Omni-Labs

Eufloria HD out now on Android

Best iPad Game of 2012 Runner-Up Eufloria HD now available on Android devices via the Google Play store for $4.99/€3.99/£2.99

18^th December 2012: Omni Systems Ltd announced today that indie smash hit Eufloria HD is now available for Android devices via the Google Play store. Co-developed with fellow indie developer Tuna, Eufloria HD is an atmospheric, beautiful and addictive real-time strategy game that was recently the runner-up in the official iPad Best Game of 2012 list, and has earned a five-out-of-five stars user review average from players.

Eufloria HD for Android is the enhanced and evolved version of the 450,000-selling, BAFTA-nominated indie game Eufloria, with a 25-level Story Mode, a Relaxed Mode for a truly chilled-out experience and a stunning original soundtrack by Milieu. Android owners can also download a free demo version of Eufloria HD from Google Play available with five levels and a website link to purchase the full game.

Eufloria HD is a gorgeous-looking, easy-to-control and elegant strategy title that anyone can play - and the perfect game to show off the gorgeous new Google Nexus phone and tablet devices.

What the press has been saying about Eufloria HD:

"It's hard to express how much we love Eufloria" - Pocket Lint (App of the Day)

"Soothing ambient music, beautiful abstraction… one of the most enjoyably relaxing wars we've ever waged" - Mac Life

"The most stylish and unique strategy games you’ve ever seen" - AppAdvice

Eufloria HD features:

• Gorgeous high-definition visuals for Android devices
• Beautifully-designed touch-screen interface
• Game session in progress saving
• A 25-level Story Mode with many hours of gameplay
• Relaxed Mode for a more ambient experience which anyone can enjoy
• Skirmish levels that can be played again and again
• Dark Matter Mode for a stylish, more challenging way to play
• Original ambient soundtrack by Brian Grainger (Milieu)
• Procedurally-generated levels which are different every time
• Also available for BlackBerry PlayBook, iPhone and iPad
• More additions and great new features on the way in 2013!

Eufloria HD is now available for Android devices via the Google Playstore for $4.99/€3.99/£2.99.

Eufloria HD is already released on the App Store. Eufloria HD is also available on BlackBerry PlayBook.

About Omni Systems Ltd

Eufloria is published by Omni Systems Limited, Rudolf Kremer’s indie media production company. Omni has been set up as a new kind of independent games (and other media) company, offering an alternative to corporate restraints and rewarding developers in a way that traditional game development often does not allow. Additionally Omni produces and develops other media including screenplays, comics, PS3 Dynamic Themes and more, while also offering consultancy services ranging from interactive software development to consultancy on creating virtual spaces. Current projects of note are two new games: StarLit and Neopolis, a series of Sci-Fi dynamic themes for PlayStation 3 and a comic called Spire.

www.omni-labs.com

About Tuna

Tuna is an international award-nominated boutique indie game production company who specialise in developing projects for mobile, traditional gaming and on-line platforms. With many years experience in the field, Tuna have worked with a range of partners including marketing and advertising agencies, independent game developers, universities, and solo artists. Services include digital consultancy, concept development, production management, software development and establishing software development partnerships. Brands Tuna has worked with include Family Guy, Big Brother, Cadbury, Asteroids, Boulder Dash, and indie hits Alien Hominid and Eufloria on platforms as wide ranging as iPhone, iPad, Android, Facebook, Nintendo DS, Nintendo Wii, Microsoft Xbox 360 and Sony PS3.

www.tunahq.com

21 September 2012 Eufloria iPhone released, Bafta Nomination and BAFTA Guru QA, Eufloria Adventures announced, StarLit news, Speaking at GDC Europe LSWF 2012 .

February 13, 2012 Players give Eufloria HD overwhelming thumbs up!

October 06, 2011 Eufloria PSN Launched! Sense of Wonder Night Success!

05 June 2011 Eufloria at E3, Omni's first theme launched, a classical animated logo.

01 November 2010 StarLit announced, Eufloria ports and progress.

25 June 2010 Rudolf's Blog + New Game!

5 Dec 2009 Eufloria released to positive reception!

it’s truly in a league of its own”

19 Mar 2009 Going to the IGF (Crosspost from the Dyson website)

Within a few days Alex and myself will be on our way to San Francisco on our way to what I can only describe as a ?Dream come true? event. One moment we are entering a purely quality motivated small and fun competition, and a few months later we suddenly find ourselves up for several awards, including best game, at the prestigious Independent Games Festival. WHAT HAPPENED!!!??

A major reason why we have stuck with Dyson and why we feel so strongly about it is the superb and utterly supportive feedback we receive from you guys and gals. A great little community seems to have sprung up around the game and it is growing every week. We are completely humbled by the amount of people that play the game, February for example saw 50 thousand downloads from our site alone, not even including mirrors. Them?s silly numbers! 0_0

So a big thank you and virtual bear-hugs to all of you who have downloaded the game and those of you who are telling us what you think of it. Our forum deserves a special mention as it is such a fun and positive place. All we can do on our part is to try to make the game as good as we can, which something we are working very hard on. First the festival though, and will make sure there will be photos and footage of the event for readers of the blog to peruse. If you are visiting yourself please come by our booth and say hi! We will also for the first time finally meet our audio and music genius Brian Grainger (Milieu) in person. Such are the strange ways of web-based game development.

Anyway, to finish this post we want to share some news:

First: We have picked up a distribution deal with the sponsors of the festival, direct2drive, who in our opinion are building up a very impressive catalogue of independent titles for digital distribution. We are quite honoured that Dyson is deemed to be strong enough to feature alongside the other great games in the service. (Have a look, the selection is great!)

Second: Alex and I are enjoying working together so much that we decided to do another game together after Dyson. What this game will be is not going to be known for a while (even to us) but between us we have a wealth of ideas and concepts to choose from, all sound like good fun to us.

Right, have to pack my toothbrush now and prepare my laptop for Dyson demonstrations to press and other interested parties. We may or not be able to blog a bit while we are over there, keep an eye out on the major news sites anyways in regards to the general coverage of all the great games out there, but have a peek here once in a while you never know J.

04 Nov 2008 - Quick Update - General Progress - New Dyson

We are very busy indeed at the moment working hard on Neopolis and Project T. Neopolis is really growing and in a few weeks we will show you much more about the game and our plans for it.

The wacky Rudolf and Alex have been working hard to get their indie game Dyson ready for the Independent Games Festival, and made massive leaps forward. the game now has its own website where the latest version can be downloaded and houses a development blog to tell you all you neeed to know. Why not have a look now?: http://www.dyson-game.com/

01 Aug 2008 - Site Update - Neopolis Posters, Guardian Dyson Love

The most excellent Aleks Krotoski has this funky feature on the Guardian website called Game Pitch, where she asks indie developers 10 elevator pitch questions about their current p[roject. Well, Alex and Rudolf have been answering questions about Dyson so get thee over there and have a look :-)

Neopolis news

Work on Neopolis continues nicely. Martin is creating a great artstyle, oscar's engine is shaping up nicely, and I am confidenbt the design is up to it. :-) To make things nice however we have descided to lift the veil a tiny bit and are releasing some posters for the game. (As opposed to telling you in words what the game is about.) Have a look and see what the posters tell you. Additionally, the posters can be downloaded in a massive size so if you are so inclined you can turn the art into a proper print!

Have a look at this!

29 Jun 2008 - MEGA Site Update - New Project Anounced, Project T art, Dyson News, Forum Added!

Right, time for a massive update. Let's start with an important addition to the website. We finally have an official Omni Forum. We will use it ourselves to provide feedback and info on our projects and it gives site visitors a platform to discuss things with us and with other visitors. Please go and check it out. We haven't decided on a final logo yet maybe you can help us choose? You can suggest your favourite on the actual forum.

Project T news

It has been quiet around Project T but that is not because we haven't been working on it. In fact work is progressing nicely and we are getting closer to securing the funding we need to do it justice all the time. To keep things interesting I decided to show some glimpses of the concept art, so have a look at this peek behind the curtain below, and look on the Project T page for more images :-)

Dyson news

Alex and Rudolf's Dyson game is going from strength to strength and is this month's Edge Magazine:

internet game of the month!

Alex put up a new version which supports fullscreen mode so give it a go if you haven't already.

Neopolis anounced!

Finally, last but not least, we want to anounce another Omni project called NEOPOLIS. We will be releasing more info on this game soon, but this is an exciting one for sure. Once again it is free to play and multiplayer and we are planning to release this before Project T. I want to say more but it is probably wise not to. Keep an eye on this space for updates.

26 Jun 2008 - Site Update

Voting has ended and Rudolf and Alex's Dyson game has claimed 2nd place in the Tigsource procedural game competition :-) Not bad since there were 60 competing games and in the end the result was very close. Rescue the Beagles won with 99 votes and they were a close second with 95. They will be developing the game further so keep an eye out, but in the mean time check out some new tree code Alex had been working on :-) Check out the video:

Additionally people are commenting on the game left right and centre.
Here is an actual youtube fan video

15 Jun 2008 - Site Update

Spotlight on Mike McCarthy
EDIT: This is no longer available! --> We have a new addition the website, it is called SPOTLIGHT and it is meant to focus attention on some of our collaborators. We will be shining the spotlight on a number of people, the first deserving target being the incredibly talented Mike MCCarthy, who is doing the first art on the Spire project. Here is a teaser but go and see for yourself :-)

04 Jun 2008 - Site Update

Dyson is doing very well indeed. reports are appearing quickly and the feedback is overwhelmingly good. Here are some examples:
Rock Paper Shotgun
Indiegamer Blog
Ascii Dreams
Yaruhara
I'd like to stress the fact however that the game is not finished yet. :-)We will keep on developing it, indeed we can't wait, but we want the competition to finish first. And remember, if you like the music, go and check out Milieu's website.

04 Jun 2008 - Site Update

Alex and I finished our entry for the Tigsource Procedural Game Competition and our entry is named Dyson. Dyson is a game that came from a number of ideas shared between us and is based on aspects of the work done by mathematician John Von Neumann as well as by mathematician and physicist Freeman Dyson.
That all sounds really boring however so have a look at this image:

The game has come out really well and is available for download on our PROJECTS PAGE. Please go and give it a whirl, feedback indicates that people really like this one so far. :-)
So go and have a look!

UPDATE! - The game has been picked up by the excellent indie game blog!

25 May 2008 - Site Update

Lot's of new stuff on the projects page, mosey on over and have a look at some of the things we are doing alongside Project T!

31 March 2008 - Site Update

Recently the the people over at freetoplay.biz have published a perfect companion article to the one we recently published here. It is called "Top 10 Free To Play Growth Killers" and makes for a good read!

29 Jan 2008 - Site Update

Welcome to the new look Omni-Labs website. The site has been completely revamped and is now looking more capable of dealing with the long-term plans we have in mind. Navigation should be pretty straightforward so have a play and see if it all makes sense. If you find any problems don't hesitate to send us an email.

Updates happen regularly so please check back for news at frequent intervals.

29 Jan 2008 - Article:
Ten reasons why the future of Free-To-Play MMOGs is bright

To celebrate the launch of the website of Omni-Labs we have decided to write a little top ten article. It lists in semi-random order ten reasons why we think free-to-play massively multiplayer online games (MMOGs) have such a bright future. (Bright enough to set up Omni-Labs and start developing one.) Even we were surprised at how easy it was to find ten reasons, and had to leave a few out in the end or merge several points into one.

Additionally, over the coming few months we will further explore these topics in ten follow-up articles, each examining one of the ten reasons in more detail. Hopefully you will this and future articles worthwhile.

1: Free-to-play is a proven concept
Although it is still often hard to get those new to the concept to understand, there are now more than enough successful endeavours out there to prove the validity of the free to play model. The likes of Dofus and Puzle Pirates (Both roughly 3 million users), Habbo Hotel ($77 million expected revenue this year) are just some of the well known ones, but the model can easily be recognised in the success of lesser-known products such as manager zone (Over 600,000 users)
In other words: the pioneers have shown that free-to-play works and that it can be extremely profitable.
This means we don't have to argue any more about the basic premise.
In fact, there seems to be no cap on how successful they can become if one looks at something like Club Penguin:

"The virtual world for kids 6-14 launched in Canada in 2005 and claims 700,000-plus paying members; subscriptions run about $6 a month or $58 a year. The site also makes money from virtual goods and other online merchandise sold through the site." Source: Forbes

Club penguin was sold to Disney in a deal worth $700 million.
It is hard to argue with numbers like that...

2: MMOGs can create huge user-bases
Free-to-play and MMOGs are a marriage made in heaven for a number of reasons. The most obvious reason is the clearly recognisable fact that MMOGs can by definition attract the large numbers of customers that free-to-play model thrives on. Whatever alternative revenue model is associated with the free MMOG (upgraded accounts, micropayments, competition money and so forth) it is more likely to succeed with a large user base. 'Large' is of course a relative term; one would require enough users to create the critical mass needed to fuel those financial transactions. MMOGs are geared towards this by definition.

3: MMOGs are also social networking services.
With the advent of applications like Facebook and MySpace the success of social networking sites and applications has been proven beyond doubt. What needs to be understood, however, is that MMOGs provide many of the same forms of social interaction and add extra value by providing virtual worlds and gameplay. Every MMOG is a virtual space that provides a service. Fundamental to that service is gameplay, but it would be wrong to focus on that exclusively. Gameplay is only part of the service and players will lose interest if it isn't accompanied by other things they are looking for. Most of those other elements are based on the same principles as social networking sites. Players want to be part of social groups, clans, classes, corporations. MMOGs make it easy to organise these players and provide opportunities for them to meet up and interact, often via gameplay but surprisingly often through other means like chat channels and community forums.

4: The market is ready, enormous and growing
The combined potential customer base of online games and social networking endeavours is absolutely massive. This isn't to say that we can just grab user numbers for the biggest success stories out there like Habbo, or Maple Story (estimated 50 million users) and add that to the social networking space numbers. What we can do however is look at the size and makeup of the potential market, and see what is currently going on on there. And one of the things that has become clear is that people now have become accustomed to these types of online worlds and spaces. It is normal to have a Facebook entry. It is normal to play a free Flash game. It is normal to buy MP3s via iTunes. And as the market grows up, it is becoming more normal by the day:

"At 91 percent, the vast majority of online gaming among kids ages 2 to 17 is free. Boys and kids in higher income households are more likely to fall into the minority group (9 percent) that pays to play. In addition, the older the child, and the more time that child spends on gaming per week, the more likely that child is to pay for games." (Source: NPD Press Release:)

5: Current technology can support it
It used to be conventional wisdom that the tech needed for a successful MMOG would be so prohibitively expensive that only cash-flush companies would even stand a chance of getting it to market. This is simply no longer the case. Technology has caught up with user numbers and this combination of a reachable audience coupled with ease and low price of development has changed things completely. The success of Dofus shows that Flash is now a feasible development platform. It looks great too! Similar numbers exist for Puzzle Pirates which was developed using Java, and at the humbler end of the scale, Maid Marian with games like Sherwood Dungeon seem to be doing well enough. Or what about the great success of a technically simplistic game like Hattrick? Spreadsheet browser gaming is not very sexy to some, but this little game boasts 800,000 weekly logins. These are all platforms that bring MMOG development within range of a far larger group of developers than was the case in the days of strictly huge and complex projects.

6: They are relatively affordable to produce
Point 5 brings us neatly to point 6: It can now be said, with some confidence, that it is possible to create a commercially successful and even good-looking MMOG without spending millions of dollars. For all the brouhaha around Habbo Hotel many people seem to forget that it was originally developed by two Finnish students on a shoestring budget. Sherwood Dungeon runs on 6 servers at $200 per month. The fact that it is no longer necessary to employ hundreds of people for years on end, and then maintain a live team of similar proportions means that (and this is crucial) relatively small user numbers are sufficient to turn a good profit. A Lost Garden blog entry opines the following numbers on these "Village Games".

Lost garden: A village game requires total investment of roughly $250,000 over an 18-month period. In essence, you are paying for the salary of the development team plus miscellaneous marketing and server expenses. At 18 months, your game starts making enough money to pay for your monthly expenses without having to go begging. A village game with 3 to 4 employees needs to maintain a customer base of roughly 6000 to 9000 users.

Those are numbers that put MMOG development squarely in the affordable bracket.

7: Free-to-play MMOGs Can focus on quality and niche appeal
Because of the nature of MMOGs and their development some interesting advantages come to light. One of the most important aspects of MMOGs is that they are often all about community. The developer sells a service, based on a virtual space that the users want to spend time in, to a community of players. Generally this means that the developer is in direct contact with the users themselves through user forums and the like. This is a huge advantage! Furthermore, these same people see themselves as stake holders. They actively WANT to participate in efforts to improve the experience. In the new ecomomy of free online entertainment it is no longer feasible to simply build it and hope that they will come. Instead, because free online entertainment content is ubiquitous, the developer must focus on quality and the needs of the players. That is the only way to differentiate the content from others and to stand out in a sea of mediocre or pointless free entertainment. Additionally, the developer can focus on a type or flavour of content that simply isn't available, and create niche appeal. This is good for both parties. If the developer is smart enough to listen to what the players want, and smart enough to see where their wishes aren't being met, then they have a massively effective market research tool right at their fingertips. Not many other businesses can claim this.

8: User generated content
Speaking of utilising customer feedback, why not go all the way and incorporate user generated content? Since MMOGs are all about community anyway, and much end game content is fuelled by social factors, user generated content is a perfect fit for MMOGs. In some cases this the secret of the game's success. Although not free-to-play, Eve Online's universe works well because it facilitates all important in-game actions to be instigated by players. Where the success of user generated content really impresses however is in the rampant success of Second Life. They recently received $11 million in funding and claim that:

Linden lab press release: "Second Life has grown to over 165,000 residents with an economy worth over US$60mm per year. With thousands of Second Life creators building more complex and engaging content, we are rapidly moving toward a mainstream global market," said Philip Rosedale, CEO of Linden Lab. "The support of Globespan confirms what everyone who has experienced Second Life knows ?the metaverse has arrived, and is growing quickly."

9: There are many revenue streams open to free-to-play MMOGs
It is surprising how little emphasis this rather important point is given at times. It is nonetheless one of the most important factors in realising the great opportunities that exist out there for developers. Rather than listing the many ones I can think of I will link to an excellent post already written by the people at freetoplay.biz. listing their Top Ten revenue Models. And that list isn't even exhaustive; they have, for example, excluded spinoff content based on the IP like animated shows (Dofus), books (No doubt Warhammer Online) and who knows what else.

10: The market is screaming for new and non-derivative content
This last reason is somewhat controversial as I don't have any data to back this up. Nonetheless I am going to express my views on this anyway. As a game developer myself I am always keen to listen to what the actual gamers themselves have to say about a subject. And one subject that is popping up more and more is that people are suffering from clich? fatigue. How many Tolkienesque MMORPGs have to fail before it is understood that that market is cornered by the big hitters? Same goes for SciFi MMORPGS with nearly identical grind-driven play mechanics. At the moment many companies and investors are blinded by the incredible success of some huge games.

Alex May says:: "Trying to make a small FTP game in order to compete with World of Warcraft is like setting up a small burger joint in order to compete with McDonalds: Completely pointless"

Instead of imitating them in a pointless attempt to "compete" with the likes of Blizzard we should listen to gamers and see what they want. And already it seems clear that they DO want to play free-to-play MMOGs, but NOT if they are soulless imitations of games they have already played to death. They want quality online experiences and in many cases that means that the experience has to be new and fresh. Something that really shouldn't be a difficult proposition considering all the possibilities open to online games.

And that's it.These are ten random reasons why I feel that free-to-play MMOGs have a bright future. This doesn't mean that it is easy to create a successful one, but in my opinion it does show that there are plenty of reasons why there is cause for optimism. Hopefully our own Project T, when launched, will be as successful as some of the examples I quoted.

Feb 2008 - Rudolf Kremers

12 Dec 2007 - Site Update

The website has been updated with some content for the first time. It is now fully navigable and features content for all its pages. This includes an "about" page and a "contact" page. Feel free to have a look around or drop us a mail.