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Acclaimed Israel-Palestine sim gets commercial release
Peace Maker, a serious game concerning the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, is now commercially available via independent games publisher Manifesto Games. The simulation / strategy title places you as either the leader of Israel or Palestine as you face situations inspired by real events.Created by a team of American, Palestinian and Israeli students at Carnegie-Mellon University, Peace Maker has won USC's Public Diplomacy Games Contest and was a finalist for Ashoka's Entrepreneuring Peace Contest. It has been highlighted by NPR and The New York Times. Said Manifest CEO Greg Costikyan, Peace Maker "takes on one of the most difficult world issues, presents it without bias or prejudice, and challenges players to think about the issues, to do better than the real-world leaders."The game is available in English, Hebrew and Arabic for Windows and Mac OS X for $20. A demo is available for download; trailer embedded after the break.[Via Game Politics]
Wii is two duct taped Gamecubes and other publisher rants
var digg_url = 'http://digg.com/gaming_news/Wii_is_two_duct_taped_Gamecubes_and_other_publisher_rants'; The developers rant is typically a highlight of the Game Developers Conference. This year, to mix things up a bit, there was a heapin' serving of publishers rant. Eric Zimmerman emceed the event and this is what the publisher had to say:Alex St.John (CEO and co-founder of Wild Tangent): The former Microsoft employee went all out against Vista. Speaking about how most games ended up being broken. Essentially it all came down to that Vista's security is so tight that it views "everything as dangerous." St. John said that Vista moves everything around to the point where he says, "It's the only self-breaching security system I've seen in my life."Richard Hilleman (Electronic Arts): This is where the theme for the rest of the rant came about. Leadership, leadership, LEADERSHIP! Although offending some people who believed that alpha males do not help, it was an issue across the board that a stable and competent leadership is lacking in the industry. Hilleman said that people in the industry want to think vision is more important, or reaching for that shining light on the beacon hill. But he says that the people he is seeing and teaching are not capable of providing the leadership for the million dollar projects that come their way. They can't lead beyond groups of three. Once again, the overall theme was leadership, leadership, LEADERSHIP!
Why aren't simulation games simulating fun?
Greg Costikyan gave PlayFirst's Cinema Tycoon a go and found it lacking. Sure, the game's got everything that fans of the "tycoon" genre have come to expect (maximize your profits in industry X while micro-managing staff, product and investments), but Costikyan wonders if maybe the game misses an opportunity to convey what he imagines to be the real fun of owning a cinema. He writes: "Man, this so does not play into my fantasies about what it would be like to run a multiplex. Maximizing profit? Probably the owner cares about that, but.... What I'd really like to be doing is boffing the chickie in the ticket office, and sneaking out back for a joint with the projectionist between reel changes." It's time for a new type of simulation game -- one that doesn't assume profit is the only motive driving its lifeless, robotic protagonists. Sam Malone didn't own Cheers because he was a profit-maximizing automaton, Noah didn't stuff the Arc with two of everything because he envisioned running the world's most profitable zoo, and Willy Wonka was fascinating precisely because he eschewed profits in favor of making the best damned candybars on earth. [Photo of stereotypically high-temperature box office girl courtesy of Bluecube.]
Manifesto Games web site sighting
Longtime game developer and general roustabout Greg Costikyan sent a jolt through the industry when he announced Manifesto Games, a company dedicated to rewarding original, independent game ideas and getting around the narrow retail channels that keep them from gamers. After a months-long gestation process, the company is now well on its way with a beta web site highlighting and selling some of the brightest independent games on the market.The site is still a little rough around the edges, but in return for registering and helping to troubleshoot, Manifesto is offering a free download of Plasmaworm, a game they appropriately describe as "Snake on acid." Here's wishing them the best in their mission to stir things up.
