Product: Extra Mile Uses Vicious Engine For Upcoming Project

Vicious Cycle Software has announced that independent UK developer Extra Mile Studios is wrapping up its first, as yet unannounced game development project using Vicious Cycle's cross platform middleware solution, Vicious Engine. According to Extra Mile, which specializes in family friendly properties and is a licensed PlayStation 2 and Nintendo DS developer, Vicious Engine allowed the company to “complete the project on their shortest timeline to date, thanks to the dedicated team at EM and their rapid acclimatization to Vicious Engine's easy-to-use toolset.” Built on the foundation of Vicious Cycle's internal games development, the Vicious Engine is a product of the experience gained while developing interactive video game titles, including Robotech: Battlecry, Robotech: Invasion, and Spy Vs Spy. The Vicious Engine, used for both short and long production cycles, was built with accessibility in mind, according to the firm. Artists, designers and engineers will be able to use the tools on a daily basis to collaborate on a game's development. The engine and editor suite comes with everything required to build and ship games, including a point and click scripting system, a competitive graphics engine, online multiplayer support, and built in collision and physics solutions. "We looked at several middleware options, but after two days with Vicious Engine, we knew our search was over," said Extra Mile founder Bobby Farmer. "We'd been looking out for something which would really let us do a great job for our clients -- and in the kind of timescales they'd been increasingly looking to meet.” He added: “The learning curve associated with the Vicious Engine has been a very shallow one, and a great deal more shallow than we ever dreamed of. We started using Vicious Engine on actual console hardware for our project in January 2007, and are about to make our first Vicious Engine-based product submission in June, bang on schedule."