Feature: 'Schadenfreudian Slips: A Once And Future Thing'

Following last month's Age Of Ornithology postmortem by noted German developer Schadenfreude Interactive, this month's regular 'Schadenfreudian Slips' Gamasutra column has the company's CEO, Karsden Mörderhäschen, presenting a history of the firm, from Wurstzeit to Dung Ho!. In this extract, Mörderhäschen presents a jovial look at the genesis of his important company: "After some success in the 1980s with my Commodore 64 arcade clone Wurstzeit (Sausage Time), I founded Schadenfreude Interactive with my best friend and fellow programmer, Bruno Schwartzritter. Bruno is the author of Mutantkameleschlagen, a delightful game inspired by Jeff Minter's Attack of the Mutant Camels. We are all very proud of Bruno, as he is here considered to be the Alexei Pajitnov of the Black Forest. I wrote my first game on a borrowed Amstrad in the garden shed while sitting on a milk can. Bruno wrote his first game in his father's autogarage -- he simply pulled up a chair and set his monitor on top of a Fiat Topolino (he is 6'5”)! I still have the milk can, but Bruno does not have the Fiat Topolino... I have the better of the bargain, as both the milk can and the Topolino are small and made of metal but at least a milk can is good for something -- it can hold milk! That story gets a big laugh here in Europe , but I think something is lost in translation." You can now read the full Gamasutra feature on the subject, including plenty more information on German zombie sub simulators and dung beetle-rolling Katamari Damacy lookalikes (no registration required, please feel free to link to this feature).