Back from Easter

Ah what a fine break we had for Easter.

The last few months have been intense to say the least. One of the truisms about being an Indie games developer is that you spend a lot of the time dealing with two competing pressures: Can we make the game awesome, and can we carry on paying ourselves!

Luckily we have a fantastic group of supporters in our investors. They share our vision to produce a really fab game about climate change that picks up where the original Climate Challenge left off and builds on the concept massively. The new game is on a global scale and should offer a very satisfying game playing experience. Like the original it won't be preachy. We all feel climate change is an incredibly important issue, but like you we don't like being preached to. Our agenda, if we have one, is to let you the player play with the options and make up your own mind on the best ways to tackle climate change.

And what about the science? Well this time we will have even more science in the game, but lots will be behind the scenes. That said however, there will be areas of data that for whatever reason we cannot get hold of - maybe it is not available to us gamer types, or perhaps it doesn't even exist. In those cases we will "guesstimate" from the probable data and will note in our science notes that the data is "iffy".

Climate Challenge 2010 is a game first and a science simulation a distant second. I hope that when you play our game it will get you thinking so you can go off and learn more, but what I really hope is that you have a damn good time and a lot of enjoyment from it :)

P.s. If you haven't yet - do join our Facebook group :)
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=92217565125

We are hiring!

Lead Artist / Art Manager

This is a senior role directing the creative vision, creating art assets and managing outsource artists for serious games at Red Redemption. Salary up to £34,000 + benefits and completion related bonuses.

The Role is based in Oxford, UK.

Must have

• Ability to flesh out basic concepts into full, distinctive, artistic visions that fit our games.
  
• Digital art capabilities, particularly for mock-ups and user interfaces.
  
• Knowledge of Photoshop and Illustrator.
  
• Experience doing art production for interactive games on at least one, preferably multiple, of the following platforms: Console, PC, Mobile, Online.
  
• Ability to produce work within and replicate a variety of art styles.
  
• Some 3D technical experience, preferably in 3D Studio Max or Blender.
  
• Strong portfolio of work, mostly digital.
  
• Ability to direct art and assure quality.
  
• Good communication skills with confidence in giving detailed useful instructions via email.
  

Desirable

• Adobe Flash knowledge is useful but not essential.
  
• Working relationships with a number of freelance artists.
  

Our ideal person will

• Provide creative direction and enforcement of look, feel and UI.
  
• Design and create product-related sales and marketing materials.
  
• Help find, review, and direct external art resources.
  
• Perform quality assurance on received art
  
• Manage and oversee the on-time completion and receipt of art assets
  
• Consistently deliver high-quality results on-time and on-budget.
  
• Help create concept documents and assets.
  

Contact: Please send your CV and work samples to ian at red-redemption dot com
2009-04-09T12:00:00Z

Join our Facebook group!

YOUR PLANET NEEDS YOU!

As I mentioned yesterday we are developing "Climate Challenge 2010" an exciting new global climate strategy game being launched in early 2010.

Well we are a small independent games company funding this game through our own hard work and the money from a small group of investors who believe as we do that exciting and engaging games should tackle real issues yet still be fun we are doing this without the support of a publisher - so the support from every single person really matters and can make a difference.

To help us get people involved we have set up a Facebook group for friends and fans of Climate Challenge 2010 and we want you to join!

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=92217565125

Come join us there and get involved in the discussions, get early access to the game and possibly get a chance to have your feedback included in the final product!

Able to talk!

Finally after months of hard work behind the scenes I am finally able to talk publically about our announced title "Climate Challenge 2010"(r).

Now that everything is out in the open I will posting regularly in a developer's diary and will also be posting interviews with each of the team. All content on this site will continue to be Creative Commons Attribution licensed, so if you would like to syndicate anything (or if you would like your own interview or behind-the-scenes) go for it!

Climate Challenge 2010 Announced

2009-04-07T12:00:00Z

Press Release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Gobion Rowlands, Chairman, Red Redemption Ltd
Tel: +44 (0) 1865 596 160 | Email: innovate@red-redemption.com

International investors fund Indie Games Company developing “Climate Challenge 2010”

Global strategy game puts our planet’s future in your hands

Oxford, England, April 7th 2009 - Award-winning indie games developers Red Redemption will launch PC title “Climate Challenge 2010” early next year. The new game mirrors the challenges that face the planet as we struggle to combat and reverse the potentially cataclysmic effects of climate change. Climate Challenge 2010 is the ambitious sequel to the massively successful flash game Climate Challenge, developed by Red Redemption and sponsored by the BBC, which has been played on-line by nearly 1 million people since launch in 2007.

Based in Oxford and partnered with Oxford University's Environmental Change Institute, Red Redemption (http://www.red-redemption.com) has captured a unique market niche making science based climate games that both provoke and challenge and are exciting to play. With credit lines limited and games publishers slow to invest in new games titles, Red Redemption have still managed to raise development funds from private investors on both sides of the Atlantic to expand their creative workforce and put Climate Challenge 2010 into production.

“With climate change an ever more pressing issue we wanted to make a game that put the power, and the science, firmly in the hands of the public.” explains company chairman Gobion Rowlands, “making a game that is both fun and yet true to the science is a tough challenge, but it's a powerful combination that really engages players with the issues.”

Speaking about their investors Gobion Rowlands says “We are delighted that our shareholders on both sides of the Atlantic have shown the confidence and vision to support us in bringing a game on an important and timely subject to a wide audience.”

# # #

Notes for Editors

Mini Biographies:

• MD/CEO: Klaude Thomas was formerly MD of Eidos Hungary and produced Battlestations: Midway for Eidos PLC before leaving to join Red Redemption in 2008.
  
• Creative Director: Ian Roberts was a former teacher before joining Red Redemption and has been lead designer on all of Red Redemption's games including the original Climate Challenge.
  
• Science Advisor: Hannah Rowlands worked on the ClimatePrediction.net project and completed her MSc in Environmental Change and Management at Oxford University before joining the company.
  
• Red Redemption was founded in 2000 to create exciting games and made a conscious decision in 2005 to concentrate purely on games that were ethical, brought real science, were family friendly and were fully featured games.
  

Interviews:

The following team members are available for interviews:

• Klaude Thomas MD & Producer
  
• Gobion Rowlands Chairman & Communications Director
  
• Ian Roberts Creative Director & Game Designer
  
• Hannah Rowlands In-house Games Climate Scientific Advisor.
  Team photos and Climate Challenge 2010 concept art are available on request.
  

  Contact:

  Gobion Rowlands FRSA
  

  Chairman, Red Redemption Ltd
  Oxford, UK
  +44 (0) 1865 596 160
  Email: innovate@red-redemption.com
  Website: www.red-redemption.com
  

  2009-04-07T12:00:00Z

Nintendo Authorised Developers

Red Redemption have been accepted as Authorised Nintendo Developers, initially for the DS but also for the Wii.

This is really exciting for us, as one of the issues of being such a small company was achieving this status independently as for most developers it happens via their publisher. The process took some 5 months, but we had assumed it would and so it has not delayed our development at all.

Things are really taking shape with our plans and I shall now be able to start talking a bit more about our experiences in this field. One of the frustrations is always about how open to be when talking about our plans, but things have been going really well and it is high time I started telling people about the ups and downs.

Also in related news we have successfully trademarked Climate Challenge in the UK, EU and US.

Cheers,
Gobion

Korean Games

I had the delight of entertaining a group of visiting Koreans today who were in the UK visiting sustainable businesses via the British Council, which as well as Red Redemption, included Marks and Spencer and the excellent Futerra.

The visit was at quite short notice, so I was not sure what would happen, but as it turned out I need not have worried.

They were all very familiar with the computer games industry, but were very keen to hear about how computer games could be brought to socially conscious themes, such as climate change.

It was intriguing for me to deliver a presentation via a translator, but I definitely learned quite a bit as well, which is one of the things I like most about lecturing. The Korean games industry is very sophisticated, but I was surprised to learn that there are no companies working in the socially conscious arena. From our side I said that I would love to partner up with one or more Korean games companies as I think the Koreans would really enjoy a sufficiently sophisticated and deep gaming experience.

I look forward to following the discussions up anon.

Change of Creative Commons License

Just a quick post to say that this blog is now licensed under the even less restrictive Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 UK License.


Behind The Iron Mask by Gobion Rowlands is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 UK: England & Wales License.

ECI Lecture Video

I've now uploaded the video of my recent lecture on Climate Change and Computer Games at the Environmental Change Institute, Oxford University.

You can watch the video [ HERE ] it is about an hour long and is an AVI file.

This video is released under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 UK License.

ECI Lecture on Climate Change and Computer Games

I gave a lecture today at the Environmental Change Institute as part of my role as an Associate Lecturer in Climate Change Communications.

The lecture was entitled "The Role of Video Games in Climate Change Communications" and was for the 2008/9 year of the Environmental Change and Management MSc students.

The lecture went really well and I will post a more detailed review of the interesting dialogue that came out of the meeting, but in the meantime I have also uploaded the lecture itself as a PDF in advance of a video of the lecture that I hope to have uploaded in a couple of days with the help of Ian.

The presentation is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Licence

Download the PDF [ HERE ] (PDF, 2864KB).