Ballot Bots Game Launches for BBC Radio 1 Newsbeat

Auroch Digital, through it's innovative newsgame initiative GameTheNews has been working with BBC Radio 1 Newsbeat to produce a game tied in to the upcoming UK general election. The final result is 'Ballot Bots', a light-hearted game aimed at engaging an audience facing it's first election. The game itself is a fun, puzzle-style game in which you have to pair up the Politician bots with their respective Voters, collecting bonuses along the way which allow you more moves, and answering questions for bonus points. These questions both inform and challenge the player to take up an interest in the world of politics. The player works their way towards Downing Street through various different zones which have been highlighted as key points within this election. They are; Education, Immigration, Housing, Cost of Living and the NHS. The game features politicians from all the main parties and the regions plus has a special Northern Ireland themed level. The game is available on the BBC's new interactive Taster service, which aims to promote digital and technology content.

Play the game here.
See Newsbeat's coverage of it here.

Just 60 Minutes to Save the World as Chainsaw Warrior: Lords of the Night Launches to Mobile and Tablet

Chainsaw Warrior: Lords of the Night, the sequel to the cult Games Workshop classic Chainsaw Warrior, gets its metal teeth into mobile and tablets today. Last time he saved New York, now he must save the whole world! This new incarnation finds the eponymous hero once more called on to complete a desperate mission against all odds. He must fight through the jungle, face hordes of Aztec Zombies, dodge deadly traps and finally hunt down the extra-dimensional horror known only as Darkness. To ramp up the challenge; there is just 60 minutes to complete this deadly mission. As Tomas Rawlings, Design & Production Director at Auroch Digital, remarked, “Chainsaw Warrior earned its cult status for its healthy dose of chainsaws, zombies and death – generally the player's death. Fans told us they loved that about the game, how often you die. We've listened and given them more mortality-based opportunities. The game was a great challenge back in 1987 and now with Lords of the Night we've build an experience where it is fun to die again and again – and the payoff when you finally win is such a great feeling of success!”

Chainsaw Warrior: Lords of the Night features three new decks packed with exciting traps and enemies, new weapons and equipment and new gameplay to challenge players at every turn. The game is packed with challenges and difficult decisions plus new mechanics such as the hard-won blessings to help you reach Darkness - or die trying! Equip yourself with new firearms, new chainsaws and the trusty the laser-lance as you once more fight through the hordes to Darkness and on to victory. The game has three challenging difficulty settings, including classic for those who want the truly gruelling experience of the original board game.
The game is out now on for iPhone and iPad at the App Store and on Google Play for Android at $5.99/€5.99/£4.49. For more information, visit the Chainsaw Warrior website at ChainsawWarrior.net. Stay in the loop with Chainsaw Warrior by following Auroch Digital on Facebook and Twitter.

Coverage (so far):

• Pocket Tactics
• Gamezebo
• Vivid Gamer
• 148 Apps
• Bigmid
• Invision Community
• Gamers Hell
• Touch, Tap, Play
• African Gamer
• Wire News
• Analog Index
• Android Community
• Android Blizzard
• Pete the Walrus
• Gamenguide
• Gamasutra
• BoardGameGeek
• Develop Online
• Topix
• XantarMob
• Only Android News
• Indie Games Weblog
• Christ Centered Gaming
• Slide to Play
• Droid Gamers
• Red Thirst
• Games Workshop
• Android Headlines
• Die Hard Game Fan
• UnlockedPwd
• Amongst Geeks
• More to follow...

Chainsaw Warrior: Lords of the Night Hits Steam for Windows, Mac and Linux.

17th February 2015: Chainsaw Warrior: Lords of the Night, the sequel to the cult Games Workshop classic, Chainsaw Warrior, hit Steam today. In this new incarnation we find Chainsaw Warrior once more called on to save us from an unending night. Last time he saved New York,  now he must save the world! Fight through the jungle, face hordes of Aztec Zombies, dodge deadly traps and hunt down the extra-dimensional horror known only as Darkness. Once more there is only 60 minutes to complete this desperate mission. As Steve Martin, designer and writer at Auroch Digital, puts it, “With tonnes of new enemies and traps Lords of the Night will be Chainsaw Warrior’s toughest challenge yet.”

In this fast paced digital adventure, every decision counts, from the moment you pick your gear to either you or your enemy’s final breath of life. Featuring three new decks packed with exciting traps and enemies, new weapons and equipment and new gameplay to challenge players at every turn, while new mechanics such as the hard-won blessings will help you reach Darkness - or die trying! Equip yourself with new firearms, new chainsaws and the trusty laser-lance as you once more fight through the hordes to Darkness and on to victory. The game has three challenging difficulty settings, including classic for those who want the truly gruelling experience of the original board game.

The game is out now on Windows, Mac and Linux at Steam for $5.99/€5.99/£4.79. For more information, visit the Chainsaw Warrior website at ChainsawWarrior.net. Stay in the loop with Chainsaw Warrior by following Auroch Digital on Facebook and Twitter.

Reviews and coverage:

Graal
Nerd Maldito
RockPaperShotgun
Angry Centaur Gaming
C+2 Magazine
Gry Online
Apprehensive Gamer
Scott Dog Gaming
Binary Option Evolution
Game Debate
the Shelter Network
Horror News Network
The Needs
tr1ppa's Youtube playthrough
lamaslany's Youtube playlist
Got Game
Games Workshop
Invision Community
Gamerevolution

Auroch Digital's GameTheNews.net Listed in Nominet 100

Auroch Digital are honored to have been included in the 2014 Nominet 100 - a list of technology organisations, companies and individuals doing amazing things for the social good with tech. Auroch Digital were included for their GameTheNews.net project, which is exploring newsgames as a means of engaging people with real-world issues via gaming. There is more information on the nomination here and the full list is here.  Develop also covered the announcement.

NarcoGuerra Shortlisted for a Media Innovation Award!

Auroch Digital's GameTheNews.net title, NarcoGuerra, a news game focusing on the War on Drugs in Mexico, has been nominated for an award in the Games category in the 2014 Media Innovation Awards. It is a real honour to be nominated alongside the other inventive and interesting projects released in the last year; Cbeebies Playtime (by Mobile Pie) and the Daredevil Project. NarcoGuerra is a game that we are very proud of. The attention it received and (more importantly) the debates it provoked gave us confidence that we had delivered on our remit of producing an informative and engaging game while dealing with a very sensitive subject matter.

NarcoGuerra - our newsgame looking at the War on Drugs.

Media Innovation Awards logo.

Chainsaw Warrior Competition Results

Huge thanks to all who entered our Chainsaw Warrior video competition. We've had fun looking though the results and it's time to share those with you all. We're going to announce the winner and also two 'honorable mentions'. So without further a-do the winner is....

Robert Turner's Let's Try Chainsaw Warrior (Winner!) This totally captured the brutal difficulty of the game. When it was released as a solo boardgame in 1987, you didn't want to get it home and complete it on the first run. Hence the game was designed to be hard, damn hard... Robert's run shows that - after extensive preparation for the most dangerous mission of his life he meets one of the most dangerous monsters right at the offset - Meat Machine - and get's chewed up. Classic.

(We also recommend checking out Robert's channel too!)

Honorable Mention - Scott Grieg's Run #2 Part 2 This was a great run. A tough fought mission (part 1 is here) that shows the brutal and unending waves of enemies the game throws at you. Scott does a sterling job, in the spirit of Chainsaw Warrior, of taking on the challenge and it's hard going, but he's making progress until... the Slime. Dang.

Honorable Mention - JMich's Damned Suicide Agents Another tough fought run. Things are going well, progress is being made until we meet a tough Mutant Thing who proceed to chew up poor CW while dosing him with radiation. Before long there is too much damage done and either accidentally or deliberately (??!) John activates the explosive vest and boom! No more mutant thing but Darkness is still out there...

We hope you enjoy the results as much as we did. Thanks again all for entering! If you want to have a go yourself, Chainsaw Warrior is out on Steam, iOS and Android. You can also sign up for the mailing list too (as there is much more good news on the way!)

Copy of Classic 1987 Board Game 'Chainsaw Warrior' Up for Grabs for 'Best Playthrough'

The developers of Games Workshop's classic board game 'Chainsaw Warrior' for Steam, iOS and Android announced that they have a copy of the rare original game plus the expansion cards from White Dwarf issue 88 up for grabs. The game was originally released in its physical form back in 1987 and is a classic piece of gaming history – a rare solo board game which pitted the player against the clock.

The digital version was released last year creating excitement and nostalgia with fans who fondly remembered playing it as well as converting new fans to the title. In 'Chainsaw Warrior' the player takes on the role of a cybernetic soldier as he attempts to save New York from dire peril – and in only 60 minutes. The original was noted for its challenging solo gameplay – an aspect that has been preserved in the digital version.

To win a copy of the game, players need to record a play session and submit a video link to the developers via gtn at aurochdigital dot com – the best submitted run-through of the game (on any platform) will win the prize. The developers will be marking on score, style and aggression as Auroch Digital's Tomas Rawlings explains, “Chainsaw Warrior is a battle against the odds; not only is time against you but also hordes of zombies, mutants and others creatures – plus there are traps, radiation and poison to content with. We'd love to see your choice play-throughs showing how you defeat Darkness and if it's the best of the best, we'll be sending you a copy of the original game, a real collectors’ item!” Entries need to be submitted by 17th August to be considered.

To celebrate the competition, Chainsaw Warrior is on sale for a short period (Steam, Apple App Store, Google Play). To keep in the loop with the project you can like Auroch Digital on Facebook or follow them on Twitter. The game's information page can be found at chainsawwarrior.net and there is a new Reddit forum for the game at: reddit.com/r/chainsawwarrior/

Time go get moving as you only have 60 minutes to save New York! #ChainsawWarrior

Coverage:

• pockettactics.com

• 148apps.com

• myigadget.com

• indiegamereviewer.com

• horrornewsnetwork.net

• hotgmc.com

• newscanada-plus.com

• pocketgamer.co.uk

• post-apocalyptic.com

• arcanapost.com

Fun, Frantic and Free, Camelina Caper Releases Today on iOS and Android Tablets

Take control of Gerald, a fish living in dangerous, jellyfish infested waters, desperately collecting chains of algae to keep the timer running and the score counter ticking, and grab the Camelina flowers for a quick boost. You’ll need speed and precision to achieve high scores, so challenge your friends to see if they’ve got what it takes to beat you!

Camelina Caper, the latest project from GameTheNews.net, is a light hearted glimpse into the work of Rothamsted Research, produced for the BBSRC Great British Bioscience Festival exhibit Alpha & Omega; making fish oils in GM plants. The exhibit will be first showcased at Cheltenham Science Festival Explore Zone on the 7th-8th of June 2014.

Omega-3 fish oils are beneficial for our health and can help reduce our risk of heart attacks. However, they are a finite and limited resource. Looking into solutions for sustainable sources of omega-3 fish oils, Rothamsted Research scientists have modified Camelina plants to accumulate omega-3 fish oils in their seeds.

Camelina Caper is now available for free on Apple and Android tablets.

Coverage so far...

• The Guardian
• PocketGamer
• vividgamer.com
• invisioncommunity.co.uk
• n4g.com
• ggsgamer.com

GameTheNews to Join Europe‘s First Newsgames Hackathon

The New York Times’ most popular story of 2013 was not an article. It was an interactive quiz. The Times They Are A-Changin. Games as the defining medium of the 21st century are obviously starting to disrupt journalism. In order to accelerate this process the independent game studio, the Good Evil and the Cologne Game Lab are organising Europe‘s first Newsgames Hackathon in Cologne, Germany this spring.

Journalists, programmers and game designers are invited to conceptualise and produce working prototypes in 48 hours. The results will then be presented during this years Clash of Realities, an international acclaimed computer game conference.

The young genre has already been tried out worldwide by innovative media companies like The New York Times, Huffington Post, Wired, BBC, Channel 4, The Guardian and Le Monde.

“In a clear distinction to classical linear approaches Newsgames allow the interactive experience of content and are very well suited to explain systems“, says Marcus Bösch. The german journalist and co-founder of the Good Evil is the Hackathon's initiator.

For several years he has been busy exploring Newsgames. After having given workshops, talks and media appearances on the topic he, together with his game studio, has designed PRISM - The Game: Germany‘s very first Newsgame, published by Arte Future.

Now the Good Evil in cooperation with the Cologne Game Lab, an institute of the Cologne University of Applied Science, wants to bring together journalists, game designers and programmers on May 6th and 7th.  Dr. Tomas Rawlings from GameTheNews, shortlisted for a GamesIndustry.biz Innovation Award, will hold a keynote,“We see newsgames as a means of talking to gamers about the world around them in a language they understand. Games as a form has expanded and we're seeing them being put to use for everything from curing cancer to teaching maths. When it comes to news and current affairs we're right at the start of an exciting journey.“

Attendance to the event is free of charge. Anyone interested can apply online until March 20th: http://newsgames-hackathon.tumblr.com/applyhttp://newsgames-hackathon.tumblr.com/apply Participants from Austria or Switzerland can apply for a scholarship that covers travel and hotel costs thanks to the Neue Zürcher Zeitung and the Forum Journalismus und Medien in Vienna. Deutsche Welle, Germany‘s international broadcaster is the main media partner of the event.

Newsgames Hackathon. May 6th and 7th in Cologne, Germany. The results will be presented during this years Clash of Realities Conference on May 8th.

Coverage:

• gamezebo.com
• vividgamer.com