A while back, when Quake Live launched, I had pointed out how it’s not a browser game — as it was projected to be — but just a game which was launched in a browser. Now venturebeat reported of Vector entertainment, which making full scale 3D MMO flash games using v3D engine.

The game uses pixel shaded, vector graphics for vehicles and you will be able to interact with thousands of players in the game, which is in closed beta as of now. I wasn’t able to try out the game because of some problem with my flash security restrictions =(

The game is targeting kids in the 6-12 age group but hey am sure a lot of grown ups (including me) and gonna pounce on the site, come May 18, when the game gets out of beta.

In the game, you can even create your own car using “carstructor”. Not just tweaking the car like in NFS, but building a car from ground up, like creating a creature in Spore. You can do that even now, that too without signing-in. I really liked this part. I can’t show you people what I created but I don’t think it can be considered a car. oops!

The company is even running a contest asking people to design cars for the game and the winning car will become one of the official starter vehicles for Vector City Racers and the winner will receive tickets and roundtrip air travel to their choice of one of four national racing spectator events! The contest will officially begin on May 18, 2009 and ends on July 20, 2009

The v3D engine supports particle effects (to create rain, fire, smoke) and also realistic shadow, depth of field among other features.

Talking about 3D and browser based real-time rendering, Java’s 3D API deserves a mention.

As you can see in the video above, the APIs are pretty powerful but Java applets which can be embedded in browsers – like flash — has its own disadvantages (much like flash) which I won’t get into here. But in these two technologies, we see a taste of future of gaming, which is easy to build and distribute.

What does Zapak got to do with politics? Nothing, would be my answer on any other day but looks like they do help political leaders voice their opinion.

Medianama reports of a microsite for MNS in the Zapak site. The microsite brings in interactivity to their campaign which their site doesn’t offer.

Apart from the “Vote for us“ stuff on the site, it offers a flash game and that flash game now that got me thinking. Why aren’t other political parties using games “to sell themselves?”

So well have any good ideas for a political flash game? I have a few

1> WWE like wrestling match between Manmohan Singh and LK Advani. You can call for help and one person will come running to your help and the opponent too can call for help and soon it will turn into a royal rumble like scenario! (Big question who will throw Jayalalitha out?)

2> Kissa Kursi ka> A tug of war. Instead of a rope they will be pulling a chair. You need to keep clicking fast to win.

3> In another game you will be helicopter pilot and you will have to fly your leader from one stage to another so he can speak to larger number of people and win more votes.

4> A four side T20 tourney. Indiagames (their site was redesigned recently; looks much better now) already has a T20 game, am sure they won’t mind tweaking the game to make it into a Indian Political League (IPL… Will Modi sue?) Optionally the game can be ported to iPhone too =D

Have any more ideas? Do list them down.

Cross posted at controlenter

There is no doubting the fact that Zapak is one of the top casual gaming companies in India. They have successfully marketed all the micro-sites and projects they have built around their flagship site. The latest venture – Battleout – takes forward the concept of Zapak girls.

Battleout is all about comparisons, you are thrown two photos and a random questions like “Which of these two girls is prettier” or “Who has a cuter pet.” The site breathes in light hearted competitiveness and enhances the social networking value of Zapak brand.

The concept is pretty simple – sign in using your Zapak id and start voting. Apart from simply voting you can create your own battles as well.There are two ways of engage in in battle, either you can accept a battle challenge posted by someone else, or create you own.

In case you decide to create your own battle, you need to upload a photo, select the category (men, women, car, party, pet etc), enter a question, add tags and wait for an opponent. Opponents can find you by searching tags, categories or by merely browsing through battles. Once an opponent has selected you, you will get a mail stating that the battle has begun. Now it’s time for you to call in the might of your friends. Every battle has a specific URL, which can be accessed without logging into the site. However, if you want to win the battle, please remind your friends to login to the site before voting. Why you may ask, because votes of registered users have a weightage of 10 while non-registered users will get a weightage of only 1.

I won’t elaborate further on the gaming side of the site as it would be best left for you to explore!

The website sure seems to be a hit. According to sources at Zapak, around 11,000 members have created a profile at the site. Just two days after the site has been set up, now that sure is an achievement! The site I believe, will also help Zapak draw international audience into the site. As of now 90 per cent visitors are Indians.

Monetisation

Commercial viability is an issue which brings every new idea to a halt. However, Zapak has a solution lined up for this issue. They are planning to introduce sponsored battles in the future.

For example a paint manufacturer could be the sponsor for a question like, “Who has a swankier house”

It makes perfect sense, but it needs to be seen how well they are able to moderate the pictures on the site. If they are going to depend entirely on users to flag pirated images they are going to have a tough time.

Momentum

Can they maintain the momentum? I hope they will be able to because, they are a company with highly fluctuating figures.

Zapak traffic

I always wanted to do this! Thans to Zapak now I can.. The concept is simple, copy the embed code.. place in your blog and then happy gaming! You can ask your friends topost their high-scores and organise a mini-tournament.. What say?

For more info check this post on Zapak blog

I wanted to embed the game here but couldn’t because wordpress does not allow flash embeds!

Can you beat my score??