![]() | This article reads like a press release or a news article and is largely based on routine coverage or sensationalism .(January 2016) |
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Type | Private |
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Industry | Simulation and video games |
Founded | Redmond (2009 [1] ) |
Headquarters | , United States |
Key people | Brayden Olson (CEO) Mike Marr (Director of Product Development) |
Products | Empire & State |
Number of employees | 20+ |
Novel, Inc. is a video game studio and enterprise simulation developer, based in Kirkland, Washington, United States. Novel is known for being both a traditional video game developer and bridging the gaming and business world with enterprise simulations. [2] [3]
The latter work, being deemed by press as "The Matrix for businesses," [4] was ranked by The Huffington Post as one of the Top 30 Most Underrated Innovations of 2010 at #18 between Gmail #19 and the iPad #17. [4]
Novel is led by a leadership team made up of video game industry veterans from EA, Microsoft, Bungie, Turbine, Big Fish and Playdom. [5] Novel was founded by the young American entrepreneur Brayden Olson who continues to be the company’s chief executive. [6]
The company's first major videogame release, Empire & State [7] was released November, 2011. Empire & State is a massively multi-player game offering a completely dynamic world controlled by players. [7] In one interview with Lead Designer Mike Marr, it is described as "Civilization 5 with hundreds of players fighting Risk-style on a hex map, but with the focus on politics and economy". [8] [9]
Novel has an announced partnership with the University of Washington’s Center for Leadership & Strategic Thinking, which is part of the University of Washington Michael G. Foster School of Business. [10] The stated goal for the partnership is to, "become the undisputed heavy weight champions and thought leaders in the new enterprise simulations space." [10] It was also announced that this simulation was being built for a yet unnamed Fortune 1000 company in the Pacific Northwest. [11]
The specific details of Novel’s first enterprise simulation have not yet been announced. [12] However, based on what has been released, Novel’s work was named by The Huffington Post as one of the Top 30 Most Underrated Innovations of 2010, and hailed by the reporter as, "by far one of the most exciting things (though sadly still in concept stage) that I’ve ever heard of." [4]
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Empire & State is a browser-based, free-to-play political strategy MMORPG developed by Novel. Empire & State was released as an open beta in April 2011 and was fully released in November 2011. In addition to being available through Empire & States website, the game became available to play through a game portal at Bigpoint Games in November 2011. The Lead Designers were Mike Marr and Toby Ragaini with Paul Furio as Technical Director and Keenan Purk as Lead Artist. The game involves the exploration and conquest of a new planet and is designed to appeal to both casual and hard core gamers.