Thursday, August 07, 2014

BPN 1685: Cloud Chamber launched

Today the massive multiplayer story game Cloud Chamber will be released, after four years of hard work by a Danish team. The game is a innovative mix of story explanation and collaborative investigation.
In the game the investigations of a young scientist Kathleen Petersen are followed, who works in the Petersen Institute, one of Europe’s most prestigious centres. While investigating the suspicious circumstances of her mother’s death, Kathleen discovers a string of revelations about her father, the institute and the existence of communicative rhythms in the fabric of space. Soon she is faced with an impossible choice between loyalty to her family and a duty to pass on what seems to be a mysterious warning to mankind.
In Cloud Chamber players work together to unravel a mystery of murder, music and astrophysics. They navigate through a series of 3D datascapes and film fragments, starring Gethin Anthony (Games of Thrones) and Jesper Christensen (Quantum of Solace). Players collect nodes of information and discuss them with other players. As they progress, players piece together what actually happened from fragments of found film footage, science journals, video diary entries, actual space footage and astrophotography. Only by working together with other players the truth about Kathleen’s parents and the universe can be uncovered.

So far the press release. Why do I draw attention to the game? So far, no one has been able to recognise a fanatic gamer in me. In the short description and the trailer, however, I see basic elements of suspense. And I am pretty sure that the game will be most interesting, given its creative director: Christian Fonnesbech. I met him in 2002 as a colleague on the Europrix jury in Salzburg. I remember him explaining the suspense graph in a movie: tell the story in summary in some five to ten minutes and then start to elaborate on the main story and the sub themes. Up to that point Christian Fonnesbech was a producer of interactive entertainment, advertising and educational content. He has directed and written for TV, created short films and worked as a script consultant for both TV and film companies. In Denmark he was one of the early cross media pioneers, combining internet with television and new papers ads for a bank. From 2000-2002, he co-founded and ran the interactive content studio Sjuzet and managed Congin from 2003 onwards. Since 2012 Christian Fonnesbech is creative director and partner in  Investigate North and worked on the development of the game Cloud Chamber for four years.

Convince yourself and have a look at the trailer and an earlier trailer.
The game will be available by Steam or digital distributors and cost 19,99 euro.

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