Anitron lacked rendering, the game was reworked with Havok Vision. The game's logic, animations and interactions are written in an English-based scripting language. A script describes in simple English how a game entity should react, when its context and probable goals are taken into account. North Side see their English-based scripting technology as having additional applications, such as rapid visualization of movie scripts, workflow visualization, evidence presentation, and exploring alternative courses of action. The developers also hope that the scripting language will enable players to extend the game world with their own content in a MMO environment in which players compete in some area (as in a Jeopardy!-style game for robots) or cooperate in a task. North Side plan for users to be able to design their own 3D content and deploy their own intelligent characters, inviting other users to experience their creations in the form of 3D animated shorts or games. The NLP technology cost $20 million and the game itself $2 to $3 million to the developer. Early technology prototypes were shown at GDC in San Francisco in March 2009 and at E3 in June 2010. A closed beta was announced on 13 November 2012 at the Montreal International Game Summit and featured the training level of the game, "Intruder". In "Intruder", the player remote-controls a robot to erase the traces of an intrusion, and discovers part of the background story through conversation with Jimmy, a domestic robot. A closed alpha of Bot Colony was started in March 2013 and was extended in June of the same year. An unsuccessful Kickstarter funding campaign ran for the game in October 2013, after which the game was added to the Steam Greenlight system in November 2013. Bot Colony was cancelled on January 29, 2015 because of low sales; it had sold 814 units and made $10,000 of revenue. However, after fan protests it was made available again in spring 2017, with an added introductory mission. Reception A 2014 Rock Paper Shotgun review concluded, "When [Bot Colony] works, it's oddly satisfying. When it doesn't work, it's generally amusing." A review on the same site in April 2017 was more negative, finding the game even more "janky" than expected, the story thin, and the tasks uninteresting. References External links Adventure games Cancelled Windows games Episodic video games Crowdfunding projects Language in fiction Science fiction video games Video games developed in Canada Video