Germany is paralysed by Witan!
A Grouse Shooting Prophet of Hugi
Our reporters have told us that all of Germany has been infected with
a virus called "Moorhuhnjagd", written by a team called Witan Entertainment.
Sounds familiar? Indeed, it's the same guys who coded the classic demo
"Facts of Life" and still occasionally show up in the demoscene.
Moorhuhnjagd is a simple promotion game for Johnnie Walker, a Scottish whiskey brand. Johnnie Walker found it especially important to have its national identity reflected by the game. And what else, apart from the kilt, bagpipes and Sean Connery, reminds you more of Scotland than the traditional grouse hunt? Right, so Witan's task was to develop a simple shooter game in the style of Shooting Gallery and Virtua Cop. You have 90 seconds to shoot as many birds off the sky as possible. The score you get for a bird depends on its distance to you, so there's also a little tactical component in the game: You have to consider if it's better to shoot three closely flying birds or if you'd rather make the effort to aim at the small, fast-moving bunch of pixels symbolizing a bird flying far away from you.
Moorhuhnjagd was pre-released at the Bizarre 98 demoparty under the codename of "KippenSchieten". It got 3rd in the demo (!) compo and was very popular among the sceners. Even Skin/Quad was said to be very addicted to it.
The final version of the game was first only played at pubs, accompanied by chicks who persuaded the drinkers to play and the gamers to drink. Johnnie Walker made a bit more profit, and that was it.
Now that the campaign is long
over, the game has all of a sudden been re-discovered on the Internet and emerged
to a real hit. According to the German magazine "Der Spiegel", the Moorhuhn has infiltrated
both their staff-rooms and large companies, such as DaimlerChrysler. Even people in
the German Ministry of the Interior are reportedly addicted to the shooting
game.
Meanwhile, according to "Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung", the stocks of the Phenomedia AG - the company that developed the concept of the game, which was then implemented by Witan - have risen a lot, and the company has got many new projects. Phenomedia's vast expansion is already visible at the Moorhuhnjagd website: It changed its face three times within three months. The site is now hosted by "Bild", Germany's most notorious tabloid, and is also sponsored by RTL, one of the largest private TV channels in Germany. Several add-ons for Moorhuhnjagd are already available, such as soccer-skins for the grouses, as well as MP3s and comics. Soon you will even be able to buy Moorhuhn dolls at real stores. The Moorhuhn has become a real popstar in the German-speaking countries.
Although the game is relatively simple, the boom has not stopped yet. While I am typing these last lines, the first official Moorhuhnjagd tournament is being held. And in June, Moorhuhnjagd 2 will be released, including new levels and weapons. Perhaps also in English language, to conquer the rest of the world as well? In any case, Witan has shown impressively that products by demosceners can be turned to gold.