Katamari Damacy was a surprise hit built on a tiny budget by a team of students

pop & funWikipedia2004

Katamari Damacy was a surprise hit built on a tiny budget by a team of students

the gist

Katamari Damacy is a 2004 PlayStation 2 game in which a tiny prince rolls a sticky ball across the world to rebuild the stars his careless father destroyed. The ball starts small, picking up thumbtacks, and grows through bigger objects until it becomes large enough to form a new star. Designer Keita Takahashi struggled to get Namco's executives to back the idea, so the project was built with help from students at the Namco Digital Hollywood lab for under one million dollars. Its satirical take on Japanese culture, quirky visuals and Shibuya-kei soundtrack made it a cult favourite and inspired many imitators.

so what

The game proved that a small, odd idea could beat large, expensive productions, and it helped spawn a whole franchise. Its design principle of simplicity and fun is still cited by developers as an example of focused design.

fun fact

The game was later remastered as Katamari Damacy Reroll for multiple platforms.

Hampi was once one of the world's largest cities, until its Vijayanagara capital was destroyed in 1565

the gist

Hampi is a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Karnataka, India, with more than 1,600 surviving remains spread over 4,100 hectares. It was the capital of the Vijayanagara Empire from 1336 to 1565. Travellers from Persia and Portugal described it as a prosperous, wealthy and grand city with temples, markets and farms along the Tungabhadra River. By 1500 it was estimated to be the world's second-largest city after Beijing, and probably India's richest at the time. In 1565 a coalition of Muslim sultanates defeated the Vijayanagara Empire, its capital was conquered and destroyed, and the city was left in ruins. Hampi remains a religious centre, with the active Virupaksha Temple at its heart.

how it works

The city was built around a fortified core with temples, markets and water structures along the river, supplied by an extensive network of roads and waterworks. When the empire fell, the city was not rebuilt, so its stone monuments were left standing.

so what

Hampi shows how quickly a great city can vanish after a military defeat, and how a ruined capital can remain sacred. Its ruins give historians a view of medieval South Asia that few other sites can match.

fun fact

The name Hampi comes from Pampa, an old name for the Tungabhadra River.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia · text CC BY-SA 4.0

Image: Wikimedia Commons

source: Wikipedia ↗

2 min

politicsshortCNA2:01

False allegations about Singapore’s hand in Indonesia’s markets and a made-up meeting

from CNA

CNA Verify has found close to 400 posts pushing falsehoods tying Singapore to Indonesia’s stock market rout and to a secret meeting that never took place. Together, they drew nearly 12 million views, and some were circulated by accounts that appeared to be working in concert, across multiple social media platforms.

Here’s how the disinformation campaign targeting Singapore was uncovered.

on YouTube: CNA ↗