Developer Altadyn announced the release of 3DXplorer V4, an update to its plug-in-less and browser-based web3D platform, which, among other additions, now allows visitors to create a "universal avatar" for multiple supported virtual worlds, 3D web sites, and casual games.

Using an integrated "avatar configurator," visitors can customize their avatar's sex, face, hair, clothes, accessories, and other details. The avatars support various animated actions, moods, and interactions with other avatars. Users can communicate through text chat and integrated Skype calling.

The updated platform also extends support for user-generated content by allowing developers to import 3D COLLADA data. Altadyn has included an API which enables custom development of 3D web applications including casual games, collaborative tools, CAD/PLM environments, online meetings, product configurators, eLearning, and others.

Online game publisher GamesCampus has announced that it will begin its open beta test for Asda Story, a MaxOn Soft Corporation-developed 3D MMORPG, starting August 5th and ending late August when the game officially launches.

Previously released in Japan in 2006 and in Korea in 2007, Asda Story is a free-to-play title with a fantasy anime style. The game features a Soul Mate System with which two players can use a "soul mate" power to wear unique costumes and use special skills. Asda Story also incorporates a Real Costume System offering players extensive personalization and design options.

GamesCampus also announced a new program for players of the game - The Guaranteed Fun Promotion. With the promotion, the company promises to pay players $30 if they are unsatisfied with their game experience. To be eligible, gamers must first play Asda Story for 30 days and reach Level 40 by September 4th, 2008.

Said Gamescampus.com EVP of marketing and business development David Chang: "We chose to bring this game to the west because we believe in its potential. The Guaranteed Fun Promotion is our way of showing our belief in the game and is even better than a money-back guarantee because you don't have to spend a penny to play Asda Story."

He continued: "We are just asking you to invest your time in playing our game, and if after playing for 30 days you don't feel it has been the great game experience we feel it to be, we want to hear your feedback and we'll give you $30.00. It is as simple as that."

Representatives for Dizzzywood, a virtual world designed for children between ages 8-12, have announced a partnership with the Arbor Day Foundation to plant 15,000 real-world trees following an in-game activity designed to promote environment awareness.

In the online activity, children were tasked with restoring nature and balance to tracts of Dizzywood's Wildwood Glen forest that had been destroyed and polluted. Players were encouraged to earn tree seedlings and plant them in the damaged areas of the forest.

As a result of the their efforts to restore the forest, the polluted sky cleared, fish returned to the pond, and creatures returned to their woodland homes. Children can now play games and catch fish in Wildwood Glen. A statue commemorating the children's work has also been erected in Dizzywood.

Said Dizzywood co-founder Ken Marden: “Dizzywood’s tree planting is a great example of how an adventurous storyline can cleverly weave a strong educational component into play. It is an opportunity to allow kids to see the wider impact that they can have by working together, as well as what it means to be a citizen of the world – in this case, a virtual one. We hope the kids are as inspired to see their online environmental activity have real-world results as we are.”

RuneScape is a Java-based MMORPG that boasts over six million accounts and claims to be the second largest western-based MMO as a result (behind World of Warcraft). The reason for their lofty claims? A thin-client concept that means the initial download of RuneScape is only 1.2 megabytes, and unlike something like Second Life, due to procedural generation it doesn't have to download bandwidth-heavy textures and models.

The title has just launched in its latest iteration, RuneScape HD, and we talk to Jagex's Henrique Olifiers (head of development on their upcoming Sci-Fi sequel to RuneScape, MechScape) about the title, its technology and demographics.

Introduce Jagex and RuneScape.

Henrique Olifiers: We have around 400 people working in two specific buildings in Cambridge in the UK. About half of them are game development and the other half are customer support. We wanted to make sure our customer support and game development were close so they could learn from each other. The company was founded in 2001, but stems from a partnership of two brothers, Andrew and Paul Gower when they were undergraduates at University. They were MUD fans and they wanted to take the genre further, so they developed the first version of RuneScape, what we call today RuneScape Classic.

In 2004 we upgraded it with 3D graphics, and at E3 we announced RuneScape HD, which features higher definition graphics.

Now, one of the strengths of our game is our thin client method. We think games should be accessible for anyone anywhere, no matter what kind of configuration they have. We created this technology that runs in the browser, and is very small – only 1.2 megabytes – and all of the assets that you can see on the screen, the textures, the models, the lighting, is all generated procedurally by the client. It's the same technology that you see demo coders using at competitions when they make, you know, a FPS in 100k. So there are no slow downloads for what you see on screen.

MMO developer Spacetime Studios is laying off about half of its 32-person staff as it struggles to find a publishing deal for its Blackstar IP.

Spacetime previously had an agreement with NCsoft to publish the science-fiction MMO, but in January of this year, the publisher canceled the project. Since then, the developer says it's been self-funded during its search for a new deal.

"We have been shopping Blackstar around, but right now, at least,the concept of a SciFi space/ground IP has proven to be a challenge," says Spacetime on its official blog.

"Our studio cannot survive at its current burn rate without a publishing deal, so we face a necessary (though very difficult and painful) decision," reads the recent post. "We are scaling down from thirty-two down to sixteen folks in the hopes of developing a pitch, a prototype and another publishing deal."

[The preceding article by Leigh Alexander originally appeared on Worlds in Motion sister site Gamasutra.]

In its official announcement for upcoming 3D MMORPG Twin Skies, independent studio Meteor Games, which was recently founded by the original creators of NeoPets, revealed that the title will support mobile connectivity features via games and applications designed for cell phones and other devices.

Twin Skies mixes fantasy MMORPG elements - such as creating characters from a selection of races and classes to battle against monsters - with trade skills, social interaction, mini-games, and "lots of hair styles." The mobile applications will allow players to access their characters and affect the online persistent world. Meteor Games intends to release more information on the applications at a later date.

Players can also interact with Twin Skies on the official Web site by playing flash-based mini games which will eventually communicate with the MMO, potentially changing weather in a certain zone, spawning a monster, or unlocking a chest full of treasure.

Though the game isn't scheduled to enter Beta until later this year (with the full launch following in 2009), Meteor Games will be showing the title at the Penny Arcade Expo in August of this year. The company plans to announce an updated schedule, hand out plush toys, and give away limited spots for its upcoming Beta test at the event.

Said Meteor Games CEO and creative director Adam Powell: "We're excited to announce Twin Skies, our first major project since creating Neopets and a much more ambitious undertaking that aims to change the way gamers of all ages play and socialize in MMOs. Twin Skies' technology and design will allow players to access the game from anywhere and in any way they choose. The immersive world, advanced technology and accessible gameplay will be fun for gamers young and old, casual and hardcore alike."

Digital entertainment company GS New Media announced that it is working with Sun Microsystems to develop a virtual world for 'tweens and teens based on Australian children's television series and book series The Saddle Club.

Titled The Saddle Club Virtual World, the game will be built with Sun Microsystems' open source online game platform Project Darkstar.

The live action drama series, which airs on public television stations in the U.S. and Discovery Kids, and the book series follow the adventures of three young heroines who've formed the Saddle Club, a group of friends who share an interest in horse riding and horses themselves. The three girls compete in equestrian competitions and take part in other adventures.

Project Darkstar is a "game agnostic, platform agnostic server technology that provides online game developers the ability to create a wide variety of games that can be provisioned through a single server platform." It is designed to designed to simplify the development and operation of massively scaleable online games, virtual worlds and social networking applications.

Founded in 2007 and based in Toronto, GS New Media designs, develops, acquires, and markets interactive programming and environments based on original properties and licensed brands across digital multimedia platforms. The company's staff includes veterans from Scholastic Productions, Walt Disney UK, and Webkinz.

Said GS New Media CEO and co-founder Shemi Levi: “We are thrilled to collaborate with Sun Microsystems, a company known for innovation, community development and open source leadership. Their strength in enabling massive multiplayer online games will allow us to push the limits to create a truly unique 3D world that will connect with millions of young fans of The Saddle Club TV series and horse lovers everywhere.”

Auran Games CEO Tony Hilliam announced that the company will shut down its servers and website for player-versus-player-driven MMO Fury within 48 hours due to the studio's inability to "find a viable business model."

Released for PCs in October 2007, Fury initially launched with a monthly subscription model before switching to free-to-play in December 2007. In a post on Fury's message board, Hilliam said that despite the change, the company struggled to keep the game running. "We have reached our time limit to find a solution that would help us keep the Fury servers open. Sadly, no solution has been found and so we have no alternative than to shut the servers"

The Brisbane-based developer also announced in December that it dismissed its entire staff as it entered into Voluntary Administration. Prior to that, Auran revealed that it downsized its staff, outsourcing development to Asia, as a result of the MMO starting off "slower than expected."

Said Hilliam: "To the Auran team, who put their heart and soul into making Fury, thanks for your efforts. As I said many times before, we need to be much better than the competition to have a chance of succeeding. We gave it everything we had and history now judges that it still wasn’t good enough."

He continued: "Whilst this marks the end of the Fury chapter, who knows what the future may bring. There were many gems hidden within Fury and many lessons learned. Hopefully one day the full potential can be realized in some other form."

With the recent launch of our new Worlds In Motion Job Board as a standalone board complete, complete with its own RSS feed and unique URL, every week, we will be highlighting the latest posted jobs relevant to our readership of professionals creating online worlds.

The listings cover a wide range of companies and open positions, so everyone seeking jobs in the MMO/online/virtual world industry should find the board useful.

- ArenaNet (Bellevue, WA)
Senior-Level Graphics Programmer
("ArenaNet, located in Bellevue, WA, is a wholly owned subsidiary of NCsoft Corporation and is the creator of the block-buster RPG, Guild Wars. ArenaNet has built a state-of-the-art, interactive game network and develops premier multiplayer online games for dedicated game players.")

- Blizzard Entertainment (Irvine, CA)
Senior Software Engineer, Battle.net
("Blizzard Entertainment is looking for a talented and enthusiastic programmer to join our Battle.net team in Irvine, California. Battle.net is an online service enjoyed by millions of Blizzard Entertainment gamers around the globe. The senior software engineer must be self-motivated and able to work both independently and in conjunction with team members and product groups. Enthusiasm and flexibility in working on a variety of projects are also necessary.")

San Francisco-based developer Vivaty has launched Vivaty Create, the "pilot phase" of a new developer program designed to encourage developers to create content for its Vivaty Scenes platform.

Recently brought into public beta, Vivaty Scenes utilizes Vivaty's 3D spaces platform to offer embeddable virtual spaces as a Facebook application and as an application module for AOL's instant messenger.

Users can customize their characters and space in Vivaty Scenes, adding online media, such as YouTube videos or Flickr feeds. They can then send the space's URL to invite a friend into the browser-based world.

With Vivaty Create, developers can share their ideas and submit 3D scenes and content to Vivaty for an opportunity to win cash rewards. Participants can create their submissions using Vivaty Studio, a new creation tool for creating 3D designs specifically for the Vivaty platform. Designers can use Vivaty Studio as a lightweight 3D modeler or as a tool for importing content from Max, Maya, Google Sketchup, or any other applicatino that exports to COLLADA.

The top scene creator will be given $1,000 in cash toward a trip to meet Vivaty's team in the San Francisco Bay Area. Five other participants will be rewarded $200 in cash, while twenty others will be given Vivaty T-shirts. The winners and their designs will also be featured on the Vivaty platform. The first participants will also have the opportunity to the Vivaty Create Council, where they can voice their ideas and help shape the program.

PayByCash, an alternative payment system for online games, virtual worlds, and social networks, announced that its Ultimate Game Card prepaid cards can now be purchased in 7-Eleven's 5,600 convenience store locations across the United States.

The Ultimate Game Card, which is available in $10 denominations, allows customers to make fast payments for online entertainment services without submitting financial information, an attractive solution for teens, 'tweens, and young adults without access to credit cards. The company has partnered with distributor InComm to make the card available in over 12,000 retail locations nationwide.

Online titles supporting PayByCash payments include Club Penguin, Maple Story, Eve Online, Age of Conan, and over 150 other online multiplayer games.

Established in 1998 and supported in over 200 gateways, PayByCash provides a network of 70 different payment methods. The service handles all payment-related customer support, foreign exchange complexity and risk, fraud protection, and maintenance of payment system integrations, while providing reporting and accounting to its merchant clients. The company was recently acquired by publisher-sponsored in-game commerce platform PlaySpan.

Said PayByCash president Kevin Higgins: “For 10 years we have developed and offered alternative payment methods for premium online games. Our Ultimate Game Card gives gamers immediate access to online entertainment. Because it can be found at some of the best known retail chains stores in the United States through our partnership with InComm, you can login and play the finest online games in the time it takes to visit your local 7-Eleven convenience store.”

HSC Labs has licensed Simutronics' HeroEngine development platform. Simutronics announced that the emerging development studio will use HeroEngine for its upcoming MMORPG.

Simutronics launched HeroEngine in 2006 after five years of development, and its aim is to tailor its content pipeline specifically for MMOs. Past licensees include BioWare Austin, Virgin Games UK and Stray Bullet Games.

Las Vegas-based HSC Labs says it plans to release its MMO, codenamed “the wϋrks” in 2011; the project is currently in development from a two-year concept.

"HSC Labs is another example of why HeroEngine is rapidly becoming the number one choice for MMO development," said David Whatley, founder and CEO of Simutronics. "Developers are looking for ways to build their games better and faster and that is why we built HeroEngine."

[The preceding article by Leigh Alexander originally appeared on Worlds in Motion sister site Gamasutra.]

Developer Yomego announced that it is appointing Steve Richards, former managing director and co-founder of advertising firm Swordfish, as managing director. Richard joined the studio as business director in June, but the company is now splitting into two distinct trading operations, according to a report from marketing news site mad.co.uk.

Yomego enables companies to "build interactive communities around their brands and businesses" with virtual worlds, social networks, and user-generated content. The company will reportedly rebrand its technology arm as a retailer of its core social networking platform for companies to use as a white label product.

Most recently, Yomego worked with MTV UK to develop MTV House, flash-based virtual world targeted at younger users and designed to provide exclusive MTV content. Its client list also includes GMTV, BBC, Vodafone, and several other high-profile companies.

Said Richards: “It’s not good enough anymore for a brand to customise a page of MySpace. As consumers become more savvy, they expect their favourite brands to push the boundaries. Bespoke social media applications give brands the power to build their own playgrounds and learn from the way customers enjoy themselves.”

Avatar Reality, an organization dedicated to advancing online community building, announced the addition of virtual worlds studio Virtual Space Entertainment (VSE) to its third-party developer program.

Led by designer and "virtual futurist" Syd Mead, VSE will create the first fully functional city for Blue Mars, an upcoming "massively multiplayer virtual world" set in a terraformed Mars in the year 2177 AD, allowing players to build and simulate real-life scenarios.

Avatar Reality’s third-party developer program gives game developers, CG artists, and interested business partners an opportunity to create a in-world attractions, 3D art assets, and promotions for Blue Mars.

Blue Mars is schedule for a public beta launch at the end of 2008 and will be previewed at Avatar's Reality booth at the SIGGRAPH 2008 conference. Visitors to the VSE's virtual Blue Mars city will be able to explore and experience "the future of entertainment, social networking, commerce, and education."

Said VSE CEO Richard Childers: “We are thrilled to be developing the first city on Blue Mars. By combining the talents of our designers and the inspiration of Syd Mead’s magnificently appointed environment with Avatar Reality’s brilliant team, we expect to set a new benchmark for virtual worlds.”

[Each day, Worlds in Motion will be taking a closer look at individual virtual worlds. We'll start with a nuts-and-bolts overview, then move on to an in-depth tour, to be followed up with a conclusion-- all with the aim of bringing you all the essential info and details on each world in the rapidly-developing virtual landscape.]

Although we took a short break from our Online World Atlas last week, we're back to look at the most interesting (and at times unusual!) virtual worlds there are on offer. This week we look at Virtual MTV. MTV have a virtual world in Gaia Online -- MTV's Virtual Hollywood -- but they also have their own. Unusually, it's actually six different interconnected virtual brands -- virtual versions of The Hills, Backstage Pass, The Real World, Pimp My Ride, Skate Park, and America's Best Dance Crew -- but we'll be looking at them all under the banner of Virtual MTV.

Name: Virtual MTV

Company: MTV Networks

Established: September 2006

How it Works: Virtual MTV is based on Makena Technologies' There, and requires the download of the client (roughly 70mb) which runs in its own window. Navigation and gameplay are accomplished via mouse and keyboard input.

Overview: In Virtual MTV, users choose a generic avatar to start with and select the brand they (at least initially) wish to explore. Each of the brands is an MTV reality property -- such as "soap opera" The Hills or car modification show Pimp My Ride -- and the user can take part in an experience tightly related to the concept of the show. So in Virtual The Hills users are expected to socialize, care about their appearance, and can create and sell items. In Virtual Pimp My Ride, users can play games and perform challenges to earn vMTV "bucks" to spend on customizing their car.

Payment Method: Virtual MTV is free to play, and earns revenue as part of the MTV brand identity and in-game sponsorship. Players can also purchase vMTV bucks via credit card.

Key Features:
- Offers six mulitplayer brands each with unique aspects
- Based on Makena Technologies' There, so offers a similar interface, character customization and socialization possibilities
- Users can create and sell items

Useful Links:
MTV
Virtual Pimp My Ride
Virtual America's Best Dance Crew
Virtual Backstage Pass

With the completion of its closed beta testing for the virtual world, KingsIsle Entertainment has announced an open-to-the-public beta for Wizard101, its teen and 'tween-targeted magic-themed virtual world.

Wizard101 allows users to customize outfits and accessories for their wizard avatars, play puzzles and mini-games, adopt magical pets, and learn from seven different schools of magic. Players will also be able to engage in collect cards and engage in card duels alongside and against other players.

Having been under development for three years, the game is expected to officially launch within the next month and will be free to play, offering a monthly subscription option for advanced play content.

Said KingsIsle Ceo Elie Akilian: "We more than doubled our anticipated beta audience for Wizard101. It turns out that the solid game mechanics and whimsical fantasy environment appeal even beyond the tween audience. We've had a great response from testers that included everyone from grandmas who play with a grandchild sitting in their lap to twenty-something traditional gamers."

Seeking to increase awareness and support the cause to reinstate gold as an Olympic sport, golf gaming environment World Golf Tour has partnered with GGL Global Games to include the sports title with GGL's Digital Games event.

The Digital Games is a worldwide, online video game competition across multiple platforms, genres, and gaming titles. Players represent their country in a series of Inter-Continental Regional Qualifiers before advancing to the Digital Games Grand Finals, a live event in Shanghai hosted by the China Government and included as part of the Our Olympic Organizing Committee's welcome events.

In addition to World Golf Tour, the 2008 competition will include Soulcalibur IV, StarCraft: Brood War, MLB The Show 08, Call of Duty 4, and several other titles.

World Golf Tour offers an online community in which players can compete on recreated courses and sponsored tournaments for an “authentic golf experience.” Since the demo’s launch in May 2007, World Golf Tour has attracted over 500,000 players from over 150 different countries. The full version of the game will be available later this summer.

Said World Golf Tour CEO YuChiang Cheng "World Golf Tour’s goal is to introduce new people to golf and we support the sport’s bid to join the 2012 Olympics. Gaming was recently declared the 99th Official Sport of China and with the launch of the Digital Games coinciding with the 2008 Olympics, it’s a great opportunity to bring the game of golf to a large international audience, and reach out to younger participants. Online golf is much more affordable and can engage those who may not have the means to hit the links in real life.”

Toy Manufacturer Bossa Nova Concepts revealed that it plans to launch a robot-themed virtual world targeted at children to accompany its forthcoming line of robot toys, according to a report from Pittsburgh arts site Pop City.

BNC intends to launch the first of its three robot toys for the domestic and international market in fall 2009. Though he declined to provide any specifics on the planned toys, CEO David Palmer hinted that the three products will comprise of a "high-energy action robot for boys of about 10, a lovable and cuddly animal robot for young girls that performs a funny dance routine, and a highly mobile expressive robot, rich in sound with a variety of expressions. "

He added, “There’s nothing else like this on the marketplace. It will take robots to the next level, adding all the rich features of interaction and expression, action and movement, speed and pace. It’s more than just a remote control toy, it’s a friend and companion.”

The company expects to complement the toys with a virtual world in which children who don't own a robot toy can create robot avatars, interact with each other, and learn how to build their own robots. So far, BNC is operating with only three on staff with several contract employees, hoping to add more if its toys eventually take off.

MMO portal Aeria Games announced that its prepaid "Fun Cards" -- which give players access to Aeria Points, the universal currency for all titles available through the games portal -- at Target stores across the country.

The Fun Cards are distributed by InComm and are available in $10 and $20 denominations, giving players 1,000 and 2,000 Aeria Points, respectively. As an added bonus, the cards also come with bonus points once they are redeemed.

Aeria's MMO titles at its portal include Last Chaos, Project Torque, Stoneage 2, and Dream of Mirror Online. To celebrate the availability of the Fun Cards, Aeria offered a week-long 35% total bonus cash sale for everyone who purchased Points with the cards.

Sony Computer Entertainment America announced it's expanding the closed beta for its Home environment on PlayStation 3. Users who download a new Home theme just released on the PlayStation Network automatically apply to join the test community.

Eligibility, Sony says on its PlayStation blog, will be determined by "a variety of criteria," including how active users have been on the PlayStation Network. Users already accepted into the earlier beta are pre-qualified.

Sony Computer Entertainment Europe is also expanding its closed beta, and will target the PlayStation Network and Store's most active users directly via email, the company says.

"We’re really excited about this milestone and want our most loyal fans to be a part of the evolution of PlayStation Home," writes Home director Jack Buser.

[The preceding article by Leigh Alexander originally appeared on Worlds in Motion sister site Gamasutra.]

Second Life developer Linden Lab announced the appointment of Frank Ambrose as its senior vice president of global technology. He will oversee the development of new processes, systems, and tools to maximize the scalability of Second Life's network architecture.

Prior to Linden Lab, Ambrose held several executive roles at AOL, where he spent nine years developing network and infrastructure services. Most recently, he served at as senior vice president of technology for infrastructure and network services at the company.

Said Linden Lab CEO Mark Kingdon: "With his extensive and diverse experience managing large network operations, Frank is the ideal hire to ensure that we provide the utmost in stability and user support as Second Life continues to grow. Frank has the necessary passion, vision and ingenuity that will help us take the Second Life Grid to new levels of excellence as we scale the platform to accommodate hundreds of thousands or even millions of concurrent users."

Shanghai-based online game operator The9 Limited announced its second quarter financial results ending June 30, 2008, reporting record revenue of RMB 416.3 million (approx. $60.7 million), largely driven by the continued user growth of World of Warcraft and Soul of The Ultimate Nation in China.

The second quarter rise in revenue represented a 69% increase over the same period in the previous year, which saw RMB 270.0 million (approx. $39.4 million). It was also an increase of 4% compared to the first quarter of 2008, which saw RMB 439.4 million (approx. $64.1 million).

CEO Jun Zhu commented that the positive results came about despite the company closing all of its game servers for three days in May to honor the victims of the 2008 Sichuan earthquake.

He also remarked that The9 attained aggregate peak concurrent users of approximately 1.3 for its online games, with World of Warcaft's peak concurrent users alone surpassing the 1-million milestone. As of the second quarter's end, the studio had over 41.5 million total registered users.

Notably, revenue attributable to the operations of item-sales based games, such as revenues from in-game item sales and installation package sales, decreased by 18% to RMB 38.0 million (approx. 5.5 million) compared to the previous quarter, primarily due to decreasd revenue from Granado Espada. The results, however, still show a 134% increase over the same period in the previous year.

Profits for the second quarter increased 3% quarter-over-quarter and 87% year-over-year to RMB 214.0 million (approx $31.2 million). Operating expenses also rose 7% quarter-over-quarter and 35% year-over-year to RMB 100.3 million (approx. $14.6 million) as a combined result of increased sales and marketing expenses relating to World of Warcraft and Soul of The Ultimate Nation, and increased product development expenses due to the growth of The9's game development team.

Said Zhu: "The second quarter of 2008 was a busy and fruitful quarter for us. We further grew our overall player base through constant content upgrades and enhanced penetration efforts toward lower tier regional markets. We added an additional high-quality game, Atlantica, to our strong licensed game pipeline as well as continued to enhance our in-house game development team and effectively strengthened our proprietary game development capabilities. We ramped our long-term and on-going preparations for new game launches before year-end."

He continued: "Separately, we made an investment in G10 Entertainment for approximately US$38 million which further enhanced our existing partnership, especially with respect to full-scale support of the Audition game series. We also formed a joint venture with T3 Entertainment to focus on game development and publishing in July 2008. Through our operational and strategic initiatives, we are gradually and relentlessly executing our business strategy, so as to generate sustainable and scalable long-term growth for the company. "

Cambridge-based startup Conduit Labs is developing LoudCrowd, a rhythm-based dancing title that's "part virtual world, part social network and part casual game," according to a report from VC news weblog VentureBeat.

The company, which is currently in stealth mode, announced in August 2007 that it secured $5.5. million in Series A funding, led by Charles River Ventures and Prism Ventureworks, for its mystery project. Conduit Labs apparently purchased the LoudCrowd.com domain in March 2008 for $39,000.

In the alpha version of LoudCrowd, users begin by creating an avatar and providing a photo to help other users identify them. Players can dance with each other using DanceDanceRevolution-styled controls, tapping arrow keys with on-screen cues. Points are awarded by attracting dance partners, which can then be spent on new clothes for avatars.

Describing the project to Worlds in Motion last August, Conduit Labs founder Nabeel Hyatt remarked, "We're trying to do something halfway in between that’s accessible on the web, that feels more like a website than having to enter into a game world, but it is still about social entertainment and playing games; it's very much a game that were building."

[Each day, Worlds in Motion will be taking a closer look at individual virtual worlds. We'll start with a nuts-and-bolts overview, then move on to an in-depth tour, to be followed up with a conclusion-- all with the aim of bringing you all the essential info and details on each world in the rapidly-developing virtual landscape.]

This week we're looking at Virtual MTV. Originally began in September 2006 as Virtual Laguna Beach, this MMO, based on Makena Technologies' There, has since expanded its world to feature six different active MTV brands, including Pimp My Ride and The Hills.