Hasta La Gadget!

OUYA announced this afternoon that its Android-powered game console is shipping to Kickstarter backers starting on March 28th. The company took to its Kickstarter page to announce the news, which says, “Parts are in the factory and assembly lines are buzzing.” When the console starts arriving to folks who supported the Kickstarter campaign — wherein the company raised just over $8.5 million dollars — there’ll be a lengthy list of launch games (around 500 last we heard) and more on the way. Alongside news of the console’s launch date for backers comes word that Portal creator Kim Swift is developing a “brand new, exclusive title” for the console, and Papo & Yo dev studio Minority Media is also stepping up with a new game. Both Tripwire Interactive and nWay are also bringing games to the OUYA, with the former working on two games and the latter working on one (action-RPG ChronoBlade).

If that weren’t enough, Journey developer Kellee Santiago was announced as the newest high profile OUYA employee, wherein she’ll “lead developer relations.” Santiago has a short history of high impact in the game industry, having helped create thatgamecompany (developers of Flow, Flower, and Journey) as well as leading an excellent TED Talk. She also appeared in this Engadget Show. Beyond working to entice devs to OUYA, Santiago said on Twitter that she’ll still be making games. “I will still be making stuff, too, keepin’ it real, don’t worry,” she wrote.

And that’s to say nothing of the console’s future; company CEO Julie Uhrman told us at DICE 2013 that the OUYA will see annual hardware refreshes, akin to mobile phones. We’ve yet to get our hands on the device, but we’ve heard good things from developers who got their early units back in December. Should you wish to hear even more about the OUYA ahead of its late March launch, Uhrman is joining Engadget on-stage for our first ever Expand event in a few weeks — snag your tickets right here!

Filed under: Gaming, HD

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Source: Kickstarter, Twitter – Kellee Santiago

During the keynote at the 2013 DICE Summit today, director J.J. Abrams and Valve CEO Gabe Newell sat on stage and discussed storytelling in video games and movies. However, what started off as a friendly critique of each others’ work ended with the announcement that they are in talks to make a movie together based on either the Half-Life or Portal series.

The two briefly discussed the possibility, and obviously, details are quite slim at this point, but Newell said that the two are “going to try and figure out” if they can “make a Half-Life movie or a Portal movie together.” The two discussed various storytelling methods during the keynote, using clips from Valve games and some of Abrams’ movies that he has directed in the past.

According to Abrams and Newell, they’re wanting to move the discussion further along in a more serious way, and they now hope to collaborate on a film based on either the Half-Life or Portal series. Obviously, the collaboration is still in its early stages, and it could very well dissolve later on if it turns out that things don’t work out how they’d like.

J.J. Abrams is the director behind the new Star Trek films, including the newest and upcoming Star Trek: Into Darkness. He’s also known for directing the TV series Lost, as well as Fringe. Valve CEO Gabe Newell is obviously behind the Half-Life and Portal series, as well as Counter-Strike, Team Fortress 2, and the Left 4 Dead series.

[via Polygon]

J.J. Abrams and Gabe Newell in talks over Half-Life or Portal movie is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Portal gun replicas are usually quite expensive. But with a bit of cardboard and creativity, you too can make a neat gun and get the science done. And that’s no lie. Just look at what deviantART member svanced was able to achieve:

As you’ll hear in the video below, svanced made the gun using black and white cardboard, a few pieces of black cable, transparent duct tape – although it looks like scotch tape to me – transparent plastic and a couple of blue LEDs, one from a flashlight and one from a lighter. All in all it cost svanced about $10 (USD) in materials and about 60 hours of work.

So test subject, ready to make your own Portal gun? You can watch the guide that Svanced used on Indy Mogul’s YouTube channel.

[Svanced via Gamefreaks]

Donating to charity is always a good thing to do, but what if you got something in return? How about a Portal gun replica that’s signed by the entire Valve team? Games Art And Music (GAAM) is auctioning a full-size replica of the Portal gun with signatures plastered all over it on eBay, and 100% of the proceeds go directly to charity.

Valve signed a replica Portal gun for the Games Art And Music charity event in Florida, and now that the show is over, GAAM is auctioning it off on eBay, with all of the money benefiting Child’s Play, a charity that provides children in hospitals with video games and toys — the same charity that benefits from the popular Humble Bundle.

If you feel like giving to those who are less fortunate and you happen to have an empty space on your shelf, there’s no reason not to join in. You’ll have to hurry, though. The auction ends today at 1:37 PM ET. At the time of this writing, the replica gun is at $650 with a total of 42 bids — not a bad price to pay for some classic video game memorabilia.

The replica gun is about as lifelike as it gets. It doesn’t shoot actual portals, but it does features orange and blue LED lights, unique sounds that correspond to each color, 3-way switch between blue, orange, and off, sound effects that let you hear the infamous portal blast when you pull the trigger, and extendable and posable claws at the front.

[via Joystiq]

Portal gun replica signed by Valve being auctioned for charity is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

If you are a huge fan of the video game Portal, then you would definitely want to check out this particular officially licensed Portal product – the $99.99 Customizable Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device. As the name would have it, you can be just…you. It does not matter if you are more partial towards Chell, Atlas, or P-Body, you can be who you were born to be. Perhaps your portal gun comes with Atlas stripes, but you would want to fire in P-Body colors why not? Either that or you can opt to have no stripes at all, while having it fire in Atlas colors, how about that?

The Customizable Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device is a life size, 1:1 scale replica of the Handheld Portal Device, and it is more or less guaranteed to make you feel as though you are really in the testing facility. Being fully customizable, all it takes is a single switch, and you can toggle between the LED colors: red orange/yellow, blue, purple. The other switch will allow you to flip between color 1, color 2, and off. All you need to do is set the switch to the type of portal you would want, pull the trigger, and you’re good to go. It is powered by a trio of C batteries.

[ Customizable Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]