BEREKELY, CA, May 17, 1999 – Skotos Tech, an online game company located in Berkeley, California, today announced the hire of its second game developer. Michael Blum will take the lead in creating Alvatia: Realms of Fantasy, Skotos Tech’s fantasy flagship game.
Alvatia: Realms of Fantasy is set on a feudal island reminiscent of 14th Century England. The Continent lies far away. It has been the source of invasions past, but otherwise it is forgotten. It is a peasant’s legend and little more. For twenty generations the cultures of Alvatia have lived in something approaching harmony. But now the Pox has come to the Continent and a new invasion has begun—an invasion of fugitives, immigrants, and refugees.
Alvatia: Realms of Fantasy portrays a kingdom in chaos. It is the battle between history and reality, between custom and desire, between the new and the old. Lords will rise and fall. Artifacts of ancient power will be unearthed. Saints will walk the land. Soon everything will change.
Alvatia is built on top of the Skotos StoryBuilder Server, a powerful online game engine. It creates a virtual reality that is as much about socialization as competition. Players can take a variety of roles: serfs, knights, lords, magicians, priests, and more. Thousands of social verbs and adverbs make meaningful interaction possible. Gaits and poses transmit subtle nuances of character. StoryBuilding resources allow for the creation of clans and guilds; in-game discussions will be augmented by out-of-game interactions at web sites, chats, bulletin boards, and clubhouses.
Strategy supplements interactive fiction in Alvatia. At its strategic level Alvatia is a huge, multiplayer game of SimFeudalism. The feudal system is fully modeled—from its interrelated obligations to the economics that underlie them. War and peace, famine and plenty, and pestilence and health are all part of the constantly evolving simulation of the world. Death and life are factors too—items become worn out and break; people grow old and die. At the same time the world of Alvatia is constantly revitalizing itself with creation and birth.
Michael Blum, the game designer responsible for Alvatia, has worked in the role-playing profession for twenty years. He has experience as a writer and an illustrator and has worked on a number of well-known games, including Call of Cthulhu, Ringworld, Pendragon, Cyberpunk, and RuneQuest.
Alvatia promises to be the most ambitious of Skotos Tech’s initial flagships. The scheduled release date is Summer 2002.
ABOUT SKOTOS TECH
Skotos Tech is an online game company committed to creating a community of storytellers and players. Skotos offers tools that allow storytellers to concentrate on the plot, character, and detail of the worlds they build. Skotos provide an environment that allows players to explore these worlds, share their accomplishments, and possibly become storytellers themselves. Skotos Tech is located in Berkeley, CA. It was incorporated in 1999 and plans for initial release of its virtual worlds in Fall 2000. More information is available at http://www.skotos.net.
