The first game out of Bergen has finally been released. Naval War from our good friends and competitors at Turbotape Game can be found on Steam, and the release party was this week. We were invited along with the rest of the game studios, local press, sponsors and others, and it was a blast.

The game itself is a hard core strategy game. Not the most accessible, but a fantastically realistic simulation that nonetheless is quite playable. Reading the manual is probably still recommended, though.

Later this year we are expecting Owlboy form D-Pad and Gravity run from badger punch to come out too. It seems that the first year of Bergen releases will be a busy one.

Spillmakerlauget arranges developers beer next week. This is an informal get-together for the video game companies in Bergen, as well as students of any subject somehow related (Art, programming, 3d and so forth), or any individual interested in games and the designing there of.

The event is held on the 25th of April, at Kvarteret in Bergen at 18:00 o’clock. Are you wondering whether you might be welcome here? Well… There will be alcohol, so you need to be at least 18. Other than that all you need is the interest. These events have started to gather quite a few attendants (About 30 last month), so you will have to take the initiative to blend in yourself as it is getting harder to notice who might be new.

So: Look for the guy with the sideburns at the event if you want me to introduce you to people. Well met to all you new devs.

This Monday Rain AS was invited to show off Dark Rain At Prøverommet at Bergen Kjøtt. Rudely we did not tell you about it on this blog, or indeed anywhere else. Why? Well: Prøverommet is an art exhibition. We were amazed that we were asked to participate, but I at least did not quite know what to expect.

The expo went well, and although we stuck out like a sore thumb we do have a painty arty style. A lot of people played the game, and we got a lot of positive feedback from an extremely artsy crowd.

In the picture is Marte, our new, young aspiring writer. She has just started, but she has already read up on all the lore for our world, and proofread this entire blog. For you reading the posts on Facebook, or on rain-games.com: The posts are originally posted on Tumblr, and corrections unfortunately do not carry over the system we have set up. Sorry.

The facilities used for the occasion is the open area in the middle of Bergen kjøtt. The building is really old. Originally created to handle Meat import and distribution, but re purposed several times, and now holds an artist community. It is a strange mismatch of visible piping, and beautiful old wallpaper as can be seen trough the display of Dark Rain on the wall. The rest of the exhibition is not visible in the picture, because we were placed on sort of a podium over the rest of the event. Nice view.

If things work out you can all expect to hear more from Marte, as she may be taking up part of written communication to you all.

Maybe you wonder what kind of event The Gathering is?

Well: Each year about 5100 people take their computers and come to Vikingskipet (The Viking ship), the gigantic skating arena built for the 1994 Olympics, and set them up in a gigantic network supplied by the event.

The event is organized by KANDU, and typical for Scandinavian organizations arranging youth events, it is a volunteer organization. This one, however, is made up of our fellow friends; the nerds.

At TG a lot of events and competitions are constantly running. Pro gaming, Creative contests, and a lot of non-gaming related stuff as well. It is always a blast.

Consider visiting it if you ever are in Norway at Easter. From what I hear Magnus Holms Nerf Events will be returning again next year too.

Here is a closeup so you can see which one is Magnus. (The guy to the right with the makeshift cogwheel pin made out of bikeparts.)

Also: What does Magnus Holm do at Rain? He makes the levels, heads playtesting and does some diverse writing and game design.

He is also a pirate, a gentleman and a mad steampunk doctor… That is to say: He is a Cosplayer. With swagger.

Here at Rain we are finally back from our vacations. Most of us just used the time to relax with friends and family, but not Magnus. Here he is at Norway’s biggest computer network event “The Gathering”, Chief of the nerf side-events. I am told there were no survivors.

Foto by Trude Kraft

Over the last Month we at Rain AS have been using a lunch arrangement where someone made lunch for the rest. This led to healthier, cheaper food, and socialized eating away from our computer screens. Fredrik, one of our programmers, got frustrated with my increasingly complicated Excel sheet meant to keep track of who’s turn it was, and he created a web hosted program to do it for us.

Waaay too neat for it’s mundane use…

For the next level in the tower we are introducing some new mechanics. One will involve polarity generating flowers. The player will have a new power in his arsenal as well, so puzzle complexity will increase accordingly.