Ilkor: Spreading the word
We're about to up the level of our communication. This is already happening (hopefully) to our existing player-base, but equally important we are now looking for new channels and websites where we feel Ilkor news will be of some interest.
As you might know we are gaining some nice momentum on the game development side and while we are still some way away from launching into beta, the game is really starting to take shape now. Hopefully by the end of March we'll have the signup and character creation up and running and will be only too pleased to give those that are on the playtest waiting list a sneak preview and brief 'alpha test'.
So, in preparation for this we are seeking new and exciting channels where we might be able to prompt Ilkor: Dark Rising.
If you have any suggestions or can help in any shape or form regarding such advertising / promoting then we'd love to hear from you. Such channels that are of great interest to us are:
- Beta Sign-up: If you haven't yet signed up, then please do so. There is nothing to be scared about (honest) and it won't cost you a penny.
- Tell a Friend: If you could at least try and get 1 friend to visit the Ilkor website and sign-up then that would be amazing.
- Facebook and Twitter: While signing up for the beta playtest, why not get yourself and your friend to follow us on Facebook and on Twiiter?
- Forum Mention: If you are a member or a suitable gaming forum, then why not start-up a thread about Ilkor.
- Forum List: We are always on the lookout for new forums that we could get involved in. If you know of any, please drop us a line or two about it and we'll be only too pleased to check them out.
- Blog Mention: Maybe you run your own blog or know of one that could be interested in writing an article about Ilkor? If so let us in!!!
- Advert Banners: We have a couple of Ilkor advert banners. If you know of a website that might be willing to display them, then let me know.
I'm sure there are other channels, so if you can think of anything at all then I'd love to hear from you.
Cheers,
Sean.
Soccer Supremos: The Return of…
Sounds like a movie title doesn't it! 
It seems everything nowadays is making a comeback from the past, bands, movies, tv series, etc. We did the same with Gad Games a couple of years ago and although we are not running a game yet we are busy developing one!!
Since we relaunched Gad Games we've had hundreds of ex-managers of Soccer Supremos contact us about the 'good old days', telling us how much they loved the game and many of you asking us to relaunch it. So that is exactly what we are going to do!
Today we started the ball rolling by purchasing the soccersupremos.com domain. It's not much of a start really, but at least we've got the domain now, infact we were quite surprised to find it was still available. We've pointed the domain to a splash page hosted on our Gad Games website. Nothing special, though we hope to improve on this over time.
So, yes Soccer Supremos is coming back, but due to our current commitment on developing Ilkor this is unlikely to start until the end of 2012.
Hope you guys think this is good news.
Cheers,
Sean.
Partnering with HeroQuest
Hey Guys,
Just some brief news. Behind the scenes of the Ilkor development we have actually partnered with a gaming engine company, HeroQuest Pty.
They have a website heroquestgaming.com. it isn't much to look at really as the're not really 'player facing', at least not for the moment.
They are developing alongside Ilkor a gaming engine that will be generic in nature, targeted at the fantasy rpg genre. The idea is that the engine will be used to power Ilkor: Dark Rising.
It's proving to be an interesting partnership, basically all the world setting, history, maps, artwork, theme etc will remain the property of Gad Games while the engine itself will belong to HeroQuest.
After the beta playtest (which we imagine will take up the better part of 2012), the HeroQuest Platform should be stable and mature enough to then be offered to other interested companies who might like to host a game.
The engine is proving to be quite configurable. Although it will come with a standard set of maps, data, etc, it can all be customizable. It's quite an interesting concept. Ilkor will not only be powered by the HeroQuest engine, but will also be hosted on their infrastructure. This means as a gaming company we only need to worry about the GameMaster duties, player service and ensuring the game world is rich with background history and a theme. HeroQuest will ensure the servers are up and running, that there is no connection issues, upgrades and new features will be introduced in a structured and controlled fashion. They are even putting together a payment gateway where various value added services can be purchased.
Anyways, enough rambling. I just thought it worth informing you guys.
Cheers,
Sean.
A Busy and Exciting Year…
2010 was all about resurrecting Gad Games from the ashes of the late 90's when the Play-By-Mail industry was badly hit by the raise of Email and Web usage. I had been toying with starting Gad Games up for a while but was a little nervous about making such a huge commitment. Life at the age of 42 is quite different to when I was single and in my 20's.
Much of 2010 was spend getting back into the 'gaming scene', especially the PBM community which is still out there but appears to be very small nowadays and quiet. We managed to throw together this rather simple website and this blog section is the newest addition. We also have a facebook fan page and I was amazed to see 40+ people have stumbled upon us during 2010. We've just setup a twitter account (#gadgames) which you can follow and learn about the latest developments both with Gad Games and our Ilkor game which we have finally started developing.
2011 will see us look more towards the future as we finally get down to coding our latest project; Ilkor: Dark Rising. Our aim is to have the game ready for beta testing by the end of the year. I really hope we haven't bitten off more than we can chew, after all we are running this in our spare time!!
I hope to blog on a regular basis regarding our game development process, Gad Games news and snippets of interesting pieces in general. So if you are keen on keeping up with the progress of the development of Ilkor and want find out some of the design aspects and features we will be introducing then stay tuned.
Cheers,
Sean.