Gamertell

On June 2009, a new game developed by GameInvest and published by Oxygen Games will throw players into the chaotic world of medicine.

Imagine just graduating from a top medical school and landing a job in a hospital so small that you are the only nurse. You may get that chance when Hysteria Hospital: Emergency Ward is released for the PC, Wii and DS.

After spending a few crazy hours on Hysteria Hospital: Emergency Ward, I had a chance to talk with Mariana Cardoso, General Manager of GameInvest, about the game and to find out what it takes to be a nurse in this crazy hospital.

“Hysteria Hospital challenges players to manage their time and actions effectively in order to accomplish the goals of the game,” Cardoso explained. “Just like in school or in a work environment, audiences must sometimes make quick decisions in order to manage the tasks at hand. Although Hysteria Hospital is a game, it is also an exercise in time management and organizational skills.”

When Cardoso mentioned time management and organizational skills, she wasn’t kidding. The beds have to be changed, clinic areas cleaned and records to find for each individual patient that comes in the door. And I thought babysitting a group of hyperactive 8-year-olds at a summer camp was a nightmare, these patients can become down right demanding.

“Hysteria Hospital has been in development for a little over a year, about the time frame we expect for most of our titles,” she explained. “Hysteria Hospital: Emergency Ward is part of a series of hospital-themed time management style games that we have developed. The other game in the series is called Hospital Hustle and it was released recently for the PC. The games share themes, but vary based on certain gameplay mechanics, characters and other game features such as the number of levels and in-game objects.”

She said with each level completed the tasks players must perform become harder but the craziness that takes place as you treat patients are hilarious from the mechanical bed that smashes them back to health to the whirlwind actions of the doctor, the animations are amazing and looked fun to create.

“We had a lot of fun developing the hospital equipment in the game. For example, the equipment designed to treat stress is actually a seat shaped like a cow on top of a spring,” she said. “You place your patient on the cow-seat and the spring swings the patient around until they become completely de-stressed. Our brainstorm sessions to develop creative and wacky concepts for the hospital equipment were certainly fun, and usually took place on playgrounds and during Lego building sessions. More than anything else, we hope that audiences will find Hysteria Hospital amusing, funny and truly entertaining. And, if you want to learn the basics of good hospital management - swinging patients from the hair while taking them from treatment to treatment - while also having a laugh then you should definitely try playing Hysteria Hospital.”

This game was definitely as entertaining as cute.

“We as a team came up with the hospital-themed concept for this game as we were inspired by one of our team members who likes to impersonate a doctor on weekends and prescribe outrageous solutions for common problems like dandruff. Just kidding,” she joked. “When coming up with ideas we typically try to conceptualize the style of gameplay, the story theme and art style simultaneously, so that when we begin implementing the development of the game, we have a clear path to successfully achieve our vision.”

Hysteria Hospital: Emergency Ward is scheduled to be released in June 2009 for the PC, Wii and DS. To play, PC users assign tasks to their character using a mouse, Wii owners use the Wii remote and DS users use their stylus to navigate their nurse through 63 levels of emergency room challenges. The game received a Pegi of 7+ and an E for Everyone by the ESRB for comic mischief and mild language.

Site [Oxygen Games] Site [GameInvest]