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National Geographic Getting Into Video Games
penguin_dance writes "The AP is reporting that National Geographic is getting into video games. National Geographic Games, a subset of the parent company, will 'work with game publishers to turn its material into games for PCs, consoles and handheld devices.' The first title is out for the PC and iPhone. It's a hidden-objects game called Herod's Lost Tomb, and is built around their program on King Herod and an article in the magazine. They also plan to publish and distribute games for the console market, including PS3 and Wii, and the handheld market as well. 'The games will be drawn from a broad range of content and themes across National Geographic's properties.' National Geographic: Africa will be out next month, from Sony. Other upcoming titles include Rain Forests and Greencity. Also available this month will be National Geographic: Panda for the Nintendo DS."
Joey
National Geographic games: rated Adults Only for scenes of intense animal violence and occasional photos of tribal women in traditonal garb showing their boobies.
I heard Majestic Studios is looking for some work, AND they have an amazing graphics department. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Limbo_of_the_Lost)
Well, at first I was like "WTH? This is gonna suck..." but after thinking about it and seeing a game based on Herod, I thought "Why not?". A lot of younger people are not familiar with many of the biggest figures of antiquity, a game could help tremendously improve that knowledge, even for people who DO know who Herod is, they can always learn more. I have a friend named Ramcees(not written Ramses) and really most of the time people react to his name, they think about the CONDOMS, not even the Pharaohs! That's what I men when I say it could help...
Herod's Lost Tomb has been out on Game Socks and Big Fish Games since around last Thursday or so - for Windows and Mac - but unfortunately doesn't seem to be setting the world on fire. The bar is set pretty high when it comes to puzzle / hidden object games these days. And Herod's Lost Tomb is an untypically large download for a casual game (150 MB), which may deter some players.
having looked at the screen shots for Herod's Lost Tomb, and having played History Channel's Great Battles of Rome, i have to say i'm not too impressed with these TV-based educational games. educational games are simply a bad idea in the first place. aside from Oregon Trail, i can't think of any other educational game that delivers on its promises of making learning fun.
perhaps it would be different if National Geographic established their own internal development studio and actually invests in it by hiring good in-house developers. however, contracting outside developers to create IP-based games will inevitably result in bland and poorly developed shovelware--just like majority of licensed games.
good games have to come from developers who are passionate about the title they're working on. this is much more likely to happen if the game is an original creation of the studio developing it since the developers are given creative input and are free to try out their own ideas. but with IP-based licensed games, developers are simply contracted to implement other people's ideas and are given very little creative control.
at least with something like a comic-book character or famous franchise like Star Wars or Gundam it's still possible for the developers to get excited about their work. but how is any developer supposed to get excited about creating a game based off of a NatGeo TV special? it's such a blatant money grab. the games will no doubt be produced as budget titles aimed at little kids in kindergarten or 1st grade.
"having looked at the screen shots for Herod's Lost Tomb, and having played History Channel's Great Battles of Rome, i have to say i'm not too impressed with these TV-based educational games. educational games are simply a bad idea in the first place. aside from Oregon Trail, i can't think of any other educational game that delivers on its promises of making learning fun."
What? You never played Rome:Total War? There's even a reality mod for the thing.
Shai Schticks:"You don't make peace with friends, you make peace with enemies"
Rome:Total Realism
Shai Schticks:"You don't make peace with friends, you make peace with enemies"
There's already a bunch of discovery channel or whatever (some documentary channel at least, not sure they even show it here) games and they all suck. Multiplatform to all consoles, high price (60€ for a freaking Wii game, Nintendo has been going below that for quite some time now! If you complain about Nintnedo eating your sales maybe you should at least make sure you don't price higher than them!) and apparently very low quality.
In fact picking "Africa" and "Panda" sounds like attempts to cash in on that PS3 Africa game and the recent Kung-Fu Panda movie.
Justice is the sheep getting arrested while an impartial judge declares the vote void.
...a FPS game based on the National Geographic articles that depict the mating habits of gazelles. Edumacational!
The ESRB people are going to have a field day.
A morning without coffee is like something without something else.
Couldn't they possibly pick a better format than those borderline-idiotic "search the screen for tiny objects" games? It's like they watched people play adventure games and decided that since so many people spent so much time "hunting the pixel", that that was the bit players enjoyed.
The credits in Civilization Revolution on 360 list National Geographic - probably for the Civilopedia entry movies.
I mean, gosh, I love NatGeo, have for many years, but I immediately think, “for kids”—which is funny, because these days I think of games as being for young adults/adults. They will do well in a niche market.
Thinkingman.com New Media
Anything to keep it interesting.