On Wednesday, San Francisco-based independent video game company Double Fine launched a $400,000 Kickstarter project to fund development of a retro point & click adventure video game. The Kickstarter project will also fund a documentary film team from 2 Player Productions. The filmmakers will document the entire game making process as it happens (for the exclusive enjoyment of project supporters).

The project reached its fundraising goal in a record 8 hours, and surpassed $1 million dollars in less than 24 hours. It missed being the first million dollar Kickstarter by just four hours though—The Elevation Dock, which we wrote about earlier this week, gained that distinction on Thursday afternoon. But the Double Fine project has now surpassed the Elevation Dock and is now the largest Kickstarter yet ($1,384,438 as of this writing). The folks over at Kickstarter watched all of this unfold with understandable excitement.

Over a six-to-eight month period, a small team under Tim Schafer’s supervision will develop Double Fine’s next game, a classic point-and-click adventure. Where it goes from there will unfold in real time for all the backers to see.

2 Player Productions will be documenting the creative process and releasing monthly video updates exclusively to the Kickstarter backers. This documentary series will strive to make the viewer as much a part of the process as possible by showing a game grow from start to finish, with all the passion, humor, and heartbreak that happens along the way.

via BetaBeat

Looking for a nerdy way to one-up your your friends at your next dinner party? Check out the Super Mario Bros. inspired “1Up Mushroom Burger” Instructable by Karen Chu for details on how to make this tasty veggie treat. It’s the Bob-omb!

Of course Mario loves mushrooms… he’s a fungi!

photo by Karen Chu

Pac-Van by Jonathan Bergeron

Castlevania by Jayson Weidel

Super Mario by Olly Moss

Life Wasted by Alan Hynes

Gallery1988 Melrose is hosting Multiplayer X2: Posters inspired by classic video games, a group show featuring the art of over 30 artists. The show opens Friday February 10, 2012 and runs through March 3, 2012. The opening reception begins at 7 PM on February 10, 2012. You may remember last year when Gallery1988 Venice hosted Multiplayer, the gallery’s first show of video game art posters.

images via 411posters, Alan Hynes, Gallery1988 and Oo-De-Lally

Experienced players who are up to the challenge might want to try going to the bathroom in expert mode.

via Neatorama & Game Over

original image source unknown

Greg’s family and friends decide it’s time for a Skyrim Intervention in this new video by Ben Moody on Machinima.

via Rampaged Reality, Nerd Approved and Kotaku

The Wall Street Journal recently did a story about people who play video games as pacifists where they attempt to make it through typically violent games without killing anything. For example Daniel Mullins has been playing Skyrim as Felix the Peaceful Monk and he has yet to register any kills in the game.

via Bethesda Blog

CollegeHumor brings us Breaking Bad RPG, a fabulous video that gives the AMC hit television show, Breaking Bad, a retro 8-bit makeover.

The only game that’s also a controlled substance.

via Geek Gestalt and BuzzFeed

Scottish centerian Kathleen “Kit” Connell thinks her Nintendo DS portable gaming system is “absolutely super”. Kit, who just turned 100 years old last week, shows how gaming keeps her brain sharp in this video. The Sun has more of her charming story and quotes her as saying. “The Nintendo has been a great help to me, it’s absolutely amazing. If there’s any secret to a long life it’s to think positive and keep your mind active.”

via Kotaku and The Sun

Last night on Conan Andy Richter showed off his the various character voices he recorded for Skyrim.

Filmmaker and long-time World of Warcraft gamer Anthony Rosner has made IRL: In Real Life, an inspiring short documentary film that looks at his personal World of Warcraft addiction and how amazing his life has become since ditching the game.

“IRL – In Real Life” is a short, light-hearted documentary looking at the effects of World of Warcraft addiction, produced as part of a 3rd Year Film Production project.

via Geeks are Sexy

New Hampshire-based filmmaker Lorien Green is behind Going Cardboard: A Board Game Documentary, a film about designer board games and the subculture of game players behind them. The film has just started screening worldwide and a DVD is in production.

Going Cardboard is a film about the new board gaming, a phenomenon going on right under your nose, probably in your very community! This film will take you into that world to meet the players and designers responsible for this radical departure from technology. And you just might discover it’s the hobby for you.

OK Go has collaborated with Sesame Street on Three Primary Colors, a fun stop-motion music video that shows kids the basics of color-mixing. The video was conceived and directed by Al Jarnow. “a pioneer stop-motion animator who made numerous classic educational and experimental short films in the ’60s, ’70s, and ’80s for Sesame Street, Electric Company, 3-2-1 Contact, and other shows.” There is also OK Go Color, a web game collaboration between the band and Sesame Street. You may remember that OK Go did the remake of The Muppet Show Theme Song for Muppets: The Green Album.

via The Daily What

Jemma Salume created a heartwarming series of Skyrim Valentine’s Day Cards.

via Felicia Day

Eat, Sleep, Slay Dragons, a new TeeFury t-shirt by The Hookshot, pretty much sums up the life of a Skyrim addict.

UPDATE: The TeeFury sale is over, but The Hookshot is selling a similar version through their RedBubble store, along with a bunch of other really great “Eat, Sleep…” themed t-shirts.

In an effort to reach new heights of laziness, Ben Heck built his own Xbox 360 controller-mounted Hot Pocket dispenser.

via Revision3, Geekosystem & DVICE

zdzichorowerzysta created a ridiculous Pony Dragon Mod on SkyrimNexus that replaces the Dragons in Skyrim with My Little Pony.

via Topless Robot

Games of Nonchalance offshoot, The Elsewhere Philatelic Society (EPS), is participating in ArtGameLab, a new participatory game experiment at the Koret Visitor Education Center at San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA). EPS, the “subterranean stamp society”, will present The Peculiar Scholarship of Dr. Bedcannon for their role in the experiment. ArtGameLab opens at SFMOMA on January 15, 2012 and will run through August 12, 2012.

The Elsewhere Philatelic Society is proud to announce the unveiling of “The Peculiar Scholarship of Dr. Bedcannon”, #7 in the Psychedelic Philatelic Adventure Series (collect them all!). In conjunction with the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and the Koret Visitor Education Center, the EPS cordially invites you to experience the galleries of SFMOMA as Dr. Bedcannon INTENDED THEM TO BE EXPERIENCED. Have you ever wanted to question an institution’s extant reality? Dr. Ytterbium G. Bedcannon has! You’ll follow in his footsteps as he recontextualizes every object within the museum to match his whimsical and questionable views…

The Elsewhere Philatelic Society (est. 1895) is an interactive fiction project set in various locations throughout San Francisco and the East Bay, and is inspired by the Games of Nonchalance project. It endeavors to engage players in an on-going adventure storyline, to encourage them to observe and produce street art, and to explore urban areas in new and unusual ways.

The Grosjean Brothers, John and Justin, play a hilarious real world live action version of Skyrim.

via Rampaged Reality, Geekologie & Kotaku

A Very Portal Christmas Tree

via reddit

photo by unknown

YouTuber KoreanFrogMania challenged a pet African Bullfrog to a game of Ant Smasher on their smartphone, but got a nasty surprise instead…who knew frogs could bite? Animals playing Ant Smasher is apparently a thing—this Bearded Dragon does pretty well, and without all the aggression:

via The Daily What & Obvious Winner

Eddie Codel spotted these Angry Birds Fruit Gummies at a Walgreens. They are available by the case on Amazon.

Creator of the amazing Christmas Light Hero house light show from 2009, Ric Turner of Santa Clarita, California has now turned his home into an elaborate and interactive Angry Birds Christmas Light Game.

Help! The pigs are trying to ruin Christmas. Grab the sling shot and fire those birds! From the people who brought you the Guitar Hero Christmas Light game! Running on two computers and 10 Light-o-rama 16 channel controllers, uses more than 20,000 lights and less than one cent of electricity per game. Audio is broadcast on 99.1FM, and the controller has a long enough cord for people to play in their cars on the street. Easier than the iPhone version, and bigger too.

via The Daily What

Oh my, how things have changed since December 1 ,1963. In this vintage footage from the television game show, What’s My Line?, the celebrity panelists are trying to guess what line of work entrepreneur “Colonel” Harland Sanders is in. The now iconic Sanders is, of course, known for starting Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) which in 1963 was called Southern Fried Chicken Company.

Clips from What’s My Line? can be real gems, like the one featuring surreal artist Salvador Dali.

The Caltech Prank Club transformed the Astor Place Cube sculpture in New York City into a giant Weighted Companion Cube from the video game Portal.

See Previously: Street Artist Olek Crochet-Bombs Astor Place Cube in New York City

via Gothamist & Welcome To The Funhouse

photos via Gothamist & Welcome To The Funhouse

A new trailer has been released for BioShock: Infinite, the latest in the series of BioShock video games due out in 2012.

via Kotaku