Maxis and the municipality of Copenhagen, Denmark, join forces with city planning using Sim City

COPENHAGEN, Denmark, March 20th, 2012 ---- The future is here! Maxis, a subsidiary of Electronic Arts, today announced that the next edition of the city simulation series Sim City, is so advanced that it will be used in the planning works of a real city, allowing the city to save dozens of suitcases of money.

Today the municipality of Copenhagen, Denmark, in collaboration with Maxis announced, that the entire city council of Copenhagen has received early beta access for the forthcoming city simulator "Sim City". The beta access will be used to cut expenses and administration, by using the game to determine the best courses of action to take when deciding what to expand, build and demolish in the Nordic metropolis.

The municipality of Copenhagen has dire needs to save money, so it looked for innovative solutions, that could reduce bureacracy and spending as well. When the municipality approached Maxis, they quickly discovered that this would be a good match.

"The simulation in Sim City proved to be so precise and acted so much like a real city that we decided to give it a testdrive", said Frank Jensen, Lord Mayor of Copenhagen. "When toll booths proved to be a bad idea even in Sim City, we discovered that we could avoid a lot of bad decisions simply by playing games all day. We believe we can evolve Copenhagen in major ways with this new tool."

Maxis is thrilled that their new game is being used for other things than fun. 

"That our city simulator can be used in the decision making process in an actually city, is a great accomplishment. Our team of programmers have been partying around the clock because of their accomplishment," said John Riccitiello, CEO of Electronic Arts.

 "Our marketing department is drafting new campaigns as we speak, touting the accomplishment."

The work to reduce the spending and close down several of the departments in the offices of the municipality will formally begin in April, but select high payed workers have already been laid off. Their replacements will be Sim City afficionados, who in will be responsible for all counceling and guidance with regards to the future development of Copenhagen. The use of Sim City will allow the municipality to view city planning in a new light, and will help bring Copenhagen into the top tier of the metropolises of the world.

If the project proves succesful, it will be expanded to encompass all major Danish cities within the next couple of years.

To view the video that made the municipality get the idea, visit the Sim City YouTube channel here 

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ABOUT THE MUNICIPALITY OF COPENHAGEN:
The Copenhagen Municipality is the largest of the municipalities making up the city of Copenhagen. It covers 91.3 square kilometers and has a population of 549,050. It is the capital of Denmark and also houses the Danish government.

ABOUT MAXIS:
Maxis is a subsidiary of major game developer and publisher Electronic Arts. Maxis is the creator of one of the best-selling computer games of all times, The Sims. It also developed the original Sim City games, other sim games such as SimAnt, as well as other games like3D Pinball for Windows. It also created the evolution-based game Spore.

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Press Release by Julian Møller

Silent Hill: Downpour releases on March 13th 2012

THE NEW SILENT HILL GAME, SILENT HILL: DOWNPOUR, TO BE RELEASED ON MARCH 13TH 2012 IN NORTH AMERICA

The newest Silent Hill game is being developed by Vatra Games and is to be published by Konami. 




Three years after Shattered Memories, Silent Hill returns in a refined installment with a new protagonist, a new story, new setting and new monsters.


Tom Hulett, the producer of the game, talks with Game Front about some crucial features of Downpour. The theme of the game is water and rain, as opposed to rust in the previous installments. 


“I wouldn’t say he [Murphy, the protagonist] is afraid of water [...] but somewhere in his past there’s something that has to do with water, and that’s manifested in the game” says Hulett. 


Hulett also focuses on finding the right balance in the combat system so fans of both old and new Silent Hill games are satisfied: 

“Combat’s always been a problem, throughout the whole series” says Tom, “. I’ve heard from a lot of people who started playing the series with Homecoming, and they like it [...]. But if you ask old time fans, they just hate it [...] Hopefully we hit the right balance, and we tweaked it properly.” 


Despite the new theme and tweaked combat system, at the end Silent Hill is first and foremost about psychological horror and the character-driven plot.




Fans wait in anticipation to take the role of the criminal Murphy Pendleton and take on the new Silent Hill experience.




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Press Release by Joanna Duda

New carpets soon on the market: These ones can fly!

Sugarush team is working on improving their awardwinning boardgame Mussades and releasing it on the games market

The games industry has been thirsty for new games that are worth looking at and this board game is one of them.

It does not come from a big and famous company but rather from a small group of young students. And this is the element of success that the game has, fresh and original ideas which the games industry has not seen for a while. The result of that will be from being an underground “try out” prototype , making it to the “flying off the shelves “ game.


Mussades, a game about thieves escaping from a Caliph’s palace in Arabia in 632 CE with their magic carpets, is bringing to the table a new concept for a board game, which combines the seriousness of a strategic game with the fun and laughter of a funny game, without losing any points on the mechanics it uses for the gameplay. 


The age range is quite wide (between 7 and 99) and has a quite satisfying number of players (3 to 5), so these two elements make it a good family “Saturday night” board game, a children game, a “hanging out with my friends” game for the youth or even a “let’s gather and have fun like we used to “ for the older ages.

Sugarush, the team behind Mussades, is a group of five students who participated in the Nordic Game Jam 2012 in Copenhagen and had a very enthusiastic spirit about making this game, putting a lot of effort into delivering a good result within 48 hours. 


Mussades won the first place in the Board Games Competition of the NGJ 2012 which included 5,000 DKK for prototyping, and the Jury’s Choice Award being chosen as the best game in the competition from David McCarthy (GREE).


Simon Cutajar, one of the team members responsible for level design-among others, said:
“ I'm proud to have worked with the team during the Nordic Game Jam. We all seemed to click together which made things go really smoothly. We had every intention of continuing to develop the game even if we hadn't won the awards.”


Currently, the team is working on improving their game by prototyping as much as possible and getting feedback from the players, making small changes wherever it seems appropriate. 

Cutajar commented on this process:
“ I think the game is really fun to play, there seems to be a balance of strategy and luck. The people we've playtested with seem to enjoy the game too, so that's a big plus for us.”


After reaching the final version they will make the first “real” prototype using the money they won at the competition and then will soon begin their search for the company that will publish their game.


Website: www.mussades.com 
Contact details: info@mussades.com 


Press Release by Katarina Prevelianaki

Team Buttfighters break out of the magic circle with LAZA KNITEZ!!

Chivalry isn´t dead. It´s just respawning

COPENHAGEN, DK, March 20— Team Buttfighters is taking LAZA KNITEZ!! out of beta and making it available for free to the public.  What’s more, the developers will-release a custom built arcade cabinet at this year’s Nordic Game Indie Night, May 23rd 2012.

LAZA KNITEZ!! is a game firmly in the tradition of the Golden Age of Arcades.  It has bright, crazy graphics and an even wilder premise—four players take each other on in a brutal, fast-paced deathmatch “for the fate of all possible futures” that just gets faster and faster as the game goes on.

The Knitez gallop through space on their trusty speeds and use their lances, powerups, and, naturally, LAZAZ to prove their dominance.  Twenty years ago, LAZA KNITEZ!! would have been swallowing up quarters next to classics like Joust and Defender.  But LAZA KNITEZ!! does something that those classic games couldn’t do: it reacts to players.

LAZA KNITEZ!! breaks out of the magic circle—that infamous divide between the world of the game and real life.  Most games only take input from the player by the artificial means of buttons and or joysticks.

LAZA KNITEZ!! on the other hand actually listens to players—when they get into the game and start shouting about all the action on the screen (and they will!) the game responds to the decibel levels they produce and gets faster and introduces more powerups.  The game is a blast all by itself, but by responding with even more stimulating play every time the players really get into it, it creates a positive feedback loop that is almost certain to get players riled up.

“It’s about getting players to really be there, in front of the arcade machine, bumping shoulders,” says lead designer Jonas Maaloe.

Maaloe, Jonatan van Hove, Tommy Rousse and Mads Johansen have been rigorously balancing the game.  “What that means, is that we play a ridiculous amount of LAZA KNITEZ!! because we love playing it.”  The team is planning on sending the custom cabinet on a U.S. tour of museums, barcades, and conventions.

Even if there’s nothing quite like playing it on the cabinet, LAZA KNITEZ!! works on just about any computer.  It’s even been designed so four players can play on one keyboard!

Visit www.lazaknitez.com today to play the final web release!

Press Release by Tommy Rousse

Take Earth Back, Mass Effect 3 in stores now

Mass Effect 3 is released on the 6^th of March this year and is available for PC, Playstation 3 and X-box Kinect.

Mass Effect 3 is the third and last part of the Mass effect series and completes the story of Commander Shepard. It is an action role-playing game with interactive storytelling, integrated co-op multiplayer and a new combat system with improved enemy AI.

Mass Effect 3 will be sold in a standard edition and in Collector’s Edition. The Collector’s Edition will feature a new companion, 70 page art book with hardcover, Limited Edition comic from Dark Horse Comics, a N7 label, extra missions, a Mechdog on the Normandy, exclusive weapons in the game and the digital soundtrack from the game.

Casey Hudson lead director of Mass Effect 3 says that Mass Effect 3 will give the players 

“An awesome sense of exploration, intense combat, a deep and non-linear story that’s affected by your actions, and rich customization of your armor, weapons and appearance”.

Mass Effect 3 is made by the company Bioware that also made 2009’s “role-playing game of the year” Dragon Age: Origins. Co-founder Dr. Ray Muzyka states that “Bioware’s vision is to create, deliver and evolve the most emotionally engaging games in the world”.

The game can be purchased in stores and online by using EA’s download manager Origin.

About Bioware:

Bioware has developed high quality games since 1995 and is the creator of Baldur’s Gate, Neverwinter Nights, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, Jade Empire, Dragon Age: Origins and Star Wars: The Old Republic. Bioware has departments in Edmonton (Alberta, Canada), Montreal (Quebec), Austin (Texas), Fairfax (Virginia) and Galway (Ireland).

The Bioware label has been a division of EA since 2008. Mass Effect is a trademark of EA International.

Press release by Nanna Florang Pedersen

First Mutant Maze Demo to be released on App Store this year

Copenhagen, Denmark – March 20, 2012 – Dropship Games announced today that they will release their title Mutant Maze at the end of the year in order to give costumers a valid and affordable alternative to the Wii-U- console and controller, which are scheduled to release at a similar time.


Mutant Maze is Dropship games take on the classical Pac-Man game. They have developed a technology for the game that lets the player stream it from their iPhone to e.g. the living room television and then use the phone as the controller. The technology essentially is a close competitor to the Wii-U and with the very affordable prices of smartphone games it presents it self as a really good alternative. Co-founder and 


Lead Game Designer Dannie Korsgaard explains: 
“With this setup Mutant Maze can be played as if on a console, but at a low App Store appropriate price. We have a lot of faith in this technology and believe that it will become vastly popular with the launch of the Wii-U.”


In addition to an interesting technology and lending gameplay elements from Pac-Man, Mutant Maze adds a lot of depth and excitement in it's gameplay. Korsgaard provides the following mental picture of the gampelay: 


“In mutant maze you must fight by tooth and nail or perhaps mutated tentacles in order not to become a disposed lab rat. Trapped in a labyrinth under the watchful eye of an evil robot you and your friends compete in a race that embraces the phrase: survival of the fittest. Your mutant will grow, mutate and adopt different abilities by eating capsules filled with evolution enhancing substances. The abilities can be used to further your own evolution or prohibit others'. If the robot finds you worthy, it will grant you a renewed appetite for mutants and the opportunity to get rid of the competition by catching and eating them.”


For more information about Mutant Maze and the ongoing development progression please visit the official website http://mutantmaze.blogspot.com

Dropship Games – www.dropship-games.com – dmk@dropship-games.com 


Press Release by René Korsgaard

Bigger, Badder, Better! The Game of Life!

BiggerBadder™ is an experimental game ultimately about life and death, and the short spark in the cosmos the lives of any biological being is.

In BiggerBadder™, a single player is put in control of an unnamed living cell, which will loyally follow the directions of the player. The challenge is to keep this cell alive for as long as possible, primarily through growing bigger. Various hazards, food-cells and other cells downright hunting the player-controlled cell will exist in the gameworld, and these obstacles must be tackled in order to survive.

Jakob Fischer, Director of BiggerBadder™, reveals his ambitions for the game:

“What I tried to achieve with the game was to give the player a feeling of loneliness, in a vast and slow-moving universe – you know, that feeling you get when you look up at the sky during night-time, and feel the weight of the universe, and how it is moving, and will always keep moving, regardless of what you do. And the fact that the universe won’t stop just because you, an individual, one day will be dead – which is a fact we tend to try and overlook and not talk about in our daily lives, despite it being the only certainty of life, and completely inevitable.”

BiggerBadder™ is currently undergoing the last phases of beta testing, and anyone interested can try it out (in a beta browser version) by following this link.

BiggerBadder™, developed by FischerGames©, will be released May 15th 2012 for both Android and IOS devices, as well as PC browsers, and is currently set to be priced at DKR 9.95. 

Contact FischerGames© by email at jfis AT itu.dk, or by phone at +4520844406.  To try out the beta version of the game, visit http://www.jakobfischer.com/processing/biggerbadder/index.html

FischerGames© has been developing games since 2011, and is currently a one-man company consisting of artist, designer and programmer Jakob Fischer Jørgensen. 
BiggerBadder™ is the first game released by the company.

Tune In To A New Competitive Experience Coming To Your iPad

justasmileyface are going to release their Nordic Game Jam game “Carry On” for iPad this summer.

Upcoming developer quintet justasmileyface is working on an iPad release of their competitive two-player game “Carry On”. In the game the player has to collect little musical pegs to play his tunes, while running on a huge music box. At the same time he has to avoid collecting the musical pegs of his opponent. 

Two power-ups help you to setback your opponent, with the yellow “Wipeout” peg you can erase all of your opponent’s musical pegs visible or you can disable his movement with the grey “Freeze” peg. But you have to be aware, your opponent has the same possibilities and the last one to step into a lane gets the peg! With its cute graphics and calming game play it is mainly made for children, but also adults can have fun playing “Carry On”.

justasmileyface improved the initial version of “Carry On” and added a single player mode with three different difficulties and a revised user interface to give the players a smoother game play experience.

“We got a lot of feedback from people playing the first version of Carry On, so that we knew what we had to patch and add”,  said Casper, one of the programmers from justasmileyface. Once the new version is finished it will be submitted to the AppStore for approval.

“Carry On” will be available on the AppStore towards the end of summer 2012. You can download it for just 1 Euro directly to your iPad. 

Until then youcan watch the trailer here 

justasmileyface is Ben, Casper, Corinne, Benjamin and Valentin. Five game design interested persons who met at the Nordic Game Jam 2012 in Copenhagen and created the first version of “Carry On” in under 48 hours. After the Nordic Game Jam they decided to continue working on the game and submit it to the Nordic Game Indie Night competition, which is part of the annual Nordic Game conference in Malmö, as well as making a version for the iPad.

Press Release by Benjamin Schäfer

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