Posts Tagged ‘Game Developers’

Killzone™ 2 Lead Level Designer Joins Splash Damage

Tuesday, March 10th, 2009

splash-damage-neil-alphonso

Neil Alphonso to oversee level design for studio’s new AAA title.

London, England – 10th March 2009 – Splash Damage today announced that Neil Alphonso has joined the company to head up its level design team for the studio’s AAA multi-platform title in development. Neil comes to Splash Damage from Guerrilla Games where he worked on the PlayStation®3 hit KillzoneTM 2 as Lead Level Designer.

Neil is the latest high-profile hire at the London-based studio, which has doubled its development team in the past 12 months – a direct result of the immensely successful recruitment drive that followed its announcement of a partnership with Bethesda Softworks, developers and publishers of the recent blockbuster, Fallout® 3.

“The Splash Damage guys know how to build great multiplayer experiences that are a cut above most of what is available today,” said Neil Alphonso. “Their refined approach is even more appealing to me as a Lead Level Designer, and provides an excellent base for me to push on into the frontiers of gaming.”

“I love Neil’s considerable focus on advancing our players’ experience, born-out by his refined design talent and stunning accumulation of knowledge while working on games such as Killzone 2 and Splinter Cell,” said Paul Wedgwood, Owner of Splash Damage. “He’s the perfect man to lead our team of really skilled Level Designers. I can’t wait for our fans to see what he and his team are working on.”

Neil joins Splash Damage with over seven years of multi-platform development experience, spanning Xbox®, PlayStation, and PC. He began his career designing environments for the critically acclaimed Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell®, and then served as Level Designer on Duke Nukem ForeverTM at 3DRealms before achieving the lofty post of Lead Level Designer on Killzone 2 at Guerilla Games in 2007.

Splash Damage is currently looking to fill additional positions in art, design, and programming fields. A complete list is available at www.splashdamage.com/jobs.

Monumental expands into India

Tuesday, November 18th, 2008
MONUMENTAL EXPANDS INTO INDIA

 

Nottingham UK, 17th November 2008 – Monumental, the UK-based online games developer, today announced the opening of a state-of-the-art studio in Pune, India. The studio has been established with the assistance of offshoring experts Quickstart Global, enabling Monumental to benefit from the talent pool in the Pune area.

Monumental have most recently hit the news with the imminent launch of Football Superstars, a Massively-Multiplayer Online Game (MMOG) to be published by Cybersports in which players take on the role of footballers both on and off the pitch. While Monumental have previously used staff under a traditional outsourcing model, the attraction of the Quickstart Global model is that each employee is specifically selected by Monumental and lives up to the quality and productivity standards set by them. The studio currently houses a core team with plans to increase this in the near future.

Gylan Hunter, Art Director for Monumental said; “We were highly impressed by the quality of applicants. Prior to interview we viewed show-reels from candidates and were able to select those who met our criteria, both on a technical and personal level. This process helps us maintain the exceptionally high quality standards we demand. The facilities in Pune are excellent, and our staff there have everything they need to deliver first-class work”.

Neal Gandhi, CEO of Quickstart Global commented: “We are delighted that Monumental chose to establish their operation in Pune. We knew from previous experience in this sector that there were candidates in the area with the specific skills to meet their needs. The Games Industry continues to enjoy significant growth (40% revenue growth in 2009), however the availability of skills remains the biggest inhibitor to growth. Adoption of the Quickstart Global model can solve the problem for growing independent studios”.

The opening of the Pune facility will enable Monumental to enjoy sustainable long term competitive advantage and high-growth operational success within the global Online Game and Virtual World marketplace.

Arkadium wins multiple honors from Stevie Awards, Davey Awards, Creativity Awards and Min Magazine

Monday, November 17th, 2008

Jessica Rovello, president and co-founder, recognized as leading entrepreneur and Arkadium games receive top honors

NEW YORK – November 17 – Arkadium, a leading game solutions developer for the advergaming and casual game markets, announced today that the company’s president and co-founder, Jessica Rovello, was honored on Friday with a Stevie Award for Best Entrepreneur. In addition, Jessica was also named to the 2008 Media Industry Newsletter (MIN) Digital Hot List this month for her outstanding media accomplishments. Other Arkadium accolades this month included a Creativity Annual Award for their National Geographic Channel Fight Science game, and a Davey Award (Gold Winner) for marketing excellence for The Pini Society: The Remarkable Truth, a downloadable game recently released.

Hailed as the world’s premier business awards, the 2008 Stevie Awards for Women in Business honor women executives, entrepreneurs and the companies they run worldwide. This year, Arkadium’s president and co-founder, Jessica Rovello, was selected Best Entrepreneur in the Media Service Companies category. More than 1,200 entries were submitted for consideration. Details about The Stevie Awards for Women in Business and the list of winners are available at www.stevieawards.com/women.

The Davey Awards, an international award focused exclusively on honoring outstanding creative work from the best small firms worldwide, honors the best small firms, agencies and companies worldwide. Arkadium’s first downloadable game, The Pini Society: The Remarkable Truth, was selected as a Gold Winner for its integrated marketing campaign that was created for the game’s launch. Details about The Davey Awards and the list of winners is available at http://www.daveyawards.com/winners/.

Earlier this month, MIN named Ms. Rovello, to its “Digital Hot List.” This year’s list included 12 digital stars in the magazine brands and content providers space. MIN honored the winners on November 10, 2008 during an awards ceremony at the Grand Hyatt in NYC. More information on MIN’s “Digital Hot List” can be found at http://www.minonline.com/awards/digitalhotlist2008/.

Established in 1970, The Creativity Annual Awards is one of the longest running international advertising and graphic design competitions in the world. Arkadium’s game, National Geographic Channel Fight Science was selected as a winner in the Web Games and Entertainment Category. This year, judges from some of the United States’ most prestigious design firms evaluated a record 2,800 entries from over 44 countries and 45 U.S. states. More information is available at http://www.creativityawards.com/.

About Arkadium
Arkadium is the premier game solutions developer for the advergaming and casual game markets. The company’s growing archive of over 200 Flash-based and custom game solutions currently reaches millions of people through some of the most popular online destinations and corporate branded Web sites on the Internet. For more information visit http://www.arkadium.com.

Activision Publishing Acquires Budcat Creations

Tuesday, November 11th, 2008

SANTA MONICA, Calif., Nov 10, 2008 /PRNewswire-FirstCall via COMTEX News Network/ — Activision Publishing, Inc. (Nasdaq: ATVI) today announced that it has acquired video game developer Budcat Creations. Based in Iowa City, Iowa, Budcat Creations is an award-winning development studio with expertise on the Wii(TM) home video game system and the Nintendo DS(TM).

Activision Publishing has worked with Budcat Creations on the development of multiple games in the Guitar Hero franchise including Guitar Hero(R) III: Legends of Rock(TM), Guitar Hero(R): Aerosmith(R) and Guitar Hero(R) World Tour. The studio is currently in development on a new game in the Guitar Hero franchise.

“Budcat Creations is an outstanding developer with an experienced management team and a very talented group of programmers, designers and artists,” said Mike Griffith, President and CEO of Activision Publishing, Inc. “In addition to strengthening our development capabilities on the Nintendo platforms, this acquisition increases our Guitar Hero development resources as we continue to grow the franchise and expand our global leadership position in the music-based genre.”

“We are thrilled to partner with Activision and believe that this acquisition is a perfect fit for both companies,” said Jeremy Andersen, General Manager of Budcat Creations. “Their world class sales and marketing support coupled with best-in-class execution across all areas of their business means that we can focus our time and resources on what we love and do best — creating great games.”

Under the terms of the acquisition agreement, Budcat Creations has become a wholly owned subsidiary of Activision Publishing and the company’s management team has signed multi-year employment contracts with Activision Publishing. The studio will continue to be based in Iowa City, Iowa. Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

Headquartered in Santa Monica, California, Activision Publishing, Inc., a subsidiary of Activision Blizzard, Inc., is a leading worldwide developer, publisher and distributor of interactive entertainment and leisure products.

SPIL GAMES Announces Launch of The Red Cross Game: Emergency Response Unit

Friday, October 24th, 2008

Proceeds from the Strategy Game to Benefit Emergency Response Organization

SPIL GAMES today announced that The Red Cross Game: Emergency Response Unit is now available online. Released by the Dutch publisher Youdagames and sponsored by SPIL GAMES, The Red Cross Game: Emergency Response Unit is a strategy title where players manage relief efforts and race against the clock to try to help those in need. Created to celebrate the 100-year anniversary of the Dutch Red Cross, the game was developed by I Sioux Game Productions with the cooperation of Red Cross specialists to provide a highly realistic simulation of relief efforts. The game will be sold for $19.95 and proceeds from the game will be donated to the world-renowned emergency response organization.

The Red Cross Game: Emergency Response Unit gives people a glimpse into the wide range of challenging missions carried out by the Red Cross every day,” said Peter Driessen, CEO of SPIL GAMES. “It not only gives people a chance to learn about heroic work done by Red Cross workers, but also directly supports this valiant organization.”

In The Red Cross Game: Emergency Response Unit, players manage a Red Cross base camp. While deployed to numerous disaster zones to build a base camp, players assess critical situations and make tough decisions on how to allocate resources in order to save lives. Players distribute supplies, treat the sick, set up temporary shelters for the homeless, clean up debris from disasters, coordinate with local authorities, and fly rescue missions using airplanes and helicopters. Players can try out two full missions for free at www.redcrossgame.com. The premium version includes all 11 missions and provides hours of challenging gameplay.

As a primary distribution partner, SPIL GAMES launched The Red Cross Game: Emergency Response Unit across all 45 of their gaming portals including the following: www.gamesgames.comwww.agame.com,www.girlsgogames.comwww.games.co.ukwww.mygames.co.uk,www.girlsgogames.co.ukwww.spel.nlwww.spelletjes.nl, andwww.girlsgogames.nl.

For additional information, please visit www.redcrossgame.com.