Tag Archives: playground

Skin Deep Review: Kitty Rescue Immersive Sims Bring Slapstick Fun to the Comic Playground

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wImmersive Sims are a unique realm in gaming, often subjected to gamer gatekeeping. From the classic PC title System Shock to the Dickensian world of Dishonored 2, this genre is akin to avant-garde electronica or Darren Aronofsky films—beloved by critics and genre enthusiasts, yet somewhat alienating to the broader audience. Like similar fandoms, the most ardent fans of immersive sims often regard linear blockbusters with disdain. So, sorry Assassin’s Creed players, this is a club you can’t join.

While larger games like Tears of the Kingdom have recently experimented with genre elements, truly accessible, immersive sims are still scarce. Enter Deep Skin by Blendo Games—an attempt to cozy up the genre. With a premise lifted straight from a 2000s web comic, you take on the role of Nina Pasadena, an insurance commando determined to protect a kitty fleet from a pirate siege. Responding to the increasingly urgent distress signals from the anxious Tabby, Nina stealthily approaches the besieged vessel, strategizing to save the feline clientele.




Steal your prey with anything at hand: books and writers? …Deep Skin. Photo: Annapurna Interactive

The narrative is delightfully absurd, but the intriguing mechanics of the collision system deserve recognition. While pilfering supplies with unconventional items, I release a cloud of sanitizers, then knock out a pirate using a hefty novel. Before he can retaliate, I swiftly maneuver away, blending into a shimmering cloud to engulf adversaries in a spectacular explosion. This whimsical, slapstick style truly shines in Deep Skin, presenting a playground that revels in the absurdity of simulation.

However, not all aspects are flawless; Blendo Games introduces its own quirky gameplay twists. Pirates can respawn after being incapacitated, their “skull saber” desperately hovering back to their lifeless bodies. Nina must act quickly to dispose of the screaming heads before they seek revenge. One creative solution involves launching the skulls into space through shattered windows, while flushing the screams down a space toilet—an inventive way to bin each nuisance. The Duper Gun replicas allow players to sneak up on guards and instantly copy items in their possession, whether weapons or keys—vital for those kittens.




A manga-like playground… Deep Skin. Photo: Annapurna Interactive

With fully detailed ship environments, players can exit through airlocks and scale the exteriors, searching for sneaky entry points. In one mission, I crash through an exterior window, landing dramatically and removing a shard of bloody glass from my foot before tossing it into a pirate’s face, channeling my inner cat-loving John McClane.

Blendo Games recognizes that the finest immersive Sims often function as whimsical playgrounds. Every element feels like a sandbox, a tool for mischief. From tossing a pepper at a guard to watch him sneeze uncontrollably, to riding on a pirate’s back and charging into a wall, the delightful chaos of Deep Skin truly embraces its playful nature.

Unfortunately, I hoped for a more serious narrative tone. The liberated cube cat bursts from its cage with sparkling flair, prompting me to respond to Paw-Penned’s request for an elusive VHS tape. Although the humor of Skin Deep may appeal to some, the incessant cat puns and overly zany tone became exhausting, eliciting more grimaces than laughs.

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If the cat-centric concept appeals, be mindful that Skin Deep utilizes Doom 3’s 2004 ID Tech Engine. Picture your nostalgic PC classic’s dimly lit corridors replaced with vibrant colors. Aimed deliberately at hardcore gamers, it sounds great on paper, but the outdated aesthetic doesn’t quite deliver the intended retro-chic vibe, often appearing quite primitive.

Nevertheless, if you’re a fan of quirky experiences, this colorful and refreshing entry into a notoriously challenging genre is worth your time. Ultimately, it offers a unique simulator filled with slapstick humor, although it may not cater to seasoned genre aficionados or entice complete newcomers. Perhaps not a breakthrough title, but if you can appreciate the whimsy of Deep Skin, you may find 10 hours of futuristic cat-themed fun ahead.

Skin Deep is available now for £15

Source: www.theguardian.com

Review of South Park Snow Day: A Wild and Entertaining Playground Melee

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TIt’s snowing heavily in South Park, Colorado, and young Eric Cartman is looking for a chance to skip school. Huddled in his bed, he clenches his fists and closes his eyes tightly, hoping that the blizzard will worsen to Biblical levels so that the next morning the school can declare a snow day. When he wakes up, the city is in panic – scores of dead, widespread panic buying of toilet paper, and weather so unprecedented that many fear it’s a sign of the end. Of course, he’s overjoyed.

What follows is the titular Snow Day, in which neighborhood children paint a fantasy war on a bright white canvas, in which elves and humans fight according to rules that may change in an instant with the development of a “random” card. Masu. South Park has always been great at capturing the bits of childhood we forget as we grow older, and with the premise of Snow Day!, developer Question Games has captured just such nuggets. I’ll find out. Give some kids a free day and a cardboard sword, and they’ll build an entire universe and bicker about exactly how it works.

What this means for players is the roguelike elements that were completely removed from South Park’s previous two 2D turn-based role-playing games, 2014’s The Stick of Truth and 2017’s sequel The Fractured But Whole It is a cooperative action game with

You can be forgiven for feeling some regret about that parting. Those story-driven games gave us countless gags that were too vulgar to tarnish this fine publication, and the abrupt transition to retro 8-bit graphics when they entered Canada When, for example, they found creative ways to use the medium itself for comedy. Frankly, the writing in Snow Day! isn’t all that sharp. But its advantage is its pick-up-and-play accessibility and unexpected depth as a roguelike.

Battle small children in your ramshackle Tolkien cosplay, deploying basic melee and ranged attacks as you race through the burbs, collecting toilet paper (new gold since panic buying began) and modifier cards. Masu. These are things like dealing extra damage to bleeding enemies or increasing the range of your farts. The more you progress through the match, the more specialized playstyles you can specify, making each battle more interesting.

Especially when a bullshit card drops. This gives you and your enemies ridiculous abilities like laser eyes and meteor showers. They’re done sparingly and are always met with enough ire from Cartman and others to remind you that these rules are supposed to feel like they’re being improvised by a 10-year-old.

Control isn’t always good. In fact, it rarely feels that way, as attack and movement animations are marred by the floating feel and lack of proper weapon feedback. But on snowy days! Keep your brain focused by allowing you to plot more efficient builds. Every card you choose has consequences, as there’s always a tougher battle around the corner and a boss fight at the end of your run. This won’t keep you and your pals in South Park’s perennial winter for as long as popular hangout spaces in co-op games like Fortnite. But for those nostalgic for the days when snow meant freedom, it offers a weekend of farting, chaotic fun.

Source: www.theguardian.com

Playground Global secures $410 million Fund III for early-stage deep tech investments

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playground globalThe renowned early-stage venture capital firm has brought $410 million in capital commitments to Fund III to invest in early-stage deep technology and science companies. With this new fund, Palo Alto-based Playground will have more than $1.2 billion of his assets under management.

Co-founder and general partner Peter Barrett started his career as an engineer (a video game engineer, to be exact) before becoming a venture capitalist.Interesting fact about him — he still codes every day and is touted give Elon Musk his first job.

Barrett is surrounded by similarly tech-loving general partners Jolie Bell, Matt Hershenson, Bruce Leake and Laurie Yolar, all with similar deep scientific and operational backgrounds. I have.

Together, they are attracted to companies creating next-generation technologies across the computing, automation, infrastructure, logistics, decarbonization, and engineered biology industries.

Similar to the $500 million Fund II raised in 2017, Fund III’s capital deployment will focus on seed and Series A companies with initial investments of $1 million to $20 million.

Playground is often an early or first investor, and Barrett told TechCrunch that the company “believes that only a few transformative companies are born every year.” Examples of exits from the company’s portfolio include MosaicML, which was acquired by Databricks in June for $1.3 billion, and the company that will enable Elon Musk to print the Raptor engines to power Starship, which will be announced in 2021. Includes listed Velo3D.

TechCrunch spoke with Barrett via email about how the funding landscape has changed since his last round, the lessons he learned investing in deep tech, and what he looks for in startups.

The following has been edited for length and clarity.

TC: Playground last raised funding in 2017. What was the funding environment like this time around?

P.B.: The macro environment is difficult for everyone, but when I meet with investors from around the world, they avoid fads and trends and instead focus on companies and industries where real and lasting value is being created. I said I was trying. A company with excellent durability and defense.

The new fund and the raising of several of our companies have proven that there is never a bad time to invest in great companies, especially in a down market, with investors flocking to quality.

We have received significant support from our existing investors and also used this opportunity to invite new investors. Fund III expanded its LP base to include endowments, foundations, single-family and multi-family offices.

What is unique about what Playground offers to startups?

We are an early stage venture capital firm and have been true partners in our companies since our inception. When you talk to our entrepreneurs, you’ll find that they consider us both investors and co-founders. We have the unique superpower to take on and eliminate technology risks, and can leverage the roadmaps we develop to identify best-in-class emerging technologies.

And because we don’t invest in competing companies, there’s a real sense of camaraderie within our portfolio. We were introduced to several new portfolio companies by the founders of Fund I and Fund II. In addition to our platform services, our 70,000 square foot studio is home to many of our portfolio companies and other non-competitive startups deep in the tech space.

Tell us about the pivot from consumer to deep tech. What led to that decision?

When we founded Playground, our team was assembled with the goal of helping both consumer technology and deep technology companies develop. It was clear early on that our superpowers were not reading the market risk tea leaves and were taking on technological risks. By focusing on deep technology and investing in roadmaps that guide our investment decisions, we have captured an undeserved share of the world’s most innovative companies.

What did you learn from diving into deep technology?

Since we founded Playground, we have invested in deep technology companies. PsiQuantum was one of our first investments. We have learned that everything is impossible until it happens, and that the combination of prudent capital and brilliant, tenacious people can move civilization forward.

What areas of deep tech are you interested in, and which areas do you tend not to invest in?

By taking on chemistry, biology and computing as a first-principle approach, we can invest in breakthrough companies across next-generation computing, AI/automation, infrastructure, artificial biology and decarbonization. .

There is no contradiction between the resulting technology investment and significant returns. We are attracted to companies that can build large technological moats and enter markets where they are clear category leaders. We follow the roadmap and don’t surf the zeitgeist.

What do you look for in a startup?

We look for testable hypotheses that address important problems with a plausible path to success. We are not looking for potential solutions to problems. We look for solutions that bring together the right ideas, the right people at the right time.

How many investments have you made from Fund III so far?

Playground has already made several investments from Fund III including d-Matrix, Ideon Technologies, Amber Bio, Infinimmune and Atomic AI, in addition to other portfolio companies operating in stealth.

We believe that our companies, operating in stealth, are well-positioned to revolutionize green metal production and provide the foundation for the next generation of semiconductor manufacturing.

d-Matrix, whose Series A was led by Playground, secured an oversubscribed Series B round of $110 million announced in September, and has already raised another round. The company is building the next generation of AI hardware through an in-memory computing platform focused on inference in the data center.

Given your past relationship with Elon Musk, what do you think about his stewardship over X, Tesla, etc.?

We all wish Elon would focus more time on electrifying the Earth and sending rockets into space.

Source: techcrunch.com