!”

If you got a Caanoo as well, than go and download this software for yourself! Donations are accepted! Clément aka Pikilipita is in deep love with exclusive hardware. We featured also his VJ-tools for Playstation 2 and Nintendo GBA.

8-bit Funding is a new platform for “crowdsourced monetizing” of project proposal, similar to platforms like Kickstarter. The interesting thing about “8-bit Funding” is, that it is completely dedicated to game-releated projects. “8-Bit Funding has a single goal, to help anybody who has anything to do with the gaming industry fund their projects through completion. Whether it’s a video game, board game, card game, or even gaming inspired projects like a gaming focused bar or cafe.”

Yes, yes, yes! This are good news!
(via)

I want to highlight the recent works from Ishac Bertran. It seems, that he wants to find new aspects in glitches, combining glitch with different materials. Lately he was experimenting with a damaged flatscreen from the trash. Now he jumped into “Generative Photography“. It’s a mixture of fast-paced animations, that create “glitches” by photographing them.

“Digital drawings are sequentially projected on to a screen in a dark room and photographed using long exposure times. As in generative art, this photography technique uses an algorithm that is polluted with a certain randomness. The randomness comes from rendering imperfections and the asynchrony between the frame rate of the video signal and the refresh rate of the projector.”

Interesting works! There is also a long picture-thread with explanations in Ishac’s blog.

Gameduino is currently a Kickstarter-funded-project. It is a game-controller concept, that is build upon the open-source Arduino microcontroller-platform.

“Gameduino connects your Arduino to a VGA monitor and speakers, so anyone who can write an Arduino sketch can create video games. It’s packed full of 8-bit game goodness: hundreds of sprites, smooth scrolling, multi-channel stereo sound.”

This sounds great. You can still support this project by spending funds at Kickstarter.

(via)

Cubelets is the name of the very first product of “Modular Robotics” – a spin-off from the famous “robot”-Carnegie Mellon University. It is a kit of free combinable, small robot modules. The website goes:

By combining sensor, logic and actuator blocks, young kids can create simple reconfigurable robots that exhibit surprisingly complex.

This project looks really interesting and the just moved beyond the first beta-testing phase. I also somehow doubt the “young kids” in that project. Not only by the design, but also by the price: the standard kit, that is available for pre-order, is currently at 300 dollars.

if you are interested in more modular-robotic stuff, check the modular-tag at our partner-blog Eggshell Robotics.

Gamestorm: Sketch from Erik Svedäng.

Gamestorm is a cool project from Chevy Ray Johnston. It’s a tumbleblog: a collection on doodles, sketches and scrap-paper designs from game designers all over the world. We all know, that is lots and lots of work to make a game, but game-ideas often come surprisingly. So sketching them up is a viable method that is highly recommend to remember and discuss them as well. The site is also some sort of museum and source of inspiration as well. Just check it out! (via)

D3.js looks like a promising free JavaScript-framework, to visualize data-driven documents and infographics. The special thing about this framework it, that D3 is not another ordinary visualizing-framework, that you have to learn and adapt. It is much more lightweight in its nature:

“D3 is not a traditional visualization framework. Rather than provide a monolithic system with all the features anyone may ever need, D3 solves only the crux of the problem: efficient manipulation of documents based on data. This gives D3 extraordinary flexibility, exposing the full capabilities of underlying technologies such as CSS3, HTML5 and SVG. It avoids learning a new intermediate proprietary representation. With minimal overhead, D3 is extremely fast, supporting large datasets and dynamic behaviors for interaction and animation.”

There could be much more said here, but why not directly head over to the D3.js-page? There is everything explained in an elegant way.