How Dance Central 2 gets its moves

Frenchy Hernandez has been dancing her entire life. She started when she was two years old, before eventually studying dance at school, teaching dance, and working for the likes of MTV, BET, VH1, and artists like Ashanti and Snoop Dogg. But for the past two years she's worked at a video game studio, serving as one of the resident choreographers at Harmonix, the developer behind the upcoming Dance Central 2.

There's a good chance that those moves you're busting while dancing in front of your Kinect are actually Frenchy's moves.

It's a unique position to be in. Aside from the other resident choreographers at Harmonix, Hernandez is likely the only professional dancer with such extensive game development experience. Though she still teaches, she is a full-time employee at the studio, working exclusively on the Dance Central series alongside her fellow choreographers.

So what exactly does she do?

Well, it depends. The choreographer's job varies depending on what stage the game is in. Early on in the project she works with the animators and designers to come up with ideas for the various in-game characters, ensuring that they're authentic. "Just kind of telling them what we wear, how important sneakers [are] to our fashion," Hernandez told Ars. "You know, helping them find references for the characters that they already had an idea for."

From there it goes to the song selection, as the choreographers work with the audio team to help "scrunch up songs and make them smaller." And once the songs are ready it's time to create the actual dances.

Senior producer Naoko Takamoto decides which choreographer the song fits with best, based on things like their personality or personal musical preferences, and then provides a few notes on how the dance should feel, at which point the choreographer gets to work. In Hernandez's case, she remains at her desk and listens to the cut of the song for a few days, though she doesn't exactly stay still.

"Like I sit at my desk and I'm listening to it and just moving around in my chair listening to it," she explained. "And from there I kind of get up and move to a mirror and just freestyle dance."
Dance Central 2

As she dances in front of the mirror, Hernandez begins to pick out specific moves she likes, and where exactly they fit in the song. Part of the actual choreography process is ensuring those moves come in at just the right beat or lyric. Once that's all set, the fully choreographed dance is filmed and Hernandez and her producer refine it—starting with the expert-level dance before moving on to medium and beginner—and set to naming the individual moves, and determining which ones fit with which difficulty level.

Then it's on to the motion capture suits.

It's a long and involved process, though—aside from a few technical limitations—the actually choreography isn't that different from what Hernandez would be doing if she were working with an artist or teaching a class.

"It's really true to form," she told Ars. "This is the stuff that I would come up with if I was teaching dance or something like that."

Those technical limitations have been reduced as Microsoft continues to improve the Kinect experience, but some still remain. The camera can't recognize hand motions done in front of the body, for instance, and dancers can't move more than five feet to the left or right of the Kinect. The upcoming sequel introduces some new elements to the game, including the ability for two players to be on screen dancing simultaneously. Though these types of features improve the game experience, they haven't actually changed the choreographer's job all that much. But they have provided an extra incentive to make the dances even better.

"It actually inspires us," Hernandez told Ars, "because it makes it really look like real dancing when you have two dancers on the screen doing two different things."

Dance Central 2 is coming to the Xbox 360 on October 25.

Sony suffers another attack on PSN, 93,000 accounts temporarily compromised

By Ben Kuchera | Published a day agoLast updated a day ago

Sony has been the victim of another attack on the PlayStation Network and Sony Online services, where intruders attempted to log in using a large number of account names and passwords. The vast majority of these login attempts failed, according to Sony, leading the company to believe it has been a victim of an attack of opportunity where hackers tried to access PSN and SOE accounts using information taken from other sources.

"These attempts appear to include a large amount of data obtained from one or more compromised lists from other companies, sites or other sources," Philip Reitinger, the SVP & Chief Information Security Officer of the Sony group wrote on the official blog. "In this case, given that the data tested against our network consisted of sign-in ID-password pairs, and that the overwhelming majority of the pairs resulted in failed matching attempts, it is likely the data came from another source and not from our Networks."

93,000 accounts have been accessed due to this attack, but Sony claims little activity was seen on the compromised accounts before they were locked down. If your account was affected, Sony will be e-mailing you with details and to have your password reset. The company claims credit card information is not at risk.

The best course of action is to make sure you don't share account names or passwords between online services. "We want to take this opportunity to remind our consumers about the increasingly common threat of fraudulent activity online, as well as the importance of having a strong password and having a username/password combination that is not associated with other online services or sites," Reitinger wrote. "We encourage you to choose unique, hard-to-guess passwords and always look for unusual activity in your account."

MDK2 gets $15 HD re-release on PC, looks and plays great

MDK2 is a cult classic, filled with inventive gameplay and well-written humor. The game isn't talked about as often as other rare games, and it's a shame; it was something special on the Dreamcast, PC, Playstation 2, and most recently the Wii. Overhaul Games, a division of Beamdog, has created an updated, high definition version of the game for PCs. It's out today, exclusively via the team's eponymous digital distribution service.

Here come the bullet points:

    * 10 levels
    * Over 20 enemies
    * Three different player characters, Max, Dr. Hawkins, and Kurt
    * Unique levels and items for each character
    * Brand new HD graphics
    * Enhanced audio from the original sources
    * Tweaked gameplay—now Easy really is Easy, while Hard is BONE CRUSHING!

The game features three playable characters: a janitor who wears the Batman-like "ribbon suit" that allows him to glide around the levels as he snipes at enemies and picks up a wide array of interesting grenades, a six-limbed dog that can equip and fire four guns at once, and a mad scientist who fights aliens with the power of invention. The game leverages its absurd situations and premise very well, while remaining fun to actually play. This is one of those rare cases where the game's mechanics are just as good as the writing and humor.

I had the chance to play a preview version of the updated game on the PC, and it looks great, while the game controls work very well with the mouse and keyboard. A few of the game's environments betray their decade-old age, but the game's sense of fun and adventure shine through, and the HD facelift looks great. This is a great way to revisit a classic or try a quirky game for the first time.There may not be another Zynga game in which Energy is more important than in Adventure World. Every switch thrown, every puzzle solved and beastie whacked costs you the Facebook game juice. Players often find themselves without Energy minutes into an Expedition. But this isn't the time for whining--it's time to show you the value of upgrading your Tools and how to do it.

Tools: The Game Changer
If you noticed, each piece of debris and monster has a life bar, and normally take multiple hits with your Whip or Machete to whittle down. This, of course, quickly becomes a waste in later Expeditions purely due to the amount of obstacles in your path. But increasing the amount of damage your various Tools inflict against said baddies could considerably reduce the Energy spend in-game.

For instance, say a Snake has three hit points and is Level 5. Since monsters can hit back in this game, it could take three to five Energy before an enemy goes down. Now, imagine if you had upgraded your Whip to Level 2. Offing that Snake would take just two to four Energy with a beefier Whip. The same situation applies to Tools like the Machete.
Adventure World Tool Shop inside
And Now For Your How-To
Adventure World Tool Shop outsideUpgrading your Tools in Adventure World is simple. All you need to do is head back to Base Camp from an Expedition, and look for a makeshift hut that should already be in place in your headquarters. When you click on the Tool Shop, a window will appear featuring all the Tools you've found thus far on your journeys. Click on the Tool you wish to upgrade.

Once you click on a Tool to upgrade, you'll notice that each Tool costs Coins to upgrade. That's it--no asking friends to help you out with materials or farming certain crops for special items. Just the goods you find during your travels in search of El Dorado. However, Coins are actually quite rare in this game, so you'll need to save and spend wisely.

When you have enough Coins for an upgrade, just click on the appropriate icon to pay up. Tool upgrades are also level-locked, meaning you must reach a certain level for most Tools before being able to upgrade them using Coins. If you're feeling impatient, you could always unlock access to those higher level Tools early using Adventure Cash.

Just One Small Catch...
However, some Tool upgrades do require an extra boost: your Tool Shop. Yes, the building itself can be upgraded, too. And this time, you will need items from your friends. (Just think of how things work in CityVille.) Luckily, you only have to do this about twice to unlock access to all of the game's Tools. Then, it's back onto leveling up to access new upgrades for Coins.
Adventure World Tool Shop Upgrade
Upgraded Tools are hands-down the way to go, if you want to save precious Energy for the good stuff, that is. You know, exploring ... uncovering the secrets of El Dorado? That kind of stuff. Your wallet might thank us later.

Click here to find all of our Adventure World Tips in one spot >

[Source: Zynga]

Have you upgraded your Tools in Adventure World yet? What other Energy-saving tips might you have for your fellow adventurers? Sound off in the comments. 1 Comment

Game of the Day: Pop & Drop

A herd of colored balls is headed your way, and unless you act quickly, they'll drop right on top of you! Pop all the colored balls before they reach you by creating sets of three or more.

Pop & Drop features two awesome game modes: action mode and the strategy-based perpetual mode. I promise you though, you'll be kept on your toes regardless of what mode you play. Make sure to use the special power pieces to help you rack up the big points.

Click here to play Pop & Drop!
Pro Tips:

• Pop & Drop shows you where your next shot is going to land. This is an invaluable tool! With it you can line up insanely tight shots through gaps, enabling you to hit those huge combos.
• Bank balls off the walls. As I said before, Pop & Drop shows you where your next ball will land, even for banked shots. Use it to access those hard to reach places.
• Be precise! When the balls are closing in, don't fire wildly. Calm down and make sure you hit an intelligent shot. For example, don't just shoot the ball onto the first level, or you'll need two more balls of the same color to knock it off. Instead, stack it onto another color so when you knock that set off, both colors will pop.
• When all hope is lost, and the colored ball armada is knocking on your door, don't forget to use your arsenal of destructive grenades.

Click here to play Pop & Drop! 

What level were you able to get to in Pop & Drop?