Archive for the ‘Web’ Tag
Wicked Interactive’s Subagames.com to host G4BOX games, Metin2 and Cross Fire
Filed under: MMO Game, PC - Windows | Tags: Beta, FPS, G4BOX, MMO, Subagames, Web
Leave a Comment New Partnership Provides Unified Login Access and a Unified Monetary System for Players of Wicked Interactive and G4BOX Games
Toronto, CANADA-December 19, 2008-Wicked Interactive
(www.wickedinteractiveltd.com),and G4BOX (www.g4box.com), both North American MMO Publishers, announced today that Wicked Interactive’s SUBA Games platform (www.subagames.com), will now host G4BOX MMORPG, Metin2, and its upcoming online FPS, Cross Fire.
The new partnership will result in numerous benefits for both SUBA Games and G4BOX players. A new unified login system will allow Cross Fire and Metin2 players to access all SUBA Games properties, including ACE Online, Priston Tale, and the upcoming Priston Tale 2: The Second Enigma, with their current G4BOX logins. Likewise, SUBA Games players will gain access to Metin2, and the exclusive closed beta of Cross Fire. Additionally, G4BOX games and SUBA Games properties now share a unified currency and community space. While the games have merged onto one platform, G4BOX and Wicked Interactive remain separate corporate entities.
“We are excited to welcome these two G4BOX properties into the SUBA Games library of titles,” said Stanley Yu, Chief Executive Officer of Wicked Interactive. “The SUBA Games platform maintains an impressive lineup of MMORPGs to which we feel Metin2 and Cross Fire are worthy additions,” added Howard He, Chief Executive Officer of G4BOX.
To coincide with its entry into the SUBA Games platform, the Metin2 website (now located at http://metin2.subagames.com) will be re-designed and re-launched to better serve the ever-growing Metin2 community. Current Metin2 users should be able to continue playing during the platform switch and site re-launch, though they may experience some minimal downtime. Both the Metin2 and Cross Fire websites and forums will be down on Friday December 19, 2008 from 9:00 AM – 2:00 PM EST while the games are moved to the SUBA Games portal. The SUBA Games portal itself will experience similar downtime.
G4BOX’s Cross Fire (now located at http://crossfire.subagames.com) will continue its closed beta test throughout the holiday season with an open beta launch expected on SUBA Games in early 2009. SUBA Games players will gain access to the closed beta test following its move to the SUBA Games platform.
SUBA Games properties, ACE Online (http://ace.subagames.com) and Priston Tale (http://pt1.subagames.com), will continue their respective holiday events and festivities into the New Year and should not experience downtime during the migration of G4BOX games to the SUBA Games platform.
For more information about the above products or SUBA Games visit www.subagames.com.
Baseball Boss Taps Top Sports Bloggers to Create Legendary Yankee and Mets Teams
AUSTIN, Texas – December 2, 2008 - Challenge Online GamesTM, Inc. (Challenge Games), announces the launch of the new Baseball Boss Spire Legends series with celebrated players from historic Yankee and Mets teams. The 2008 MLB season was the last where games could be played in the old Yankee and Shea stadiums. Baseball Boss introduces the Spire Legends Card Series to commemorate these historic stadiums.
Baseball Boss is the first free online game to bring together the nostalgia of baseball card collecting with the excitement of fantasy sports. Additionally, Baseball Boss holds a licensing agreement with MLB, so the game’s virtual baseball cards include real MLB players, real MLB teams, statistics and photos.
“We’re excited to introduce a new series of Spire cards for Baseball Boss players,” says Baseball Boss Game Lead and Challenge Games Head of Marketing Jeff Petry. “We’re also excited about these sets because we built these rosters based on advice from notable Yankee and Mets bloggers.”
Game developers at Baseball Boss worked with some of the most prominent Yankee and Mets sports bloggers to select the greatest players from sports history. Famous bloggers weighed in on which players should join the all time Yankee and Mets teams. Baseball Boss developers then ranked and tiered each player based on each player’s best 3-year record. The results are the Spire Legends Yankee mini-set and the Spire Legends Mets mini-set.
The Spire Legends Yankee Team: Bill Dickey, Yogi Berra, Lou Gehrig, Don Mattingly, Tony Lazzeri, Joe Gordon, Alex Rodriguez, Graig Nettles, Derek Jeter, Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle, Bernie Williams, Reggie Jackson, Babe Ruth, Charlie Keller, Spud Chandler, Lefty Gomez, Allie Reynolds, Ron Guidry, Whitey Ford, Mariano Rivera, Rich Gossage, Sparky Lyle, Dave Righetti, Joe Page.
The Spire Legends Mets Team: Mike Piazza, Gary Carter, Keith Hernandez, John Olerud, Edgardo Alfonzo, David Wright, Howard Johnson, Jose Reyes, Dave Magadan, Kevin Elster, Carlos Beltra, Darryl Strawberry, Tommie Agee, Cleon Jones, Dwight Gooden, Tom Seaver, Al Leiter, Nolan Ryan, Jerry Koosman, Armando Benitez, Tug McGraw, Jesse Orosco, Randy Myers, Roger McDowell, John Franco.
The Yankees and Mets bloggers who helped select these teams: Bronx Banter -http://www.bronxbanterblog.com/, Was Watching -http://waswatching.com/, Respect Jeter’s Gangster -http://respectjetersgangster.blogspot.com, Yanksblog - http://www.yanksblog.com/, SF -http://yanksfansoxfan.typepad.com/ysfs/, Pinstripes, PA - http://pinstripespa.blogspot.com/, Always Amazin’ - http://blog.nj.com/mets/, Mets Prospect Hub -http://metsprospecthub.blogspot.com/index.html, Faith & Fear in Flushing -http://faithandfear.blogharbor.com/, Mets Merized Online - http://metsmerizedonline.com/
Baseball Boss can be played for free atwww.baseballboss.com. Baseball Boss allows gamers to collect and trade virtual baseball cards and assemble them into fantasy teams that can then be used to challenge other player-created or historical teams to games. Winners earn points, which can be used to purchase additional packs of player cards.
GamerDNA launches game discover engine; provides platform for building gamer identity
Leave a CommentEngine Helps gamerDNA.com Visitors Discover New Games to Play, Extend Their Game Experiences, and Better Enjoy Games
CAMBRIDGE, MA – December 15, 2008 – GamerDNA.com, an online community and social platform for video game identity and discovery, today announced the launch of the gamerDNA Discovery Engine. Powered by passionate feedback from gamerDNA members, the new Discovery Engine allows gamers to identify new video games to play based on their individual interests and preferences.
“The process of discovering games – and expressing what you like about them – is fun,” said Jon Radoff, CEO of gamerDNA, Inc. “Our goal is to improve the experience of how people learn about new games. To do this, we’ve tossed out the one-size-fits-all mentality and, instead, have made game discovery an individualized experience by listening to what people are saying about games and why they are playing them.”
The new gamerDNA Discovery Engine allows gamers to identify traits and preferences that they like about a particular game and receive individualized game recommendations based on those qualities. Members engage with a proprietary trait-based system inside the gamerDNA Discovery Engine to denote what specific aspects of a game they find enjoyable. Members can select from a list of traits or recommend their own trait, such as “Social,” “Competitive,” or “Humorous,” in five categories including Setting, Tone, Hero Archetype, Enemy Archetype, and Game Features. After entering these traits, the gamerDNA Discovery Engine references similar traits selected by others in the community and the popularity of those traits, to recommend games for the individual.
GamerDNA.com is a game community that allows people to build and express their unique gaming identity while discovering new games, extending their game experiences, and better enjoying games from wherever they choose to play. Members develop a unique gamer identity – their “gamerDNA” – that records gameplay history from the places they play (such as Xbox® Live or Xfire) and allows them to share these experiences via popular social media sites and applications like Twitter. In addition, as the largest proprietary database of gameplay patterns in the world, gamerDNA applies the collective intelligence of the gamerDNA community to help members discover new games and to help game developers design better games.
For more information or to sign up for a free account (no software download required), visitwww.gamerdna.com.
Nickelodeon Ignites Environmental Change for Kids With Launch of Green-Themed Online Game ‘The Big Green Help Global Challenge’
Filed under: PC - Windows, Web/Java | Tags: Big Green Help, Kids, PC, Web
Comments (2) New Multiplayer Global Game is Nick’s First Step in Activating Kids to Address Environmental Issues
NEW YORK, Dec. 11 /PRNewswire/ –Nickelodeon is helping kids get their game on in the name of the environment, beginning Dec. 14 with the launch of “The Big Green Help Global Challenge” (www.nick.com/biggreenhelp) — the first multiplayer kids’ online game with a goal of igniting real-world action for environmental change. Kids will be asked to virtually pledge volunteer hours in the “Global Challenge” that they can translate into actionable steps in their homes, communities and schools. The game is this year’s cornerstone of Nickelodeon’s on-going global pro-social initiative, The Big Green Help, which aims to make energy-saving and earth-friendly activities a part of kids’ everyday lives.
“With about three quarters of the U.S. kid population actively gaming online, we think our ‘Global Challenge’ game is a great way to connect them to the pro-social issues they care about, like the environment,” said Marva Smalls, Executive Vice President of Public Affairs, Nickelodeon Kids and Family Group. “Our legacy of empowering kids has shown that they can lead the way in addressing positive change, and we hope this game can be the beginning of a kid-led environmental movement.”
In the downloadable “Global Challenge” game, kids have to “green” the last three pollution-free cities on the planet. To play, kids can choose from four Nicktoon characters — SpongeBob SquarePants; Back at the Barnyard’s Otis; The Fairly OddParent’sTimmy Turner; and Avatar’s Aang — and partner with up to three other players in a face-off against CO2-spewing monsters. As kids defeat monsters like the Carbon Creeper, Waste Whirlwind or Guzzlor and move through nine game levels, they will get tips about how to lower their carbon footprint. At the end of the game, kids will be directed to www.nick.com/biggreenhelp where an online meter will measure their individual commitments and the impact of their collective pledges.
The multiplayer online green game will be available in more than 15 Nickelodeon markets, including: UK; Brazil; Germany; Italy; Denmark; Sweden; Portugal; Spain; Australia; New Zealand; Philippines; Indonesia; Mexico; and Argentina, with additional countries to follow. Nickelodeon Kids and Family digital sites — including: AddictingGames; Neopets; Shockwave; and The-N.com — as well as several Big Green Help campaign partners, will also introduce new green-themed mini games in support of the “Global Challenge.”
Next in January 2009, Nickelodeon in the U.S. will provide kids with local resources and events to translate their virtually volunteered hours into real-world action — in partnership with Boys & Girls Clubs of America; Girl Scouts USA; The LeBron James Family Foundation; National Wildlife Federation; Natural Resources Defense Council; National 4-H Council; and NFL. This same kind of activism will be encouraged in local markets globally. Kids can track their pledges and fulfillment through a downloadable widget pledge tracker. Nick’s campaign partners have lent their expertise to help develop various components of the “Global Challenge” including: tips; the pledge tracker; and the equation to measure the implications of kids’ pledges.
The Big Green Help is a multiplatform campaign that provides information and tools to help explain climate change to kids, and taps into Nickelodeon’s history of addressing important issues. Its Plan It for the Planet special in 1993 discussed the environment and how kids can affect positive change; The Big Help created a generation of 40 million kid volunteers; and its Let’s Just Play encouraged millions of kids to adopt healthier lifestyles. For more information on The Big Green Help, visit www.thebiggreenhelppress.com.
Nickelodeon, now in its 29th year, is the number-one entertainment brand for kids. It has built a diverse, global business by putting kids first in everything it does. The company includes television programming and production in the United States and around the world, plus consumer products, online, recreation, books, magazines and feature films. Nickelodeon’s U.S. television network is seen in more than 96 million households and has been the number-one-rated basic cable network for 14 consecutive years. Nickelodeon and all related titles, characters and logos are trademarks of Viacom Inc. (NYSE: VIA, VIA.B).
Play, win and escape with SEGA
LONDON & SAN FRANCISCO (December 4, 2008)– SEGA Europe Ltd. and SEGA® of America, Inc. today launched PlaySEGA™, a completely new SEGA experience for all types of gaming and social networking fans. PlaySEGA is based atwww.PlaySEGA.com and is a mini web game portal with a selection of arcade, word, card, puzzle, quiz, Sonic and sports titles, which are available now and completely FREE to all PC and Mac users.
PlaySEGA has an impressive assortment of titles available on the site including Brain Assist™, which was originally released for the Nintendo DS™, and the successful mobile title, Sonic at the Olympic Games™. Brand new SEGA games that have been created exclusively for PlaySEGA are also available such as Ice Shuffle, Hollywood Adventure Quiz and Aquatic Word Burst. In addition, a selection of all-new Guest Games will soon be unveiled, all entirely FREE to each PlaySEGA user.
Every game has a unique integrated system to calculate players’ highest scores, giving player’s the ability to view leader board achievements, and PlaySEGA Rings earned during each gaming session. PlaySEGA Rings are the site’s currency; the more games you play and the longer you play, the more PlaySEGA Rings you win – it’s as simple as that!
Users can use Rings to customise their site and create an Escape Area, which is essentially their very own profile page. A wide range of Escape Areas are available to purchase and can be anything from a New York apartment, Swiss chalet or Caribbean villa, to a haunted house! Consumers can also purchase luxury items using their PlaySEGA Rings and decorate their Escape Areas with items including; furniture, TVs, lights, flooring and much more. Customers can invite friends to visit their decorated Escape Areas, as well as view their favourite PlaySEGA games, highest scores, and achievements earned.
SEGA is also proud to announce a PlaySEGA VIP (Very Important Player) area of the site. This new area is coming soon and for a small charge users will be able to access and play dozens more web games, including newly acquired titles specifically created for PlaySEGA, along with fan favorites from the respected SEGA Mega Drive™ years. These titles include the genuine SEGA classics we all know and love: Columns™, Puyo Pop™, Chu Chu Rocket™, Sonic The Hedgehog™ and Super Monkey Ball Tip n’ Tilt™ among others.
“What started off as a small project within the SEGA Network Group has now caught the imagination of the entire company,” explains Nick Pili, Network Business Director, SEGA of Europe. “I have suggestions for new games filling up my in-box, from the CEO, to staff I’ve never even met over in our Japanese, European and US offices.”
“SEGA fans and new gamers alike can now come together in one place and enjoy some of our most exciting vintage and new titles,” continues Pili. “There was a story out there recently that we have a locked vault full of retro SEGA classics in Japan. Well, it’s true – and we’ve been given full access to a lot of the properties in it.”
PlaySEGA launches today and is an evolving site that will continue to keep user’s interests piqued by the many new games, social network and community elements available in the near future. To sign up and enjoy everything PlaySEGA has to offer, go towww.PlaySEGA.com .
About SEGA® Europe:
SEGA® Europe Ltd. is the European Distribution arm of Tokyo, Japan-based SEGA® Corporation, and a worldwide leader in interactive entertainment both inside and outside the home. The company develops and distributes interactive entertainment software products for a variety of hardware platforms including PC, wireless devices, and those manufactured by Nintendo, Microsoft and Sony Computer Entertainment Europe. SEGA Europe’s web site is located at www.sega-europe.com.
About SEGA of America
SEGA® of America, Inc. is the American arm of Tokyo, Japan-based SEGA® Corporation, a worldwide leader in interactive entertainment both inside and outside the home. The company develops, publishes and distributes interactive entertainment software products for a variety of hardware platforms including PC, wireless devices, and those manufactured by Nintendo, Microsoft and Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. SEGA of America’s Web site is located at www.sega.com/us
PlaySega
Sega has just opened PlaySega http://www.playsega.com/. It’s still “beta” but the casual games portal from Sega is taking on users. It’s free to join and you can create your own avatar (all the rage these days I guess). Go give it a try, some fun Sega-themed casual games.
Holiday Shopping guides now available at GamingAngels.com
GamingAngels.com shares their top holiday gift ideas for the 2008 gift-giving season
Los Angeles, CA (Games Press) November 27, 2008 – Beginning November 18, 2008, GamingAngels.com will be posting their Holiday Gift Guides in the days leading up to Black Friday in order to assist parents in finding great gift ideas for the entire family.
This holiday season there are many choices out there for parents to consider. GamingAngels.com has compiled guides to make the choices easier. All our guides have choices for different age groups as well as an explanation of why we recommend the item.
As part of our initiative, we are staggering the releases of our Gift Guide as follows:
Tuesday Nov. 18: XBOX 360 Guide
Thursday Nov. 20: Gadget Guide
Saturday Nov. 22: Nintendo Wii Guide
Monday Nov. 24: Reader’s Guide
Tuesday Nov. 25: PS3 Guide
Wednesday Nov. 26: Nintendo DS Guide
Thursday Nov. 27: Comics Guide
Friday Nov. 28: Gaming Charities Guide
Along with our Gift Guides are printable shopping checklists, available both in colour and black and white formats. These checklists will make gift buying much smoother for sharing with other family members and friends.
GamingAngels.com has a strong writing team, with interests in everything from games to comics, just waiting to assist our visitors with their shopping needs. We welcome anyone with further questions to contact us via email or through our forums.
Arkadium wins multiple honors from Stevie Awards, Davey Awards, Creativity Awards and Min Magazine
Jessica Rovello, president and co-founder, recognized as leading entrepreneur and Arkadium games receive top honors
NEW YORK – November 17 – Arkadium, a leading game solutions developer for the advergaming and casual game markets, announced today that the company’s president and co-founder, Jessica Rovello, was honored on Friday with a Stevie Award for Best Entrepreneur. In addition, Jessica was also named to the 2008 Media Industry Newsletter (MIN) Digital Hot List this month for her outstanding media accomplishments. Other Arkadium accolades this month included a Creativity Annual Award for their National Geographic Channel Fight Science game, and a Davey Award (Gold Winner) for marketing excellence for The Pini Society: The Remarkable Truth, a downloadable game recently released.
Hailed as the world’s premier business awards, the 2008 Stevie Awards for Women in Business honor women executives, entrepreneurs and the companies they run worldwide. This year, Arkadium’s president and co-founder, Jessica Rovello, was selected Best Entrepreneur in the Media Service Companies category. More than 1,200 entries were submitted for consideration. Details about The Stevie Awards for Women in Business and the list of winners are available at www.stevieawards.com/women.
The Davey Awards, an international award focused exclusively on honoring outstanding creative work from the best small firms worldwide, honors the best small firms, agencies and companies worldwide. Arkadium’s first downloadable game, The Pini Society: The Remarkable Truth, was selected as a Gold Winner for its integrated marketing campaign that was created for the game’s launch. Details about The Davey Awards and the list of winners is available at http://www.daveyawards.com/winners/.
Earlier this month, MIN named Ms. Rovello, to its “Digital Hot List.” This year’s list included 12 digital stars in the magazine brands and content providers space. MIN honored the winners on November 10, 2008 during an awards ceremony at the Grand Hyatt in NYC. More information on MIN’s “Digital Hot List” can be found at http://www.minonline.com/awards/digitalhotlist2008/.
Established in 1970, The Creativity Annual Awards is one of the longest running international advertising and graphic design competitions in the world. Arkadium’s game, National Geographic Channel Fight Science was selected as a winner in the Web Games and Entertainment Category. This year, judges from some of the United States’ most prestigious design firms evaluated a record 2,800 entries from over 44 countries and 45 U.S. states. More information is available at http://www.creativityawards.com/.
About Arkadium
Arkadium is the premier game solutions developer for the advergaming and casual game markets. The company’s growing archive of over 200 Flash-based and custom game solutions currently reaches millions of people through some of the most popular online destinations and corporate branded Web sites on the Internet. For more information visit http://www.arkadium.com.
Kalypso Media make their titles available via Gamersgate.
“Kalypso Media are delighted that our consumers will have access to our games titles via Gamersgate. Electronic Software Download is a rapidly growing sector of the market and Kalypso Media are keen to be fully involved.” said Charlie Barrett, Business Development Director, Kalypso Media.
“Kalypso Media have a really strong lineup of published and upcoming games titles and we are really pleased that we will be able to offer them to our customers. This will include top quality titles such as the city builder Imperium Romanum and the adventure classic Agon the Lost Sword of Toledo. In the future we will also be able to offer Kalypso Media’s forthcoming titles such as Ceville and Imperium Romanum II.” added Theodore Bergquist, CEO/Chairman, Gamersgate AB.
The first titles that will be released will be: Imperium Romanum, Imperium Romanum : Emperor Expansion, Imperium Romanum : Gold Edition, Imperium Romanum 2, Hollywood Pictures, AGON Lost Sword of Toledo, Star Assault, Ceville, Winter Challenge, Campus and Theatre of War.
About Kalypso Media
Specialising in the publishing of interactive media – primarily computer games – Kalypso Media was founded in summer 2006 by industry veterans Simon Hellwig and Stefan Marcinek. A year later, the sister company Kalypso Media UK Ltd. was opened in England and is now led by Andrew Johnson and Charlie Barrett, two experienced members of the Kalypso Media Group management team.
For more information visit www.kalypsomedia.com
SPIL GAMES Becomes the Second Largest Online Gaming Destination in the World
Localized Casual Game Portals Reach 100 Million Unique Visitors Per Month and Target Specific Gaming Demographics Including Girls, Tweens, and Family
SPIL GAMES, the world’s ultimate online game destination, today announced that it is the second largest network of online game portals in the world. SPIL GAMES internal reports from Google Analytics shows traffic numbers reaching 100 million unique visitors per month, and comScore Media Metrix places SPIL GAMES as the #2 online gaming portal network, reaching greater audiences than other leading gaming networks such as MSN Games, EA Online, WildTangent Network, and AOL Games. As a one-stop solution for advertisers to reach the valuable casual game playing demographic for all ages worldwide, SPIL GAMES provides engaging online gaming environments for their audiences and is currently on target to become the largest global online games destination.
“Our success comes from understanding what our customers want, then creating localized portals with content relevant to their demographic. Our game portfolio offers a variety of high-quality, free-to-play, original games that bring players back again and again,” said Peter Driessen, CEO of SPIL GAMES. “And since each portal appeals to its own unique demographic and specific online audience, advertisers can easily target the markets that best suit their needs.”
SPIL GAMES works closely with partners to help them reach target markets through focused advertising on the SPIL GAMES online game portals. In a recent campaign, the BBC partnered with SPIL GAMES to reach and engage the target audience of young adults in the UK for the Children’s BBC.
Despite the competitive landscape of online games destinations, comScore shows that traffic to the SPIL GAMES portals has continued to grow, with visitor growth tripling in 2007 and doubling in 2008. With more than 50 game portals worldwide, SPIL GAMES has sites localized in 20 different languages covering Europe, North and South America, and Asia. The worldwide SPIL GAMES portfolio has over 4,000 free-to-play games of all genres, including casual games, skill games and massively multiplayer games.
SPIL GAMES’ portals are aimed at three primary demographics: Family (women over the age of 20, and their children under the age of 8), Tweens (young adolescents ages 8 to 15), and Girls (young women ages 8 to 12). The greatest concentrations of advertising revenue stream from the United States, the United Kingdom, The Netherlands, Germany and France. SPIL GAMES works closely with advertising partners in developing advertising solutions and providing advergame seeding to reach these specific segments on their portals. With a wide variety of entertaining games catering to each individual segment and targeted interactive advertising, SPIL GAMES actively engages gamers around the globe.
For more information about SPIL GAMES, visit www.spilgames.com.
Domain of Heroes Gives Power to its Players
Filed under: Free to Play, MMO Game, PC - Windows | Tags: Free to Play, MMO, PC, RPG, Web
Leave a Comment Free-to-Play Web MMORPG Designed for Bite-Sized Play Sessions
November 4, 2008 (Austin, TX) – Austin, TX-based developer Tandem Games has announced the launch of Domain of Heroes, a new free-to-play web MMORPG available now at www.DomainOfHeroes.com. Domain of Heroes requires only a browser to play – no installs, downloads, or plug-ins are needed – and is designed to be played “anywhere and at anytime,” perfect for gaming at work, at school, or from home.
Simple enough to play while working, yet deep and story-driven enough to captivate the most hardcore RPG fans, Domain of Heroes appeals to a broad spectrum of gamers. Particularly creative players can even help to shape the future of the game.
“We have a program called Community Heroes where the community proposes ideas on the forums and those get filtered by other players and then added to the game quickly,” said Aaron Murray, Technical Director and co-founder of Tandem Games. “Over half of the game has come directly from ideas from the Beta players, and the next big updates are ideas from the community as well.”
Players can create characters from 30 races and 27 classes, and master over 150 skills as they explore the massive realm of Dohria. Domain of Heroes features millions of items to discover, with solo quests and player vs. player battles available at the click of a mouse. Start a guild, gamble for riches, enjoy mini-games, and experience an epic storyline at your own pace.
Domain of Heroes is now open to the public and works with Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, and Opera browsers. Create your hero and join thousands of players for free today at www.DomainOfHeroes.com.
Space Marine versus Battle Babe versus Elderly Lady
Tale of Tales’ tranquil interactive vignette, The Graveyard, in which you play an old woman who visits a cemetery, has been nominated for the European Innovative Games Award. The award ceremony is held in Darmstadt, Germany on November 6th. The artsy independent title is up against some remarkably heavy competition from European game development powerhouses such as Ninja Theory (nominated with “Heavenly Sword”), Crytek (“Crysis”), Konami (“PES 2008″) and Nintendo of Europe (“Wii Fit”). The other nominated games are “Sharkworld” (by Ranj Serious Games), “Rider Spoke” (by Blast Theory), “Blake White” (by Games Academy), “Somersault” (by Enter-Brain-Ment), “Swinxs” (by Swinxs) and “Remote Impact: Shadowboxing over a Distance” (by Distance Lab).
“We must admit that it came as a bit of a shock to see our little game nominated next to these huge productions. But it’s interesting that the jury has chosen games from the commercial industry as well as from artistic and academic contexts. It shows that innovation can be found in many different places. We’re proud to be on the shortlist. May the best old lady win!”
The Graveyard was released in February 2008. It is a very short game in which you play an elderly lady who visits a cemetery, walks past the graves, sits on a bench and listens to a song before heading back out in the same slow, difficult manner. The Graveyard creates a pensive atmosphere in which the player is invited to meditate on the subjects of death and old age.
A trial version of the game can be downloaded from Tale of Tales’ website for both PC and Mac. The full version costs 5 USD and only adds a single feature: the possibility that the protagonist can die.
The Graveyard was created with Unity and funded by the Flanders Audiovisual Fund. Auriea Harvey and Michael Samyn designed and directed the piece. Laura Raines Smith animated the main character. Kris Force created the sound effects. And Gerry De Mol composed the music in the game.
Game website:
http://Tale-of-Tales.com/TheGraveyard
Reviews from the time of launch:
http://blog.wired.com/games/2008/03/the-graveyards.html
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2008/03/20/preview-the-graveyard
Post-mortem:
http://tale-of-tales.com/blog/the-graveyard-post-mortem
Tale of Tales is an independent games development studio founded by media artists Auriea Harvey and Michael Samyn, specializing in artistically meaningful games. They are currently finalizing The Path, a short horror game inspired by Little Red Ridinghood, next to running their “play-a-deer” “pure joy” multiplayer game The Endless Forest.
http://Tale-of-Tales.com
BBC licenses Greentube´s Mountainbike Challenge 08
BBC, one of the world´s leading TV-broadcasters and well-known in the industry for its proven interactive competence, has signed a license-deal with Vienna-based Greentube AG, to adapt one of its high quality free download games for the UK public service audience.
Based on an existing games engine that delivers multi player down hill racing which is financed through in-game advertising, the BBC Children’s department has adapted this to support their olympic programming and promote their own shows in the dynamic banners.
The “Mountainbike Challenge 08″ presented as the flagship-game of the “Sports Village” section has attracted numerous CBBC visitors since the launch in early August 2008.
The game-season will commence until the end of October 2008.
Eberhard Dürrschmid, CEO of Greentube: “We are very proud of the BBC joining our network of global partners for our high quality games. This is another proof of concept for us and honours the work we are doing and the constant improvement of concepts and games we are living for. We have been developing into a major player for casual online- and download multiplayer games within the past 5 years.”
Greentube´s series of free download sports games is attracting more than 7 million global players and is still on its way to expansion, as new games will be added to the existing portfolio within the next 12 months and a series of new media-partners is going to license the new season of “Ski Challenge”, starting in December 2008.
Redesign moves YoYoGames.com out of beta
YoYoGames.com; the worlds largest user-generated games portal, has launched a major website update. The update brings a completely new, cleaner appearance, more convenient content organisation, easier game sharing, a vastly improved developer wiki, along with many other improvements to tweak the user experience, and make finding the cream of the sites 24,000 games significantly easier.
Sandy Duncan, CEO of YoYo Games, said “We’re very pleased with the site revamp. We’ve incorporated a huge amount of community feedback to create a site that fits the needs of casual game players, and game developers. We’re proud to be moving YoYo out of beta with this release.”
Browsing the site has never been easier: The best games in every genre are now clearly displayed on the YoYo Games homepage; while an improved search function allows players to filter games by popularity, staff picks, ratings and recency. This is great news for everyone – players will be able to find more of those previously hidden gems in the vast YoYoGames.com catalogue, and the best indie developers will get the recognition they truly deserve.
The release marks the most significant update YoYoGames.com has seen since its beta was launched in May last year.
Banish Land Open Beta Test has begun
Many new features such as Chat system, detailed tutorials, Stone of Recall and so on are waiting for all players to experience. What’s better, rich bonus will be sent even at the beginning you join the game:
Distribution of Closed Beta Rewards
Free packages on Registration
Free Bonus on Purchasing
Keep playing, more events like leveling contest, quiz event etc are awaiting you!
Banish Land is an amazing browser game launched by PKVE. This game is featured by its well designed combat format and diversified game content. The game features are as follows:
1. Fully Customized Characters
2. Heroes Recruitment & Training System
3. Dudgeon Quests system
4. Excellent Gameplay: 18 resources, 62 mines, 43 factories, 74 Buildings, 18 defense works, 20 unites, 21 monsters, 11 techniques.
5．Various Battle Format: PvP, Alliance vs Alliance, Castle Siege, Stronghold Battle
Join now to experience the most anticipated browsergame and enjoy these events!
Official website: http://www.pkve.com/games/bl/
