ToonMates: MMORPG Coming to Windows Phone 7, Facebook and Others
February 28, 2011 No Comments
Press Release
Artificial Life Announces ToonMates®
New Social Network Game for Facebook and Mobile Platforms
Hong Kong/Los Angeles, February 24, 2011 – Artificial Life, Inc., (OTC BB: ALIF) (http://www.artificial-life.com), a leading full service provider of award-winning smartphone and tablet technology and applications, announces today the upcoming launch of ToonMates®; a massively multiplayer social game for multiple platforms including: Facebook, Android, iOS, and Windows Phone 7 devices.
ToonMates is based on original interactive animated characters created by Artificial Life. ToonMates offers a new approach to the hugely popular multiplayer social game genre by populating the ToonMates world with much edgier and provocative content than is normally associated with social gaming which often focuses on wholesome activities such as raising crops on a farm, managing a cake shop, or caring for virtual animals.
In ToonMates, players will inhabit an expansive virtual world playing the role of a “ToonMate” – a customizable cartoon avatar. Exploration of the ToonMates community will reveal a wide variety of locations including clubs, shopping districts and a seedy underbelly complete with slums, gang turf, and other shady venues. Players may engage in activities such as visiting nightclubs and bars, battling it out with neighboring gangs, and interacting with other players to dance, play cards, chat, fight, and all around get their party on.
Players will embark on missions while interacting with other ToonMates created by their friends and users worldwide. As players make friends in the game, they will expand their ToonMates community and will begin to receive unique multiplayer activities which they can complete with their friends in real time. Missions can range from the ordinary (bust our windows in buildings, set booby traps) to extremely downright dangerous virtual operations (stage kidnappings, rob banks, harvest virtual body parts, and cause general mayhem!). Overall, the atmosphere of ToonMates is adventurous and fun while at the same time being infused with a healthy dose of controversy, chaos, and dark sarcastic humor.
A design preview of the ToonMates and their world can be viewed at: www.toonmates.com. This game has not yet been rated but is aimed at an older teen to young adult crowd and is not for the easily offended.
The locations in the ToonMates world may be customized by players. Each player has his/her own “home-base” which may be decorated with their own trophies, weapons, gifts and purchased items. As the ToonMates world grows, buildings, streets, and entire neighborhoods may be created and named after advanced players. In addition to players’ avatars, the ToonMates world is populated by artificial intelligence driven non-player characters (NPC’s) who can either help or hinder the players’ advancement in the game. For example, a pickpocket NPC may steal a player’s in-game currency, a con artist NPC may dupe a player out of possessions, or a psychotic dog NPC may bite a player and send him/her to the ToonMates General Hospital for weeks! On the flip side NPC’s may also be the bearers of gifts and bonuses. Content and characters are a bit grisly, but nonetheless players are ensured that whenever entering the ToonMates realm they will be amused, engaged, and quite possibly attacked.
ToonMates Game Features
- Personalization of players’ ToonMates to provide a unique community experience
- Shopping for virtual goods to assist gameplay and for further customization
- Invite, Share, Gift, and Tag available through Facebook
- Sharing of game activities and accomplishments through Facebook Wall and Twitter
- Import player’s profile from Facebook
- Seasonal events and virtual goods in all shapes and sizes
- Real-time chat between ToonMates
- User-generated content for media sharing (music and pictures) as well as a graffiti wall for players’ self-expression in their ToonMates neighborhood
- Different goals and missions in expanse of neighborhoods and streets
- Multiplayer mini-game challengesIn addition to playing ToonMates on Facebook, the game will also be available for download through the App Store(SM) for iPhone®/iPad®, Google’s Android Market, and Microsoft’s Windows Phone Marketplace. The game will be available for free, with many upgrade options and in-app purchases to access exclusive features and items. ToonMates leverages Artificial Life’s proprietary technology, OPUS-M™, which will support the many features such as real-time user interactions and optimized user management.ToonMates is scheduled to be released in Q3, 2011.
“I am proud to finally announce ToonMates which we have prepared for a long time as Artificial Life’s first social game for Facebook as well as mobile devices. This strategic move shall give us a jump start in the social gaming business. We have plans to further expand into the social network arena in 2011 and beyond,” said Eberhard Schoneburg, CEO of Artificial Life, Inc.
iPhone and iPad are trademarks of Apple Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries.
Android is a trademark of Google Inc. App Store is a service mark of Apple Inc. Use of this trademark is subject to Google Permissions.About Artificial Life, Inc.
Artificial Life, Inc. has been a pioneer in artificial intelligence and mobile technology since its inception in Boston in 1994. We are a public US corporation (OTC BB: ALIF) with listing on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange (Frankfurt: AIF.F; Xetra: AIF.DE)) and headquarters and production center in Hong Kong. We have additional offices in Berlin, Germany (EMEA headquarters), Tokyo, Japan, and Santa Monica, USA. Currently our main business areas are: high quality (3D) interactive (massive multiplayer) mobile games, mobile participation television, mobile business applications, our powerful mobile commerce technology platform OPUS-M™ and our green IT solutions provided by Green Cortex, Inc. We have won many industry awards for our outstanding technology and products.