Every week, we feature the top stories from the surging online/virtual world space from Gamasutra sister site
WorldsInMotion.biz.
This week's notables in the space include Meteor Games' announcement of
Twin Skies (pictured) -- Meteor plans a mobile component; GamesCampus' launch of
Asda's open beta and "Guaranteed Fun Promotion," and our interview with Jagex's Henrique Olifiers on
RuneScape HD.
Meteor's Twin Skies To Feature Mobile Component
"In its official announcement for upcoming 3D MMORPG
Twin Skies, independent studio Meteor Games, which was recently founded by the original creators of NeoPets, revealed that the title will support mobile connectivity features via games and applications designed for cell phones and other devices."
GamesCampus Announces Asda Open Beta, Guaranteed Fun Promotion
"With the promotion, the company promises to pay players $30 if they are unsatisfied with their game experience. To be eligible, gamers must first play
Asda Story for 30 days and reach Level 40 by September 4th, 2008."
Interview: Henrique Olifiers on Jagex's Procedurally Generated MMO, RuneScape HD
"
RuneScape is a Java-based MMORPG that boasts over six million accounts and claims to be the second largest western-based MMO as a result (behind
World of Warcraft). The reason for their lofty claims? A thin-client concept that means the initial download of
RuneScape is only 1.2 megabytes, and unlike something like
Second Life, due to procedural generation it doesn't have to download bandwidth-heavy textures and models."
Vivaty Launches Dev Program For Creating Vivaty Scenes Content
"Participants can create their submissions using Vivaty Studio, a new creation tool for creating 3D designs specifically for the Vivaty platform. Designers can use Vivaty Studio as a lightweight 3D modeler or as a tool for importing content from Max, Maya, Google Sketchup, or any other applicatino that exports to COLLADA."
Yomego Appoints Managing Director, Rebrands Technology Arm
"Yomego enables companies to "build interactive communities around their brands and businesses" with virtual worlds, social networks, and user-generated content. The company will reportedly rebrand its technology arm as a retailer of its core social networking platform for companies to use as a white label product."
GS New Media Planning The Saddle Club Virtual World For 2009
"Digital entertainment company GS New Media announced that it is working with Sun Microsystems to develop a virtual world for 'tweens and teens based on Australian children's television series and book series The Saddle Club."
Linden Lab Launches Open Grid Public Beta
"This initial public beta offers the intergrid teleport code, intended for virtual world developers attempting to make virtual worlds interoperate. It offers a base level of interoperability -- no inventory, textures, or attachments are transfered upon intergrid teleport, and the user’s avatar appears on the target grid as the grid’s default avatar."
Read daily news on the online/virtual worlds space at
the WorldsInMotion.biz weblog, with a second Worlds In Motion Summit planned for
September's Austin GDC event.
