Our latest game “Escape to Plastic Beach” for the Gorillaz crosses the divide into reality – along with several other divides that we know of!

2D to 3D. Flash to Unity. Free-to-play to free MP3 download. Bruce Willis got his own virtual double as the bounty hunter. And the game crosses from virtual to reality and back again – several times – given that Gorillaz is a virtual band (which makes your brain hurts if you think about it too hard….).

But don’t do that! Play the game and let us know what you think. Here’s what lead singer Murdoc has to say on the subject:

“Hey! This is fan-tastic. Some top-notch gonk gaming company have made a Gorillaz game that you can play free online. It’s all based on Plastic Beach, and it features me, 2D and my cyborg Noodle! What’s even better is that if you pay the £1.50 for the last part, you get our new single “Superfast Jellyfish”, and that’s got ‘Super Furry’ Gruff and the De La Soul boys on it! El Caminos, Boogiemen, ghostly pirate ships, underwater chases, mines, fat cops and gun battles all wrapped up in some snazzy new gaming technology and a great new Gorillaz track too…I mean, what more could you want? Come n’ play with me and Gorillaz on Plastic Beach and see how far that gets you…”
He’s right – we think it’s pretty darned good too. There are months of our lives, a lot of our brain cells and an awful lot of Matmi magic in “Escape to Plastic Beach“.

And there’s still more to come. Prepare yourself to cross another chasm Matmi style in a few weeks time…. Enjoy, Jeff.

A new version of the development platform Unity has been announced, adding support for Android and the PlayStation 3, on top of the existing support for iPhone, Wii and the Xbox 360, as well as boasting numerous upgrades to the engine itself. (more…)

With all the talk of iPads and Androids, it’s easy to forget to forget that Microsoft has been in the mobile business for some time now, which is something that the company is eager to remedy with a new version of its Windows Mobile platform. (more…)

Barcodes are a part of everyday life, and their utilitarian design reflects this through and through.

Barcodes need not be so drab and humdrum however, as these custom barcodes from Japanese firm D-Barcode show.  All these barcodes work, and as companies need to find new and interesting ways to be competitive, whose to say that charming barcode art might become common place?

Source: Gizmodo

This a concept video of how a tablet version of the Chrome OS might work. Obviously, it’s still early days for the OS, and the design looks a little spartan, but it’s clear that multi-tasking is something that Google is investigating.

What’s more interesting to me though, is the timing of this video. An upsurge in interest over tablet devices is hardly surprising in the wake of the iPad, but after Steve Jobs’s pop at Google’s ‘don’t be evil’ philosophy, to release a video that clearly highlights one of the deficiencies in the iPad seems more than just coincidence.

Google is one of the few companies that has the funding and brand recognition to stand against Apple, and like Apple, knows that refining an existing technology can be just as – if not more effective – than developing a new one.

With Apple playing the canary in the tablet race, Google may be able to avoid many of the problems that arise when breaking new ground.  It wasn’t the first MP3 player that was the definitive one, and it won’t necessarily be the first tablet either.

Isn’t broadband wonderful?  Back in the days of dial-up, always on, high-speed internet, that wouldn’t cost an arm and a leg seemed a long way off.  But as tends to happen with computers, things moved very quickly and now in 2010, internet speeds of tens of megabits are pretty much the norm.  Well, that’s how it is for most people anyway, but for some people in the UK, broadband internet is still a tricky thing to get.  In more remote areas of the UK, dial-up is the best you cam hope for, and the provision of at least basic broadband has become a hot, although minor, issue for politicians.

The current government target is for every household in the country to have access to broadband of at least 2Mbps by 2012, which is considered the minimum requirement for watching videos online, but the current opposition, the Conservatives – who have a very good chance of taking the reins of power this year – have proposed a new and much more ambitious plan for the county.  Under the Tory plan, the ‘majority’ of homes in the UK – a vague term at the best of times – will get access to broadband speeds of up to 100Mbps by 2017.

Perhaps I’m just a pessimist, but this sounds like a pipe dream to me.  The government’s target speed may be a little on the low side, but it at least sounds feasible, whereas constructing the infrastructure for speeds of up to fifty times that in just seven years, especially without a solid plan to finance it – the Conservative plan calls for ‘private investment’ with the contributions from the BBC license fee making up any shortfalls – seems like a promise that the conservatives simply won’t be able to keep.  The other parties in the House of Commons didn’t fail to spot this either, with both Liberal and Labour MPs attacking the idea and its ill-defined funding plan.

The internet is a big part of my life, both personally and professionally, and so I recognise the value of a more connected world, and a country buzzing along at 100Mbps is a very appealing idea, but the Conservative plan is going to need a lot of refinement before it becomes feasible.

So the Apple tablet turned out to be a genuine product, to the surprise of exactly no one.  Possibly the worst kept secret in the world of technology, the iPad – not iSlate like people were thinking – has turned out to be pretty much what everyone expected; the iPhone mentality applied to a laptop to make something that has most of the features of both.  Not all of the features though, which has left some people disappointed but it will, however, sync up to with your iTunes and let you use all your existing media straight out of the box, so the music and movies that you already have can be loaded onto it and enjoyed with minimal fuss, just as you’d expect from an Apple product.

From a consumer point of view, it’s almost humbling to see the Apple brand rolling out in full force again.  The company is amazingly skilled at gripping peoples’ interest and giving them a product that addresses their needs in a simple and elegant way, and in the case of the iPad it addresses needs that they didn’t even know they had.  The iPad costs about as much as a netbook, and you can be sure that the interface will be easier to use and understand than that of a tiny computer, and instantly familiar to anyone who has an iPhone or iPod Touch.

And as an iPhone developer, the iPad presents a world of possibility.  Not only will our existing games work on the iPad without the need to convert them, the iPad gives us a much bigger canvas to work with.  We’re very proud of the talented designers and artists we have hear at Matmi, and the iPad not only gives us a chance to show off just how talented our artists are, it also gives out designers room to stretch their metaphorical legs.  The iPad lets us take all those ideas that were just impractical for the small screen of the iPhone, and with the SDK available right now, March is going to be an interesting time.

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Most people complain about how long it takes to get apps approved by Apple, but not us, not after our new game Elf was approved in just one week!  Elf is another great effort from the Matmi iPhone team and is great value at just £1.19!  Grab it on the App Store today!

Game Description

It’s Christmas morning and there’s magic in the air, enough to send an elf soaring into the stratosphere. While Santa’s away, Irving the Elf like nothing more than leaping skyward, stepping on stars and bouncing on baubles trying to get as high as he can!  Build your boost and collect candy canes for a point bonus while you help Irving hit the heavens, but watch out for the twisted tinsel, its pointy prickles will put a real crimp on your day.

With all the looks and charm you’d expect from a Matmi game, Elf is simple enough that anyone can pick it up and play it, but addictive enough that you’ll be hooked all year round.  Aim skyward as you challenge your friends via Facebook Connect and see who can send Irving the highest!

About Elf

• Amazing graphics and animations
• Unique sound effects in stereo
• Simple but addictive gameplay suitable for all ages.
• Local and Online scoreboards plus Facebook Connect so you challenge all your friends
• Created specifically for the iPhone/iPod Touch by the wonderful minds of Matmi

Monster Pinball won the Gold Award for Best Mobile/Handheld Game at the Rose Design Awards in Nottingham on Friday. Monster Pinball is the first foray into mobile gaming for Matmi New Media, who is best known for its viral advergames and is by far the most advanced pinball game available for the iPhone.

Monster Pinball fought off stiff competition to take the top accolade in the newly created gaming section of the awards. The award comes just as a new version of Monster Pinball, with rebalanced gameplay, improved sound and Facebook Connect functionality is set to hit the App Store.

Described by Touch Arcade as “A Beautiful Pinball Experience”, Monster Pinball was Apple’s Pick of the Week less than a month after its release, as well as receiving top marks from Mac World and Appvee.com and Pocket Gamer’s gold award.

A winning shot.

Hot on the heels of the award-winning Monster Pinball, Matmi is releasing Snowy’s Christmas Pinball for the iPhone and iPodTouch in time for the holidays. Snowy’s Christmas Pinball builds on Matmi’s existing expertise in both Christmas games – having created the most popular Christmas viral game in the world for three years running – and being masters of the pinball genre, thus bringing something a little different to the holiday season.

Building on the pioneering technology created for Monster Pinball, Snowy’s Christmas Pinball is even faster than its predecessor and has three feature-packed tables starring some of the most recognisable Christmas icons around. Snowy’s Christmas Pinball has three selectable difficulty levels, as well as linked scoreboards that let you upload your high-score directly to Facebook and, of course, the amazing art and sound that Matmi is known for.

About Snowy’s Christmas Pinball:
3 fun packed, interconnected tables with varied and unique goals and deep and engaging gameplay
60fps giving extra-smooth gameplay
Realistic physics engine makes the game even faster than Monster Pinball.
Accelerometer tilt function
Hotball feature – Score double points when active
Amazing graphics and animations
Unique sound effects in stereo
Pause, Save and Resume
Local and Online scoreboards plus Facebook Connect
Created specifically for the iPhone/iPod Touch
Created by the wonderful minds of Matmi