Australian Gamer Game Event :: Fury Launch Party

WHERE GAMING IS BALANCED WITH DRINKING

Fury Launch Party - Brisbane

Yug, Matt and Phil attends the Brisbane media launch for the game FURY.

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After successful parties in Sydney and Melbourne, the travelling Fury showcase finally made its way to Aurans hometown of Brisbane. We have a tight relationship with Auran: myself and Matt representing and commentating in their booth at GO3 earlier this year, doing our first studio tour at their offices, and I even worked there doing website and box art design for a few months. Needless to say, we were looking forward to the night.

Matt and I were joined by the newest addition to the team, Phil, who officially has the biggest hairstyle out of any of the AG team. That�s not a bad thing, it�s simply an observation.

We made our move around 7pm, and were joined by our good friends Pras and Kim from the Creative Assembly, who were also coming along. It�s a great testament to the relationship and respect the local studios have where they can feel comfortable inviting people from other game developers to their launch party.A successful game made in Australia is a success for the industry as a whole.

Yug, Phil and Matt with some interesting 'poses'

The venue for the evening was the Family nightclub, arguably Brisbane�s largest and most exclusive nightclub. Matt and I live just across the road from it, and I�ve had many big nights there before where I�ve stumbled out at the 5am close. With that in mind, walking into the family to find it practically empty (comparatively speaking) and being totally sober was a whole new experience. Ironically due to a detox I am currently on, I remained the sober voice of reason for the night while Matt pissed it up against the wall. It�s a dirty job, but someone�s gotta do it.

The entire bottom section of the club had been booked for the event, with the main stage (usually reserved for scantily clad girls dirty dancing together) setup with a large screen and podium. In the corner was the LAN setup of 8 computers showcasing the latest build of Fury, and a few other TV screens and posters were littered around the rest of the room. The environment was appropriate.

It was pretty busy in the downstairs area at the Family nightclub

It was a great chance as well to catch up with a few familiar faces � Joseph Hewitt, Michael Hampton, JB, and Andrew Edelsten from Auran. John Passfield from Pandemic Studios, Mark Fludder from the QLD Government, Maria from QANTM, and of course the main guys behind the tour itself � Ashwin Segkar and Nathan Battle from Auran as well.

Phil and I had developed a taste for the savoury treats, and convinced one of the waitresses to continue back to our spot as soon as she had a new plate of yummy treats. Matt continued to get sloshed, as evidenced by our eventual podcast later that night.

Auran managed to put on a rather impressive show down at The Family on Thursday, quite unlike some of the more...boring industry events creeping under the radar these days. There was something to do with a game or something, possibly a playable game - but all that glossed right over my fragile little mind when I realised there were people walking around actually serving food wherever you happened to be standing.

"What's this?" I cried, "A whole plate of mini Guinness and beef pies just for Phil?"

"Err...not just for you, they ar-"

"You shouldn't have! But I'm glad you did, because If you didn't, I would have come to your house and hurt the weakest member of your family! A wholesome activity to be sure, but I suppose eating will be fun enough."

Yug had to convince the incoming security I was mentally challenged so I could stay, but I wasn't allowed any more food. This forced me to watch the proceedings and enjoy the other non-culinary activities, generously provided by Auran.

Watching other people play games as entertainment is pretty lame, but given the crowd and overall positive atmosphere, the Fury deathmatch wasn't half bad. The alcohol may have done its part in turning a few heads, and that combined with Yug and Matt's on-the-fly commentary, it was pretty rad. Speeches were kept short and sweet, with Tony going over a few key facts about Fury's development I was actually interested in, and displaying rather impressive CGI and gameplay footage.

This was a night to celebrate Fury and the successes of Auran as a proud Australian developer, and it worked out pretty gosh darn well in the end. Light on the boredom, heavy on the alcohol, and very heavy on the hands-on gaming goodness. That's what it's all about. And food.

Always food.

While we were steadily devouring the canap�s being whisked around, Graham Edelsten (Auran Director and CFO) took the stage to welcome everyone to the event. I�ve heard Graham speak a couple of times at GDAA events and the like, and he always comes across as someone extremely passionate � not just about games, but about the Australian gaming industry as a whole.

Next up was Tony Hilliam (Auran CEO) showcased a multimedia presentation involving a 3d rendered Fury cut scene, the infamous �Life happens� trailer, and a relevant clip from the South Park WoW episode. He went on to explain the process of turning FHM model Siobhan Parekh into a playable character, and also announced the upcoming Fury Challenge � with one million dollars (cue Dr Evil pose) in prizes.

I was following along and right with it until he started comparing Fury to Crocodile Dundee, saying the budget for Fury far eclipsed �the Hoges� original movie. I mean, that�s nice and all, but that�s a bit of an old movie to reference isn�t it? That�s saying �I bought an Xbox 360 today for the same price as a Super Nintendo back in 1994�.

Then again it might just be because I thought Crocodile Dundee 3 was crap.

Once the presentation was over Matt and I were approached by Ashwin who asked us if we would commentate for a few of the Fury matches, and as if we would say no. Elite counterstrike team �Encore� were on hand to challenge the Fury developers to a best of 3 team death match. The stakes were high, as we pointed out that if the developers lost, they would probably be fired.

Yug and Matt providing commentary for the Fury matches

Loosing the first round, the developers managed to make a not-so-surprising comeback using actual team work to win the match 2-1. It wasn�t over however; as Encore stepped out of the hot seats they were replaced by 4 Fury QA testers. Here were a bunch of people that had probably played Fury even more than the developers. Unfortunately it was not to be, as the developers took another game 2-1, proving once again that the advantage goes to the people who actually CREATED the game.

We�ve followed Fury for quite a while, watching it and following it around like some sort of gamer groupies. A few months ago we flew to Perth to help promote the game at GO3, where it had the honour of being one of the few actual games there. Always an advantage. During that event we were there to talk about the game, to explain it to people, to entertain and inform. We were, essentially, the public face of Fury. Fury has a new face, now, and I think we can all agree that it�s a prettier face. Well� all of us but Yug.

Without meaning to sound too creepy and psychophantic, Sioban was as lovely in person as photos, and was very nice to talk to. We had nothing really formal to ask her so we had what turned out to be a very pleasant casual chat. Sioban� call me.

Speaking of calling me, one of the highlights of the night for ME was one of the waitresses being quite excessively polite. Its worth pointing out that this one of the first (probably the only) Australian Gamer type event that I�ve gone to where I actually bothered trying to look good. I was hoping to have some company provided by a lovely young lady friend, so I had gone to some actual trouble. As a consequence, what you see in the screenshots here are some rare photos of me putting in an effort. Normally I look like an ugly, creepy, old, slightly sleazy, poorly dressed nerd with bad skin and body odour. But here not as nerdy.

As the crowd started to thin, Siobhan finally turned up, having missed her earlier flight and apparently being fired from another job earlier that morning. We figured Samo and Starks had already had plenty of time to ask her the relevant questions, so Matt and I simply chatted away about random stuff, complained about not being allowed to film during her Sydney photo shoot, bitch about photographers, and ask her to come out for some drinks with us after (no dice however).

Yug, Graham Edelsten, Siobhan Parekh, Tony Hilliam, Matt

After the event a few of us retreated to the cocktail bar around the corner, to discuss nothing and everything in particular. Overall it was a great night, surrounded by great people promoting what looks to be a great game. Check out www.unleashthefury.com for more information, and stay tuned to AustralianGamer.com for an exclusive preview soon!

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