March 10, 2000 - San Jose, California
Game Developer's Conference 2000
Stands #1328, #1436 and #1820

Virtools S.A. announces the Arena Game Design Competition, demonstrating Ipion's physics behaviors for the Virtools family of products.

Virtools announced the Virtools Arena Game Design Competition, which begins today March 10th, created to challenge game developers to take advantage of the potential of real-time physics simulation. This functionality will be available as an add-on pack with the next release of the Virtools family of products. This functionality is the result of Virtools's collaboration with Ipion Virtual Physics GmbH and the creation of the new, powerful library of physics behaviors, allowing programmers and non-programmers alike flexible, quick access to this important block of interactivity in a 3D real-time environment.

The competition will allow game developers to demonstrate their creativity using Virtools and the physics behavior libraries and win copies of Virtools Dev, Virtools Creation, 3Dfx Voodoo 5 graphics cards, other prizes to be announced, and last but not least, public recognition of their hard work and talent.

Participation in the competition is entirely free - the free Virtools trial version may be used to create the game file, though Virtools Dev or Virtools Creation can be used as well).

The contestants, after downloading the demonstration DLLs and the necessary models, have over a month (submissions due midnight PST time, April 23rd) and their creativity to transform these elements into an addictive, visually entertaining game, and submit the results for judging. (See the Virtools Swap-Meet community site for complete details and rules).

The Virtools jury will select the best games according to game addiction, fun and visual effects, posting on May 2nd the top 10 entries for the people's choice voting! And even the voters have a chance to win Ð since they will be entered in the random drawing for two 3Dfx Voodoo 5 graphics card.

The voting ends on May 31st and the happy winners will be announced on June 1st. So hurry over to the Virtools Swap-Meet website to get started on creating your ticket to fame and fortune.

Don't forget: submissions are due April 23rd and the voting starts on May 2nd, so come by and see what Virtools is up to.

What is Virtools?
The Virtools family of products allows game developers easy access to two levels of game development, interchangeably. Virtools Creation allows non-programmers and game designers to quickly apply interactive behaviors to 3D models created in the industry standard modeling programs, see the results in real-time 3D, and distribute their results as files that run in the Virtools player. Virtools Dev is specifically designed to meet the needs of cutting edge game developers, allowing them low-level access to Virtools's technology, behavior creation in C++ as well as all the functionality of Virtools Creation.

For more information, please contact:

Virtools S.A.
+33 (0) 1 42 71 46 86
info@virtools.com

About Virtools
Headquarted in Paris, Virtools SA is the leading provider of 3D interactive media authoring tools, serving the game development, 3D web, multimedia markets, post-production and presentation markets with the company's family of products, Virtools Creation for non-programmers and Virtools Dev for cutting edge game developers. Virtools allows users a flexible access to powerful behaviors and quickly add interactivity to 3D models scenes and environments. Virtools has received a number of industry accolades and is in use throughout Europe and North America.