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15 Minutes of Fame: Habbo's Sulka Haro
15 Minutes of Fame is WoW.com's look at World of Warcraft players of all shapes and sizes -- from the renowned to the relatively anonymous, the remarkable to the player next door. Tip us off to players you'd like to hear more about.Good things seem to come in threes -- at least, they do in the case of interviews with the intriguing folks from <unassigned variable> in the UK. Recent 15 Minutes of Fame subject Alice Taylor not only provided a rousing good interview herself, but she did exactly what we ask our readers to do at the top of every column: she tipped us off to players we want to hear more about. First, she passed us along to her GM, games designer James Wallis; next, she introduced us to this week's gaming insider. If you've had the chance to read Alice's and James' profiles, you're sure to be grinning and settling into your chair right about now, in anticipation of yet another witty, savvy peek into WoW culture, gaming and geekery. You'd be right on target. Here he is, direct from Finland: Sulka Haro, the lead designer of Habbo, a popular virtual world for teens that attracts some 11 million monthly uniques.
GDC's Design Challenge panel tackles sex in games
How does "My First Time" sound as this year's topic for GDC's time-honored Game Design Challenge panel? It may sound like something we cooked up ourselves, but it is, in fact, legit. This year's theme is all about the dilemma of designing games centered on "sex and autobiography." Obliviously, this won't be a discussion on how to peddle porno games; instead, it'll be about tackling the taboo and coming out with something both artistic and unique ... and probably about how to avoid a situation like this.Eric Zimmerman (chief design officer at Gamelab), Steve Meretzky (game design VP at YouPlus), Kim Swift (Valve level designer) and Sulka Haro (Sulake lead designer) will all be speakers at the panel on March 25. Those who are attending the industry-only event might want to stop by Room 135, North Hall at 2:30pm to see what's going down ... no innuendo intended there.[Via G4TV]
GDC08 Highlights: Freaky Creatures, Habbo and Love
Freaky Creatures "This is like Pokémon, but far, far cooler."Drive to toy store. Buy cool monster action figure. Discover flash drive buried in packaging. Use it to upload a digital version of your creature and then pit that bad boy in head-to-head combat against other players and their pet arsenal online. That, my friends, is Freaky Creatures. Don't pretend you're not drooling to learn more. %Gallery-16481%
GDC08: Sulka Haro tells us how to Habbo
Sulka Haro, lead designer on the wildly popular Habbo Hotel virtual world, yesterday gave the Worlds in Motion summit audience an in-depth half-hour rundown on the Habbo phenomenon. At its core, the Sulake company project is a meeting space for teens - a place to hang out and be someone else for a few hours. The fact that the company can boast millions and millions of unique users worldwide, though, speaks to something many have grasped for and few have succeeded at: a virtual world where people feel truly comfortable. Haro offered up a peak behind the curtain, at the origins of Habbo as the four room 'Hotel Goldfish'. He discusses the successes they've had in markets abroad, their surprise at the game's adoption by teens, and the numerous ways they allow players to acquire in-game currency. He also notes that Habbo is a world-record setting title in at least one way: they've probably sold the most virtual reindeer poop ever in the history of man. Read on for a dissertation on a poop-selling, smashing success story.%Gallery-16369%
Austin GDC: Live at the Sulka Haro keynote
Never heard of Sulka Haro? Then you must not have tried Sulake Corporation's casual online game, Habbo. Sulka Haro is Sulake's lead designer and he's going to be kicking off day two at the Austin Game Developer's Conference by talking to us about designing games to support open-ended play and end-user creativity.9:29 AM CST: The keynote is scheduled for 9:30, and people are slowly filtering into the conference room.9:34 AM CST: Introducing Haro to applause.
