Carsten Kisslat, a game designer, writer and producer with almost 16 years of experience in the videogames industry, has joined the eRepublik Labs team as Lead Game Designer. Based in London, Kisslat has worked as an interactive entertainment consultant on games for PC, mobile, Nintendo DS, in addition to taking part in the development of award winning games such as: Gothic (PC), Gem Jam Fever (Mobile) and The Fall (Mobile).
“We are delighted to welcome Carsten Kisslat as eRepublik Labs’ Lead Game Designer. His award winning background in game design for all types of game platforms will be key in helping us to improve the gameplay experience of eRepublik.com. As Lead Game Designer, Carsten will report directly to me and be responsible, with his team, for designing new eRepublik.com game modules as well as future games,” says Alexis Bonte, Co-founder and CEO of eRepublik.
“I think browser gaming in general, and eRepublik especially, has great potential to change the way people play computer games. eRepublik’s mixture of Web 2.0, social gaming and strategy gameplay is a really innovative approach. It’s the perfect time to join the team and to help bring eRepublik to next level,” states Carsten Kisslat.
To view the full press release click here. You may also visit our press page for full press coverage.
Recently, a veteran member of eRepublik, Big Brother, decided to “sit down” and chat with eRepublik’s Co-Founder George Lemnaru. Given Big Brother’s history in the New World, his objective for this was not only to ask Geor
ge many of the questions that the community has been eager to get answers to, but also to make his already informative site just that much more interesting.
His questions ranged from personal to probing - from George’s typical day and favorite eRepublik memories, to new features and where George sees the game a year from now. Big Brother asked some pretty intense questions, and George answered.
When asked about his most memorable eRepublik experiences, one of the moments he shared was regarding the tension between Romania and Hungry both in-game and in real life, saying that, “…in the middle of the RO vs. HU war, the real life president of Hungary met with the real life president of Romania.” This was particularly impressive because it showed that people “do consider eRepublik -and especially the war module- as just a game and that in real life we are friends.” As far as his favorite in-game experience goes, George shared that he actually can’t play eRepublik, but can only work and vote, something that causes him “frustation.”
A summary really doesn’t do it justice, so be sure to read the full interview here.
Big Brother hopes to do more team interviews in the future.
eRepublik Labs announced today that it has reached the milestone of one million unique visitors per month, only eight months after the release of its public version. Given the popularity of the game, it is no surprise then that the massively multiplayer online social strategy game has also recently been ranked 22nd on the TechCrunch Europe Top 100 startups list. This is a constantly updated Index of the most innovative and highest-potential European tech companies. The Index is focused on mobile and web companies in the EMEA region. The scores and rankings are based on a sophisticated algorithm using information pulled in from thousands of online sources about early stage companies: traffic, mainstream media, funding information sources, the blogosphere, and other key factors.
eRepublik has also earned the title of “highly commended” (2nd place) for the TechCrunch Europa award of Best Entertainment Application or Service (EMEA). Over 400 entrants were voted on by the industry and these results merged with those from 19 expert advisors.
“We are certainly overwhelmed by the level of recognition we are receiving from the industry,” says Alexis Bonte, Co-founder and CEO of eRepublik. “We are really happy that both our community and the experts agree in the potential of our game. This is great affirmation for us as we keep developing and improving the New World.”
Among the latest developments in eRepublik is the citizen ads module, which allows players to advertise products or ideas within the New World. This new feature is an exciting addition that will not only make the game more dynamic, but will help it to even more closely resemble the real world.
“I can’t wait to see the first political campaigns for the next monthly elections in the 60 countries of the eRepublik world. I expect that with the addition of the citizen ads that the elections will be quite disputed and that new political parties will emerge,” says George Lemnaru, CTO and Co-Founder of eRepublik.com.
The New World’s social based game play allows it to spread virally in terms of content and users, with almost no distribution and content creation costs. Listening to its community, the eRepublik team has been able to make regular releases, adjust game-play, try new things and add new features so as to increase the vast number of options players have to interact among each other. Now, after recently celebrating its 600 days of existence, over 430,000 citizen accounts have been created and eRepublik has an active community of over 140,000 people who play frequently enough to keep their citizens alive and well. In June of 2009, www.erepublik.com received over 4.2 million visits and 103 million page views. In addition, during that month, citizens spent over 60 million minutes navigating the eRepublik world.
To view the full press release, click here. You may also visit our press page for full press coverage.
Every once in a while the New World is shaken by a global, worldwide war. Every war is important, but very few are able to change destinies and the shape of the world.
One of the major alliances in eRepublik, PEACE, decided to start a massive offensive yesterday to hunt down former members of Atlantis (a dying alliance which is falling apart). For now, Canada has been attacked, but rumors around the world speak of the wiping-out of the USA and Spain as an ultimate goal. Atlantis may be ripping apart into several smaller alliances, but the old friendships remain the same. In the battle for Nova Scotia we have the attackers France, Italy, Portugal, Indonesia, Iran, Hungary, Argentina and Turkey. Defending the lands of Canada there are Sweden, Norway, Spain, USA, Malaysia, Romania, Germany, United Kingdom and Poland. As you can see, countries from all continents are involved - this is a true world war.
The battle for Nova Scotia started with PEACE countries hitting hard, so that after just a few hours the defending troops found themselves pushed way back. Given the impressive march of the attackers against nine countries, it looked like everything was lost for the defenders, but no! Slowly but surely the defending countries recovered lost ground and after a heroic conquer of “No Man’s Land” they swept away PEACE armies. But the balance soon started oscillating back and forth, with nine hours to go it was clear that this battle would be decided in the last minute. You’ll want to have your eyes on eRepublik starting at 10.00 (eRepublik time), day 602, to see the final efforts put in this epic battle!
This battle might be the beginning of a long war which, once again, will reshape the New World.
Another new addition has made an appearance in eRepublik - the personal invitation link. Located on the “Invite friends” page, you can obtain a unique code which is used by the system to identify people invited by you. This means more friends in the New World, and the ability to be rewarded with more Gold too. Friends can still be invited as in the past, but now with the personal link, all you need to do is copy-paste your link and share it in any way you consider appropriate: by email, by posting it on your blog, by sending an IM, etc. It can be used as a signature on the forums you visit, as well as your messenger status. From this point on, everything is as it was before - once your friend follows the link, registers and reaches level 6, you will be awarded 5 Gold. So far people say they are posting it “everywhere”…..where will you post it?
Two weeks ago, Paris hosted a French eRepublik “Elder’s Council” in the Klein Holland bar, very close to Île de la Cité. A total of 17 citizens participated - the majority of which included vetran players (five were ex-presidents and many others were important historical figures). However, the meeting was also directed to the newer generation. Citizens born during the “bébé” boom at the end of April were adopted by the versed veterans. The older players took pleasure in answering the questions of the next generation, who have already started holding great responsibilities in France. Many of them are congressmen or even party presidents.
The group had a discussion agenda that included plans on how to deal with citizenship, Spaniards and inappropriate comments, and on who should become the next French president (with Mavie75 and Papa Frantz being among the favorites). The most heated debate was around the French Constitution, its newest applications and controversial articles, with the already famous 40th article on top of the list. Also a preferred topic of discussion was that of the latest military actions of the French as they managed to border Hungary while bringing peace to Germany.
The citizens fantasized about becoming admins and showed their good knowledge of eRepublik laws (as seen in the pictures here), including an 11th which they added themselves: eFrance is the best country in the New World!
ph03n1x, Clow, Fleur de Lotus, num, Mavie75, Melkion, Guibrit, Leon Blum (though he stayed in a Chinese restaurant), meza, Azaret, Ginman, bolanwasright, aguellid, xa2008, Papa Frantz, Jebbidle (the citizen in charge of the French Conscription) and Hober all agreed they should see each other again in early August, but with Mavie75 as master of ceremonies!
by Titu Maiorescu
Have you ever considered joining the eRepublik Team? Or do you know someone who might be? In order to increase our international team, we are looking for a highly motivated, organized Spanish speaking Community Moderator, with a strong desire for working collaboratively in a team, and able to complete tasks from start to finish with little supervision. It is a full-time position in Madrid, Spain.
Areas of responsibility include interacting with fan sites, supervising future eRepublik Game Moderators, and assisting in various other gaming events such as fan fairs and player gatherings. The ideal candidate would be an avid eRepublik fan with experience as a member or moderator of a forum-based community, a strong understanding of popular social networking trends on the Internet, as well as a desire to implement new projects.
To view the full job description, please visit our jobs page. As for CVs - please send them to hr@erepublik.com
