Kotaku
After the first of this week's Indie Picks fingered the bizarrely named (but rather smart) Deadly Rooms Of Death, the second pick for worthy, but underpublicized PC independent game goes to Pocketwatch Games' PC ecological sim Venture Arctic.
Andy Schatz's one-man band effort, a sequel to the similarly interesting Wildlife Tycoon: Venture Africa, acts as a sort of Al Gore-ish god game, in which "...the player controls the forces of earth, sun, wind, and water to bring summer and winter to polar bears, orcas, and more." You need to manipulate nature, and the modeling of ecosystems has brought a unique angle to the regular 'tycoon'-style game.
Most of all, you can "...experiment with how animal relationships change when the weather is unseasonably warm or when a species is knocked out of the food chain... strategies for success revolve around understanding the authentic animal behaviors and the challenges of ecosystem stewardship." So, Douglas Adams' 'Last Chance To See' meets Black & White, then? Fascinating.
Venture Arctic: Official Website [Pocketwatch Games]
Comments
one mand band??
"Pocketwatch Games employs a small number of contractors to make our games. Andy is the sole full-time employee of the company."
Black and white meeting Last chance to see makes me think of some giant macro animal which is simply too big for its environment causing sheer havoc in its world.
Which in it self, would be better then black and white 2 in all regards.
@gique: A small giggle when I read that on the site as well. And yet the site was probably written by the fellow, so he uses the royal "we" and "our". Perhaps Andy is an omniscient being, present in both our world and the next, fanning the fires that power our very existence and reality.
Your mention of "Last Chance to See" reminded me that this year, one of the critters Adams wrote about in the book (specifically, the Yhangtze River Dolphin I believe) is believed to have gone extinct. Very sad bit of trivia for everyone.
Hmm, looks interesting. And since this is a political game(he mentioned Al Gore:P), I present this amazing game. [www.newsgaming.com]
keep it coming, i love these things.
@dtroyt: Really?! That's very sad . . . I remember doing a presentation about them in class ten years ago. It's heartbreaking to know that they're extinct now in such a short period of time.
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