The largest distributed and most influential PC magazine in the world, the US edition of PC Gamer, has awarded Ghost Master a review score of 90% and a coveted Editor's Choice Award, which is historically synonymous with a Top 10 chart hit.

The arrival of Ghost Master in the North American territory has been greeted with extremely strong reviews, averaging 90% across the board, with the game already building a global cult following after its release in the European territory. The PC Gamer score, however, is considered to be the clearest indication of the game's design being matched to the US market.

International Hobo's Managing Director Chris Bateman had this to say: "We designed this game with the US market in mind. It's PC based, and the US has the strongest installed base for PC, contains a strong element of experimental play, and draws from pop culture influences well suited to the needs of a typical US gamer. The PC Gamer review score is a satisfying validation that we did our job right."

The game has been selling steadily in all territories, although awareness of the game has not been widely distributed. Mr. Bateman comments: "I'm not entirely sure why, but Vivendi seem to have dropped the ball in promoting this game. Good game design will get strong review scores, but then it's up to the marketing department to convert that into sales figures. For whatever reason, Vivendi seem to have missed the chance to have a Halloween blockbuster."

Despite this, the game continues to sell at a steady pace, and rumours of a sequel are rife although Empire Interactive (whose Sick Puppies studio developed the game) refused to publicly confirm or deny whether a sequel was on the table.

Action Trip

http://www.actiontrip.com/reviews/ghostmaster.phtml

PC Zone

Major UK Consumer Games Magazine

The Guardian

Major UK Broadsheet Newspaper

Games Domain

http://www.gamesdomain.co.uk/gdreview/zones/reviews/pc/jun03/Ghost_Master.html

ESC Magazine

http://www.escmag.com/v5/reviews/review.cfm?rv=362

TechTV

http://www.techtv.com/xplay/reviews/story/0,24330,3525994,00.html

The Adrenaline Vault

http://www.avault.com/reviews/review_temp.asp?game=ghstmstr&page=1

GameZone

http://www.gamezone.com/gzreviews/r20617.htm

GameSpot

http://www.gamespot.com/pc/strategy/ghostmaster/review.html

Gaming Illustrated

http://www.gamingillustrated.com/ghostmaster.php

Tiscali

http://www.tiscali.co.uk/games/reviews/ghostmaster.html

Gamer Nation UK

http://www.gamer-nation.co.uk/games/reviews/pc/ghost_master/index.shtml

Gamer's Hell

http://www.gamershell.com/reviews_GhostMasterReview.shtml

On behalf of the International Game Developers Association, International Hobo Ltd is proud to announce the formation of the Game Writers' Special Interest Group, which is officially announced by the IGDA this November.

The SIG was set up by International Hobo's managing director Chris Bateman, in association with Canadian game writer Raphael van Lierop, who had originally started the ball rolling by setting up a discussion forum for game writers at the IGDA website. After attracting a series of other game writers to the fold, including Richard E. Dansky (Red Storm Entertainment), Marc Laidlaw (Valve Entertainment) and Sheldon Pacotti (Ion Storm), independent writer Robert Buckley was chosen to be the third member of the SIG's Executive Panel, along with Bateman and van Lierop.

The first official action of the SIG has been to produce a white paper - the IGDA's Guide to Game Writing - which is available for download from the SIG's webpage. The paper provides an overall picture of the current state of game writing, and advice for people interested in becoming game writers - both existing writers looking to move into the interactive media, and newcomers with little prior experience.

"The formation of this Special Interest Group is a landmark event in the history of games development," Mr. Bateman asserts, "since the field of game writing has been largely brushed under the carpet until now. Providing a mechanism to reflect the needs of game writers, and to promote good narrative practices in games can only represent a positive step forward for the industry."

International Hobo and Media Training North West will be providing copies of the white paper to attendees at the Game Writer seminars, being run by Chris Bateman and Richard Boon (Head of Script Services at ihobo) this November, to tie in with the SIG's launch.

Mr. Bateman will also be hosting a group gathering for game writers and people interested in the field at next year's GDC conference in San Jose, on behalf of the special interest group.