Project Entropia Development Report 1

Source: http://rpgvaultarchive.ign.com/features/den/pedev01.shtml

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Project Entropia Development Report

August 24, 2001

It's a very exciting time here at MindArk. Our target is to begin Phase II of our Project Entropia beta test by the end of this month, and as you might expect, this means the entire team is extremely busy making sure we will be ready. We started the first stage of testing back in May, which seems like quite a long time ago now, much more than three months. The initial phase essentially involved technical testing and it required only about 50 testers, so it's a tremendous step to advance from that small number to the coming phase where we are adding approximately 500 new testers just to begin. Fortunately, the designers, programmers, artists and everyone else working on Project Entropia are tremendously motivated to begin Phase II, and as a result, the last three months have been amazingly productive.

As for our status at this moment, we have finished selecting the people who will be invited to join the test. This turned out to be quite a lot of work since we received thousands and thousands of applications to look over. The exact number is confidential, but I can say that it was much higher than our most optimistic expectations. We didn't mind, of course, since it shows that there is strong interest in Project Entropia, which is very encouraging for all of us. In fact, when we look and see how rapidly our community is growing, it motivates us even more. We have also completed the next step, which is to send out notification messages to all the applicants who were chosen. These were sent out by e-mail by about 10 days ago, with our Non-Disclosure Agreement and other information. We started to hear back from some of them almost immediately, so we are already processing the replies to get ready for delivery of the software.

We have not set a precise starting date yet, mainly because we're not sure how long it will take to complete our communication with the testers and to deliver the CDs. Internally, we're quite confident we will be ready to start Phase II by the end of this month, which is the target date we announced a few weeks ago. One thing I would like to say clearly is that Phase II is closed and confidential. Project Entropia is often compared with massively multiplayer RPGs, but it is actually more than just a game. This means it has some different, innovative features. We have to test these features, but we're not ready to reveal everything - not all at once anyway. So, while we do intend to release information and screenshots on a timely basis to keep our fans informed, we are not inviting media into this phase, and we are not allowing open reporting by the testers.

Another thing we are asked about quite often is further beta testing. Our plan is to do as much testing as necessary. At this time, we think we will have two more stages, although this is subject to change. Tentatively, Phase III will be much larger than Phase II, with more open release of information, although we will probably still keep a few secrets, and Phase IV will be open beta for anyone who wants to participate. We don't have pre-set dates for these stages either because we feel it's more important to remain flexible so we can react depending on how well the testing is going. For example, if we are satisfied with our progress in Phase II, we might decide to add more testers right away instead of waiting for Phase III just because we wrote a date down on a piece of paper. So, if you applied but and weren't chosen, there's still hope. Or if you didn't apply yet, you can still do so at http://www.project-entropia.com/betatest/apply.asp?topic=betatest

Before I finish, I would like to thank everyone who has shown an interest in Project Entropia so far by applying to beta test it, visiting our website, posting in our forums, creating websites and telling your friends. Your support is tremendously important to us, and every single one of us here at MindArk is working as hard possible to make sure Project Entropia is the very best and most enjoyable experience it can be.

Patric Sundstrom
Marketing Manager
MindArk AB