Category Archives: Cyberpunk

The Bees of Kiribati

By Warren Hammond

I spotted Detective Inspecteur Keo at the end of the corridor, his back against the wall, smoke snaking from the cigarette lodged between his fingertips.

Instinctively, I smoothed the wrinkles on my skirt before starting in his direction. My heels echoed in the empty corridor, but he didnt look my way, his lips moving in silent conversation with whoever was jacked into his head.

Stopping a couple feet away, I waited for him to end his conversation. When he did, I pressed my hands together in front of my chest and offered a slight bow of my head.

He took a quick drag before floating my name on a cloud of smoke. Kaikoa?

I nodded.

In Khmer, he asked, You speak Gilbertese?

Again, I nodded.

Come with me.

I followed him upstairs to the fourth floor of Phnom Penhs police headquarters, where we veered wide to pass a small group of foreigners speaking in somber voices. A teary-eyed white woman stepped forward, clearly intending to ask the detective a question, but he waved her off and led me into a small interrogation room that smelled of mildew.

I breathed deep of a stale afternoon breeze drifting through the open window. Who are those people out there?

They dont concern you.

I didnt appreciate his dismissive tone. I cant translate effectively if I dont know what this is about.

Inspecteur Keo answered with a single word. Murders.

Reprinted from Cyberworld: Tales Of Humanity's Tomorrow edited by Jason Heller and Joshua Viola with permission of Hex Publishing LLC. Copywrite (c) Hex Publishers, LLC 2016.

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Cyberpunk Returns With New Colorado Anthology - Colorado Public Radio

At its financial results conference this week, CD Projekt proudly proclaimed that it's sold more than 25 million copies of the Witcher games. Great news for Geralt, but CD Projekt's fans are starved for details on the upcoming Cyberpunk 2077, which barely earned a mention in the 2016 financial support. Luckily, someone asked about its next RPG during the financial results conference, which got us the tiniest tidbit of insight into the next game.

CD Projekt Red studio head Adam Badowski got on stage to say progress on Cyberpunk 2077 was "quite advanced," and that the studio's biggest team comprised of "several hundred people" was working on the game. "It's really good fun for us," he said.

CD Projekt president Adam Kiciski added "The project is very ambitious," pointing out that each of CD Projekt's games has been more successful than the last. "The ambitions are very voracious, so we would like to devote a lot of attention to Cyber, a lot of effort, and quite some time. So we still need some time before the game is ready."

Badowski again: "It's a new title for us, and it will accompany us for years, so it takes effort to prepare it properly."

And back to Kiciski: "The work is ongoing, and it's very intense. So it's not a comfortable situation because we know what it's like, we watch the game, but we can't tell you anything. This year belongs to Gwent. This year we'll be communicating Gwent."

That "accompany us for years" line seems to indicate more from Cyberpunk 2077 than a single game, but who knows if Badowski was referring to DLC or plans for sequels down the road. Either way, it doesn't sound like Cyberpunk 2077 will be a one-and-done game for CD Projekt.

Kiciski also talked briefly about CD Projekt Red planning to develop another game concurrently with Cyberpunk 2077, but offered no further details about what that game might be. Cyberpunk 2077 currently has around 300 developers working on it, and "The team will be growing, because Gwent will be serviced, Cyber will be developed, plus one more game," he said. "We already have [300 people on Cyberpunk 2077], at the very end it will probably be more, maybe 400 people."

When someone in the audience asked about CD Projekt recently hiring concept artists who would typically work on the beginning of a project, Badowski explained that those hires weren't specifically for Cyberpunk. "There are two processes. One, we are building teams. The Cyberpunk team is already complete. We are developing the studio. That is why we have these [job] items on our website, because quite often there are certain opportunity hires. We're looking for top talent on the market. That's why we're looking for concept artists. It's really hard to find the most talented concept artists, and we try to keep extending the team."

And that's everything they had to say about Cyberpunk 2077. Judging by CD Projekt's focus on Gwent, we don't expect to hear substantially more about their next RPG until Gwent is in full release later this year. Fingers crossed for more details before the holidays.

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CD Projekt calls Cyberpunk 2077 development 'quite advanced,' but release is still a ways off - PC Gamer

The term is already trademarked in several countries and aReddit post, claims thatCD Projekt have now filed a trademark claim in Europe. The request allegedly would only cover game titles and not prevent using the term to describe content.There has been no confirmation from CDP, however, so it may be wise to reserve judgement.

CDP wants to protect their game against infringement and they havealready trademarked the term in the USA.So far they have not acted on it but its existence creates limitations for other creators. Itcould potentially cause some problems forother developers wishing to use the term in their games and descriptions, fearing legal action. It also may hurt the genre.

Trademarking game titles is not an uncommon practice as user Vetinarius points out.There is an obvious gray area, however, when it comes to trademarking a word that describes a genre, especially when the termed was coined by another individual altogether. The term was originally used by writer Bruce Bethke as the title for a short story he wrote in 1980. It was later retroactively applied to a number of science fiction works.

CD Projekts title, Cyberpunk 2077, is a futuristic RPG game, larger than any of their previous titles such as The Witcher. It is still in early development,you can check out the concept art and a teaser trailer on the games website.

Do you think this is a reasonable request from CD Projekt? Are you excited about Cyberpunk 2077? Tell us what you think in the comments below on ourFacebookor Twitter.

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The Witcher Developer Wants to Trademark Term Cyberpunk ... - DVS Gaming (registration) (blog)

Seattle film director Robert McGinley endured a frantic 20-day shoot to make his new futuristic cyberpunk feature, Danger Diva, shot mostly in a Sodo warehouse. He coordinated principal actors, and up to 300 extras at a time, as he shot scenes involving physical stunts, vehicle stunts, and choreographed fights.

One of those principal actors, the lead singer of popular local band Thunderpussy, became a part of the production through good old-fashioned word of mouth.

McGinley cast Molly Sides after meeting with old colleagues from On the Boards Theater artistic director Lane Czaplinski, and managing director Sarah Wilke, who has since become the executive director of SIFF.

I asked them, If I were to make Danger Diva in Seattle, who would you say is the musical La Femme Nikita in town? McGinley recalled. They responded in unison: THUNDERPUSSY!

Danger Diva premieres Thursday, April 13, in a special multimedia show at the Egyptian Theatre, sponsored by SIFF. The film will be followed by a live show from Thunderpussy.

McGinley called the performances event cinema, an experience immersive both aurally, visually and communally. The director also plans to show props, photographs, costume video and sculptures created for the film.

McGinley pegged his early fascination with film to his childhood in the suburbs of Chicago, watching 16 mm reels shot by his grandfather. The reels were simple -- home movies of his own father playing football.

Nevertheless, the experience was formative. He went on to study film and theater at school in Indiana, and then Los Angeles.

He arrived in Seattle after a spell in the tiny town of Tenino, Washington, selling encyclopedias and working on a horse farm ... bucking hay and shoveling manure.

Eventually he became involved in the arts scene at Evergreen State College, in Olympia, where he briefly taught contact improv dance. He moved to Seattle in 1978 with a group of other artists, and they started On The Boards, where McGinley served as artistic director for 12 years.

McGinley sees Danger Diva as the last film of a trilogy, preceded by Shredder Orpheus (1989) and Jimmy Zip (2000). Those two films were modeled on classical Greek mythologies of bold, brave artists who responded to challenging quests.

But Danger Diva, moves away from Greece toward Hindu mythology, notably tales surrounding Kali, the goddess of death and rebirth; and Devi, the Divine Feminine, Mother Of All Things.

What emerged was a musical cyberpunk thriller about a hard-rocking singer, coerced to become an electronically enhanced diva by her high-tech billionaire patron. Her singing voice is used to control and energize the brains of employees farmed out as living computer processors for the corporations high-tech clients. Referred to as Brain Cattle, the workers operate in a digital sweatshop processing binary algorithms, and functioning musically as a chorus for Sides diva.

The Sodo warehouse was Danger Divas primary shooting location, but McGinley also made use of the Rendezvous Tavern in Belltown, and the Broadway Performance Hall at Seattle Central College just across Pine Street from where the film will premiere at the Egyptian.

McGinley said he was incredibly grateful for the tenacity of his crew.

Brian Faker, in addition to producing the film, also served as casting director. It was Faker who found the films other principal cast members, Tim Gouran (Stanley), Ray Tagavilla (Calvin), Amy Thone (Adrian) and Conner Neddersen (Scattering Flynn).

He also thanked director of photography Chris Tufty, production designer Tania Kupczak and editor Howard Flaer for their ability to pull rabbits out of the hat.

On an independent production, the entire crew needs to be that way, McGinley said. They often surprised me with great ideas and problem solving.

McGinley said his gratitude came to a head as he watched Molly Sides perform on the last night of Danger Divas shooting schedule.

I wont give away the scene but her performance was awesome, he said.

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Robert McGinley combines cyberpunk, myth and rock in 'Danger Diva' - Capitol Hill Times

New York Post

You'll enjoy this cyberpunk wonderland if you turn off your brain New York Post Like its synthetic heroine (Scarlett Johansson), the live-action Ghost in the Shell is a feast for the eyes. With its killer-robot geishas, Godzilla-size hologram ads and nearly nude fighting gear, it's a cyberpunk wonderland but there isn't much ... Johansson clones cyberpunk spiritdailytelegraph.com.au Film review: Ghost in the Shell - a cyberpunk look into AI and mind hackingNetGuide NZ Ghost in the Shell is pretty, but not nearly as smart as it thinksVox ClickLancashire -Business Insider -Daily Herald all 607 news articles »

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You'll enjoy this cyberpunk wonderland if you turn off your brain - New York Post

Forbes

'Ghost In The Shell: Deluxe Edition' Manga Review: An Excellent Re ... Forbes Before the anime adaptations of 'Ghost in the Shell', there was the original manga by Masamune Shirow and it changed the world of cyberpunk fiction forever. The Futility of Remaking Ghost in the ShellPaste Magazine 'Ghost in the Shell' live-action remake nears debut, fans continue to critiqueNewsday Captain Comics: Deciphering mystifying 'Ghost in the Shell' trailersArkansas News CNET -IGN -MarieClaire.com all 82 news articles »

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'Ghost In The Shell: Deluxe Edition' Manga Review: An Excellent Re ... - Forbes

We probably wont see Cyberpunk 2077 until 2019

Cyberpunk 2077 was announced back in 2012 and CD Projekt Red have kept their cards close to their chests. Apart from one really awesome video we have heard little about the game. At least not until they applied for a grant from the National Center for Research and Development. The NCRD have released information about grant applications and CD Projekt have updated their website revealing more about their application for a government grant. It looks like CD Projekt will receive around 7 Million Dollars worth of funding from the Polish Government. This funding is so that they can achieve four key goals, the descriptions are a little technical so I will break them down into plain English for you:

City Creation

The development of tools that will facilitate the creation of large scale cities that are playable in real time. These tools would incorporate artificial intelligence and throw in some automation for good measure. They would be created with the development of high-quality open world games in mind.

Seamless Multi-player

They plan to create a unique game play experience for a large number of players. To do so they will take into account searching for opponents, session management and replication facilities. They also aim to create support for a number of different game modes and a set of dedicated tools to manage this.

Cinematic feel

They want to create technology that can help provide a unique film quality RPG with a completely open world. This is a little vague but I imagine the idea is to create the tools necessary for an incredible story displayed in an impressive fashion.

Animation Excellence

They want to create technology that will provide a significant leap forward in the quality of complex face and body animations for open world RPG games. So no more stiff doll-like animations ruining your perfectly constructed world. (looking at you Skyrim).

The implication of all this? Cyberpunk 2077 is going to be absolutely groundbreaking. This is supported by a recent interview with Gazeta. Its all in Polish so I will give you a hand. CD Projekts co-founder Micha Kicisk was questioned about where he thinks Cyberpunk 2077 is going to go. Long story short, hes got pretty high hopes. He argued that Cyberpunk will be an even greater commercial success than Witcher 3. Not only that, he believes that Cyberpunk 2077 will be a major contender for prestigious awards and competitions.

All this would explain why CD Projekt do not believe that they will complete the game until 2019, the deadline on their grant application. It looks like were going to be have to be patient for quite some time. That being said, from the information we have so far? I think it is going to be worth the wait.

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We probably won't see Cyberpunk 2077 until 2019 - Geek Reply - GeekReply (press release) (blog)

Narita Boy is part video game project, part idle day dream. Even its creator isnt entirely sure what it will become. But the art and energy behind it is undeniable. Like a long forgotten NES cart buried in your grandparents basement, Narita Boy insinuates itself in the imagination like a memory of something that never happened.

The game follows a dimension hopping warrior sporting a techno sword whos tasked with saving the digital kingdom from certain doom. Currently four people working on the game, including Eduardo Fornieles, its creator, and the founder of Studio Koba. Previously of Friends and Foe where he worked as a visual and conceptional developer on Vane, Fornieles left to try and bring his own vision to life. I started to feverishly create the Narita Boy universe as it appears in the 200 drawings I hooked on the wall, he said, referencing a wall in his office filled with illustrations located in a Spanish village. The desk in his office is filled with post-its and memos that attempt to contain the games sprawl as it unravels in his mind.

The project is something of a collage of childhood influences at this point, ranging from action figures and cartoons to classic video games and 80s cinema. He-man action figures were my favorite toys and Double Dragon was my first game on an arcade machine, said Fornieles. I became obsessed with Metroid and Castlevania on the NES. The delicious and strange universe of Another world also inspired me. And then theres the grainy, warbly aesthetic of VHS and movies displayed on hulking tubular CRT televisions.

GIF

The strange magic transmitted by the analogic films of the 80s with their astonishing visuals, synth music and stories full of innocence and imagination are a key part of Narita Boy, he said. In isolation these scraps of disparate media might form a familiar pastiche, but Fornieles hopes to bring a new alchemy to bear in the hopes of relaying an experience with an identify of its own,

Narita Boy was born from the need to transmit the strange universe and the nostalgic feeling that I had in my childhood. The idea was to create something metaphysical and poetic, to combine the subtlety and beauty of Japan with postmodernism and western culture. It is once again the story of the path of the warrior and at the same time an effort to transcend the plot towards something more referential. Parody is a key factor as well as the rich and complex plot that gives the game the right to be itself and not only a nostalgic journey to the 80s.

Japan, where Fornieles worked for several years and also met his wife, looms large in the background of the games influences. He calls Tokyo the the Digital Kingdom, a huge capital with monoliths and lights everywhere. He was surrounded by high rises and from his terrace at night Fornieles felt like he was living inside scene from one of Katsuhiro Otomos Akira cityscapes. Massive rectangles of concrete shining like fireflies in a silent lake, he said. Juxtapose this with the village in Castle and Leon, Spain where Fornieles now lives and is working on the game, and the inspiration for Narita Boys larger expanses and desolate geography feels acute.

We are from Barcelona but after returning from Tokyo my wife and I settled in the village of my family, in Castile and Leon, where all my ancestors come from, he said. The energy in the village is wonderful and is boosting our creativity. He believes the tranquility and calmness village life affords is key to building out his vision of the games world of cyberpunk nostalgia. The contrast it cuts throws also appears in the way the game shifts between these two types of spaces. On the one hand, theres Blade Runners dense hot Los Angeles, and on the other, Fornieles said, The country side is the void, the meditation, the exploration parts of Narita Boy when he cross a big and almost empty land.

So what does cyberpunk mean to him? The term gets thrown around a lot, especially in video games, as short hand for a certain look or sound, and in a way thats all thats really left of it. The future imagined in most cyberpunk stories has already been replaced by the recent past. Hacking, digital surveillance, and the growth of corporate influence are all common tropes at this point bordering on banal.

To escape those cliches, Fornieles tries to stay abstract. For me, cyberpunk is the first paragraph from Neuromancer, Tetsuo about to explode, hundreds of air con between old buildings in Tokyo where wires remember human hair in the morning, the skyline of Odaiwa from my terrace in Tokyo at night and Ghost in the Shell... Hes similarly vague when it comes to how old media and outdated technology are realized in the games particular style. Retro is the taste for the nostalgia. The past rebooted by the new trends. The retro to me brings the impression of distant and obsolete futures, he said.

GIF

In terms of the game itself as people will play it, this means a hack and slash action with exploration in the vein of a Metroidvania-style side-scroller. At least for now. The project is in its infancy and still full of unknowns. In Narita Boy everything is about an experience, said Fornieles. An ironic and artistic experience where image, code and music dances together.

For all of his metaphors, Fornieless concrete memory of the Double Dragon machine he used to play at an arcade near his grandparents in a summer town along the Catalan coast seemed to capture his aspirations for Narita Boy the best. When I asked if the arcade cabinet was still there and he played it since, Fornieles turned wistful. The cabinet is not there anymore, he said. It would be awesome, right? I remember stealing 25 cents from my aunt to play the game. And I still remember the smell of frankfurts, tobacco and the insert coin message flickering on the screen.

Those same flickers are half of Narita Boys appeal. The games trailers depict a game filtered through old technology, like scratchy MP3s trying to imitate vinyl on a turntable. The field of view is even curved, as if the game itself is something being re-discovered rather than newly created. Its also reminiscent of the first line of Neuromancer cited by Fornieles.

The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel. Narita Boys ambition seems to be making that dead channel playable again. The game is currently planned for release in December of 2018.

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Narita Boy Is A Cyberpunk Game Inspired By TV Scanlines - Kotaku - Kotaku

As it catapulting the Polish studio to success, The Witcher series is extremely important for CD Projekt RED, but it's "not all that we have to offer," says CDPR President Adam Kicinski. Cyberpunk 2077 is coming, and it's even bigger than they originally planned.

CD Projekt RED is known for delivering juggernaut AAA games that truly exemplify the pinnacle of games development. Titles like The Witcher 3 are massive in scope, massive in size, and best of all, massive in quality. With its ambitious new sci-fi game Cyberpunk 2077, CDPR plans to top The Witcher 3 in practically every way.

"The success of The Witcher 3 influences our planning. It affects what we have to expect from Cyberpunk 2077," CD Projekt RED's Adam Kicinski said in a recent interview with TVN24 Business World.

"The project is even more ambitious than originally planned. Because we have to create a game that will be even more successful [than The Witcher 3]," he said. "The world's biggest commercial successes are still missing. The Witcher 3 is the best game of the year in the world according to many, but it's not a game that broke any sales records."

Remember that the studio claimed Cyberpunk 2077 is far bigger and ambitious than anything they've ever done, and now Kicinski says the scope is even bigger. Kind of mind boggling isn't it?

CD Projekt RED hopes to make Cyberpunk 2077 a massive commercial success, so much that it eclipses The Witcher 3's overall sales. To achieve this, Cyberpunk 2077 will appeal to everyone rather than fantasy fans--fantasy is a niche market, and although Cyberpunk is more sci-fi based, it'll be much more accessible to mainstream gamers.

As for the massive scope, Cyberpunk 2077 will feature a truly next-gen world filled with seamless multiplayer and dynamic AI. There will also be amazing cities with flying cars and persistent interactions to craft something new and unique.

In fact the devs were awarded a $7 million grant from the Polish government to make these amazing worlds a reality.

The Polish studio has prepared quite well for Cyberpunk 2077's huge resource cost by expanding both of its Warsaw and Krakow-based studios to 500+ developers. Remember that CDPR has a massive business structure that's now worth over $1 billion, and will likely continue to grow thanks to its multi-faceted strategies including the GOG.com marketplace.

CDPR has announced a promo campaign across the United States, Western Europe and Poland for later this year, so we could see new Cyberpunk 2077 info dropped sometime soon.

And yes, CDPR confirms The Witcher series isn't dead...but it's "too early to tell" about a new game in the fantasy series.

So when will Cyberpunk 2077 release? We don't have an official release date yet, and probably won't for another year or two, but we do know Cyberpunk 2077 will release alongside another AAA RPG by 2021.

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Cyberpunk 2077 is more ambitious than planned - TweakTown

In an interview with Polish website Gazeta, CD Project Red Co-founder Micha Kicisk talks about how he thinkstheir upcoming titleCyberpunk 2077 is coming along. Suffice it to say, he's very positive about their new title.

"I am convinced that Cyberpunk 2077 may be a much greater commercial success than The Witcher 3. The Futuristic world of Cyberpunk is closer to what we know from everyday life. It is also increasingly popular as evidenced of the phenomenons presence in a number of films, books, comics and games. You have to remember that fantasy, is a niche topic."

For those unaware, CD Projekt Red is the team behindThe Witcher series and the commercial success of The Witcher 3: The WildHunt.Kicisk believesCyberpunk 2077can outdoThe Witcher 3because the first two games in the Witcher series were mostly popular in Central Europe due toThe Witcher being a Polish IP in the form of books, tabletop games, and even a TV show. He believesa cyberpunk setting would be more approachable for a wider audience from the gate.

"I believe that in the case of Cyberpunk CD Projekt will be able to fight not only for the prestigious prizes and awards, but also for great commercial success. The combination of these two elements in the gaming industry is difficult but entirely possible, as the example of Rockstar today, and Blizzard before them."

The commercial success ofCyberpunk 2077 could probably thank the successes ofThe Witcher 3 as it put CD Projekt Red as a developer right up there next to series likeThe Elder ScrollsandDragon Age.

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CD Project Red Co-Founder: "Cyberpunk 2077 may be a much greater commercial success than The Witcher 3" - GameZone