Village Gamer

Montreal – Ovolo Corporation, Inc., a newly formed interactive game publishing company that brings ‘games-with-purpose’ to market, today announced the availability of “City Rain”. Created as an initial student concept project, City Rain is a puzzle and simulation game based on urban planning and sustainability. Players must rescue cities that are being ‘black listed’ from the World Environment Protection Agency (WEPA) by quickly making decisions to establish and re-organize urban developments that will make cities more sustainable and ‘green’. City Rain is available now as a free trial and for purchase on Ovolo’s web site. The game sells for US $9.95 as a PC download, and is expected to be available soon for Xbox Live Indie Games.

City Rain was originally a concept game, built on the Microsoft XNA Game Studio platform by Mother Gaia Studio, Brazil. The strategic urban-planning game quickly captured the attention of game developers and players, winning the Microsoft Imagine Cup 2008 (Paris), and becoming a finalist in the 2009 Independent Games Festival at the Game Developers Conference (GDC) 2009 in San Francisco, Calif.

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“As a fan of both SimCity™ and Tetris®, I immediately fell in love with City Rain based on its fun reference to those two classic games, but also because it introduces a meaningful and relevant purpose that educates players on how to think about creating ‘green’ and ‘sustainable’ cities and communities,” said Alexandre Renaud, founder of Ovolo Corporation and executive producer for City Rain. “The entrepreneurial and creative spirit I witnessed when I visited Brazil convinced me that City Rain was the first game I wanted to produce,” added Renaud.

City Rain Synopsis

Best described as “SimCity-meets-Tetris”, City Rain produces buildings that fall from the sky, which must be quickly place on a grid. Players are challenged to master the art of urban planning on the fly, requiring quick reflexes and a logical building placement that ultimately helps the community thrive and the ecology survive.

New Features in City Rain Commercial Version

• New story plots and dialogs
• User profile management
• New music soundtrack by Premium Beat.com
• Support for XBOX Gamepad
• Updated interface and improved artificial intelligence (AI) and gameplay
• Upgraded online ranking to compare and challenge other RAIN agents worldwide
• Customizable settings for time, turns, speed, board size, and block frequency

Pricing and Availability

City Rain is available now for purchase (DRM and Region free) direct from Ovolo Corporation, Inc. Pricing is US $9.95, and for purchase via PayPal, as a direct download for PC. Support for other platforms is planned for a future date.

System Requirements

• OS: Windows XP Service Pack 3 or Windows Vista Service Pack 1
• Processor: Pentium 1.6 GHz or Athlon 1600+
• Memory: 512Mb
• Hard Disk: Up to 600 MB of available space may be required
• Graphics: From Geforce 3 (MX series not supported) or Radeon 8500 series (The graphics card should supports DirectX 9.0c and PixelShader Model 1.1)
• Sound: DirectX 9.0c compatible sound card
• Internet Access to install and use the online ranking