In a previous post, Philip Minchin mentioned another inter-library activity for this year’s event. Well, it’s a pretty amazing one!
IGD has another new sponsor for the year: Henry Smith, creator of the legendary indie local-cooperative tablet & phone game Spaceteam!
Spaceteam is a game where people with Android and iOS devices connect to each other (yes, Android and iOS play together!) over a local wifi network and… you know what, I shouldn’t be trying to describe it, watch this video.
It is completely free (there are in-app purchases and/or a supporter’s subscription, but those are optional and only add cosmetic stuff – nobody will need to pay anything to participate!) and it doesn’t snoop on players.
It’s made by a bloke with AAA pedigree (he’s worked on the Mass Effect, Dragon Age, and Dead Space series), who quit to make his own independent games because of some pretty cool ideas about how game making could work.
It’s a bit rowdy, but a wonderful way to get people interacting. And it can even be used for literacy purposes – Concordia University commissioned a version that uses the 1000-5000 most common English words instead of the silly randomly generated pseudo-sci-fi terms. Trailer here!
ON TOP OF ALL THIS…
If all goes well, we will be the first event IN THE WORLD to use a brand new feature of the as-yet-unreleased version 2.1 of the software – Special Events. This will enable us to track everyone who registers as playing Spaceteam (not the ESL version, sorry) as part of IGD, tally their achievements, compare who gets furthest and generally connect people in different places and time zones.
(I might not be able to run the Global Gossip Game this year but I wasn’t going to let IGD go without SOMETHING to connect us all together if I could help it!)
BUT WAIT, THERE’S MORE…
In addition to setting up this global special event for us, Henry has generously agreed to donate memberships of the Spaceteam Admiral’s Club. If you’d like these, contact Henry at henry@sleepingbeastgames.com.
Thanks, everyone – and remember, the game is completely FREE to users and works on Android and iOS phones and tablets, and is available in many languages, making it one of the most accessible video games around. Download it with some colleagues now and give it a try! Helpful tips on getting the game working are here.