This group of guys aren’t just a bunch of developers huddled in a dark room, (although looking back on it, you could practically print some 8×12’s in the joint – more to do with Dutch weather than a love to bathe in monitor glow I think). Over in Utrecht, I met up with two of the co-founders of Ronimo Games, Jasper Koning and Fabian Akker who sat down and had a chat about their new Nintendo WiiWare game, Swords and Soldiers. Inspired by the ending to Super Moine and the Flash game, Age of War, Swords and Soldiers is kind of like a mutant cross breed between Worms and Civilization. It takes flat style illustration and couples it with strategy as well as the love for senseless, repetitive violence. You make them better. Faster. Stronger.
Not only is this game coming while the company is practically still in diapers (they just graduated last year from HKU), but they’re Dutch, and trying to do comedy all in a $10 game. I personally would have attached some string to a ball and called it a day, but everyone has their thing.
They’ve made the most out of what their education and country has to offer. According to Jasper, they were able to secure some subsidies for their company (albeit not a whole lot, but enough to keep them and their game independent). In fact, when they first started they quickly grew out of building that housed collective artists but were able to get the digs they are currently using for their company alone with the help of the government. Talent definitely has its rewards.
Just because they get a little help doesn’t mean that they have to answer to anyone. Swords and Soldiers is the result of a collaborative effort between everyone at Ronimo whether it was a designer, a programmer, an animator, or that weird guy in the corner (they’re all in corners – HA!). They even got some local high school students to test out the game with high marks from those who like strategy games. I give the boys high marks for being funny and creative. I mean, how long have I been saying there should be a game about barbecue sauce?
Much to many people’s surprise, most of Amsterdam is built on sand. The city itself is in a constant state of repair and improvement which makes the removable unmortared bricks quite handy in any plumbing situation or for any football-related violence. It also happens to be a very convenient way for a small country to expand and contract in the only direction they have left – out into the ocean.
RECLAIMED LAND FOR YOU, ME, THE FLOWERS, AND THE TREES Leading the way in the creation of coastlines is the taco-kicking capital of the world, the Netherlands. As the unofficial experts of land reclamation, the Dutch have perfected the process of dredging the sea to create and extend land mass in a way that infinitely changes not only the way that the country looks, but who inhabitats it.
In creating Flevoland, the surburban island area to the east of Amsterdam, not only were new residential homes made for humans, but for animals as well. A big chunk called the Oostvaardersplassen was left untouched and remains to this day a nature reserve for birds and animals.
Rotterdam is next on the list to receive a land extension that will also include an environmental bonus in the form of a marine reserve. The project, called Maasvalte 2, will have additional 20 hectacres tacked on to the south of the port by 2014.
Looking for ticker symbols for research and technological consultant agencies such as Delft Hydraulics and Royal Haskonings is a personal stock tip from me to you. Construction just outside my very home sees Oosterdok change a tiny island containing abandoned office buildings to an expanded mini-peninsula of art, music, and culture. Home now to the new OBA Centraal Library and (soon) the Music Conservatory, eventually the project will also include new housing and shopping developments.
[UPDATE] More images from the construction around Centraal Station. Here are two aerial views from the quarterly nieuwsbrief I get from the Centraal Stationsieland peeps in full color, for free!
For those of you who aren’t in the know, the Dutch are crazy about a dancing craze they invented called, “Jumping”. They have tutorials of it on most children’s daytime television programs and you can see people doing it in Dam Square on Saturdays if there’s a festival going on. On a recent trip to Rotterdam, I saw these two guys getting down with a whole new Dutch style. Possibly the Dutch Charlestown or the stoned version of walking. It just goes to prove that white kids can’t dance.
Leading the way in the creation of coastlines is the taco-kicking capital of the world, the Netherlands. As the unofficial experts of 