Project Entropia Development Report 6
Source: http://rpgvaultarchive.ign.com/features/den/pedev06.shtml
Project Entropia Development Report #6[edit]
January 22, 2002
As many of you may already know, the MindArk office is located in Gothenburg. It is the second largest municipality in Sweden, with a population of almost half a million people in the city and about 800,000 in the greater metropolitan area. It's in the southern part of the country, about 250 miles southwest of Stockholm. However, since the entire nation is in the far northern part of Europe, winter still means pretty short days and cold temperatures. Today has been pretty typical for this time of year. The high was approximately 5 degrees Celsius or 40 Fahrenheit, and in the middle of the afternoon, I can see by looking out the window that it is already starting to turn dark. But I wonder if anyone else here has noticed.
This winter has been a very different one for all of us at MindArk. In past years, the team was smaller and Project Entropia was not nearly so far advanced in its development. Naturally, we all thought we were working as hard as we possibly could, but when we think back to those times now, even just one year ago, they seem like a vacation. I am exaggerating of course. We were working hard and putting in longer hours than average workers. On the other hand, there was always enough time to look out a window to check the weather. Now, it seems like the designers, artists and programmers spend all their time with the software kind of Windows as preparations continue for the next phase of beta, which we call the Commercial Trial because it will include the first outside test of our patent-pending economy system.
Our beta server has been closed since the end of December, but our internal development server has remained in use. As you can see from the accompanying screenshots, which were taken yesterday, when the new version of Project Entropia is up and running, the participants will see a new generation of graphics that utilize the full capabilities of NDL's NetImmerse engine. At this time, we are using version 4.0, and also getting ready to upgrade to 4.1, which was released less than two weeks ago. We are excited about this new version since it is said to include some very interesting performance enhancements. One is a batch rendering mode that allows faster processing of objects with the same render and dynamic-effect states. Another is a selective update mode that reduces processor load by only updating objects when they change from one scene to another. The underlying details are of interest to technical experts, but anyone can easily see the difference in the new development screenshots compared to those from the Phase II beta.
Naturally, we are asked every day when the Commercial Trial phase will open. Right now, we don't have an exact date and time, but it will definitely be quite soon, possibly even later this week. In fact, although we are still adding content and making small changes, we could already have started at least several days ago. The main reason we have not is because this stage will allow participants to make real money by finding objects of value. We don't want some people to get a head start so we are not opening the server until we are confident the large majority of testers have received the CD with the client. In some parts of the world, it is taking two or even three weeks for the CDs to arrive. We have through spot checks realized that a fairly large number of testers are still waiting for their CDs. This delay is a bit disappointing to us since we're all tremendously eager to begin, but it won't be very long now.
Part of our excitement is due to the way awareness of Project Entropia is exploding. Thanks to coverage by sites like RPG Vault, online gamers have known about it for quite a while now, but since we announced that the Commercial Trial phase would offer $100, 000 in real money, we have experienced a tremendous surge in interest from some major mainstream media. CNN Money had this article last week that was mostly about Project Entropia's economy system. We have also been covered by the Wall Street Journal and contacted by BBC. This doesn't even include regional and local publications. This exposure has been wonderful for building awareness, especially with people who are not hardcore game players. And since we have always considered Project Entropia a virtual world, not just a game, it has been great to focus attention on critically important parts of that are different from games.
I just looked out the window again, and it is quite dark now, so I guess I should finish up this Development Report and get back to the mountain of work that's waiting for me. As a final message, I will remind everyone who has not been selected for this stage of beta that we plan to add more people later, so it's still possible to get a chance at part of the $100,000. If you haven't even applied yet, you can do so at this page on our official site. See you in the world of Calypso!
Patric Sundstrom
Marketing Manager
MindArk AB