Posts tagged "story"
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26 Nov 2009Latest news on Monsteca Corral
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Indie wiiware™ game ‘Monsteca Corral’ encounters Pikmin comparisons
Liverpool, November 25, 2009 – The much anticipated Wiiware™ title, Monsteca Corral will soon make its gaming debut this coming January 2010 after almost 18 months of development. The British indie game developer Onteca, only recently announced the launch of their first game this month which sparked off debates as to whether or not an indie company could bet all the odds and become another ‘World of Goo’ story.
The casual game that could only best be categorised as being in the same genre as Pikmin and Flower, has fought the immediate comparisons made when such prominent titles were mentioned. The developers at Onteca have taken everything with a pinch of salt, and are confident that once players delve into the surreal ambient levels of Monsteca Corral that previous misconceptions will be amiss.
Monsteca Corral is an independently developed title focusing on fast paced fun-puzzle gameplay, targeted at anyone and everyone who enjoys pick up and play games with no hidden agenda to subliminally take over their life. You play on your terms and you the player control a herd of peculiar named orange creators, formally known as Sdompes’. The cute and not so bright Monsters, who once activated, need help to avoid being dismembered by invading robots. So instead of watching the poor creators run dim-witted riot, it is your job to accumulate and guide them successfully through each level.
You take the role of a Monster Herder, flying above them and saving them from the dangers of their changing environment and the ever growing ominous robot population. As your Sdompes’ run through each level, you guide them towards ‘Energy orb’ bonuses that are scattered throughout the habitat; these will increase the communal power of the herd.
As Herder, you can:• Use Wiimote to create deviation paths that block off dangerous routes for Sdompes’.
• Use Wiimote to allow Sdompes’ to follow a route.
• Use Wiimote to allow Sdompes’ to split and form a sub group.
• Use Wiimote to help Sdompes’ damage the robot environment.
• Use Wiimote to make your Sdompes’ jump and shake and sing.As additional levels arise, the game emerges as a cross-country running game with Sdompe migrating through the different and ever changing environments of the Monsteca World: Stomping through Desert, Open Plains, Wooded Highlands, Forest, Wetlands and City in their bid to make it home safely.
Monsteca Corral is set to be released through the Wii Shop Channel in 2010, venturing into a new family of games for the Wii™ console. Monsteca Corral will invite people to experience a totally new and innovative method of gameplay with a fresh perspective on a classic genre.
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03 Nov 2009The Mystery of Finance
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Having attended an Investment Event last night I started to wonder about how and why people invest. I am currently reading Quicksilver by Neil Stevenson which is set in the 17th/18th century which is a period which marks the invention of finance, paper money, short selling and many other wonderful things. Almost as soon as money was invented so was fraud, bubbles and bankruptcy. At one point in Quicksilver everyone discovers that the Goldsmiths kind of early bankers have empty vaults and all their money has gone.
Surely we have learnt something from these kinds of shocks, well clearly not as the recent history of banking shows. So thats great but what does it teach us about now. Well it is clear that within 5 years there will be more online revenue in the games industry than through retail. When you go for lunch everyone has an idea for an iPhone app (always a good sign of a boom) 10 years ago it was ideas for websites or was it tulip bulbs I forget.
We all like to follow the crowd and investors more than most, this is generally good if you can get in early enough but strangely investors are running scared of iPhone and haven’t even really noticed that download games change the rules. There have been a couple of big investments I think Glu mobile got a fair amount of money but most UK investors have a strange disconnect they know iPhone is successful but don’t seem able to unpin the risks.
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21 Oct 2009New Entry – Monsteca Corral
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Onteca have once again expanded their digital clan and taken on-board 23 year old Public relations (PR) graduate Sophie (yes you read it right, PR not a games programmer). You may ask why does Onteca, an interactive media company need the likes of a publicity thirsty PR hound? Because somebody needs to spread the word and show off all the boys hard work.
That is where I come in, my name is Sophie, I have moved ever so graciously from my home in Newcastle to the lovely city of Liverpool to do a 6 month internship with Onteca and North West Vision and Media. My role within the company over the next 6 months will to organise the press / social media and the marketing campaign of their new Nintendo WiiWare game Monsteca Corral.
I come from a background where video games were only played when I was procrastinating from university work, forced upon me at family gatherings and the odd time when my curiosity for my mental age was tested on the DS Brain Train. So basically long story short, I am not a gamer, I don’t know any of the techy lingo I hear spouted around the office and when someone asks me what is my favourite video game I just go blank.
However there is this myth that to market a game the marketeer must know the ins and outs of the gaming industry, this I am proud to say is not true. To market a video game the most important thing to know is who your audience is, how to communicate with them and ability to promote your material in a way that they can relate to.
Leading up to the games release in January 2010 Monsteca Corral will gradually build upon its presence within the on-line stratosphere, giving gamers a sneak peek into what the game has in-store for them.
Over the next 6 months you can follow Monsteca Corral’s journey through the Onteca blog, Twitter feeds and Facebook updates. Watch first hand the release of a new video game and see its progress.
Feel free to drop me a line at sophie@onteca.com if you have any questions about the game.
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22 Sep 2009Monsteca Corral
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So what’s the game about then i hear you ask.
First things first, Monsteca is more than just a game.
Now this isn’t some marketing speak where I tell you that it’s not just a game, it’s a way of life or some crap (would I do that to you?) no no no,
What I mean is, monsteca is a universe of different ………. things.There is in the pipeline
Web games
Wii game (monsteca corral)
Cartoons
A board game
A massive wikiAnd more, all taking place in the monsteca universe.
Here’s some backstory.
The Monsteca Backstory
In the beginning there were monsters:
and the monsters lived side by side in general disharmony. Completely
unable to work as a team, the monsters roamed free within their
habitats and occasionally risked being painfully dismembered by other
monster species if they strayed too far from home –
and this was the way of the monsters and so life went on, until a small
and mysterious do-gooding alien life form arrived
who went by the name of:
The Maker
and The Maker (being called The Maker) made. More specifically he made
Robots. He created the first robot ‘chip’ and implanted it into the
first robot Central Processing Unit. The Maker created the robots with
a belief that they would improve the lives of the monsters and provide
some form of order and structure for the world. As with all great
beliefs it went horribly wrong once the Maker showed the robots how
they could make each others units and was hence discarded by them as
they felt he served no purpose.The Biguana:
Thus the ‘chip’ has been passed from C.P.U to C.P.U and it has become
outdated and damaged causing the robots to behave more erratically.
So The Maker has become increasing weary and fearful of his own
creations. The Maker now lives a solitary existence.
He did however once save a small Biguana monster from the jaws of a
Blind Polar Dog and made him a robot tail to replace his half eaten one
knowing that for Biguanas ‘balance’ is very important to their survival.
The Maker is aware that the robots are not behaving in a responsible way
but fears he can no longer control them.have now created their own environment in the form of cities and
mines. Robot consumption of world resources and materials is now of
epic proportions.
Collectively the robots view the monsters as a nuisance and have recently
been enslaving them for their own purposes Certain types of robot may be
persuaded to think differently if it is seen to be logical to do so but
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the present C.P.U (Central Processing Unit) is not exactly logical.has succeeded in line through the passing of the ‘chip.’ He controlsa
all of the robots but he is gradually experiencing more breakdowns/
crashes, glitches etc. mainly in his logic and understanding
functions.
The present C.P.U is not a nice C.P.U. He proved incompatible with his
compatible unit partner and she left him with a 2nd unit daughter who
he struggles to relate to due to her caring unrobotlike nature.
The Present C.P.U is responsible for the current anti monster regime
which he believes will advance robitilisation. He’s begun to ‘clean
up’ monster populated ‘trouble spots.’Wii Story
In the world of Monsteca, the Sdompé are undertaking their annual monster
migration from the Southern Desert areas. Normally this is quite straight
forward, with Sdompés running in herds towards the nearest resting Astro
Maggot, symbiotically stirring it into action, then jumping aboard and
taking off to better climes through desert, highlands and open plains
eventually arriving at the Northern Wetlands.
But this year the wicked robots have interfered with their migration by
building cities that are polluting and destroying the monsters’ natural
habitats.
It is up to the Herder, flying overhead on the back of a Manderray, to
help the Sdompé migrate successfully across the robots increasingly
unfriendly and urbanised world. -
25 Feb 2009Liberatis – an early alpha version of an MMO produced by a group of Young People
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dan
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- 3D
- 3d assets
- Alpha
- Art
- career
- Design
- design documents
- elements
- Everyone
- fantasy
- four months
- Freedom
- Game
- genuine talent
- Industry
- landscapes
- learning disabilities
- Liberatis
- maps
- maya
- Mediabox
- merseyside
- MMO
- mountains valleys
- North West
- Onteca
- Photoshop
- playable game
- Python
- school
- screenshot
- Standards
- story
- test stage
- texture
- textures
- Tolkienesque
- torque
- train
- training
- unveiling
- violence
- Young People
- young person
Onteca is proud to announce the unveiling of a playable Alpha of our Mediabox Project, ‘Liberatis’ (a name thought of by a young person working on the project). This is an MMO created by young people, for young people. It involves some violence, within a Tolkienesque ‘fantasy’ setting, because that is what the young people called for. It is still at an early test stage, but is playable.
Given the theme ‘Freedom’ this is what a group of 14-19 year olds came up with
Over 50 young people worked for four months to make this game. First the young people planned out an overall story, a premise, a series of characters and detailed paper-based maps and Level Design Documents for each section . Next they had to painstakingly learn the skills they would need: Maya to create the 3D assets; Photoshop to create the mood-boards and textures; the Torque level editor to create landscapes full of trees, mountains, valleys and towns in which the game could be played. Onteca provided support and training at every step.
Onteca then worked on integrating all these elements into a playable game, to the design of the young people and under the direction of their representatives.
Some of the most academically inclined young people on Merseyside worked alongside young people from a local Special School who had learning disabilities. Everyone addressed themselves to the same tasks and were expected to prodice the same results. Sometimes the young people would work alongside each other, sometimes they would split into school and project based groups. Standards were high across the range of schools, with genuine talent and IT ability coming from all groups involved.
Areas worked in were amonst the most economically disadvantaged in the country. That said, the young people who involved themselves in this project were eager, polite and creative. Hopefully, they will learn from being part of the making of Liberatis, and consider a career in the North West’s still healthy Games Industry.
Thanks to all the young people involved, and Onteca hopes you like the game you helped create.
An alpha version of the game is available to download here to install it, just download and run.
if you get an error message mentioning python when running the game on certain versions of vista you will need to run the game as an administrator