Partyboat

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, DECEMBER 17

The Industry Corporation announces its inaugural Xbox 360 game Partyboat, the brainchild of two young entrepreneurs who started the project from their parents' homes, and managed it into a 90+ person production.

Partyboat is... a party on a boat! In what the developers describe as “Love Boat meets Family Guy meets Sim Tower,” the player takes on the persona of The Skipper, a retired womanizer who must sail, manage, design, gamble, hire, fire, and event coordinate his way from a sailboat to a cruise ship. Partyboat is a comedy-bound sandbox simulator, loaded with a crazy cast of characters, retro atmosphere, original gameplay, and of course – casinos, showtunes, and sloppy-drunk passengers. It's presented as a unique blend of 2D animation, 3D renders, and live action. With lots of hilarious dialogue and over 80 minutes of music, the game is a big product in a tiny package; it sells for US $5.

Partyboat is digitally distributed over Xbox Live, the online service used by 17 million gamers worldwide. Specifically, it is found on the Indie Games channel (XBLI), a marketplace where independent, self-financed developers sell professional products to a mainstream audience.

“For its size and scope and genuine laughs, we know Partyboat is a big fish for an indie game,” says Writer & Director Andrew Matlock. “No one's done this on XBLI before – to the extent of the amount of content we’ve crammed in, all supported by an enormous business model. The question is, what kind of reaction can we achieve from a year’s worth of development?”

Partyboat released on December 17, 2009. It’s spelled as one word because it’s its own thing – indescribable by two separate nouns.

Questions for the developers:

- How was Partyboat conceived?

- Of all things, why partying on a boat?

- How did two young guys finance the large budget?

- Why is your studio's name The Industry?

- Why is Waterloo, Ontario attracting video gaming attention?

- What's next for Partyboat?

For official contact with the developers, email contact@theindustryonline.ca