7Seas Tech Bags Honours

7Seas Technologies Limited, a Hyderabad-based independent game development company, has bagged the prestigious FICCI-BAF (Best of Animation Frames) award for its ‘Mouse Maze’ game in the ‘Best Online Game category’, for 2008. The FICCI-BAF awards received a total of 406 entries in 17 categories from 14 countries.

The award was received by Maruti Sanker, managing director of 7Seas Technologies, at the two-day FICCI FRAMES-2008 that concluded in Mumbai on March 26, 2008.

Mouse Maze, an online game launched by 7Seas Technologies in January 2008 that ignites creativity and enhance concentration of the gamers, is presently available on the company’s www.onlinerealgames.com and leading portals of over 50 aggregators worldwide.

Commenting on the award, Maruti Sanker said, “We are delighted to share the stage along with industry majors such as Microsoft Games, which won two awards in the ‘Best PC Game’ and ‘Best Console Game’ categories. The FICCI-BAF award for 7Seas Technologies’ Mouse Maze showed the company’s technological capabilities to the world besides increasing our responsibilities in creating more such quality games for the international game lovers.”

Full Article: http://www.merinews.com/catFull.jsp?articleID=131618

LA's Vision For Indie Titles

Interesting news in the gaming world this week. The Hollywood Reporter's Paul Hyman notes that video game power house publisher 3D Realms Entertainment has announced the inception of two subsidiary companies called Radar Group and Depth Entertainment, both focusing on publishing titles that will ultimately become specs for TV and film. CEO Scott Miller uses the concept of the "storyverse" as a logical reason to homogenize the two markets based on the success of other franchises such as Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings.

Miller describes his vision for the companies by explaining that "It will all start at Radar with what I call the 'storyverse' -- or story universe -- which is a big bubble of story, character, and game play ideas...from that central hub, one spoke will go to game development, another will go to movie or TV production, and so forth."

The plan ultimately comes down to a vision for independent titles. Miller notes that "the plan is to find existing independent game developers that haven't had their big break yet and, utilizing the storyverse, work with them to create original IP in which they have some measure of ownership." Creating the two sister companies would provide the financial backup for the ideas to be taken further, resulting in a successful independent franchise.

Full Article: http://laist.com/2008/04/03/new_labased_gam.php

Third Annual Dev Contest

ECD Systems(R), the technology innovator for the video game industry, is excited to announce that the company's Third Annual Independent Game Developers Contest is now open for gamers and industry enthusiasts alike to cast their votes on this year's best independently-developed games.

The best games will be chosen by online popular voting, open now though June 30, 2008, by users playing games and voting online at www.indiegameshowcase.com. A judging panel consisting of industry professionals will then select the winners and three finalists from ten semi-finalist games in each category. This year's contest also offers a scholarship award for the Best Student Game Entry. Contest results will be announced at the Austin Game Developer's Conference, September 15-17, 2008.

"We are thrilled with this year's game submission turnout - both in volume and creativity, which in turn gives our gamers an enhanced gaming experience," said Jack Hart, CEO of ECD Systems. "In addition to providing entertainment, which is of course our key goal, this contest offers independent game developers the unique opportunity to showcase their talents and their latest and greatest game designs to a growing network of gamers, peer developers, and publishers."

Voters rate games on a scale of 1-10 based on several factors: story and / or plot, graphics, sound (soundtrack and sound effects), game play controls, user interface, and fun factor. Additionally, voters weigh in on their overall rating of the game. Judges take into account that all games are designed with a certain level of sophistication and complexity in mind, therefore, final ratings for each game are assigned independently of the other games and based on the personal playing experience of each game.

Full Article: http://www.centredaily.com/business/technology/story/492240.html

The Big Leagues

The 2005 Independent Games Festival was a turning point for Metanet Software, the independent video game studio co-founded by Raigan Burns and Mare Sheppard after the two met in a University of Toronto computer science class.

Metanet's first title, an elegant physics-based PC flash game called "N", had just won the festival's Audience Choice Award and was averaging between 2,000 and 3,000 downloads a day on Metanet's website, where it was offered free.

"N had racked up quite a following, and we had a user-base interested in whatever we did next," says Sheppard.

Metanet was facing the issue that all independent studios eventually have to deal with: how to convert all that loyalty and buzz into income.

Monetization can be a hard sell for indie developers who came up through the "freeware" scene, where games are created and swapped in an atmosphere of exchanging ideas.

For Burns and Sheppard, the motivation for making N profitable was so that they could realize the goal of developing video games full-time. But, it had to be on their terms.

Digital distribution has made it easier for small companies not only to share their products with customers but also to make money on them. That's because they no longer have to pay for packaging, shelf space, warehouse storage, shipping and the other costs associated with getting a game into a brick-and-mortar store.

One of the digital models Metanet first considered was PC shareware, where customers can download a demo of the game free on their computers, play it with certain restrictions – either a time limit or a limited set of features – and then pay to unlock the full version if they choose.

Another was microtransactions, where players can download the full-featured game free but pay small fees to unlock extras like bonus material and additional levels.

Full Article: http://www.thestar.com/Business/article/407375