Q: Real life name/occupation

Michał Łysiak / Cabaret artist.

Q: How long have you been playing OTW

It’s hard to be precise here, but probably about 1,5 year. What I remember a bit better is the number of players in game. It was something about 3000…

Q: Where is your main battlefield?

Poland in general, but mainly south-eastern part of the country.

Q: Where did you first find out about OTW?

I’ve got no idea, to be honest. It was already quite some time ago… Probably found some information on one of iPhone-related web pages.

Q: Phone of choice?

iPhone 3GS

Q: Advice for new recruits just starting the game?

Making progress in the game is really time consuming, and new players shouldn’t walk away from game just because it’s hard for them to jump into top part of the table instantly. They should arm themselves with patience, and keep playing the way they like to. Results will come with time. And for me that’s one of the greatest values of OTW. No shortcuts for instant progress!

Q: You have amassed (as of mid May, 2012) over 5,000 territories!  Any strategies you wish to share on how you got there?

Nothing special here, but planning your travel route different way you did last time really helps! Moreover, I’ve found many exceptionally interesting places doing so! Thumbs up for exploring your neighborhoods!

Q: What’s your favourite attack you like to unleash on your enemies?

Usually Kamimaze makes it’s job very well, but it’s never bad to feel real nuclear power of The Red Button!

Q: Fill in the blank: I wish OTW could/had _______

I wish OTW could work in the background (talking about iOS5 version). It would allow use of OTW and, for example, turn by turn navigation at the same time. Now to check the route while traveling you have to minimize the OTW app, switch to navigation app, see what you want to see, and then switch OTW back. It’s quite uncomfortable when driving a car, and capturing the provinces halts for the time the OTW is being minimized and therefore inactive. I’d be glad to see some improvements in this area.

Q: Real life name/occupation

Richard Campbell, host of .NET Rocks (www.dotnetrocks.com), The Tablet Show (www.thetabletshow.com) and RunAs Radio (www.runasradio.com)

(BNID side note: Listen to our own nerd Paul chat with Richard and Carl about Own This World on The Tablet Show)

Q: How long have you been playing OTW

January 2011, but it feels like forever.

Q: Where is your main battlefield?

THE WORLD. Well, I live in Vancouver, but I travel a lot, so I collect squares all over. I have squares in a dozen countries!

Q: Where did you first find out about OTW?

John Bristowe’s blog post about OTW, Jan 2011.

Q: Phone of choice?

Nokia 800, Windows Phone 7 (of course!)

Q: Advice for new recruits just starting the game?

This is a marathon, not a sprint, and the game is won on the edges. So get off the highway and get to work!

Q: Twitter/Facebook/Other social media users can follow you?

@richcampbell on twitter

Q: You have amassed (as of mid April, 2012) over 5,000 territories!  Any strategies you wish to share on how you got there?

Get off the beaten path and explore the world. You’ll have a good time and see things you wouldn’t otherwise see.

Q: What’s your favourite attack you like to unleash on your enemies?

Poison Food. What, there are other attacks?

Q: Fill in the blank: I wish OTW could/had _______

A reason for my friends to play. Nobody who lives near me would want to play against me, I’m mean. OTW is pretty much the opposite of a social game. It’s an OCD game.

For the inaugural interview we’re talking with The Courier:

Q: Real life name/occupation

A: John/Senior Operations Program Manager @ Microsoft.

Q: How long have you been playing OTW

A: 18 months or so.

Q: Where is your main battlefield?

Washington State. But I consider the world my battleground

Q: Where did you first find out about OTW?

My old manager in the Bay Area turned me onto the game. We had about seven people who played in my office… it was fun. The Bay Area is a challenging place to play (Juicy, Venom, ddenboer, etc)

Q: Phone of choice?

Samsung Focus/Nokia Lumia 900 — Windows Phone both

Q: Advice for new recruits just starting the game?

Look for territories that have not had any recent activity. Grab those territories and any that you regularly travel through. Take the path less travelled! Once you get to 100 territories that you can hold onto you are getting to the point where you can unleash your might against your foes! Joining an alliance with like minded players has been a benefit for me as well.

Q: You have amassed (as of mid April, 2012) 7,562 territories – and at one point the ruler of the entire world!  Any strategies you wish to share on how you got there?

Remember the game is a marathon, not a sprint and that it is much easier accumulating territories than holding them. Having a wife who loves roadtrips is awesome . Having a son who is a master at playing the game while I drive has worked very well for me (thanks Dean!). And of course research your “war-drives” before you head out. My motto used to be “I don’t discriminate, I attack everyone” and that served me quite well as I was growing my total. I’ve mellowed a bit now and take it easier on new players or players that I like.

Q: What’s your favourite attack you like to unleash on your enemies?

I poison other players food so much I almost feel guilty. Almost…

Q: Fill in the blank: I wish OTW could/had _______

I’d love more BI (business intelligence) in the game. For example what is the most contested square in the world? Who is the most active player in a day/week/month, what country has the most free territories, heat maps that show activity or lack thereof, etc.

We wanted to take this time to thank and acknowledge our users for their passion and dedication to the game. We are constantly receiving feedback about the game and using that feedback to add new features and improve OTW.

In the coming year will be adding many new features to the iPhone and WP7 versions of the game. As well, we’ve contracted an Android developer to port the game over to the Android platform. We don’t have a timeline for completion, but what we’ve seen so far is fantastic.

To thank our users, we are giving everyone 500 of each resource (except diamonds).

Please visit the Own This World forum to meet other players and offer suggestions on improving the game.

Send him a message on Twitter (@codezy) or let him know on our forum if you’re interested in meeting up to talk iPhone development, Own This World or just want to meet one of the guys behind the game.

You could probably convince him to buy you a beer too.

Our next video will be much more comprehensive and look at all the features of OTW.

The Digital Alberta Awards, formerly known as the MediaFresh Awards, is a program designed to recognize leaders in innovation, creativity and the evolving digital media sector in Alberta.

“Best in Games Development”

Big Nerds in Disguise – Own This World
Bioware – Dragon Age 2
Bioware – Mass Effect 2
BigStack Studios – Sigma
Games Cafe – Sally’s Studio
gskinner.com – Pirates Love Daisies

“Mobile Innovation”

Poynt
Syncamatic
Big Nerds in Disguise – Own This World
Perfectly Clear – iPhone & iPad Apps
Fluik Entertainment – Office Jerk

Check out the other award finalists.

Way back in March we won Best Design in the first round of voting. This allowed us to move on to the final round. While we’ve known for a few days, we had to keep the accomplishment under wraps until it was officially announced.

The grand prize winner was Pool Plus Friends by iCODE Light a live, multi-player pool game implemented with Windows Azure cloud services and Push notifications. Congratulations!

(In no particular order)

• The  App.Application_UnhandledException is your friend. Please use it as it will help you out. We log any crashes so we know when our app is crashing. Every build, those bugs are patched. As time goes on, it just will make a better application.
• Regarding above – remember a little thing called e.handled = true!
• When working with numbers (coordinates in our case) remember that not all languages are the same. 51.2343 latitude <> 52,2343! So if your app only supports one language, but you still want it to be shown internationally set your Thread.CurrentCulture to be your appropriate language in your App.Initialize
• Not all WP7 phones are created equal. In our case, when the territories (shapes) were shown on the map, originally we were handling the map tap and getting the coordinate. This worked on some phones, but the HTC type phones had issues. Turned out if we handled the shape tap instead, this worked on all phones.
• Always use HTTPWebRequest. It’s night and day with performance compared to WebClient
• Zune only shows reviews for your current country. In our case we only have one review in Canada. So instead check out http://wp7reviews.tomverhoeff.com/ to see what the other countries are saying about your app.
• Don’t always assume your web calls will return properly. On occasion web calls may return half/corrupt data. It’s still cell phone technology.
• Take all the criticism to make your app/game better.  People will tell you when they don’t like how something works.
• You can’t please all your users.
• Test your app in a light theme. It will get rejected if it doesn’t look right.
• If your app does get rejected, don’t get mad. Fix the problem and resubmit.
• WP7 is new. There are bugs in the official controls and those will get fixed in time. 3rd party controls keep getting better and better which will just make apps faster, resulting a better user experience.

That’s a pretty big list so I’ll stop there. If you have any questions, please feel free to respond in the comments or in our forum.

Thanks everybody for playing and continuing to support Own This World.

Now go nuke your neighbour!

A significant change for WP7 users is how you’re able to attack your enemies. Now you must be physically in a territory to attack other players. This has always been the case for iPhone users, so we wanted to make sure the field of battle was level.

Attacking your enemies from the comfort of your living room was never our intent with the game. Our goal with ‘Own This World’ has always been to create a true location based experience. This means that you have to physically be in a territory to make things happen. Attacking. Gaining Troops. And in the future, moving troops with your transport truck and setting up your capital.

Is it as easy to play this way? Not a chance. But, it does separate ‘Own This World’ from other games by forcing you to conquer your neighbourhood to fend off enemies.
If you have any questions about this change, please visit the Own This World forum.