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Fuel have launched a 3D browser-based poker game for the fabulous perfect wonderful show Deadwood.
Unfortunately, it requires the Virtools plugin, a plugin that doesn't ship by default with Firefox (or IE, it seems?), and the host site and servers seem to be down. Tedious.
It's a shame that there's no default 3D plugin yet, but I'm sure it won't be long until there is...
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They should have gone to Linden Labs and done it in second life :-)
Posted by: epredator | June 11, 2006 at 20:23
Up until now, Shockwave has pretty much been the de facto 3d engine for browsers... it's got a great penetration rate, which means pretty much everyone can play a new game right away. Virtools is a much newer player in the field, and as a result has a much lower penetration rate... but a few years ago, nobody had Flash, either. A lot of online game developers are moving to their own proprietary players, which I think is a terrible idea. Virtools opens up a whole new realm of possibilities for online 3d gaming... but until it reaches a higher penetration rate, game developers are going to have to really educate the end user on why they should download yet another plugin. And... it wouldn't hurt if the site was to come back up.
[disclosure: I work for Fuel, but not for Virtools]
Posted by: Ryan | June 11, 2006 at 21:43
Oh I have no problem with proprietary plugins, per se, as long as they install when required!
Maybe Virtools will ship with Firefox et al in the future, it'd be nice, but meanwhile to have their servers go down for half the weekend is a little dumb, really.
Posted by: Alice | June 12, 2006 at 11:40
Looking at the screenshot I thought I was seeing Willem Dafoe. At the HBO site I've learned that it was another actor instead, Ian McShane playing Al Swearengen. But every time I look at this screenshot I see Willem Dafoe.
Posted by: Juan | June 13, 2006 at 09:14
*sigh*
The Virtools site goes down whenever anything big gets released.
Unfortunately, Virtools is not running their company in such a manner that I find it unlikely that they will ever reach the pentration Flash has, more's the pity. I'm at Flashbang Studios, one of the few other Virtools developers, and we've *literally* lost work over the lack of penetration of the Virtools plugin :/. Why does the player need to have branding and a link to a site that sells a $10,000 product aimed at developers? Why does it *still* crash Firefox (I have the player installed and the Deadwood game crashed my browser twice - sigh.) And so on and so on...
Anyhow, kudos to Fuel on another great pieces of branded work. Fantastic job there. I guess they allow you guys to use lines ripped from the show. When we did the Sealab: 2021 game, we weren't allowed to use anything from the show. Of course, we got to write original lines for the voice actors and play around with the entire recording of their in-studio sessions (it becomes quickly obvious why they're professional voice actors and comedians - they're uproarious.) Anyhow, wonderful exposure for the Virtools player, great to see. Keep kicking ass :).
Swink
Posted by: Steve Swink | June 13, 2006 at 15:55