Azerbaijani computer game featured at world's largest gaming exhibition

/By AzerNews/

By Amina Nazarli

The Last Deadlock, a domestically produced computer game, was presented at the 2015 Gamescom gaming exhibition, held in Cologne, Germany between August 5 and 9.

For the first time in history, an Azerbaijani game was put on display alongside the world's largest gaming companies such as Sony, Electronic Arts, Ubisoft, Microsoft, Activision, and others.

Created by the AzDimension studio, The Last Deadlock’s genre is an action adventure with elements of horror. The game's plot centers around the struggle between good and evil.

It takes place in Baku’s Icherisheher (Old City), a unique district filled with historic monuments in the center of Baku.

Supported by the Youth and Sports Ministry, the game takes place in the backdrop of the Old City’s actual historical monuments and streets, as well as the main historical buildings of Icherisheher including the Shirvanshah Palace, the Maiden Tower, mosques, and Karvansaray, providing some knowledge of Azerbaijani history.

Throughout the game, the main character is forced to solve puzzles in order to move forward in search of truth. It takes place in a parallel world where the forces of evil go on the offensive.

Commenting on the exhibition, which was attended by 345,000 people from 96 countries, company director Farid Hagverdiyev told echo.az that during the five-day exhibition, thousands of visitors had the opportunity to get acquainted with the national game.

Hagverdiyev said that initially, the game participated in an international contest of computer games on the Playfield web-site. According to competition rules, two winners would receive tickets to be featured at Gamescom 2015.

“Unfortunately, we joined the competition later, just one week before the end of the voting. To win we had to gain up to two thousand votes,” he said. “Our fans and friends are actively connected to the online vote, and we even gained 700 votes. However, it was not enough to win, but nevertheless, the jury decided to show the trailer of our game on its stand.

So far, an alpha version of the game that includes one full chapter of play has been released on internet. It is expected that the full version of the game will be released in 2016.

In 2012, AzDimension studio presented the Azerbaijani public the first Azerbaijani 3D shooter computer game – Under Occupation: Shusha – centered around Azerbaijan's Nagorno-Karabakh territories under Armenian occupation.

Later in 2013, the second edition – Under Occupation: Agdam – was presented in Baku.

While the first game's missions took place in the ancient city of Shusha, the second game took place in Agdam city and depicted by AzDimension with precision using old photos and maps. The group thus created a 3-dimensional map of the city.

Agdam is abandoned and was ruined by Armenian troops during the 1990s Nagorno-Karabakh war, and has only one standing building left - the old Agdam Mosque. It was once a city with 50,000 residents with a developed infrastructure, including vineyards, machine building plants, and a railway station.

Gamescom is the largest computer and video games trade fair worldwide and presents entertainment and business in a new dimension. This was the seventh edition of the European gaming event, which was first held in Cologne in 2009.

This year, gaming halls occupied a total area of 140,000 sq. meters.