Bigpoint Blockbuster Poisonville Now in Open Beta
After almost two years in development, Bigpoint opens the doors to Poisonville at the opening of Europe’s biggest game industry trade fair: The fight for control of the city streets can now begin. The Hamburg-based developer and publisher’s latest 3D action MMOG (Massively Multiplayer Online Game) sets new standards in the browser-game industry – with a price tag of almost €2 million, Poisonville is Bigpoint’s most expensive game ever.
Awesome action in a freely explorable 3D world
The game is set in a fully 3D world of a quality which, up to now, has only been attainable in PC or console games – all with no download or installation, directly in the players’ browsers. To make that possible, the graphical programming interface, the 100% Java-based jMonkeyEngine (jME), was severely modified and adapted to the game’s needs, requiring an incredible amount of technical savvy.
This is the first browser game animated using motion capture, a technique which is commonly used in console games to film the movements of real actors and translate them into images. Day and night modes, sophisticated artificial intelligence, customizable vehicles and personally designed characters are only a few of the game’s many groundbreaking features.
Players are free to explore all aspects of the huge fictional city of Poisonville, including many attractions and shopping possibilities. They can navigate through approximately 600 quests and interact with other players on seven different maps each containing up to 1,500 players (a total of 5,000 per server instance), and participate in battles in the trailer park, where the city’s four gangs go up against each other in exciting PvP battles.
Immediate action with an introductory tutorial
Poisonville’s innovations are clear from the very beginning: Players can plunge into Poisonville by simply clicking the “Play now” button. Before they even register, they can determine their character’s appearance and enjoy an awesome comic strip that tells the Poisonville background story. Then the tutorial teaches them the basic game functions (commands, picking up and using objects, driving, etc.) and finally they must ally themselves with one of the city’s four gangs. Only then must the player decide whether or not to register a free game account.
"With Poisonville our goal of revolutionizing the browser-game market has reached completion,” explains Heiko Hubertz, founder and CEO of Bigpoint. “A team of top-notch developers has done some great technical and graphical work, and of course we’re rightfully proud of that.”
About Poisonville
Poisonville is the name of a fictional American city which thousands of users can freely explore and interact in real time. The city is divided up between four gangs (Los Muertos, Kingston Cartel, Bratva und Hellspawn). Each of these can conquer individual districts in the city, which they then must defend from the three rival gangs. Alongside these ongoing PvP elements, players can complete jobs and fight against the other players in order to climb from simple gang member to gang leader.
Burning trash cans, sinister fog-filled alleyways and a diurnal cycle set the scene for blockbuster-level ambiance. Users can choose to cruise the streets in their custom car (every vehicle drives differently) or trick out their character in the latest streetwear at one of the many stores – everything is possible in Poisonville. Go club hopping, let yourself be charmed by one of the many ladies of dubious repute and then head back onto the streets to take part in the endless fight for control of the city. Just like in real life, power and influence are the only things that matter. Players must use their social skills – cheating other players can have serious consequences in the gameplay, and some jobs require cooperation between two or even a group of players.
Poisonville is recommended for people 16 years or older and is online now in German and English. More languages are coming soon.
For more information, please visit:
http://www.bigpoint.com
http://www.bigpoint.net
http://www.poisonville.com
