[Musenik]

Something amazing to share...

On Monday, I (main writing credit) and Adrianne Ambrose (additional writing credit) were astounded to receive a WGA nomination for Best Writing in a Videogame, for 'Dangerous High School Girls in Trouble!'

Each year, the Writers Guild of America recognizes great writing in the entertainment industry. Their nascent award for videogames allows writers from a new craft to be recognized alongside established media professionals, such as this year's nominees, including Tina Fey, Woody Alan, Bill Maher, and the Cohen brothers.

Adrianne and I face competition from 'Star Wars: The Force Unleashed' by Lucasarts, 'Fallout 3' by Bethesda Softworks, 'Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3' by EA Games, and 'Tomb Raider: Underworld' by Eidos Interactive. What sets us apart from the competition is that Mousechief is a one-person company plus a few part-time contractors. Can two obscure writers, working for scant pay other than freedom, withstand the financial and P.R. might of game industry giants?

The WGA awards will be held on February 7th, 2008 simultaneously in Los Angeles and New York. Mousechief, Co. will be in L.A., hoping for an award and the chance of being recognized by the mainstream entertainment industry.

With this nomination, the Writer's Guild of America has provided opportunity for independent game developers to pursue a wider audience. Our nomination will encourage other indies to break out of the core gamer sub-culture, with products for mainstream players who might relish novel games.

We humbly thanks the WGA for their nomination and the fresh hope they offer for all indie game developers striving to realize their dreams.


Dangerous High School Girls in Trouble!' has been garnering awards for a while:

Oct 2007 - Awarded Most Innovative Game by the Casual Game Association.
Jul 2008 - Gold Award for #1 game of the month, by GameTunnel.com.
Oct 2008 - Finalist in the IndieCade international games festival.
Dec 2008 - Adventure G.O.T.Y., Innovation G.O.T.Y., and #4 G.O.T.Y, by GameTunnel.com.
Dec 2008 - Two honorable mentions in Gamezebo.com's year-end wrap-up.



DHSGiT is an easily learned game of whimsically 'naughty' mini-games, literary satire, and adventurous role-playing. This is the game where good girls get better by being bad! Because you know, "Well-behaved women seldom make history."

It is not intended for children and has been rated TEEN using the T.I.G.R.S. rating system.
_________________________
Keith Nemitz
Mousechief Co.
www.mousechief.com

[tastebud]

well congratulations. i have never heard of this game but i'll certainly take a look!

[Melanie68]

They had a little blurb on it in Salon.com in their Broadsheet blog:

Originally Posted by Broadsheet

So I'm still calling in every few hours to the Game Spot down the street to find out when I might be able to pick up that Wii. And yes, allegedly, I am back at work, but in actuality, my boyfriend is playing Xbox hockey on the couch (don't tell his boss!) while I spent the morning playing this awesome girly game that contributor Lynn Harris sent in to Broadsheet over the break.

How can you not get sucked into a game called "Dangerous High School Girls in Trouble!"? The title is emblazoned in appropriate pulp paperback font, of course, and the game itself is set in a girls boarding school in the 1920s. (I wasn't aware that exclusive girls boarding schools were racially integrated in the '20s, but hey, I guess this is the kind of historical revisionism that's cool with us.) To play, you choose a leader for your all-girl gang, each of whom is ranked in terms of talents: Popularity, Rebellion, Glamour and Savvy. I chose a Rebel and went with a Louise Brooks look-alike -- named, appropriately enough, Louise – with a saucy little hip thrust and a lit cigarette. Like "Mean Girls" and "SissyFight 2000," this game is big on depicting the emotional carnage schoolgirls can inflict upon one another. To win friends and cut your enemies, the girls in your gang practice "taunts" and learn "snappy comebacks." Occasionally, a challenge will involve a few rounds of poker. I scored a Dapper Boy for Louise during my first round of "flirting," but Radio Boy -- a dude with the priceless come-on line "Would you like to go into the woods and look for flying saucers?" -- didn't seem to please another one of my ladies, who kept exclaiming, "He's just too much!"

But the real fun of this game is playing the teen sleuth, Ă* la Nancy Drew, with the option to opt out of the squeaky clean moralizing if one so chooses. The game is set in a small town, with easily scandalized "disapproving townsfolk" who are hiding unspeakable secrets under their proper exteriors. But if you can get them to speak -- by using your wits and solving word games -- you score clues that can be used to solve the puzzle. While the first hour of the demo is free, you've got to kick in $20 to download the whole game. But I'm so going to do so, Wii or no Wii. Then I'm totally taking the boyfriend in the backyard to look for flying saucers.

― Amy Benfer