Vicious Engine Starts 'Rising Stars' Program

Game/engine developer Vicious Cycle has announced that its Vicious Engine subsidiary is setting up The Vicious Engine Rising Stars Program”, allowing start-ups to use the engine for an evaluation and prototyping period. The engine, which powers games including Vicious Cycle's own upcoming Dead Head Fred for PSP, as well as Collision Studios' 300: March To Glory and Totally Games' Alien Syndrome, was the subject of a recent Gamasutra Q&A with its developers. The Vicious Engine is currently available for Wii, Xbox 360, PSP, PlayStation 2, Xbox, GameCube, and PC, and execs from the company described the tool as a “comprehensive middleware solution and includes everything that a development team would need to prototype, develop, test, and release a cross-platform title to multiple simultaneous platforms.” The 'Rising Stars' program includes access to the Vicious Engine build for six months, online technical support for Vicious Engine, expert feedback during the development process, and upon completion and approval of demo, connection to publishers. Further information is available on the official Vicious Engine website. “There are great ideas out there just begging to be made into games, and the Rising Stars program was designed to be the catalyst for turning dreams into reality,” said Eric Peterson, president at Vicious Cycle Software. “Aspiring developers will receive expert feedback, access to the Vicious Engine, as well as an inside track to getting their game published.”