GameSpy Technology has announced the second wave of developers that were selected for the Indie Open House project including
Cryptic Sea,
Interabang Entertainment,
Misfit Attic, and
Wolfire. Each of the developers will work for six months in the San Francisco offices of GameSpy Technology and IGN Entertainment. Along with the provided office space, they will also receive professional consultations, media interviews, technical support, licenses to online gaming technology, demonstrations at industry events, and networking opportunities. We wish each of them luck in their game development endeavors.
Check after the break for full details concerning the games that are in development at the
Indie Open House project.
GAMESPY TECHNOLOGY’S INDIE OPEN HOUSE PROGRAM BRINGS IN FOUR GAME DEVELOPERS
Second Wave of Indie Open House Teams Include New Teams Wolfire and Misfit Attic, Returning Teams Cryptic Sea and Interabang Entertainment
Feb 1, 2012 – San Francisco, CA – GameSpy Technology, a division of IGN Entertainment, Inc., has once again opened its doors to teams of independent developers selected for the Indie Open House project, which leverages GameSpy Technology and IGN Entertainment’s resources to provide free office space, technology, peer support, and consultation to help the selected teams design, craft, and execute on their inspired game ideas. The teams will remain in residency for six months working in GameSpy Technology/IGN Entertainment’s San Francisco office and consists of four game development teams: Cryptic Sea, Interabang Entertainment, Misfit Attic and Wolfire.
“Indie game developers may not have multimillion dollar budgets, but they are innovating with creative gameplay ideas and the drive to craft an experience uniquely their own,” said Drew Curby, Senior Director, GameSpy Technology. “GameSpy Technology is proud to give these guys a space and a means to share ideas, collaborate, and create their games.”
In its inaugural residency period, the Indie Open House project helped five independent game developers get their projects off the ground, arranging for professional consultations, media interviews, technical support, free licenses to valuable online gaming technology, on-site demonstrations at industry events, and networking opportunities for the participating Indie Open House teams. The second group of indie teams runs the gamut from established indie developers like Cryptic Sea and Wolfire, to the young and ambitious teams at Interabang and Misfit Attic.
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Cryptic Sea, aka Alex Austin, hails from Santa Cruz and has been experimenting with entirely new gameplay ideas; reimagining movement and physics in first-person shooters, creating a hockey game played through the eyes of a player, and making a fun physics-based puzzle game that challenges reflexes and coordination. The team is a veteran of the Indie Open House project, as a participating member of the first group of Indie Open House teams.
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Interabang Studios, from San Diego, crafting Super Comboman, an action adventure title that features tons of combos, destructible environments, and mullets. Building on their work from the first session, Interabang continues to refine their game while exploring mobile platforms, and monetization.
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Misfit Attic, led by Boston native, Tim Keenan, is creating A Virus Named Tom, a three player cooperative action-puzzler that challenges players to rearrange circuits to spread a virus while dodging anti-virus drones.
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Wolfire Games, founded in 2003 by David Rosen, is now a five member team, has released the successful indie shareware game Lugaru, a detailed 3D game with brutal, bloody, rabbit combat. The team is now at work on its sequel, Overgrowth. David and the team at Wolfire have also been pioneers in the distribution of indie games, conceiving of the very successful Humble Indie Bundle, a series of indie games sold together in a pack, whose prices are determined by the buyer and whose proceeds go to select charitable organizations: http://www.humblebundle.com/
“One of the valuable benefits of Cryptic Sea’s participation in the Indie Open House program has been the opportunity to share new gameplay ideas and experimental demos with like-minded indie developers to get their feedback,” says Cryptic Sea’s Alex Austin. “Having so many indie guys under one roof gives each project its own little workshop.”
“The shared workspace encourages discussion with members of other indie teams, which helps me see my project from an outside perspective” says David Rosen of Wolfire Games. “Free office space in San Francisco is also hard to come by -- I would have said ‘impossible’ before the Indie Open House -- and the internet connection here is by far the fastest that I've ever seen.”
The Indie Open House teams will benefit from exposure to an energetic, team-focused environment featuring other independent development groups as well experienced technology and games experts willing to exchange ideas on cutting-edge game design and innovation. Helping guide the program will be several internal and external advisors, including company executives, editors and independent developers. The program offers a 6-month rolling term for participating teams. Additional benefits include:
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24-hour access to IGN headquarters located in San Francisco’s SOMA district, including conference rooms, phones, internet access, and kitchens
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Participation in Demo Days and the opportunity to showcase games directly to publishers, retailers, online distributors and the IGN and GameSpy editorial teams
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Free licensing of GameSpy Technology’s multi-platform Open Services Platform for essential online features like Leaderboards, Matchmaking, Deep User Stats, Consultation with GameSpy Technology’s Professional Services team
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Demo space at select events, such as GDC 2012 in San Francisco
The Indie Open House program will continue to consider new applicants for the next round of the program. To learn more and to submit an application for the future application, visit
www.ign.com/indieopenhouse.
About IGN Entertainment
IGN Entertainment, a unit of News Corporation, is the leading Internet media and services provider focused on the video game and entertainment enthusiast markets. Collectively, IGN's properties reached more than 37.8 million unique users worldwide June 2010, according to Internet audience measurement firm comScore Media Metrix. IGN's network of video game-related properties (IGN.com, GameSpy, FilePlanet, TeamXbox, Direct2Drive and others) is one of the Web's leading video game information destinations. IGN also owns the leading men’s lifestyle website AskMen.com and provides technology for online game play in video games. IGN is headquartered in San Francisco, with offices across North America, Europe and Australia.
About GameSpy Technology
A division of IGN Entertainment, GameSpy Technology is the leading provider of online services to video game developers. Founded in 1997, GameSpy has provided its connected gaming technology to the best-selling, most innovative games in the industry. Its various services—social, cloud, commerce, data and mutliplayer—are designed to make games more fun by helping players share their experiences. GameSpy’s technology is accessible on every gaming platform and has been utilized by more than 900 titles to date, including landmark games like Rockstar Games’ Red Dead Redemption, Nintendo’s Mario Kart Wii, and THQ’s WWE: Smackdown vs. Raw franchise.
