"Another World" - An Incredible Cinematic Tribute To The Classic Scifi Videogame

A group of dedicated fans from Poland recently set out to recreate the opening of Another World, a classic 1991 adventure title by Delphine software that was revolutionary at it's time for the usage of rotoscoped graphics. Even as a kid I remember the title was mind blowingly fluid and cinematic for it's time, even more so with it's follow up called Flashback.

The recreated intro follows the protagonist, genius physicist Lester Knight Chaykin heading out to his underground lab in a sleek Ferrari 288 GTO during a thunderstorm to work on a top secret experiment. While attempt to reconstruct what happened when the universe was born with a particle accelerator, lightning strikes and sends Lester hurtling into an alien world where his adventure begins.

The team did a stellar job recreating the intro (Compare it to the DOS-riffic original below), and are actually hoping to perhaps get a Kickstarter going to adapt a longer form, 15-30 minute version of Another World with the techniques they learned from this project.



Handmade in Poland! Over 800h of work, months of preparation, 5 shooting days, weeks of postproduction, countless hours spent on building movie props and set pieces.

Another World aka Project 23 emerged a few months ago as an idea for a short film inspired by a well-known game Another World . Initialy it was planned as a short promo video for the Pixel Heaven 2014 event, but during months of preparation it became clear that it will be something much bigger.

The Akira Project - An Incredible Fanmade Tribute

The Akira Project was first born back in July 2012 as an Indiegogo campaign to raise funds for a fan trailer, in response to various reports that the Hollywood film adaptation was stuck in development hell. Rumors swirled of versions of the feature that sounded nothing like Otomo's original vision, and many feared that another iconic franchise would simply be, well..Lost in translation.

In an act of fan solidarity made possible by the power of crowdsourcing, the Indiegogo campaign never reached it's full funding goal, but succeeded in attracting swathes of artists from around the world that had their lives changed by Akira at some point or the other. While the initial concept was to simply show Kaneda riding his bike around Neo-Tokyo, the power of 40 artists from around the world allowed the vision of the fan trailer to expand significantly. Following 3 days of filming in Quebec back in late 2012, the project went quiet due to a lengthy post production period.



A year and a half later we finally have the final product, and as many fans probably feel - It's kind of what we wish any adaptation of beloved franchises would be in this day and age. I think this global initiative successfully expresses a frustration with studios typical handling of source material, and we hope that Akira will get a proper adaptation that lives up to Otomo's timeless creation someday.

The Akira Project is a crowd-sourced, non-profit project meant to create a live action fan trailer of AKIRA, the renowned manga-turned-anime film from the late 1980′s; a stunning example of both mediums as art forms. While Hollywood has been working on a live-action Akira movie for a few years now, we, as fans, wanted to take a shot at making our own adaptation. A chance to stick as close to the source material as possible. A chance to do Akira Justice.

After a year and a half in post-production, we are proud to present the project to Akira fans the world over. We hope to have done justice to the timeless work of Katsuhiro Otomo and look forward to, someday, seeing the full scope of the Akira story translated to the big screen as a live-action. 

Hyper Dragon Ball Z - The Most Amazing Fanmade Fighting Game We've Ever Seen

After yesterday's trailer for another faux videogame, Starr Mazer - I couldn't have predicted that I'd wake up to yet another amazing mockup trailer for a game that needs to be made. Hyper Dragon Ball Z is an absolutely stunning looking fighting game concept that hopes to address the issues that the franchise has had historically with their fighting games. And it just got revealed two days ago, on Akira Toriyama's birthday.

Their main inspiration being the golden age of Capcom's fighting game arcade domination in the late 90's with their CPIII titles like Street Fighter III - Third Strike and the birth of Marvel Vs Capcom. For some reason the Dragonball franchise never got a proper 2D adaptation to the bar that Capcom set during that era, and it looks like a group of hardcore fans and artists are finally setting out to fix that.

Using the open source fighting game engine known as Mugen (Quite fun to tinker with), a group of coders and animators have been at work for a few years to reach this point, showcasing some absolutely gorgeous sprite animation and fluid, fast paced combat that feels straight out of the show. One of the main concerns that the folks at Team Z2 are trying to address is capturing the cinematic action while imbuing each character with their own distinct fighting feel, an issue that has plagued recent 3D reincarnations of the series that simply relied on simply inputting button presses repeatedly.

While there might be some legal issues regarding to the licensing of this franchise, I just have to ask: Who the hell wouldn't want this? From the looks of it it's so far along that if I were Akira Toriyama, I'd bless the ever living hell out of this project to go ahead. Team Z2 has now allowed the project to go into the wild, and they've asked the help of everyone to help this project proposal go viral and get the attention of the right people. In an ideal world and a golden age of indie development, this will result in the project getting the funding and attention to go all the way, which is our hope. Go Team Z2!

This is how we envision a perfect Dragonball game. Gone is the sensation of every character being interchangeable and having the same style of fighting. Instead, we have characters with beautiful animations, cinematic moves, skillful combos, interesting movesets, unique traits and the kind of fanservice that'd make any Dragonball fan smirk. We drew from all sources and we committed to our vision, which we share with you. 

The graphics have that 2D charm that, in our opinion, have been lost in the transition to 3D games. The gameplay is intense, pulse-pounding and would look absolutely amazing in fighting game tournaments such as EVO. Counters, Air Combos, Dash Colissions, Super Projectiles, Beam Struggles, a large variety of fun character introductions and winposes... it's all in there. I can see people going insane over the intense battles that are possible.

Human Revolution - A Stunning, Fanmade Deus Ex Short Film

Directed by Moe Charif of Dcode films, Human Revolution is a high end, fanmade short film that's been in the works for over 2 years. And honestly, it looks like it was worth the lengthy wait. For anyone familiar with the narrative of the critically acclaimed 2011 followup to Deus Ex, the game follows the story of Adam Jensen, a security consultant who finds himself augmented following an accident that nearly takes his life. This short in particular is more centered around his kidnapped girlfriend Megan Reed, who is asked by her captors to activate a mysterious device against her will.

Upon Adam pinpointing her location, what follows is probably the closest thing we'll ever see to a Deus Ex themed cinematic experience, including some absolutely stunning cyborg action sequences. We're also given a glimpse into Adam's daily struggles with the fate that was handed to him against his will. I never asked for this.