Daily miniteaser showing an underwater scene

Daily miniteaser showing some vegetation interaction

Daily miniteaser showing some plasma action.

Daily miniteaser showing an avatar walking in a passageway.

Daily miniteaser showing a colonist firing a laser handgun.

Daily miniteaser showing a big teleporter.

Hello,

Starting today we will start showing some miniteasers, we call them. A miniteaser is a quick glimpse of Planet Calypso in VU10.0 mode. These are “quick-n-dirty” very short pieces, in order to keep productivity up and not bog down the process of getting VU10.0 out the door. Please don’t expect high production values or an “official” polished teaser or trailer. These are what they are – a short moment caught on video from Planet Calypso. These teasers will be between 5-10 seconds long.

It all started with the official birth of the MMORPG “Project Entropia” in January of 2003. Now, some six years later, it is called “Planet Calypso” and it’s a time of re-birth, using state-of-the-art technology. A lot has happened since 2003. Both the virtual and real world has evolved. This is also true for MindArk – the company behind it all.

MindArk’s mission

MindArk’s goal is to create a fully immersive 3d virtual universe capable of delivering high-quality entertainment, education, e-commerce, and social networking to everyone, together with a unique Real Cash Economy component for driving real business. The way this is done is using a standardized development platform which is available to planet partners. Each planet partner has presence in the universe through a virtual planet. This planet can contain a variety of activities devised through the planet partners’ preferences. All the planets available together constitute the Entropia Universe. The idea is that a person who has an Entropia Universe account may travel between the planets available without the need to create a new account for each new planet added to Entropia Universe.

First Planet Company’s mission

In January 2009, MindArk created a wholly owned subsidiary called First Planet Company (“FPC”) to develop and market Planet Calypso – the first and the oldest planet in Entropia Universe. Separating this group from the platform developers allowed them to define their own goal of providing a top class MMO, and shed its role as a “test bed” of sorts for the development of the Entropia platform.

The way this goal is intended to be realized is to refocus on game play, storyline, events and an overall engrossing and engaging experience for the user. The most short term reflection of this will be seen in a tidying up of open storylines. Medium term development will be the release of Version Update 10.0 which will be a major infrastructure update and transition to the CryENGINE®2 graphics motor.

Version Update 10.0 – the launch of the CryENGINE2-powered Entropia Universe

MindArk has been highly focused the last year with the integration of the licensed CryENGINE2 into the Entropia Platform. As with most major software development a huge amount of effort and time has been put in the project and MindArk recently entered what is commonly known as “crunch time” – the last stage of a development cycle. Our internal deadline for the final test phase of VU 10.0 is set in late May 2009. Depending of the evaluation during this test period we could expect a public release during the summer.

The integration process has been more of a conversion than an upgrade when it comes to software systems and game play activities, in order to save resources and reduce time. New game play systems and big content additions to Planet Calypso will emerge post-VU10 – some of which will be influenced by community wishes.

Up till VU 10.0 FPC will continue to host events which will have exclusive prizes and loot that is only going to be found during this time period. We will also have several contest and community-based feedback sessions which will influence future development of Planet Calypso. During the VU10-period will have a “Second Golden Age of Calypso” with some of the best prizes and loot ever seen, to celebrate this glorious occasion!

This is a very exciting time for everyone involved. I want to express my sincerest thanks for the very patient Entropia community who has been with us for all this time. We will make the utmost to make your future Calypso experience as pleasant and enjoyable as possible.

Highest regards

-Marco Behrmann

-CEO First Planet Company

Entropia Gateway has been relaunched and redesigned, featuring exciting new graphics from the upcoming CryEngine2® engine that will soon power Entropia Universe.

Entropia Gateway is a platform for participants, developers and partners to share news, experiences and thoughts related to the exciting and immersive Entropia Universe, a massively multiplayer online virtual universe with a real cash economy.