In less than 7 days you can download FRONTIERS (for FREE !)

Hey everyone!

After half a year of mapping, remodeling, bug fixing, betatesting, feedback-collecting, adding new maps and researching content, we will finally release FRONTIERS!

The game includes 4+1 Maps that portray one of the typical Routes of an african migrant: Sahara, Ceuta, Spanish Coast, and finally the Container Port of Rotterdam.

For those who already played our beta version, a lot has happened since:
On one side, gameplay and score system have vastly been improved. Countless new models based on the material we collected during our research have been added, documentary interview sounds and videos of refugees we met, and much more.

The other good news is that - thanks to Valve - FRONTIERS can be now downloaded entirely for FREE. All you need now is a Steam account, install Steam and then the Source SDK, and finally install FRONTIERS. (>Detailed Instructions here<) In the next weeks and months, we will regulary meet and play online, so you if you want to be part of that, also join our Frontiers Steam group (after you registered), and you will be notified whenever there is an event. If you want to leave feedback, thats lovely -> do it here.

Thanks to everybody who supported and helped us during this long march!

We will see you at the border.

Martina Brandmayr
Tobias Hammerle
Sonja Prlic
Charlie Zechenter
Jens Stober

Full Interview with Elias Bierdel (GERMAN)

After several presentations/speeches together, we asked Elias Bierdel, who is an active combattant for a more humane treatment of refugees in europe.
This interview is in german. We might add subtitles to a shorter version.

www.borderline-europe.de
english: www.borderline-europe.com

Elias Bierdel (Borderline Europe) über FRONTIERS (GERMAN)

Komplettes Interview in Kürze!
www.borderline-europe.de
www.borderline-europe.com

New Interviews for Frontiers: Thanks and they are coming soon!

In the last weeks we had the chance to talk to some interesting people and do sound recordings with them in our studio. We want to thank you all for the inspiring time! Not only did we talk about the war in Somalia and Sudan and the difficult political situation in Ghana, but also about our utopias and wishes about life in Europe and a new migration politic. We are now about to integrate the voices in the game and are looking forward to presenting them to you.

Thanks again Abdullahi, Sully, Muhamed and Bashir!
Here are some pics from the recordings in our studio in Salzburg:

Frontiers and 1378km, are they linked? English/German

--------ENGLISH -----------

As we are getting closer to our Public Release, another Serious Game is getting hyped and scandalized by media and politicians in the recent days. Jens Stober is about to release his "1378km" that deals with the situation at and around the border of the former GDR. Since we have been already asked about our ties to and opinions on this game, we'd like to use the opportunity to speak about FRONTIERS and serious games.

FRONTIERS is being developed and researched since 2007. We researched the game at border areas in the Ukraine, Slovakia, Spain and Morocco. We published our first map in 2008. A lot of input that make FRONTIERS unique today, result from continued testing with a wide range of different people, players of computer games and refugees alike, as well as from presenting the game to audiences across Europe - gathering and implementing their input - as we did with e.g. the Human Rights Index in the game.

A lot of people volunteered to work on FRONTIERS which has been and still is fantastic. Midway through our work and research for FRONTIERS, we met Jens Stober, who we are happy to have gained as one of our main map designers. Jens is a very engaging person who contributes a lot to our game and joined as lead designer in 2009. In the same way that Jens was not involved in our year-long research or content creation process for FRONTIERS, we were not involved in the content of 1378. Still, what both games do have in common, since Jens took and adapted them in his game, is some of FRONTIERS backbone programming (arresting functions...) and several structural elements, and of course, the use of the source engine.

The public reactions on the game show again that Serious Games, which are dealing with violence, are still highly controversial. Since it should be obvious to everyone that Jens' game was not intended to propagate aggression or violence, it seems inappropriate for us to scandalize, censor or demonize it. To the contrary, these issues and the potential of new media and art forms should be openly and factually discussed. Relevant questions could be:

• Can interactivity and participation make information more understandable (for example on an emotional level) ?
• How can we benefit from the technological developments in the entertainment sector (interactive narration, digital storytelling, web 2.0) to be used in the educational field?
• How can we interest younger audiences, or those who are not dealing with traditional media, for political and historical facts?

In this sense, we hope the debate will not be silenced but furthermore enriched and that the most reasonable voices (and not the loudest) will be heard and brought into discourse. Best wishes and our solidarity to Jens and all those who struggle to find new forms of providing relevant information and awareness.

Sincerly and optimistically,

gold extra

-------- DEUTSCH ----------

Die Veröffentlichung unserer neuen Maps nähert sich in großen Schritten, in den letzten Tagen nun erreichte ein anderes Spiel große Medienöffentlichkeit. "1378km" heißt das zur Zeit skandalisierte und gehypte Spiel von Jens Stober, dass an und um die historischen DDR-Grenzen der 70er Jahre angesiedelt ist. Da wir in den Medien des öfteren mit dem Spiel in Zusammenhang gebracht wurden, befanden wir es für sinnvoll, dazu einige Anmerkungen zu notieren.

Wir haben für FRONTIERS seit 2007 recherchiert und entwickelt. Die Recherche führte uns in europäische Grenzregionen, Ukraine, Slowakei, Spanien und Marokko. Unsere erste Map haben wir 2008 publiziert. Vieles das heute die einzigartige Wirkung von FRONTIERS ausmacht, ist das Ergebnis von Spieletests mit vielen unterschiedlichen Menschen, vom Computerspieler bis zum Flüchtling, und von vielen Präsentation des Spiels in ganz Europa. Diese Diskussionen und Anregungen sind ins Spiel eingeflossen und haben konkrete Entwicklungen wie den Human Rights Index im Spiel beeinflusst.

Viele Menschen haben ehrenamtlich an FRONTIERS mitgearbeitet und tun das bis heute, was uns sehr freut. Im Laufe der Präsentationen und Entwicklung von FRONTIERS haben Jens Stober kennengelernt, den wir als Map Designer für uns gewinnen konnten. Wir schätzen Jens und schätzen uns glücklich über diese Zusammenarbeit und seinen kreativen Input in der Map-Gestaltung. So wie Jens nicht in unserer jahrelangen Recherche- und inhaltlicher Arbeit involviert war, waren wir, gold extra, inhaltlich nicht an der Gestaltung von 1378KM beteiligt. Die Gemeinsamkeiten beschränken sich auf den programmierten Unterbau und formale Elemente, die Jens für seine Adaption übernommen hat, und natürlich die Verwendung der Source Engine.

Die öffentlichen Reaktionen zeigen jedoch wieder vor allem wie kontroversiell die Diskussion zur Gewaltdarstellung in Serious Games ist. Da es offensichtlich ist (oder zumindest sein sollte), das Jens' Spiel in keiner Weise zur Gewaltverherrlichung tendiert oder taugt, finden wir es nicht angebracht zu den üblichen Mitteln der Skandalisierung, Dämonisierung oder gar Zensur zu greifen. Im Gegenteil: Diese Thematik und das Potenzial neuer Medien- und Kunstformen sollte offen und an den Fakten orientiert diskutiert werden. Relevante Fragen, die sich hier stellen, sind:

• Kann Interaktivität und Partizipation Information greifbarer und verständlicher machen? (z.B. auf emotionaler Ebene)
• Können wir von den Fortschritten auf technologischer Ebene (interaktive Erzählweisen/ digital storytelling, web 2.0) profitieren und sie pädagogisch nutzbar machen?
• Wie können wir junges, schwer erreichbares Publikum für politische, soziale und historische Thematiken interessieren?

In diesem Sinne hoffen wir auf eine fruchtbare Debatte, in der auf die Stimmen der Vernunft mehr gehört wird als auf die lautesten, unsere Solidarität und Unterstützung gilt Jens und allen, die sich auf die Suche nach neuen Wegen, wichtige Information zu vermitteln, begeben.

Hoffnungsvoll und zuversichtlich,

Tobias Hamm
gold extra

links:

www.1378km.de
http://www.zeit.de/digital/games/2010-10/1378-game-gestoppt

www.gamesforchange.com

Final working stage...

We're in our final stage, currently working on:
* improved hud & point system
* fixing bugs
* improved gameplay (refugee will now slowly "die" in the desert, save zones, ...)
* new map: spain
* new map: rotterdam
* final map: (what will it be?)
* new models for all maps
* embedding new sounds from researched material (interviews, etc...)

So stay tuned, countdown is about to be initiated!

see you in the game.

Funny and very web 2.0-ish interview with AUA Sky magazine

ladies & gentlemen...

...this might be trivia, but we think you have to right to know, who we are. here is a little insight into the gaming habbits of georg hobmeier (aka performance schorsch), who contributed to the conception of the game and ruined his van, while driving the crew to the ukrainian border for research:


domestic deathmatch misbehaviour

Alpha-testing in the goldextra office

So that brought us a big step further, thanks to Joe, Toni, Johanna, Hendrik & Tobias for their feedback and suggestions!