[Tom Söderlund]

My name is Tom Söderlund, game designer/producer/developer from Stockholm, Sweden, but currently based in Boston, USA.

I started working with games professionally in 2000, when I co-founded a studio called It's Alive. We did pervasive games, mainly mobile location-based stuff. The game BotFighters was our only "hit" - although it received more attention from the press than from the public.


It's Alive was bought by Daydream. I quit and joined the small publisher Synergenix, who in turn was bought by Kayak Interactive, became Blaze, then was bought again by Oberon Media. Feels like those Russian matryoshka dolls...

We did a few games that made me proud along the way: the puzzler Pixudoku, the Slinky arcade game, and two Da Vinci Code games (developed by the awesome studios SouthEnd Interactive and Impressionware).


Then I quit Oberon and promised myself never to be an employee again. Big organizations tend to play it safe, and I want to create games that challenge our presumptions. I'd much rather create something disruptive than something well-polished. There's too much navel gazing in the commercial games business, and that's I love the independent games movement.

Right now I work on a location-based strategy game called Geo, and my own exergaming start-up Zyked.

I have 100's of game concepts/designs, and a handful of them that I think would be amazing if they were realized. If you are an artist or developer and interesting in collaborating, please let me know.

Regards,

Tom.

www.differentgame.org

[all]

Hi guys!

Thanks for good feedback, I totally agree.

There's a lot of details in the character profile A.I. that just isn't visible to the player, including:
- Physiology: e.g. gender, hair color.
- Personality: e.g. how violent they are, what kind of people they fall in love with.
- Social status: e.g. wealth.


My own main concern with the game, and the biggest challenge for next phase of development, I think is how to:
1) pace the game better, and
2) create gameplay before a crime has been committed.

My idea for the former is to have some kind of "mastermind" system that controls all characters (now they're all total anarchists!).

For the second problem, I'm thinking of maybe letting the player control a police car or something, and that you can be awarded for preventing crimes, as well as solving them.

All suggestions on how the game can be improved are very welcome!

Thanks,

Tom.

[Some cheats:]

OK, now is a somewhat playable version available here:

http://www.differentgame.org/games/crimecity/


It's something between a (dis-)proof of concept and a playable demo, I guess. Especially the pacing of the game leaves a lot to ask for: sometimes nothing happens, sometimes it's just a chaotic blood bath...

Some cheats:
Shift+Click to drag and drop people and weapons.
Ctrl+Click (Cmd+Click on Mac) to see statistics.


Enjoy!


Tom.

[Crime City]

Crime City is a game with procedurally generated homicidals. It's like a combination of Clue (Cluedo) and Sim City.

Every citizen has their own unique identity and psychological profile, generated by the game system.

Try the game at http://www.differentgame.org/games/crimecity/, scroll down for more info.