Commander: Conquest of the Americas announced

/

Paradox Interactive and Nitro Games have announced a new strategy title called "Commander: Conquest of the Americas", coupled with not one, but two videos. The game itself takes place in the historical Americas in the 18th century, when the European superpowers fought for control of the New World. After selecting one of six nations to join, the player is given command of a colonization fleet with the purpose of taking control of as much land and riches from the lands beyond as possible. To spice up the game and add replay value, each nation has it's unique advantages and disadvantages.

According to Lead Designer Kim Soares, "[the] goal of Commander is to create as powerful presence as you can in the New World before the American revolution starts".

The game is slated for a Q3 2010 release for the PC.

From the press release:

The upcoming title, which combines the best elements of trading and strategy games, will enable players to take control of a wide variety of European nations in efforts to conquer the New World.

During the Paradox Interactive Convention, Kim Soares, Lead Designer, at Nitro Games sat down to demonstrate the latest action and story behind Commander: Conquest of the Americas.

Main Features:

  • Choose from 6 different European factions
  • Manage your colonies’ resources, production, military, and more
  • Game world spanning the Caribbean to Hudson Bay
  • Naval battles with as many as 30 ships in varied environments and 2 different control modes

And here are the links to those videos:

Note: If you have any industry news you want to share with us, please email me at samuli.ulmanen@igda.fi and we'll take care of it. Cheers!

IGDA Finland: February Gathering

/

Hi folks, next IGDA Finland Gathering is on Tuesday, February the 2nd. The Gathering is titled "Meet the Gamers". As you know, game developers have to think of the potential audience for their product. Too often developers think that the typical gamer is "someone like me". What if that is not the case? Now you have a golden opportunity to chat with other gamers and see what type of issues they like in games, why they play games and what they would like to experience in games. IGDA invited Women Gamers (Pelinaiset) to visit IGDA Gathering. Pelinaiset is a group of women & girls who are into gaming. You will soon find out that there are as many tastes as they are players. This is a perfect opportunity for you to learn something new! Besides chatting with gamers, we have some 8-bit gaming and a 8-bit music quiz for you. Also Lipshack booth will be open for the night!

Warmly welcome – see you on Tuesday the 2nd of February IGDA FINLAND FEBRUARY GATHERING Place: Cuba Bar, Erottajankatu 4, 00120 Helsinki (map: http://igda.fi/?page_id=5) Time: Tuesday, 2th of February, doors open at 19:00

Whooo-Yeaaaah! “The Best IGDA ever!”

/

The first IGDA Finland Gathering in 2010 was held on 12th of January. Even if it was freezing cold outside, Café Cuba provided cozy warmth indoors. The beginning of a year has typically been a bit quieter compared to the fall season. So it was also in January 2010. Instead of 150 persons we had just little over 70 persons joining the IGDA party. Then again we all know that it is not about the number of people but the explosive atmosphere! Besides having good time (special thanks to Eevi Korhonen for the great kick off! :D) – and goofing, also business and networking wise the evening was a good one. New contacts were made and potential partnerships started. Thank you everyone for the great party! Whooo-yeeaaaah!

More photos from the event: Igda Finland photo archive.

The Finnish Game Jam crew was also present promoting the first Finnish Game Jam! The 48 hours Jam session will start already on 29th January! It is not yet too late to join the fun!

"Amazing weekend of game jamming is approaching! You have still some time to register to the event which will be participated from 129 locations and 37 countries! The registration to Finnish Game Jam is in process and continues until 25th of January, 16:00. The weekend is surely an unforgettable experience. Do not miss your chance to be a part of it!"

Hop on by registering here: http://finnishgamejam.fi/registration

IGDA Finland: January Gathering on 12th

/

Hey all! It is time to shovel your way to Cuba Cafe to meet the coolest gang, see who will be attending to GDC2010 or Finnish Game Jam and what's up with Finnish game developers. IGDA FINLAND JANUARY GATHERING Place: Cuba Bar, Erottajankatu 4, 00120 Helsinki (map: http://igda.fi/?page_id=5) Time: Tuesday, 12th of January, doors open at 19:00

So IGDA Finland party is already tomorrow at Cuba Cafe (Erottajankatu 4). Warmly welcome IGDA members and non-members! Remember that the Gatherings are open for everyone but only IGDA members get good discounts on drinks.

IGDA Finland Gathering at Cuba (photo by: Joona Pulliainen)

December Gathering: Partying with Futuremark

/

IGDA little Xmas party held on 8th of December was arranged in collaboration with Futuremark and oh boy what an ending for the IGDA Finland fall season we had! There were lots of things happening besides sipping drinks and enjoying Christmas food with other developers. Nearly 200 developers and guests joined the party and Cuba Cafe boosted lots of activities from Shattered Horizon tournament to Lips singing game, game music quiz and more.

Futuremark released their first game titled Shattered Horizon only little over a month ago and they were kind enough to share their feelings and ideas regarding it with other game developers at IGDA Finland December Gathering. Futuremark set up four seats for gamers to try out the game. Those who were able to beat the Shattered Horizon developers won drink tickets :) Additionally Microsoft Lipshack singing room was open for sonorous game developers and IGDA activist Tuomas Karmakallio set up computer music quiz with nice number of participants. People enjoyed Shattered Horizon and the singing booth was packed throughout the night with people performing stunning duets and choir singing until late. We got lots of good feedback and will arrange music quiz sessions and other fun activities also in the future. Shattered Horizon Huge thanks to Futuremark! They put a lot of effort to the event and it showed. People stayed at Cuba until late and quite a number also continued the evening until early morning hours at other venues. We would also like to thank all of you joining IGDA Gatherings. The fall 2009 season was really good with high number of participants on each Gathering. We will continue arranging good parties in 2010 – if you have comments or suggestions how to make them even better ones, please let us know! Either send an e-mail or leave anonymous feedback to our feedback box at Cuba. See you in 2010!

IGDA Finland December: Shattered Horizon (Futuremark)

More photos from the event: IGDA Finland December 2009 Gathering photo set