Upon opening my letterbox (yes, the real one) this morning I found a free copy of the current issue of the german c’t computer magazine. Why I got this one for free? Because it features the last release of Projekt “W” (Phase 1, v1.2). Back in september I got a mail from the editorial staff of the c’t magazine telling me that Projekt “W” (which is listed on their online download portal) made it into the preselection for the next c’t’ software collection to be featured in one of their future issues. This software collection is a regular feature of this magazine and is included in the printed issue several times a year, each time with a different motto. This time the motto was gaming, and since Projekt “W” had a very good rating over at their software collection they asked me if I’d give permission to them for publishing it on the next software collection DVD (as well as putting a screenshot and a small article on it in the printed issue itself). And since feedback and exposure are the only real way of motivation if you do freeware I didn’t hesitate one second.
One problem (and the reason why they asked for permission at such an early stage, the magazin goes onto the shelves this week) though is the fact that germany has pretty harsh laws in terms of video games and age restrictions. As soon as a game is released in a physical way you must get your game rated by the USK (Unterhaltungssoftware Selbstkontrolle - The official german rating board for video games) or otherwise you won’t be able to publish it officially, even if it’s a puzzle game about fairies and unicorns. So after collecting all games for the software collection, they had to be submitted to the USK for rating, and since it’s a software collection, the rating is deteremined by the overall highest age rating, which in this case is “ages 12 and up” (age ratings in germany).
So now Projekt “W” is featured in the printed issue of one of Europe’s most successful computer magazines (~350.000 sold copies for each issue) and the (small) article (see screenshot below), telling that it’s a very good looking and entertaining game, along with the screenshot on top of the page makes me kinda proud and happy and is a big source for me to speed up development on “Phase 2”. I’m not going to translate the whole article, but it tells about the games features (managing regions, hiring stuff, building armies, the big number of buildings, etc.) and praises the game’s visuals as well as it’s hotseat multiplayer mode. And yes, I would’ve benn a lot happier if the magazine would feature a relase of “Phase 2”, but due to my time restrictions it’s release is still far away, but maybe it’ll be featured in one of the issues of 2011, who knows!
