Wewaii: Sneak Preview: Travian Games wants to send you to Hawaii!

It has been more than a year since Travian Games' first subsidiary TG-Nord opened it's doors. Starting at the beginning of 2008 the Hanover-based company has been working on a top-secret project. We've had the chance to pay them a visit and get an exclusive sneak preview.

If a company spends nearly a year on the pre-alpha development of a browser game, it has to be something special. For the first time ever Travian Games is going for a completely new setting.

The most interesting thing is, that Travian has been able to maintain radio silence throughout the whole development process, making us even more excited about meeting them for an exclusive hands-on.

As the genre might suppose, "Project Hawaii" (working title) will give the player the chance to develop his own pacific island into a supraregional touristic center.

Two things impressed us most: Travian Games intentionally ignored the trend to less and less complexity and and even though in the end some allowances had to be made to the browser-based plattform, the gameplay is very similar to tycoon classics such as Transport Tycoon and Theme Park.E.g. every visitor has unique feelings and needs and wants to be entertained all day long. Relaxation, sports and partying: Different characters don't always have the same interests and all of them can hinder one or another person from the fulfilled holiday dream. To be really successful the player has to customize his variety of products while aiming at a special target group. Time will show whether this complex simulation will be conquerable and which target group is the most profitable one for the players to fight for.

The most convincing feature of "Project Hawaii" is the incredible graphics and the solid game interface. The game is completely build in flash and is visually comparable to the above mentioned originals. The "Sims-Factor" is adding to the fun: The virtual guests are roasting in the sun, going swimming or eating out to get comfortable and end the evening on a cozy note or even on a romance at the beach. The hotel resort is completely individually configurable from the building type to the color of the parasols and even the game controls can benefit from this feature as the development gave the designers complete freedom of choice when creating menus and dialogs.

First Impression

After the first two hours in the executive chair of our small holiday paradise went by, we've had the chance to experience a few time-lapsed days of in-game timing. There is no need to mention that it will be worth it to keep an eye on "Project Hawaii". We are particularly interested in getting to know whether the interaction between players will be further expanded and what payment model will be implemented into this game. Another question mark is the name, the game will be launched with.

The closed beta is scheduled very soon and an open beta will be available in Germany from the beginning of 2009.