They say to everything there is a season and I certainly believe that’s true.  We change, we grow, we evolve….  So it is with mixed emotions that Richard and I announce that we are stepping down from our positions at Shrapnel Games.  It’s something that we’ve been talking about for a while, but finally decided we couldn’t put it off any longer.  We’ve reached a point in our lives where we want to pursue some of our other interests and need to make different priorities.  We aren’t even for certain yet which of our other interests we want to pursue, we just know it’s time for us to make a change and chart our own course.

We want everyone to know that we’ve enjoyed being part of this family and will continue to pop in from time to time even after we finish with our official work.  We won’t be leaving tomorrow, next week or even next month, but once we finish up some technical projects we have going on and transition our responsibilities to other Shrapnel staff members, we will be leaving our official roles.

On the personal side, I want to thank everyone who welcomed me with open arms when I came on staff.  You all made working on the beta tests and with the community a joy….well most of the time.   All kidding aside, I have enjoyed getting to know you all and will miss being the leader of a community filled with great people. 

Do you have Windows Vista?  Do you have time to play games, squash bugs and report your experiences?  If you answered yes to these questions, then we are looking for you!  Right now we are looking for testers who are able to test some of our games on Windows Vista.  If you have the time to do a little testing and have regular access to a Vista machine, please contact me.

Thanks,

Mindi Arnesen
Director of Community Relations
Beta Test Coordinator
Shrapnel Games

Have you always wanted to see what it’s like to be behind the scenes of a game?  Do you like to squash bugs and be a part of a winning team, perfecting a game before it hits the streets?  Well we’ve got the opportunity for you!  Yes folks, we are looking for some additional people to test ProSim Company’s newest game, Air Assault Task Force!  So if you always wanted to say, “Hey, I worked on that game!” then this is your opportunity to be a part of a game from the inside out!  We are looking for testers with various levels of experience with ProSim Company games, so if you’re a fan of Prosimco or if this is the first time you’ve ever played one of their games, you are still invited to apply.  The following is everything you need to know about the AATF beta test.  So, if you fit the minimum specs below, are interested in Air Assault Task Force and have a desire to be a part of great team of gamers, please send an email to me, Mindi Arnesen, at mindi@shrapnelgames.com! Be sure to include your name, system specifications and whether or not you are new to ProSimCo games.

Approximate Minimum Specs:
1 GHz processor
256 MB RAM
Windows ME or Windows 2000 or later
DirectX 8.1 or better
DirectX compatible sound card
Direct X compatible video card with 64 MB or greater video memory

Basic Description:
Air Assault Task Force is an entirely new game engine.  We have redesigned the user interface from scratch.  We have completely re-thought how gamers play, and designed a game with playability first and foremost.  Our goal was to create a game that retained all of the realism of our previous releases, but presented it in a natural way, that would require no effort to learn.  We want our fans fighting the enemy, not the game!

• Completely new graphics engine.   Built on the latest DirectX technology, this game is shaping up to be our most attractive title ever.  But this isn’t eye candy!  Every graphical upgrade is designed to make the game easier to use, clearer to understand, and more realistic. 
• A completely new paradigm. We have switch from the “select order-select unit” system of our previous titles to a “select unit-select order” paradigm which will be immediately familiar to players of real time strategy gamers and wargamers, alike.
• Easy to play, hard to master. This game is not “dumbed down”.  The new simulation elements we have added to the engine make it even more fun to master than our previous titles.  But you are going to spend more time facing intriguing tactical problems, and less time learning the interface!

As the name suggests, Air Assault Task Force explorers the complexities of air assault operations.  From its birth in Vietnam, to the dusty battlefields of the Global War on Terror, you will get to coordinate attack aviation, light infantry, artillery, engineers, and armor in challenging, asynchronous warfare.

• The history of air assault operations.  Take command of 1st battalion, 7th Cavalry at LZ X-Ray and command air assault soldiers in Operation Anaconda.  We explorer some of the most storied battles of helicopter-borne infantry throughout history.
• Fight on the real terrain!  No hexes or elevation levels in this game!  You will fight on detailed digital elevation maps, with hand crafted terrain taken straight from the military maps used to fight the actual battles.  The signature ProSIM Company map technology returns to bring you the most accurate terrain model available in any commercial wargame today.
• Hyper-accurate databases.  We have recreated the soldiers and equipment in this game right down to the Kevlar helmets and desert boots!  From the 3rd battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment, to the soldiers of the British 16th Airmobile Brigade, we have painstakingly recreated every vehicle and weapon system in the game.

Built to replicate battles at the battalion-level and below, Air Assault Task Force is more realistic than any wargame before it.  We started with the firm foundation of the Armored Task Force Engine, used by Lockheed Martin and many other defense contractors as a foundation for their simulation and training tools.  Then we added all of the stuff that we just couldn’t do in our previous releases.  We built the game we always wanted to play!  Here are just a few of the new features.

• Vehicle damage. Rather than the “dead or alive” system of previous releases, vehicles and personnel will suffer damage to weapon systems and injury to personnel.
• Increased obscurants. Artillery impacts, landing aircraft, burning vehicles, and anti-tank missiles will all add smoke to an already chaotic battlefield.  
• Vastly improved AI. Through its evolution the ATF Engine has been lauded for its ground-breaking AI.  We have worked very hard to surpass this benchmark.  Improved path-finding, new and improved tactical missions, and revised targeting algorithms make your forces even smarter, and make the enemy harder to beat.

I hope to hear from YOU!

-Mindi

Mindi Arnesen
Beta Test Coordinator
Shrapnel Games

I want to take a moment to thank everyone who has written in about the call I put out for additional beta testers. We have received a lot of submissions and I will be getting back with each and every one of you within the next week or so. The response was amazing and I am confident that we will more than fill the number of additional testers we were looking for; therefore, I am officially closing out the request for beta testers. If we need more testers in the future, we will make a new announcement. Until then, happy gaming and happy testing!

Shrapnel Games is looking for more beta testers! With many exciting games in beta test and several more coming up, we are looking to expand our beta test group. Our beta tests cover a variety of genres and types of gaming with the majority being computer games. Time commitments vary depending on what beta test opportunities you chose to accept. We do ask that all applicants be dedicated to helping our development team create a top notch game. You will be an integral part of the Shrapnel team helping us find bugs and improve games before they hit the market.

Participants in Beta Tests will get their name in the credits of the game upon completion. So if you have some extra time and would like to be part of our Beta Test Team, please send an email including your name, email address and a short statement about why you think you would make a good beta tester.

Didn’t get that Shrapnel Game for Christmas you’ve been longing for? Well get it now during our Valentine’s Day Price Massacre! Now thru Valentine’s Day you can save up to 25% off on all in-stock titles! This includes Shrapnel computer games, board games and Eagle Games’ titles as well. If the game is in-stock, you get a deal! So if you’ve been wanting to pick up a game, now’s the time to do it! But you only have 3 days left, so you better hurry!

Well I thought I would introduce myself since I’m the new kid on the block….sort of. My name is Mindi Arnesen and the two official hats I wear are Customer Support Manager and Beta Test Coordinator, but often you can find me doing work with the forums or special projects as well. Although I am technically the newbie, I have been around in one way or another (everything from being Richard’s source of encouragement and sounding board for new ideas to helping run our convention booths) since Richard joined up with Tim in 1999.

I’m a gamer at heart; board games, console games, PC games, etc. However it’s taken some time for me to branch out in my types of games. My true love is adventure games and it took Richard a while to coax me into trying things that I didn’t think would be up my alley. Now I play adventure, action/adventure, RPG, sims, wargames, etc. I will however admit that my wargame ability is still limited. Richard is now trying to teach me the art of board wargames and that is taking a little more time for me to grasp. When you are used to board games with rule books of only one or two pages a 30+ page rule book can be a daunting task!

Let me tell you a little bit about Richard and I. We met while we were both in college(in different states) on a popular college bbs at the time and became friends, fell in love and got married within 9 months. That was over 10 years ago and man has time flown by! Richard and I are always busy with projects whether they are Shrapnel related or personal. Richard and I dabble in web design and hosting on the side. Richard has a system administration background and is generally a computer’s guru. I am more on the design side and love to express my creativity through my design work.

So onto a couple of things about my roles at Shrapnel. We have several exciting betas going on right now and coming up in the near future. I think Richard touched on them briefly earlier. The unannounced board game title is getting possitive response already just from the manual alone and the fun strategy/RPG type game has me personally chomping at the bit to play it. Salvo is shapping up nicely and everyone is anxiously awaiting the finished product. In fact, I think Andrew Lonon (SprueGames, developer of Salvo) said he was drooling at the prospect of a final product soon. We’re very excited about all the upcoming games!

As for customer support, we have excellent response times and find most issues are easily remedied. Maybe in the future I will post some customer service tips but for now I will just say, always make sure you have any available patch for the game, make sure your video drivers are up to date and that you have the latest version of Direct X. Inevitably that will solve a lot of your problems. Also, our number one piece of advice if you are worried about compatability with your system is to TRY THE DEMO FIRST! Our demos are great and not only do they give you a good representation of the game but they can show if you have any compatibility issues with your particular system. That way we can ferret out any possible issue you have ahead of time and hopefully fix it.

So that’s it for now. We really hope you enjoy this new venture we’ve embarked on to give you a glimpse of what goes on in our psyche.

Be afraid, be very afraid.