Hamburg, November 28. InnoGames just hosted the Kartuga Alpha Challenge, inviting 16 players from six countries to test the game in an exclusive sneak peek. Last Saturday, the gamers visited InnoGames’ Hamburg office and took part in a tournament of the browser game, which is currently in development. InnoGames sponsored the trip and several prizes – the winners of a tournament mode with three rounds were rewarded with an iPad, iPhone 5 and an iPod.

Florian Schwarzer, producer of Kartuga stated: “It is essential for us to collect feedback from players as early as possible, even with the game in alpha state. We are quite happy that the participants of the Alpha Challenge had a very positive impression of Kartuga. But it is also helpful to see the game under tournament conditions – and analyze where we can apply improvements before the release.” In order to see the game, some participants undertook long journeys: Grega from Ljubljana (Slovenia) spent 14 hours on night trains, Szymon from Czestochowa (Poland) drove 1,600 kilometers with a caravan to play in the tournament. His journey turned out to be a success; Szymon placed second and took home an iPhone 5. Schwarzer goes on to say, “Seeing players travel those distances is an additional motivation to us. It shows how curious they are about the game.”

Kartuga is an Action-MMO with RPG-elements. The 3D pirate game invites players to choose from three ship classes, and developing their unique play style by leveling up and combining various skills and equipment. Core of the game, developed by Ticking Bomb Games, is cooperative PvP. Players challenge each other in teams of four in intense, fast-paced matches. Closed Beta is planned for early 2013. On www.kartuga.com, players can already pre-register.

With more than 100 million registered players, InnoGames is one of the world's leading developers and providers of online games. The Hamburg-based company has scored major successes with games such as The West, Forge of Empires and Grepolis.

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