Anchorage Game Developers Launch Hotly-Anticipated Mobile Game With Electronic Arts

December 14, 2011|By Michelle Theriault Boots | Channel 2 News

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — On Thursday, gaming giant Electronic Arts, known for blockbuster video game titles like Battlefield III and Mass Effect, will release “Trenches 2,” a mobile battlefield shooting game that was built not in the familiar game development hubs of the Bay Area or Seattle, but in Anchorage, by Alaskans.

It marks the first time an Alaskan company has debuted a game with such a high-profile distributor, says Jazon (pronounced Jah-zohn) Burnell, a UAA computer science graduate who worked as project manager for Trenches 2.

The move puts Catapult Consulting, the small-but-scrappy app development firm Burnell founded with two friends in 2008 firmly on the map as an up-and-coming source of mobile games and apps.

Catapult is the only group making wide-release mobile games in Alaska, Burnell said.

The nine-person company recently graduated from meeting in coffee shops and working out of their own homes to a modest workspace in an office park off of Old Seward Highway, one perk of a “business incubator” grant from Alaska Manufacturing Extension Partnership, an economic development group.

For Burnell, the urge to create came early. Always a video gamer and a computer tinker-er, he majored in computer science at UAA. But the iPhone and Mac operating platforms were the place where Burnett’s inspiration channeled.

“I love the creativity of it,” says Burnell, who wears a black t-shirt that reads “It’s Not A Bug, It’s A Feature,” a nod to game quality assurance testing. “When you think of programming you don’t think of artists, but I think it’s very artistic.”

Burnell’s role in Trenches 2 involved taking art and sound from a concept designer and seamlessly creating the game, which can be played in single or multiplayer modes.

“It’s coordination,” he says. “Basically building the thing.”

While Alaska isn’t yet known for game development, Burnell says he hopes having a high profile release from a company like Electronic Arts will help to raise the state’s profile. Sometimes, when he goes to conferences people are still a little shocked that he lives and works in Alaska.

He has no plans to leave.

“So far, it’s been working from Alaska,” Burnell says. “And I love Alaska.”

Trenches 2 took about a year to put together. In it, players navigate a side-scrolling virtual battlefield with historical details “somewhere between World War I and World War II,” according to Burnell.

“There are explosions, gunshots and bullets and all kinds of fun stuff,” he says.

Catapult Consulting has also developed apps for Alaska groups like RuralCAP. More gaming is likely in the company's future, says Burnell, as long as the mobile market stays white-hot.

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