The chances are that you’ve not come across GameVial before. We’re a fairly clued up and expert sort of channel and we were stunned, staggered and bewildered to sit next to them at the Cross Party Group on Videogames Technology and discover a whole new studio, right under our noses. It was exactly the sort of discovery that James Cameron was hoping for on his jaunt to the bottom of the Marianas Trench…
So, allow us to enlighten you. GameVial is a studio specialising in online browser-based games. At our last count, they’ve released around 100 titles on their website, from simple puzzle titles, through to complex 3D games.
They’ve also brought over a dozen of these titles to mobile – and their latest is a killer…
Russia’s Army is a 3D, massively multiplayer, cross platform, first person shooter (we’ll pause and let you read that back to yourself). Players can compete against each other from a web browser on a computer, or via Android smartphones. And there’s a free ‘lite’ version for cheapskates and ne’er do wells worldwide.
The free version offers a limited set of weapons (which does include the AK-47 mayhem fans), while the full version of the game – which comes in at a cost conscious quid – offers far more variety and destructive malarkey such as:
- Pistol
- SPAS12 shotgun
- Dragunov 50 cal sniper rifle
- RG6 tactical grenade launcher
- RPG, the iconic Russias Army Rocket Propelled Grenade
Progress Forward To The Further Betterment Of Society, Comrades. Then shoot it full of holes…
If delivering hot lead political debate to the forehead of an opponent isn’t your cup of tea, never fear, GameVial has your back. Now, for – we believe – the first time, you can flap to victory with Fly Like A Bird.
This particular slice of feathered fun puts players in the tiny, pecky brain of a humble birdy. Now you too can perch, build nests, raise chicks and spoil the lives of hateful BMW drivers who have been out carefully buffing their precious, precious cars with a chamois leather and Clarkson-approved cream.
No. Really. You’re a bird. You fly. You have little birds. In a nest. You poo on people. It’s twisted genius. The site describes it as a ‘cult classic’ but we’d go further. This is the sort of game Dare and Jam teams should be coming up with. Odd, beaky and desperate for breadcrumbs.
There’s a lite version of this too, for the criminally parsimonious.
So, who the HELL are GameVial? We’ll let them explain…
We are Gamevial.com, Imigea Ltd, Edinburgh based game developers and have built over 100 games during the last decade, pioneering browser 3D games since emergence, finally the market hs caught up 😛
Originally middleware and third party content developers, our last custom job, the 3D ship painting tool for Sony’s, WipeOut game on the Pulse (so players could custom paint skins for ther ships for in game playback). We invested the funds from this job into our own first 3D multiplayer browser game Russias Army Barracks. This game got traction online and generated enough revenue to perpetuate development of our own titles, experiments and ideas exploration. Coupled with the sucess of our Fly Like a Bird game and TeamTanks, Gamevial.com now has over 2 million monthly unique players is big in Turkey and Brazil & Poland 🙂
We are a small company, very small- just two of us, we outsource any exotics but of recent have been looking to hire in new fulltime developers to help grow the games further.
Say hello. Or better yet, say hello and go and buy their games. They’d do it for you.
You can also follow them on Twitter and like them on Facebook.
It’s quite hard to believe Gamevial started way back in 2003 and is still going. To think that only two people run the site, I applaud them for that. I also enjoy how simple the games are without numerous features and add-ons that often destroy these types of games (especially 3d MMO’s). I enjoy Fly Like a Bird (all 3), Knight of the Dragon, Russia’s Army, Shot in the Dark, Chicken Thru Time, and all their other titles. I also look forward to seeing what they’ll think of next.