Lumisota
Lumisota is Finnish for ‘Snowwar’, and it’s a game developed for Radiolinja (GSM provider, later part of Elisa), pre-Kultakala, though Habbo founders were already hired by Ego Taivas Medialab. It launched February 2000.
Welcome screen, high scores (painimies for the win).
Create an avatar.
Radiolinja wants to know you.
Logging in.
Choose a cabin.
Who’s inside.
Bar annex teambuilding.
Game preferences (name/duration, green/red team).
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Attack.
Give up? Gets you -10 points.
The scores.
It served as a test for commercial usage, since the players could “increase the effectiveness of their snowballs by buying extra force with text messages” (Habbo fact sheet, May 2006). A failed (but educational) experiment, says Sulka Haro, Habbo’s former ‘lead concept designer’, btw: “(…)it was the first place with functional items for sale. And we learned a lesson. It backfired. People hate when you can buy functional items.” In the end it served as inspiration for the games of ‘Snowstorm’ and ‘Freeze’ inside the hotel.
