Planet PostModerna - Q&A with the Founder

Questions for the proprietors of Planet PostModerna?

Hello Shadowsong (nice avatar name by the way), :)

Q: Could they please elaborate a bit on their RL/Virtual trading and advertising plans. It seems clear from their site that this will be an underpinning of the planetary economy, so it would be interesting to know if there are confirmed advertisers, or how they plan to approach them.

A: The world will have advertising slots built into panels within major towns or cities. The ads will from sponsoring companies (eg tour and travel, technology, other virtual worlds, etc. The idea is to marry RL and Virtual seamlessly. Also rewards systems will be tied to RL rewards (eg a actual tour or trip to the Aztec and Mayan ruins in Mexico will be tied to the first Temple--Temple Q (named after Quetzelcoatl)

It is important to note, as of current, this may not jive with the Entropia model but we will work on that.

Q: The RL tourism connection is also very interesting, are they planning to have "user designed" areas to mirror real-world locations, like virtual showcases as landareas?

A: Not sure about the user-designed areas yet.

One existing working concept is to later build a virtual replica of Atlantis Resort, which has 2 locations: Bahamas and Dubai. These will be contained within the virtual environment halls later to be built by New Worlds. These halls will be like theatres that feature virtual environments within. Think of them as like the Halo Decks of Star Trek Next Generation but more for grand theatre-styled entertainment of featured presentations of selected areas and worlds. These halls will also contain smaller rooms with more contained smaller-scaled environments.

It is important to note that these are part of the New Worlds Corporate story track and are just a small part of the Postmoderna storyline.

 

Questions for the proprietors of Planet PostModerna?

Hiya EP boss,
Okay your turn. :)

Q: - How did you find out about MindArk / Entropia Universe? Have you played the game yourself, and if so, for how long, and in what capacity (hunter/miner/crafter)?

A: I read about Entropia in a Wall Street Journal article about alternate summer jobs. :) The article was about teens that made money working their virtual lives in Second Life and Entropia. I found it interesting idea. I checked out both and really loved Entropia (because of my love of Sci-fi and I needed a break from Star Wars Galaxies :) ) and have played off and on since then. I have not played a lot recently because of RL and this project.

I primarily play as a miner and hunter. I do love exploring though, especially in the much larger world of Version 10.

Q: - Did Planet PostModerna already start negotiations with MindArk about using their platform for it? If so, anything worth sharing with potential other interested parties? (I, for one, would be interested in hearing how MA would react to an indie request such as this).

A: I talked to Mindark, right after I heard about the Partner Planet Program (much before the official press release). They indicated they loved our ideas but could not bind or make anything permanent until we could show we are fully funded for a min of 2 years.

As far as being an Indie Project? Well, the best projects start as indie. lol No feeling from them for or against based on that. We just cannot say we are a Partner Planet since we are not contracted as one yet.

Q: - On your blog, you write that the VastPark platform used for the showcase "world" recently was abandoned in favour of Multiverse. Could you elaborate on why you fellt this was the neccessary thing to do?

A: Well first off I want to say I love those guys over at Vastpark. They have been great and have a fantastic virtual platform with lot's of potential. :)

The challenge I had was both technical, financial and personal (I can't elaborate on that unfortunately outside that RL happens). On the technical side, although I don't have a lot of the turn-key functionality of Vastpark within Multiverse, I will be able to build more of a world that will not need to load all objects at once (heavy on the resources) and can implement instances which are very important to the storyline of Postmoderna). All in all, Multiverse is a better fit for this demo.

In addition, if things don't work out with Mindark, the Multiverse technology will make it possible to still make this project a reality.

I also have plans to possibly build some of the VR Experiences in the New Worlds Halls using Vastpark as the integrate platform. This will allow us to continue to promote their platform as they will still be recognized as one of our partners and sponsors.

Q: - Your business plan states you want to try and achieve a collective of advertisment partners, investors, and donators. What amount of money do you hope to raise, what's the current progress on it, and what would be the minimum amount you'd consider accepting?

A: That unfortunately is an unknown at this point in time. A lot of that will be based on how bad these outside companies want to be involved.

We have to this point had a majority of our 3D design applications successfully sponsored.

We will however need to raise capitol from possible investors to have what we need to bind a contract with Mindark to build in Entropia.

Q: - Conceptually, you have some screenshots and sketches up on the website (did we see a building possibly inspired by Star Wars?). Has actual art-development started? If so, how many people are working on it, and how? (I.e. do you currently employ someone, or do you hire freelancers whenever you have a chunk of cash ready).

A: You are correct about the dome model. I am a big Star Wars fan and one of our modelers created the dome concept. I loved it and stuck with it.

We are solely a volunteer outfit right now. Things have been quiet lately for that reason. It really is a lot of work to manage volunteers being it is challenging to keep everyone interested and active. At one point we had about 20 people working on concept and models.

Q: - Would you be interested in a partnership where we advertise your world from our site, with perhaps an opportunity for some of our users to win, say, a beta account when things become more developed?

A: Absolutely. This is really a community - driven and inspired project although the main story is my brainchild.

Anyone who is involved in this project wins. That can be from time worked on the project converted to PEDs at some point, ownership rights or even immortality from being recognized in the contribution credits posted within the world. lol, I keep track of everyone's contributions.

Q: - Is there anything we can do to help you and your project out in any way?

I think the greatest thing you and the community can do is to get involved. This can be by spreading the word about what we are trying to do (build a world from nothing...one not initially backed by deep pockets although, that can't hurt, but by jst average people with a desire to make a dream come true) :). Get involved in building it. We can always use people with 3D modeling, animation or coding experience that would love another good project on their resumes.

We would love to design movies based on the story line as well to generate interest at some point as well.

Building interest. That is the most important thing at this point.

It is important that we all know that I am not doing this get rich though that would not be bad. :) I want to see this story come alive and for everyone to experience it and to say they are proud to be part of it of this project.

Personally anything we do together helps both of us.

 

Questions for the proprietors of Planet PostModerna?

Hiya Jim T,

Your turn. :)

Q: Why should I visit this planet? (especially since it's gonna be postmodern?! seriously I hope thats just a working title coz it's like...wth??

A: Why? That's up to you. I am not going to hard-sell you. This project is about experiencing a story that is really built from a already designed storyline but given life and flesh by the community within a virtual world platform.

Most of the temples and storyline tracks are designed to teach people about history and myths by allowing them to experience them not just play a game.

The first POI is Temple Q, based on Aztec and Mayan folklore. The Atztec/Mayan Instance will be hard to get into and to return from. Awards and loot found there will be worth a lot to players that don't want to go through the trouble of working through the puzzles, challenges and quests.

For the players that go there, it will be an experience they won't forget and the treasures they find there will be worth every bit the trouble. :)

Now as far as Postmodern, well ,that name suits this well.

I hope that helps make your mind up for you. :)

 

Questions for the proprietors of Planet PostModerna?

Hello SevvyS,

Your turn now. :)

Q: What kind of competition (if any) will there be between planets ?
Will PostModerna aim to have the majority of Entropias player base playing on their planet ? If so, how do you plan to compete against the current Planet Calypso?

A: As far as competition, although Midark has made it pretty clear that each Partner Planet is supposed to bring with it, it's own player base, it would be foolish to think existing planets will not lose players to other worlds. It makes good sense for Mindark to encourage planet- hopping to pull the planet community together and generate some friendly competition between them. Besides, other MMO games already have systems in place for character-transfers between servers. In this case between planets. That could generate some additional revenue for Mindark. :) Planets will have to be pretty creative in order to keep their player communities.

Q: Prior to creation of PostModerna, were you in anyway in contact with MindArk? Or did you seek out MindArk, with ideas allready in mind?

A: Yes and yes. As I shared earlier, this was before the official announcement. It seemed like a great opportunity. They loved our ideas but that means nothing unless you have the money behind you.

Q: As a community we have estimated a current playerbase of between 12,000 - 15,000 .. A farsight short of the 800,000 some may be led to belive, how do you plan to increase this playerbase?

A: You build a base of players by marketing and working with community. What we are doing right hear is a example. Players will tell others about their game and if the incentives are good and the ideas interesting, others will come.

Q: Planet Calypso is using CryEngine2 .. I dont quite understand what Multiverse is? Will this mean PostModerna will have different graphics engine? Or will it run on CE2?

A: Multiverse is a virtual world and open source game platform. We are using it to build our demo. As I mentioned earlier as well, if things don't work out with Mindark, this project will continue on using Multiverse. Their graphic engine is not CryEngine but uses Ogre which, has some pretty nice visual features as well.

I have to mention too that CryEngine is very resource heavy and although it is awesome to look at the 'scapes made within it, it is not important to convey a story. :) Still how sweet it is. :)

 

Questions for the proprietors of Planet PostModerna?

Yes you are right on there. :)

I might add that there has been discussion about maintaining differerent versions of Postmoderna within various platforms. Reason being, Postmoderna is also about learning. How neat to be able to show the works of many contributors in the platform that works best for that part of the project.

An example might be that presentations may work better using the tools of Vastpark. Quests may work better in Multiverse or some similar platform. Postmoderna is organic and will live where it will grow the best.

 

Questions for the proprietors of Planet PostModerna?

Hello Lugzan,

Your turn. :)

Q: I was wondering if you could tell us about the team working on it. By the way, how far will the planet be from Calypso in light years? will it orbit it's sun like calypso or bounce up and down or...?

A: The team has changed a lot over the last year. It is entirely made up of volunteers (some Entropian Players, student artists from Blender Artists Forum, others form outside projects, and all, from all over the world). As mentioned before, there have been as many on as 30 but, since this is a community-based and volunteer project it is hard to keep everyone motivated for long periods. People come and go but I forget no one nor forget their contributions. Everyone is welcome back at anytime.

As far as location, Postmoderna is enroute from Earth to Calypso but because gaining access to the world requires passing through the "space tear" its actual location is unknown and uncharted.

Details, details, details Lugzan. :)

It will circle its sun in a natural elliptical orbit. No need for extremes in his story. At least not yet. :)

 

Questions for the proprietors of Planet PostModerna?

Hello Razer,

No, I love the questions. I am honored to be able to answer them here.

Yeh, outside our blog and dev forum this seems a good place as any to be made semi-official. :)

Now, your turn.

Q: That brings me to my first question: "will your planet have an official forum?"

A: It actually already does at forum.planet-postmoderna.com but is very hard for me to stay on that, the dev forums and the blog. I spend more time on the blog and dev forums.

Since this is a community project, there is talk of making parts of the Developer Forums public and just shutting down the community forums.

Don't think I can handle another one, spend more time in forums than in game these days.

I can totally relate. Only so many hours in a day. :)

 

Okay I think I got everyone's questions and comments so far. Keep em coming if you like and I will be happy to get back to you.

Thanks Razer for the good thoughts. My daughter's party went well and her friends had a great time.

Lykke, I loved that YouTube video. Lol, 1980? Boy that seems forever ago.

 

Questions for the proprietors of Planet PostModerna?

Thanks Razor, that means a lot.

Best,

:)

 

I wanted to at least give anyone following this thread a sample of what I am working on right now.

Remember this is for the demo and not CryEngine. :) This way you don't get that part confused.

In the picture you see the current build of the terrain of the first POI: Base Camp. The avatar is a default placeholder. :) Get used to seeing him or my other Multiverse test character, testee-mamma. :)

You will be able to track latest updates from the project on our blog.

 

Nice :)

Will be cool to compare those pics to the final result when it comes out

 

Alan be ready to get grilled on the Show Saturday night/Sunday Morning.

 

I like his boots :D Actually the whole outfit with belt etc is very medieval

And I saw the mamma on Planet PostModerna Facebook site. She was ... mmm floating in the air?

 

Hiya Lykke,

Yeh that was the default avatar I was using in the Vastpark instance. The female default in this one is a little different. Still interesting, nonetheless.

A

 

Hiya Justin,

I am looking forward to it. :)

A

 

Hiya Cyco,

Yeh it will. Funny though how with every application, the view is always different. The difference between what I can do in Multiverse compared to what I did in Vastpark are night and day (in both good and bad aspects). When we get a contract with Mindark and build in CryEngine, odds are it will look similar to this only better since I will likely be able to use the same terrain mesh.

The nice thing is with the right textures and shaders, I will be able to do some nice things in this Ogre engine for the demo.

A

 

What will Planet Postmoderna have to offer that would attract people from Planet Calypsp? I dont see much potential in PostModerna (or any other partner for that sake).

You also say its pretty much "volonteer" work on it so how will that work in terms of financial systems? Everyone who was a part of it gets a % or will you take it all?

And lastly, do you accept donations to the project and will you pay those back when the project never launches?