Something’s brewing in Norway – part 3

20 April 2013

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This is part 3 of a series where I’m trying to describe the lay of the land of game development in Norway. The more I dig the more astounded I am over the talent that exists here and some of the wonderful projects that are about to burst outta here! For more please read part 1 and part 2.

Moving east we arrive at one of the most exciting game developing companies in Norway, Rock Pocket Games. These days they’re developing the gorgeous looking Oliver and Spike – Dimension Jumpers:

Still not convinced? Here’s some more people drooling:

Unfortunately they can’t work on this full-time and have created a business model where they work with clients on advergaming, and they do so with wonderful gaming quality. They look beautiful and they’re genuinely fun to play. They’ve also created some spectacular children’s games which I hear young parents boast about all the time.

If I had any money I would be throwing it at these guys. They’re good, they’re smart and they so obviously love what they do!

Rock Pocket Games is in Tønsberg and as far as I know are the only ones working on games there, but I may be wrong – if you know of any please don’t hesitate to let me know!

I’m going to jump north and past our capital, Oslo to

Hamar

This is a very exciting little town that has a lot to boast about when it comes to game development in Norway.

Hamar is the home to Hedmark University College which offers game design courses. And out of this vibrant community has a grown a small collective of young game developing companies. It’s my impression that most of them are thesis projects which the students didn’t want to end and have created their own companies to finish what they started at school.

This is also much to the credit of Hedmark Kunnskapspark which has offered the game developers an inkubator of sorts.

Krillbrite Studio

Krillbrite is currently working on the incredibly eery Among the Sleep. I’ve had the pirvilege of playing the first 5-10 minutes at SpillExpo and it certainly managed to freak me out.

Some press:

And there’s so much more!

They’re super hot these days because they’ve launched a Kickstarter campaign. I believe they’re the second Norwegian game company that’s done so – the first one being Red Thread Games. Please consider donating some funds for them, because I can’t wait to play more of this game! Here’s their charming Kickstarter video:

Amongst the Sleep’s Kickstarter campaign

The other companies are:

These also look like they’re doing adventurous and wonderful things! I really hope to some day visit this game collective and I hope that we can create something similar in Bergen. ;)

Something’s brewing in Norway part 2

10 March 2013

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In part 1 I started introducing the game developers in Norway starting with Bergen. So far I’ve mentioned Rain (keep an eye out for them at GDC – they’ll be at the Nordic Game stand), D-Pad Studios, Henchman & Goon and Turbo Tape Games. I still have a few more I’d like to mention:

Mentalfish Mentalfish logo

This is pretty much a one-man band named Petter Sundnes. I’ve had the privilege of working with Petter on a few potential projects and I enjoy his visions and game developing skills. We’ve also worked with students together and he’s an excellent and patient teacher  while introducing Unity (I’ve even started dabbling with it). His game mechanic skills are excellent, creativity top notch and management skills are great. I hope to work more with him in the future and is my number one choice to bring along for meetings with potential new clients.

Read more about Mentalfish here.

Vostopia

Vostopia is slightly outside Bergen in beautiful Voss. Vostopia’s founding father is Bjarne Rene who has the most impressive game developing CV that I’ve seen around here. I keep describing him as a person with gravitas, by this I mean he is a man with experience and connections and we all value his opinion greatly. But he’s also a genuinely nice and fun guy who’s very willing to share and contribute to building a sustainable game developing industry in Norway. Here’s a little profile piece from our local paper, BT (again – in Norwegian): http://lisa.bt.no/btmultimedia/prosjekt/vestlendingen/#story_13

Vostopia offers avatars or avatar systems for game developers. They’re very versatile and fun and I think it’s a very smart business idea. Are you creating a game in Unity I would definitely recommend having a look. Here’s their demo reel:

As game developers do, they’re also making games. Among them the awesome Wingsuit Challenge. They’ve also currently relased Quiztopia which has quickly become my favourite iPhone game (although I always play with the sound off – the music can be rather annoying). It’s a great trivia game that you play in rounds among your friends. I’m hooked and I hope that several more of my friends will become so too – sadly only in Norwegian so far.

And too new to write too much about are: Panic Interactive, Lodecode and of course, my little venture which will get off the ground ANY MINUTE NOW, Insert Coin.

Some concluding thoughts on Bergen

Before I go on to the last Bergen company, which will also function as a segway into another district – let me just write some very few thoughts as a conclusion of what’s happening in Bergen.

I feel that the developing community in Bergen is in a very unique position. We have success stories and maturity, we have some games being released soon that have great commercial potential and at the same time we have the energy and vigour of youth from newly educated students and students – of course! I find this a unique mix where we can learn from each other and constantly inspire. In my opinion the perfect recipe for innovative and thriving developing community.

Now …

BadgerPunch Games

We only have one representative living in Bergen, Ricki Sickenger, whom I adore. Yet another game developer who has experience that he is more than willing to share. Case in point, this one hour interview with our studentradio where Ricki shares the trials and turbulations behind Darkfall: podcast link.

They’ve previously released Ubergridder and are presently working on Gravity Run which looks awesome!

The fabulous Henning Ludvigsen and Natascha Röösli are also a part of BadgerPunch which I’m going to use as a perfect segway to one of my favourite companies in Norway: Rock Pocket Games in Tønsberg, which I will leave for the start of part 3. But please make sure to meet them at GDC – they’ll be at a Unity stand somewhere.

Video Game Confidential: Susan O’Connor

10 February 2013

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From http://tedxbeaconstreet.com/susanoconnor
Video Game Confidential
Susan O’Connor

Susan O’Connor knew from the age of four that she wanted to be a writer. What she didn’t know was that she would grow up to work in the videogame industry, where the audience runs wild. “In games, agency matters,” says O’Connor. “Players want to control the action.” Out of necessity and desperation, she (and writers like her) have found new ways to tell their stories.

Like magicians palming quarters, some game developers hide their plots in plain sight. Their sleight-of-hand gives players the freedom they expect and the storylines they demand. But these magic tricks come at a surprising cost. What are these game narratives telling us about our world – and ourselves?

Games in O’Connor’s portfolio have sold over ten million copies and generated more than half a billion dollars in sales. In her thought-provoking TEDxBeaconStreet talk, O’Connor spills the beans about what she’s learned about writing, illusion, and desire.

A native of Austin, O’Connor now lives in San Francisco and splits her time between game projects, TV assignments, and surfing.

Something’s brewing in Norway – part 1

27 January 2013

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I spent the better half of 2012 getting to know the Norwegian game development community. There’s a lot of exciting stuff happening and I thought I’d take some time off this Sunday afternoon and write a few observations, while the local game developers are slaving away at Bergen Game Jam (over 30 participants and a good handful of women – not bad – very proud girl geek heart!).

There’s over 70 companies registered in Norway that are game developers and I’m willing to wager that there’s at least as many individuals dabbling with game development in their spare time but not taken the steps towards professionalisation yet.

Norway may be a very small country but we are also spread far and wide with massive mountains inbetween. Usually what comes out of our capital, Oslo, has the main focus, but I’m wondering if those of us who are a part of one of the “districts” of Norway are also coming into our “own”. We can debate on why later.

First off let me introduce my home town:

Bergen

There’s so much excitement in the air here in Bergen. We’ve got a unique community here that is all about sharing and boosting each other’s projects. We meet once a month for beer and informal chats and it’s quickly turning into one of the highlights of my month.

At present I count 9 game developing companies in Bergen and nearby districts. I’m sure there are more, so please let me know if I’m missing something.
Rain Games
Rain is very currently adding the finishing touches to their game, Teslagrad and it looks beautiful, or as Nathan Grayson from Rock Paper Shotgun puts it:

“Titled Teslagrad, the outwardly Braid-esque (read: hand-drawn and utterly gorgeous) sidescroller deals not in time-bending, lionsheep-smacking hijinx, but instead traverses terrain by magnetizing objects and characters.”

January 17th, 2013

They’re a very passionate group of game developers and artists with a very clear vision of the worlds they are creating. They’re very dedicated to their craft and the results are obviously gorgeous. Here’s a clip of gameplay:

 

It should be finished and ready for release March/April 2013 – so look out for it!

Other media mentions of Teslagrad:

Indie Statik

Gamereactor (Norwegian)
Bergens Tidene (Norwegian)

D-Pad Studios

For the fans, of which there are many, it seems that D-Pad has been working forever on their beautiful game Owlboy. I have no idea when they’re thinking of releasing but we’re all looking forward to it and judging from all the wonderful press they’ve been getting it will surely be a huge success. And it truly is gorgeous:

I’m also in complete awe of the adorable Vikings on Trampolines which is also a D-Pad title. Definitely a group of developers that have come far and I imagine will rocket towards some gaming paradise as soon as their games are released. They’re incredibly talented and genuinely nice guys always looking to give back to indie game community in Norway, which I find admirable.

Recent (because there’s so much) media:

Rock Paper Shotgun

Kotaku

Henchman & Goon

Every now and again I’m lucky to catch a glimpse of what Henchman & Goon are working on and it literally always takes my breathe away. They were born as a company August 2012 but have worked together for a while through studies and other projects. Their team consists of 9 (or more) talented people with amazing attention to detail.

They’re managed by the brilliant concept artist, Yngvill Hopen, who also blogs about at least one of her many projects. I have very high hopes for this young group and I can’t wait to see what their creative juices will be contributing to game development from Bergen.

Turbo Tape Games

This merry group of gentlemen and lady are the most established and successful game developers in Bergen. I’ve already blogged about the release of their game Naval War, here. Since then they’ve hired Marie Møller (whom I had the priviledge of meeting for the Press Play art exhibit) as a project manager – which I’m certain will prove to be their smartest move yet!

Naval War is proving to be a success and Turbo Tape are working on several new and exciting projects. Among them is the cycling game, Velocipede. It seems to me that Turbo Tape have found the right company balance on projects and cooperations with local media companies, such as TV2. They have a maturing business savvy which we’re all thankful to learn from. I’m very much looking forward to seeing where they are in 5 years!

—-

And there’s more to come! I’m not even finished with Bergen yet! Exciting stuff!

Konsoll

30 October 2012

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I’m extremely embarrassed that I haven’t been blogging for such a long time! I have so much to tell. I haven’t even mentioned Insert Coin here yet – which is an insult to my communications profession. Can we just say that I’ve been very busy and I’ve been having a hell of a lot of fun!

So remember how I was writing about a game event in Bergen in October? Well we frakin pulled it off!

We collaborated with several others in getting this done so the program tended to confuse people, and at certain times even ourselves. So it was a difficult concept to communicate which will be much better next year when we’ll be more independent.

 

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Me and the film business

17 July 2012

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So I’ve had a brief encounter with the film business the last 3 weeks and it’s been so much fun and way too much work than I had time for. I was in charge of getting extras and to be perfectly honest, I amazed myself at what I managed to accomplish and get. I have a really lovely network that are just so incredibly helpful and lovely!

It’s a web series made by the incredibly hillarious Pistol Shrimps and Flimmer Film. The webseries is amazing! I had such a great time and needed to be away from the filming as much as possible because I was in stitches. A lot of fun! But new territory for me, so I made a lot of mistakes which in return taught me so much. Scary as hell to be out of my element at this age, but so humbling! And such a privilege to be around such a lovely group of talented people!

The loveliest thing about working with these guys was that they have fans! They have inspired teenagers to tell their own stories and make their own films and I think anyone that reads my blog knows that I adore FANS! And I LOVE it when teenagers find new ways of expressing themselves.

So here’s a lovely little short that was made by two fans after our big zombie shoot on Friday! Isn’t it lovely? I think they’re great!

Huldraheimen

23 June 2012

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So Huldraheimen is my version of 826 Valencia and Ministry of Stories. I’ve been talking about this for over a year and the name of the project is credited to a dear friend from our work together with The World Peace Game Bergen. I’ve been smitten by the 826 Valencia project ever since I saw Dave Egger’s inspiring TED talk:

Dave Eggers TED talk

Isn’t he inspiring? How can we NOT help him fulfill his dream? So basically Dave Eggers and Ninive Clements Calegaristarted a tutor and writing lab with a street-front student-friendly pirate supply store in San Fransisco for lokal kids in the community, called 826 Valencia. It’s caught on in several cities around the world with different themes such as The Echo Park Travel Mart in LA, Brooklyn Superhero Supplies Co. and Monster Supplies in London.  So when Ministry of Stories was at The Story in 2010 selling Monster Supplies – I was even more smitten. But some ideas and dreams take a long time to take shape – and this one has for me. I’m still very uncertain why it’s so important to me to create such creative spaces for kids. I’m fairly certain that it is personal – so let’s not go there. One thing is for certain, though! I LOVE hearing children tell stories! Their imaginations are just so awesome, pure and uninhibited! There’s something so magical about these places and it’s lured me to start my own.

Huldraheimen logo by the fabulous Tini Malitius http://tinimalitius.com/

The theme I’ve chosen is Trolls. I’ve been getting a lot of feedback that trolls are too old fashioned and boring for kids, but I think so! I believe that through some fun writing workshops we’ll manage to spice up the Troll stories from ancient. I’m also extremely keen on not only focusing on traditional writing. Can we not, for example, have a workshop that is all about developing an app for a Troll? What kind of app would be useful for a Troll? And why not even consider creating a game that a Troll would enjoy? There are so many fun levels that we can experiment with!

Again – I only have the project proposal in Norwegian so far – I’ll get around to translating it soon, I’m sure: Prosjektbeskrivelse Huldraheimen 31_05

So I’m begging for money and also talking to as many educators as I can possibly find! If this is a project that you would like to help with please let me know! I’ve got the interest of the people building The House of Litterature in Bergen and I would so love to have something up and running there when they open in December!

There’s so much more to tell and I’ll be starting a new blog about this project soon so stay tuned! ;)

Linn – an agent for game developers?

23 June 2012

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This is the one that I am most unclear about, but it’s so closely related to part 1 of my next adventures - so I’ll let you into my foggy thoughts on the subject.

Image

From Walter and Marianne’s wonderful house!

I want to establish myself as some form of agent for game developers. I want to help them find the best publishing and distribution platforms for their games and I want to help them with professional PR and advertisement.

I’m very strongly influenced by Bandello and UKIE, and I hope to learn more from them.

I think game publishing and distribution is coming into a very good era, but I also think that it’s a growing into a challenging landscape to coordinate in. I want to be the woman who guides these game designers on to the paths that are right for them.

I have a lot to learn and the last couple of months have been good research for me. I’ve been using the gaming event that I’m organising with Spillmakerlauget as a base for this research, which is also why I gush so when I write about them, for they’ve been very open and welcoming. It’s been a great way for me to learn more about the game development community in Norway and what their needs are. Where’s the gap and can I fill it? I most definitely can (when did I become so arrogant?) and I see there’s a lot of potential for me to start a good business. There are some pretty amazing games in production and I sincerely want them to do well.

I’ve been wanting to get into the computer game industry for a while now, I just didn’t know how. But I truly believe that this is something I could do well.

So this is where I’m at right now:

  • I’m setting up meetings and introductions
  • I’m writing a business plan
  • I’m trying to think of a good name – but struggling. Suggestions are very welcome!
  • And I’m reading wonderful blogs such as Games Brief to get a grip on the industry
  • I’m making my own map of what publishing and distribution looks like today in the computer game industry
  • Strongly considering bankrupting myself by going to GDC Europe to start establishing the relationships I need. Are you going?

I’m sure that this will be a forum where I brainstorm more openly about how to do this. Cause I’ll be honest with you – I’m kinda scared about this whole “found my vocation in life” thing. I have days of feeling very alone and vulnerable. But then I have a meeting or a phone call with a non-believer of the industry and I find myself doing well and sounding pretty convincing (yes – I surprise myself!).  I soooo hope that it is not an illusion and that I can make this work.