PoxNora is a really fun online multiplayer turn-based strategy game that you probably don't know about. For one, PoxNora is not available in stores. The developers instead utilize Internet advertising to draw in prospective players, who can play the game through a web-based java application.

Gaining the attention of popular gaming webcomic Penny Arcade was the big coup for Octopi, as they provided the kind of genuine word-of-mouth advertising that got people to give the game a shot, including SOE President John Smedley. A devoted collectible strategy gamer himself, Smedley and SOE recently acquired Octopi, transforming the team into SOE's Tucson studio.

PoxNora has been evolving since I first reviewed it back in 2007. Ancient Awakenings, set to debut on February 25th at PoxNora.com, will be the game's ninth expansion. We spoke to SOE Tuscon's Dan Kopycienski to learn more about becoming part of SOE, the origins of PoxNora, and where it's going in the future.

Part of what attracted me to PoxNora was the fantasy artwork.



GameSpy: Thanks for talking to me, Dan. Can you clarify your role with the company for me?
Dan Kopycienski: Wow, what is my title now? I'm Director of Development here at SOE Tucson.
GameSpy:And formerly, at Octopi?
Dan Kopycienski: Well, I founded Octopi, so I kind of wore a lot of hats. Pick one!
GameSpy: Did one of those hats involve conceptualizing PoxNora?
Dan Kopycienski: Yeah, mostly I was lead designer. That was my main role. We started building the game in a garage, years and years ago. We all did a lot of multi-tasking.
GameSpy: Tell me a little about your background and the path that took you to developing PoxNora.
Dan Kopycienski: I started Octopi in '98, and we were more of an interactive design studio at the time. I have always been a gamer, and I wanted to take the company in that direction. A lot of our clients had us do online advergaming type products. One of our clients was Nokia, and we were doing a promotional game for their first consumer website. Someone at the company approached us, and said, "you know, your games would be really cool on some of our new phones."

That kind of sparked an idea, where we would shift our business and focus on gaming through Nokia and cell phone games. We did that for a while. But then we really wanted to do something bigger, so we started working on PoxNora on the side, between our cell phone game projects and our client projects. It took a lot of nights and weekends, but here we are.