The Ice Queen & the NCsoft Europe Christmas Party ‘07
On December 7th 2007, the just over 100 strong rabble of NCsoft Europe employees gathered in the largest part of the office. They knew they were due a Christmas party but the details had been kept a secret, and now as they stood waiting, eating crappy nibbles, drinking a few beers, and watching a looping video reel of Christmas songs, rumours were being spread that the party might not happen at all.
Suddenly the TV blared out bursts of static, calling for attention, and as everyone looked on with raised eyebrows, a face appeared behind the snow, a strangely dressed girl. “Ah, there you are” she uttered. The Ice Queen, as she would be known, informed everyone standing around that their party had been ‘stolen’ and they must now show her that they had the necessary Christmas spirit to earn it back, and prove they were worthy.
It was the start of an evening which would see each of the participants chauffeured around Brighton in taxis, hunting for various locations where they would perform Christmas challenges, each one of which would earn them enough information to eventually locate the party itself.
This ARG style treasure hunt was organised mainly by myself and two colleagues - Stephen Reid and Chris Siddal, who formed the Creative Concepts team at NCsoft Europe, along with numerous collaborators. It was one of the most enjoyable projects I’ve ever worked on, It took far too long to plan, and involved moments of brain meltingly hard schedule making, and desperate begging to convince non colleague friends and family to help run the whole thing. Overall I believe it was a success, and whilst not everyone’s cup of tea, most people fell in with the spirit of things and seemed to have a good time - the main marker of success for such an event.
I’d like to share the story of the evening with you, as it seems like someone out there may enjoy reading it, and it’s a nice demonstration of the kind of thing we tried to do in the Creative Concepts dept.
Posted on 10-Mar-2009 | Permalink | Comments (6)
Idle Thumbs UK Podcast 2: Conversation Killer
OK So, technically it’s the third one we’ve put together, and even more technically it’s about the 13th, but Marek and myself have just published our second Idle Thumbs podcast. The first 30-40 minutes or so involve a big old conversation about MMOs, discussing WoW, Planetside, Ragnarok Online and Eve amongst others. After a break we are joined by my girlfriend Rusalka to discuss Pokémon and MGS 4, and the final segment involves us pitching some game stupid ideas to our good friends Ben and Lawrence, both of who work within the Games Industry.
I followed up the podcast with a rather large post on Idle Forums to further the discussion about story in MMOs, and how Bioware’s insistance that Old Republic will be story heavy makes me nervous. Here’s a snippet:
With multiplayer games, in my experience at least, story will often either take a back seat, or be forgotten entirely; In a death match / PvP game against other players for example, story is irrelevant, and when playing co-op through say, Halo, or errr Diablo, the story is there and entertains you, but in-between the cut-scenes and minor pieces of mission briefing, the *reason* you are playing is probably not to drive along the story, or unfold epic plot lines with twists and turns, not scripted moments of cinematic genius - it’s the experience of playing side by side with your friends, and the things that happen, the war stories or the epic moments where you took on 500 guys, become your story. The actual story becomes more of an excuse for it to be happening, rather than a reason.
Posted on 15-Jan-2009 | Permalink | Comments (0)
Working with Beatnik Games on Plain Sight
Where have I been all this time? Idly wasting hours building clever contraptions in LittleBigPlanet? Nope. Drinking myself into a stupor to hide from the credit crisis? It’s crossed my mind, but no, not this time.
I’ve actually been continuing the freelance life, this time working with the talented chaps at Beatnik Games, the majority of whom are very dear friends of mine. Their first title Plain Sight is just about to go into beta, and so I’ve been working to give them a bit of a promotional boost, a bit of PR here, a dash of Marketing there, and some good old community know how to top it all off.
As I’ve explained numerous times today already, Plain Sight is a 3D multiplayer arcade game with robots; robots who bounce around cityscapes on mini planetoids and wield swords which are used to destroy one another. It’s very addictive, see for yourself…
You should also check out this awesome comic which describes the play style of the game, and was drawn by the very talented John Godwin.
The beta begins very soon, and if you are interested in giving the game a go, and helping out a friendly independent developer with their QA work, then you should register your interest, go on!
Posted on 10-Dec-2008 | Permalink | Comments (0)
Little Big Planetoid launches with full design
Little Big Planetoid, a site made by myself and friend Tom Kiss and dedicated to I-bet-you-can’t-guess-what, has re-launched with a full design and all systems go!
High above the surface of the Little Big Planet, way up there in outer-space, orbits a Little Big Planetoid.
On the northern hemisphere of this tiny barren rock sits a giant surveillance observatory, where enormous consoles bleep excitedly as vast telescopes gaze down onto the planet below.
It is from this vantage point, and by using these excessive instruments, that we who operate this center are able to watch, record, and then relay all the latest news, events and happenings on the Little Big Planet to anywhere in the galaxy. Think of us as Little Big Planet’s Little Big Brother.
Posted on 29-Nov-2008 | Permalink | Comments (0)
Inevitable
So it is with regret that we must announce that Tabula Rasa will end live service on February 28, 2009.
more.
Posted on 22-Nov-2008 | Permalink | Comments (0)
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