ASIA
Hong Kong : Artificial Life announced the release of its first massive
multi-user 3G mobile game called "Virtual Penguins."
The new game is based on
the life and fate of the popular Emperor Penguins. The game simulates
the difficult live cycles these penguins endure on the Antarctic ice
and establishes a massive multi-user mobile virtual community. It
is custom built for 3G phones. However, a single player version will
also be released. The game is offered in high resolution 3D animation
technology.
Players of the game take
on the role of individual penguins. They have to go through several
cycles of breeding and feeding their offspring. Players first have
to find a mate (a second player) and then jointly the two players
need to care for the egg that the female penguin will lay. Next they
must protect the egg until it hatches and then they must nurture the
newborn penguin chick until it is mature enough to survive on its
own. In order to succeed the players must co-operate to keep the newborn
chick alive through the different and increasingly more difficult
game cycles by fighting off predators and surviving the severe weather
conditions and other hazards. While one player is protecting their
newborn, the other must walk through the ice to the open ocean in
order to catch and bring back food for the parent that is protecting
the chick. Players can increase their survival chances by building
virtual penguin families that co-operate to help one another survive.
As part of the game players also need to master a virtual penguin
language which enables them to communicate with the other penguins
and also helps them to recognize their other family members.
The new game runs on an
extended version of Artificial Life's Distributed Smart Engine Mobile
Platform(tm) and uses a J2ME Java client technology. Players can interact
with a potentially unlimited number of concurrent users.
The new game is scheduled
for release in December 2005.
"Our penguin gives
people the opportunity to play an appealing and entertaining multi-player
game on their 3G phones. We have again come up with some very innovative
content, technologies and interactions and new ways to explore the
technical features of the expanding 3G community. The future for mobile
entertainment and gaming lies in these types of sophisticated massive
multi-player games, much like it is currently for online games. These
types of games are what 3G mobile carriers need to attract customers,"
said Eberhard Schoeneburg, CEO of Artificial Life, Inc.