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Interspecies gaming hits GDC


Sure, playing games against other people is fun, but three developers at this year's Game Developer's Conference were challenged to create games for humans and other species to play -- and the results were just as wild as you'd expect. Alexey Pajitnov, the inventor of Tetris, unveiled a concept called Dolphin Ride that features paintball-armed dolphins racing (and attacking) each other to hit as many targets as possible, while Wizardry developer Brenda Brathwaite showed off an actual game called OneHundredDogs.com, due to launch on February 29th. The social-network-based game pits 50 dogs and their owners against each other in various challenges to become the "alpha dog" of their communities -- who will then lead the quest to find 50 hidden virtual dogs by way of other challenges and dog-based activities. The winner, however, was Steve Meretzky, developer of Zoo Tycoon, whose concept game Bac Attack pits players armed with light and radiation against a bacterial colony in a petri dish -- when the player is inevitably overwhelmed by the bacteria, Steve suggests calling the government to arrange a sale. Cheery -- but we'll stick to the heavily-armed dolphins, thanks.