Gameware Studio Diary

Mon May 03, 2004 - Gameware's First Birthday!

On Friday 7th May, Gameware Development celebrates its first birthday, having been officially incorporated exactly this time last year. I�m writing this diary entry a few days early because on the day itself I�ll be in the air, flying off to Los Angeles, with Jeremy, our amiable but diary-shy CEO, for this year�s E3 show. There we will do our bit to mix it with the great and the good of the video games industry � something I look forward to each year with a strange mix of excitement, anticipation and a certain amount of panic at the thought of all the work, hectic meetings and noise of the place. Still, if you want to experience the buzz of being involved in the games business, there�s really nothing comes close to being there, surrounded by literally thousands of new product offerings, some of which won�t see the light of day for at least a year to come, hundreds of companies and tens of thousands of industry-types clamouring for the spotlight to fall on their stand, their products or maybe just them!

I�m sure it will be a great show and for us at Gameware it's a neat reminder of how far we�ve come these past twelve months. Last year, I spent much of my time there in something of a haze. We were still recovering from the rather traumatic end to the former Creature Labs and not entirely sure of what the future might bring. In some senses, that E3 crystallised what Gameware�s approach would be about. We would focus on our own IP, we would stay small and lean, we would try and reach a buying public directly, rather than relying wholly on arms-length distribution channels and we would pursue the interesting projects that we enjoyed and not attempt to compete head-on, in the mainstream, with the big studios. This year, quite literally, from a standing start, we�ve managed to complete most of the projects we set out to work on and we are increasingly optimistic about the future. This year we have a story to tell and it�s a forward-looking one.

To be honest, pride of place in what we�ve done thus far probably belongs to BAMZOOKi � a whole new idea and development program undertaken in less than one year from start to airing on national television. The TV show was at least as successful as we had hoped for, enjoying viewing figures in the UK of up to 1.2 million for the Monday shows on BBC1 and around 100,000 for each of the 20 episodes shown on digital Children�s BBC. Additionally, over 50,000 ZOOK kits have already been downloaded from the BBC�s web-site! Now a second series is in the works, for airing early next year, which will feature bigger, better and faster ZOOKs as well as a range of new contests and trials. Maybe even more importantly, Gameware is in the planning stages of a significant upgrade to the ZOOK kit which will enable users to not only design their own ZOOKs but eventually to compete against each other in a variety of ways. We hope this will bring the whole BAMZOOKi experience to a much wider audience around the world. Development is very much an ongoing process and, whilst I�m restricted from saying too much more about what we�re cooking up at this stage, seriously, we think it could be very BIG!

Another big achievement took place a few months ago when we were able to add a 3D mobile technology to Gameware�s arsenal by acquiring nascent developer SceneMachines and adding their system to the roster. As I�ve mentioned before, this is an important stepping stone to the work we are planning to start soon for a mobile version of Creatures, which will be the first time a Creatures product will be available that plays in 3D space.

Before we get to that, we need to be able to derive ongoing revenues from selling and licensing that technology and the first application of this, LivingPictures for PC, is about to go to Beta. If you haven't seen them already, take a look at our SceneMachines pages to read more about the system (and to see a cow talking). Also, keep your eyes out for an announcement, coming very soon, about how you can participate in the LivingPictures PC Beta program.

On another track, we�ve also secured a new publisher in Europe to bring back all the old and hard to find Creatures products, in XP-compatible form, in 3 packs: The Albian Years (C1 & C2 + 2 lifekits); Creatures Village (CA & CP) and Creatures Exodus (C3, C-DS, and bonus Norn breeds). This has actually proven to be incredibly hard work - and kept Sparky up for many a long night since early this year. The publisher�s name is Fusion Software and the first pack should hit retail in Europe by early June. We will also be making these packs available from our own Creatures mall and, of course, will be seeking out North American bricks and mortar distribution as part of our mission at E3. In other Creatures-oriented developments we have not only got Docking Station up and running but re-instituted much of the DS experience which was lost, with the recent return of Docking Station Central. Not too shabby for a free service!

Underpinning much of our outlook on our work and how we approach life day-to-day is the fact that we�ve also got this wonderful, fact-filled, fun-filled, and ever-changing web-site to enjoy and to develop for. The forums, I can tell you, make this site just as much as a window for us to look out through as it is one which the world can use to look in on us. It has been truly gratifying to see a steady increase in forum members, visitor stats and page views, these past few months and to find that the simple entry of Gameware�s name into Google returns this site listed first, amongst some 34,000 entries. Hopefully, the next year will see all these trends continue their upward path as we bring more new offerings and downloads online � which, rest assured, we shall!

So, it�s been quite a year. Happy birthday to us! Here�s to a successful E3 and here�s to anyone reading this � thanks for coming along for the ride.

Cheers!

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