Battle Ball Prize Tournaments Opened to Public
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Oakland, CA -- August 10th, 2007 - Two weeks shy of its first year anniversary, independent online games developer Mindwave Games announced today the public release of "Battle Ball" multiplayer beta, coming after three days of testing by a small group of online fans. A 3D paddle ball game built around an unique multi-tournament system, "Battle Ball" lets players compete head to head in real-time, power up their accounts as time goes by, and win prizes each week all for free.
"Lots more coins," demanded d000hg, the current tournament leader. "One coin every 10-15 min I'd hang around to wait for it." The coins under demand are awarded hourly by an integrated website-driven and in-game database. The player uses them in wager games, in which the winner is able to use the winnings to advance his in-game level.
The developers claim "zero lag" network play. "I should use that phrase with quotes but I won't use them, because the player doesn't see [the latency], " explained Kirby Zhang, the designer and programmer behind "Battle Ball". "There is zero server lag because the player is the server, both players are at the same time." He demonstrated a game session with 400ms simulated latency. The ball bounced upon contact with the paddle, traveled to the opposite end, and was returned by opponent without any apparent delay or glitch.
At the moment two prize tournaments are available from the website, each lasting from 5 to 7 days. The prizes are Game Maker 7 software license plus "Game Maker's Apprentice", and Civilization IV. "We hope to get sponsors at some point, but right now we're buying the prize for our players. It's really not that expensive compared to actually making this game", said Kirby Zhang. He explained that a lot of people asked for multiplayer Pong, so the Mindwave team starting coding and didn't look back until it was done.
"We have the entirely new competition mode, and we make the player move inside a 3D space. But yeah, in the end the game cannot escape being Pong."
"Battle Ball" is available for download from Http://www.battleballgame.net.
SCREEN SHOTS
http://www.battleballgame.net/gallery/startScreen.jpg
http://www.battleballgame.net/gallery/battleChat.jpg
http://www.battleballgame.net/gallery/overTop.jpg
http://www.battleballgame.net/gallery/hangLow.jpg
http://www.battleballgame.net/gallery/gameWin.jpg
http://www.battleballgame.net/gallery/invite.jpg
ABOUT MINDWAVE GAMES
Mindwave Games is an Oakland, California game development company started by a graduate student from UC Berkeley. Our goal is to deliver engaging and technically excellent multiplayer games with lasting play value. In 2007 we released "Battle Ball", a real-time online game praised for its physics, networking, website integration and player matching features. In 2008 we look forward to releasing "Cityscape", a massively multiplayer city building game containing an unprecendented simulation of detail.
Press contact:
Kirby Zhang
President
Mindwave Games
kirby@battleballgame.net