Twinity blogged : Sun Festival

from the Others like to play also dept.

From the Twinity Monitor, a Twinity focused virtual world blog site, comes news of a recent mini-festival in the Singapore segment of the Twinity universe. Check out the other articles over at the blog.

Twinity launches music event ahead of real world album

from the You just missed it dept

Twinity - Berlin and now Singapore friendly Virtual World this week previewed Indie powerhouse duo Kilowatt and Vanek's upcoming (September 11 release) album.

Indie Tuesday: KiloWatts & Vanek Exclusive Sneak Preview of the New Album

Indie Tuesday special! The new album “Focus and Flow” by KiloWatts & Vanek will be presented in Twinity two days before the official release! Bring your best dancing moves as Peter Vanek will be live on site with his avatar and won’t only answer your questions, but also wants to trip the light fantastic!

Listen today to new songs by KiloWatts & Vanek – exclusively in Twinity! The American-Belgian duo melds James Watt’s electronic visions with Peter Vanek’s talent as a songwriter. The result is a bunch of surprisingly complex and enchanting songs which are good for dancing or dreaming – or best both at the same time! The new album will officially be released on Friday, 11 September through motor.digital and Dependent.

With thanks and props to the Twinity Blog.

A preview of extended web and social network capability inside BigWorld 2.0

Austin Game Developers Conference is on in two weeks

from the Come see us at the show dept.

BigWorld will be previewing Bigworld Technology 2.0 at AGDC in Austin in mid-September, showcasing a slew of new features and capabilities.

Metaversum launches Twinity Singapore - Straits Times

from the Germans in the Far East dept.

THIS National Day, Orchard Road may be a hive of activity - both in the real and virtual worlds.

Twinity's maker, a virtual world developer, is launching an online realisation of Singapore's iconic shopping strip on Aug 9, where users can make virtual friends, visit online galleries, go shopping and even set up online businesses.

As part of the launch, and in conjunction with the Republic's 44th National Day, the virtual area will host several events. These include:

A live video stream of the parade from the Marina Bay floating platform.

A virtual performance by home-grown band Electrico of this year's theme song, which it will perform at the parade too.

The Pledge Moment, where users can congregate to take the national pledge together at precisely 8.22pm, alongside people in the physical world.

Twinity's maker, German company Metaversum, has already put out a virtual replica of Berlin. Virtual Singapore is the second location to be launched, while London is on the cards.

The difference between Twinity and other virtual worlds, such as Second Life, is that it represents real places. For instance, virtual Orchard Road, which has been in development for over a year, features the Marriott Hotel with its green pagoda roof and even the Electronic Road Pricing gantry in front of it.

Its creation was supported by a grant from the multi-agency Interactive Digital Media Research and Development Programme Office (IDMPO), hosted by the Media Development Authority of Singapore.

IDMPO's programme director Dennis Sng said: 'Singaporeans will have a whole new experience of National Day celebrations this year. Singaporeans living overseas can also participate in the celebrations through the virtual world.' While still in its beta testing phase, Twinity has 130,000 users and Singaporean membership has recently doubled, a spokesman for the company said.

More over at the Straits Times.

Twinity gets Herringed

from the Looks best in Red dept,

BigWorld powered Virtual World 'Twinity' from Metaversum, has picked up a Red Herring Top 100 award in Europe, recognising leading private technology ventures in the EMEA region. Thanks to Virtual Worlds News.

Twinity cracks 100k subscribers

from the Missed it last week dept.

Metaversum's Twinity announced on its blog last week that they have surpassed 100k registered. Though still in beta, Twinity is starting to cement its grip on the mirror world market, with Virtual London and Singapore poised to join the available cities. More at the link.

BigWorld readying for GDC 2009

from the Come out and Play dept.

BigWorld is gearing up towards it's first major tradeshow attendance of the year, the Game Developer's Conference in San Francisco this March. On hand will be a number of biz and technical staff showcasing the latest version of the engine and tools. Feel free to drop in and talk with our staff - hope to see you there!

There is a list of upcoming events available here and BigWorld will also be attending the Taipei Games Show and DICE in fabulous Las Vegas this month.

Twinity : Santa's sack and the Titty Twister

from the Ho Ho Ho it's Christmas dept.

Metaversum's Twinity crests 100,000 users this month and is laying on improvement after improvement, from cute Googlemaps inserts to help you navigate through the behemoth city to early testing of the city of London, Twinitized.


Friday this week, there are some shennanigans on inside Twinity, including a best outfit competition winners to be announced at the Titty Twister club, and you can celebrate Christmas at the Brandenburg Gate - also with a massive Virtual Tree - the biggest ever seen virtually? Currently? Outside Second Life? Who knows. Frohe Weihnachten.

Holiday spirit has arrived in Twinity and we want to celebrate with you! For nearly 700 years, the traditional German Christmas Market has endured as a fun holiday celebration where friends, family and strangers can meet and enjoy the “Weihnachtsstimmung” (Christmas spirit) together.

In Twinity, just like at traditional Christmas Markets, you can buy and give gifts to your virtual friends! Get fun holiday clothes and accessories for your avatar or Christmas trees for your virtual apartment! Bring your real-life Glühwein and we’ll sing Christmas carols together under the biggest virtual Christmas tree you’ve ever seen!

BigWorld features 'first' in list of middleware engines on Gamasutra

from the Luckily there isn't an 'Aardvark' engine dept.

Thanks to the miracle of alphabeticization, BigWorld is listed first in the round-up on Gamasutra, just nudging out Crysis and literally at the other end of the pile from Unreal 3, were it not for the fact Epic starts with an 'E'. Simutronics HeroEngine is the only other listed MMO specific engine.

A few omissions to the article include previously shipped BigWorld games and Virtual Worlds - Netease currently burning brightly in China with TianXia 2, and Metaversum's Twinity. The first BigWorld title shipped in the first half of 2006, making four shipped MMO client/server middleware-powered games by 2008. In the coming quarters we should see launch activity from other BigWorld titles in beta, Firesky's Stargate Worlds and Interzone's Futebol.

Twinity pushes past 50,000 users

from the Fresh out of the Gate dept.

Twinity - the BigWorld-Powered-Mash-Up-Mirror-World (BPMUMW) from German Developers Metaversum has 50k users and growing according to APLink's Peters. Not bad for only a couple of months out of the gate, and more to come as they steamroll more and more virtual cities out, with London and Singapore pegged as their next milestones, hot on the heels of Singapore's Media Development Office's investment in the infrastructure to support the Virtual World.

Happy 50th Twinity! Here's to the next 500k ;)

The Beeb takes a look at Twinity.

From the Now it's mainstream dept.

The esteemed BBC takes a look at some virtual worlds and talks with Jochen Hummel, CEO of Metaversum, makers of Twinity, powered by the BigWorld engine.

"Fantasy worlds give you freedom and allow you to fly but the fantasy element limits them for the real world," said Jochen Hummel, the chief executive of Metaversum, the company behind Twinity.

"Teenage boys are the biggest users but for adults there is a need to improve their real lives rather than escape from them," he said.

Video of Twinity in action and audio interview with Mr Hummel available here.

Twinity launches open beta

from the Keys to the City dept.


APLINK It's Real and others are reporting on Friday's ceremony for Twinity's formal open beta phase. CEO Jochen Hummel was on hand with other dignitaries, stating :

“Our vision is clear, this is a trusted environment within a virtual world, lifelike, and based on real metropolises. People can live, work, and have fun here. They can also beam themselves straight into the world’s most attractive cities with a single click. With the launch of our public beta phase, we have laid the foundation for Twinity’s international rollout.”

Metropolises. Metropoli? Realistic havens of cyber citizens grooving and interacting with one another in a mirror world, powered by BigWorld. Dive in and get your access.

Twinity's Snyder interviewed on Australia's Metaverse TV

from the Get yours Mashed up here dept.



Metaversum's Jeremy Snyder talks about the urban surreality of Twinity's Berlin, in a fairly comprehensive interview with Australia's Metaverse TV. The interview features shots of the recent mock-up of Barack Obama's visit to the Brandenburg Gate 'mashed up' in Twinity. The virtual world looks set to be unleashed sometime later this year.

Twinity rolls out a chunk of Berlin

from the Walk in the Park dept.

Virtual Economic Forum reports that Metaversum has implemented outdoor spaces on its BigWorld engine founded Virtual World, Twinity. The area on show now to cruisers of the Twinity world is Berlin's Hackescher Markt and surrounds. You can sign up to take a peek at what's going on inside this world over at www.Twinity.com.

Twinity is a socially oriented virtual world that focuses on recreating personal and public spaces inspired by real world locales - the first of which is the city of Berlin.

So real in fact, I was just talking to an avatar - 'Neva' (in world) who claimed to have been so lost in the realistically modeled streets of Twinity/Berlin that she had to alt-tab back to the desktop so she could Google map her way out. Thank God she had internet access, right?

Right.