[This unedited press release is made available courtesy of Gamasutra and its partnership with notable game PR-related resource GamesPress.]
Wilson, North Carolina - Feb 23, 2011 –
Electrotank, a leading provider of high-performance cross-platform
game technology, today announced the release of version 2.0 of the
Electrotank Universe Platform (EUP), the company’s unique
software architecture for creating massively multiplayer games and
social apps in Flash and Unity 3.
With the launch of version 2.0, EUP adds a new player behavior
stats system, enhanced community and operations tools, and the
option to use AvGen, Electrotank’s proprietary approach to
rendering Avatars in Flash. In addition, EUP 2.0 now runs on
ElectroServer 5, the most robust cross-platform networking engine
available.
As a platform, EUP combines scalable and extensible server
architecture and game services with a set of powerful content and
operations tools to make it easier for developers, game designers,
and artists to create games that are original, engaging and
fun.
“EUP’s core game services support an incredibly rich
variety of gameplay—from simple social mechanics like chat,
email and buddies, to more complex features like
animations/abilities, crafting and questing. The next step is to
give our partners the ability to capture information about player
behavior, down to each individual in-game action—not only for
analytics but also to drive new features and game
progression.” said Electrotank CEO Michael Gold.
“EUP’s new stats system does just that.”
EUP’s stats system utilizes Couch DB, the same open source
solution behind many massive social applications, such as Twitter.
The data captured in the system can be fed into external analytical
applications, and also can be made available to the game itself, so
that past player experience can directly influence the type of
actions a player can take in the future, such as unlocking quest
tasks or triggering rewards.
“When we were evaluating approaches to tracking player
behavior we had a couple of key requirements,” said
Electrotank CTO Michael Grundvig. “We wanted a solution that
was in keeping with our philosophy being platform agnostic, so our
clients could plug into any analytics service they choose; and,
above all, we wanted a solution that could handle a massive amount
of player data without constraining EUP’s ability to perform
at scale.”
In addition to the stats system, EUP 2.0 comes with an enhanced
version of its suite of content and operations tools, including a
new tool called the Universe Inspector. The Universe Inspector
gives moderators the ability to view a live snapshot of games built
on EUP in real-time, and to take immediate action (muting, banning,
messaging, teleporting, etc.) to manage the community
experience.
EUP 2.0 also comes with a fully integrated version of AvGen,
Electrotank’s proprietary approach to rendering 2D avatars in
real-time using 3D models stored and cached on remote servers. The
key benefits of AvGen is that it allows unmatched ability to
support both highly detailed avatars and scores of animations,
without sluggish performance or bulky downloads.
“We’re very excited about AvGen, particularly with
respect to how it can be used with other aspects of EUP,”
said Mr. Gold. “For example, in the very near future we will
see live projects built on EUP that make creative use of AvGen,
EUP’s item system, and our questing engine to bring together
virtual goods, creative animations, and narrative arcs in ways
rarely, if ever, seen in Flash-based MMOs.”
Electrotank will provide demos of both EUP and ElectroServer 5
at both the Flash Gaming Summit (Feb. 27) and the Game Developers
Conference (Feb 28- Mar 4) in San Francisco.
About Electrotank
Electrotank is a leading provider of high-performance game
technology. Our products include ElectroServer, the most robust
real-time multi-player game server for Flash, Unity 3, iPhone,
Android, XNA, and HTML5; and, the Electrotank Universe Platform
(EUP), an extensible end-to-end platform for the rapid development
of unique virtual worlds, MMORPGs, and social games in Flash and
Unity 3. Our clients include Ubisoft, Webkinz, Neopets, Beanie
Babies, Meez, Mattel, Spinmaster, MTV, Comedy Central, and many
others. Visit us at
www.electrotank.com.
About the Electrotank Universe Platform
The Electrotank Universe Platform (EUP) provides scalable and
extensible end-to-end architecture and tools that make it easy for
developers, game designers, and artists to create MMOs and social
applications in both Flash and Unity 3. EUP provides fully
extensible data model tied to a core framework of comprehensive
game services: Avatar and inventory, rich and interactive world
items, scriptable NPCs, in game trade, customizable private and
shared spaces, chat, email, player relationships (buddies, enemies,
etc.), questing, crafting, item spawning, user-generated
content, and more. In addition, EUP comes with a powerful set of
content and community management tools with which non-developers
can build world maps, create rich interactive world items, author
quests, moderate and track player data and behavior, and much more.
EUP has been licensed to create over a dozen full-featured virtual
worlds and MMOs for clients such as Ubisoft, Mattel, and MTV, to
name a few.
About ElectroServer 5
ElectroServer is the most robust real-time multiplayer
networking engine for Flash, Unity 3, iPhone, Android, XNA, and
HTML5. ElectroServer runs everything from social applications
supporting millions of users, to fast-action real-time multiplayer
games, to data-rich collaborative tools incorporating real-time
audio and video. Easy to use, fast, secure, scalable and truly
multi-platform. ElectroServer powers rich real-time applications
that bring people together.
Media contact:
Matthew Wiesner
mwiesner@electrotank.com
(212) 796-2565
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