IGDA Finland Industry Spotlight: Grey Area

Last Tuesday's January Gathering was delightfully sponsored by Grey Area creator of Shadow Cities the world's first real-location MMORPG for the iPhone.  IGDA Finland had a chance to catch up with CEO Ville Vesterinen and chat about Grey Area and what he calls "the next step in Social Gaming," Shadow Cities.

What's Grey Area's story? How did it get started and what was the motivation for starting the Grey Area?

The company was founded in 2008 by three friends, Andreas Karlsson, Mikko Hämäläinen and Teemu Tuulari. All avid gamers, they had been talking about a game they would love to play, but which nobody had yet made. A game which would understand cities as game boards and social games in their larger context as part of our day to-day wherever we might be roaming. This would not only change the gaming space, but would impact our everyday behavior around our very own neighborhoods. And since not knowing any better, Teemu, Andreas and Mikko decided to make one. Read more about the Grey Area crew.

A game which would understand cities as game boards and social games in their larger context as part of our day-to-day wherever you might be roaming.

Your new game Shadow Cities is a MMORPG for the iPhone. You call it the "Next step in step Social Gaming." Can you explain a little bit about why you think that?

"Next step in Social Gaming" in the Shadow Cities context means that it changes the way you connect with people around you, whether at home or at work. It gives a new meaning to the neighborhoods through new social connections that build around these locations. These social connections are not anymore limited to the neighbor downstairs and your family members, but there are teams members and enemy mages all around. There's the cunning Level 12 enemy mage just next door and a friendly team member up the street who always engage in fierce battles right around dinner time and again after they have put the kids to sleep. Or the fierce Fire mage who's always defending his Dominator towers during your walk back from the local grocery store.

It [Shadow Cities] gives a new meaning to the neighborhoods through new social connections that build around these locations.

You mentioned that the plan is to launch Shadow Cities in the US by the end of Q1 of this year, any comments on your move to the US market?

Yes, we are currently in the process of closing funding to be able to bring in more super skilled game developers to ramp up the game at the same time preparing for the US launch.  There's already tons of pent up demand in the US and Asia and people have been writing to us from day one wanting to try out the game. We want to make sure we have everything ready when we start to roll out in the US, thus we released the game first to Finland so we can balance the gameplay. We are really happy how it has played out and are now making the last tweaks.

For those who have not tried the game and have an iPhone what would you say to persuade them to give Shadow Cities a try?

I would challenge them to try out a gaming experience that they have never tried before. It ties in the familiar locations and daily commutes into a whole new experience. It's really an MMORPG at it's best, but still so fresh. A word of warning though, once you get in, it's very hard to stop ;)

Anything else you would like to mention about Grey Area?

Yeah, since we are growing very rapidly, we are also currently hiring and looking for talented game developers to join us that look for new adventures to embark on. Grey Area is a very fast growing game company, where you can change the way mobile games are played for all of us, globally. If you have the passion, this is a very exciting opportunity to make a dent in the universe. We'd love to hear from you at greyarea@greyarealabs.com. Check out jobs available.

Well there you have it, special thanks to the Grey Area crew for partnering with us and helping to create another great IGDA Finland Gathering!

If your in Finland and have an iPhone don't forget to check out Shadow Cities in the iTunes App Store.

If YOU or YOUR COMPANY would be interested in sponsoring an IGDA Finland Gathering send an email to sonja . kangas @ igda.fi.

Additionally if you would like to be featured in an IGDA Finland Industry Spotlight email collin . foss @ igda.fi.