01.23.02

BLACK HAMMER GAME: READY TO PLAY

New York, NY-Matthew Schlanger, president of Black Hammer Productions and Nikita Mikros, of Flying Mikros Interactive, have launched a new gaming company, Black Hammer Game. "I'm very excited about this new partnership," says Schlanger, "Nik brings real technical depth to Black Hammer Game. I've known Nik a long time and it's great to finally be able to combine our assets. Nik is both an elegant game designer and a great programmer."

The partners are especially pleased to announce that Black Hammer Game is an authorized GBA developer. "We incorporated in the beginning of the year and the notification from Nintendo came soon after," says Mikros. "It put us exactly where we hoped to be to launch this new company." Black Hammer Game has already contracted to do a GBA demo with a major publisher, and expects to have a completed title on the shelf by next fall.

Both Schlanger and Mikros are old hands at PC games. The Egg Files, Mikros's latest game, has been selected as a Finalist in the 2002 Independent Games Festival. The game, which pits evil space aliens against heroic chickens, will be displayed (and played) on the Expo floor during the Game Developer's Conference in March. "It's a very exciting time for me. My brother and I worked hard on The Egg Files and it's very rewarding to get this recognition for it. It means a lot to me, to get this acknowledgment by other game developers," says Nik.

Schlanger has developed several PC games, most famously the I Spy CD-ROM series for Scholastic. He also programmed and managed several early CD-ROM games, including Ocean Voyager, developed for the Smithsonian Institute and Times Mirror; the interactive game Gahan Wilson's The Ultimate Haunted House; and the Robotoid Assembly Module for Isaac Asimov's "The Ultimate Robot," both published by Microsoft Home.

For more on Black Hammer Game, go to: http://www.blackhammergames.com
Contact: Laurie Needell, 212 625 8980x29 or laurie@blackhammer.com