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8/12/2007 - Mike Sellers featured in Austin American Statesman article on Serious GamingThe article includes coverage of Online Alchemy's Dynemotion People Engine, an artificial psychology engine that creates virtual characters with humanlike personalities and reactions. The military has been interested in using this technology to teach soldiers how to interact with people from different cultures, interpreting whether someone is a threat based on behavior or facial expression.
"It sounds like something from a science fiction novel", said Online Alchemy CEO Michael Sellers, "but it's entirely possible to create a virtual character that has a personality, memory and emotions and reacts to basic human needs for shelter, food and companionship."
"They are trying to train soldiers to do more than shoot people. To not shoot people, it takes a lot of contextual training. How do I interact with these people? If you are a private corporal in Iraq, how do I interact at checkpoint? How do you interact with civilians when you check their house?" Sellers said.
Online Alchemy completed their fourth contract with DARPA, a group within the DoD, earlier this year. The company continues to pursue opportunities to license its Dynemotion technology for a variety of simulation applications.
For more information send an email to info@onlinealchemy.com
Click here to review the entire article at the Statesman online.
3/5/2007 - Online Alchemy Selects Emergent Elements for MMOG Development Online Alchemy, Inc. has licensed the full suite of current and upcoming Emergent Elements for use in developing its forthcoming massively-multiplayer online (MMO) games. Online Alchemy will use Emergent's Gamebryo Element game engine in addition to the company’s all-new visual game intelligence tools (Metrics Element) and forthcoming server management and automation technologies.
"In a development climate that is evolving rapidly and becoming ever more complex Online Alchemy has aggressive plans for their MMO titles. To meet their needs, Emergent is providing Online Alchemy with the comprehensive set of solutions that allow them to bring their creative visions to life in less time and with less risk than ever before," said Geoffrey Selzer, CEO of Emergent. "By deciding to license our Gamebryo Element game engine, Metrics Element and the rest of the Element family of products, Online Alchemy is adopting a flexible framework that will enable them to efficiently scale their development processes and significantly reduce the cost, risk and complexity of deployment.”
"There are many choices out there for game engines and other development tools. Some are too expensive and ungainly, others are too cheap and narrowly targeted—only Emergent offered us a complete and flexible set of existing and upcoming tools and services that can help us develop strong MMO offerings today and also future-proof our development going forward,” said Mike Sellers, CEO and Chief Alchemist for Online Alchemy. “This comprehensive, long-term license demonstrates our commitment to Emergent and their vision of product growth.
As part of the agreement, Online Alchemy will also have early access to Emergent’s forthcoming server management tools and automation technology.
Emergent is headquartered in Calabasas, Calif., and has offices in Chapel Hill, NC, Walnut Creek , Calif., Austin, Texas and London. For more information visit www.emergent.net
3/1/2007 - Online Alchemy debuts the OtellO Reputation EngineOnline Alchemy, developer of massively intelligent systems and software, has privately debuted the OtellO™ reputation engine to select companies in online social networking and professional HR markets. OtellO is the reliable online gateway to an individual's trusted opinions. OtellO empowers networked communities with informational and relational confidence. It enables users to tap into the collective experience, opinions and wisdom of those they trust the most.
True understanding requires more than today’s 5 star ratings or a 98.8% global feedback scores. It’s difficult to trust in people, places or things based on impersonal rating systems and the opinions of strangers. OtellO solves this with its robust reputation engine. This multi-dimensional system, based on Online Alchemy’s Trust 2.0™ technology, provides the certainty of trust from the network you know. It also prevents spoofing, feedback extortion, padding and other abuses of trust and opinion found in today’s global rating systems.
OtellO is an extension of Online Alchemy's Dynemotion engine technology and is available for licensing and custom integration development. This engine is ideal for next generation online social network services, personnel and recruiting application and comparison shopping engines. For more information send an email to otello@onlinealchemy.com
2/20/2007 - Online Alchemy completes DARPA Phase II ContractOnline Alchemy completed the final technical report and software deliverables for the Department of Defense (DoD) Phase II, 'Option I' project. The company delivered version 1.0 or the Dynemotion® API for use in future simulation and training projects. The Dynemotion API was also delivered to a DoD software prime contractor who plans to integrate the technology into their simulation toolkit in order to enable the generation of engaging, contextually-aware NPCs that will realistically react and interact within the virtual simulation world.
Fulfillment of this contract marks the successful completion of the fourth DoD DARPA contract award received by Online Alchemy over the past three years. It also includes the company's first commercial license of Dynemotion. This license is for use in a to-be-named future commercial entertainment project.
For more information on licensing the Dynemotion engine please contact us at info@onlinealchemy.com or call 512-419-9001 and ask for Dynemotion licensing.
12/15/2006 - Online Alchemy Ships Dynemotion API v1.0Online Alchemy announces the release of its proprietary Dynemotion™ People Engine™ technology enabling rapid, straightforward creation of a wide variety of autonomous agents in simulation applications. Agents may be as simple or detailed as desired and are provided with attributes and behaviors that make for highly believable interactions between agents and human driven avatars. Dynemotion is a C++ linkable library that can be easily integrated with most simulations. Each Dynemotion agent has his or her own personality, motivational set, emotions, memories, relationships, perceptions, and behaviors. Agent default motivational set is derived from behavioral and neuroscience research, and, like the personalities, may be changed or extended to create nuanced motivations and responses. Each agent also has a wide variety of emotional responses that affect their interactions, behaviors, memories, and relationships.
Dynemotion is not state-based or built on any traditional AI architecture. It has elements of a beliefs-desires-intentions (BDI) architecture and other layered architectures. Neural nets, selforganizing maps, and genetic algorithms are not explicitly used in Dynemotion, but it borrows elements from each. Dynemotion also relies on software implementations of psychological and neuroscience models such as the Five Factor model and some elements of cognitive, Maslovian, and even post-Freudian psychology. Its internal emotional model is unique, allowing for multiple (often conflicting) emotions within the agent, nuanced affect and both emotional and propositional reasoning.
Online Alchemy delivered v1.0 of the Dynemotion engine, along with associated People Engine parametric crowd generation tools, to its first commercial simulation customer who will be using this technology in both military and commercial projects. For more information and licensing inquiries please call 001-512-419-9001 or email info@dynemotion.com
9/7/2006 - Online Alchemy Debuts Dynemotion at 4th Annual AGC in AustinOnline Alchemy unveiled its patent-pending Dynemotion® People Engine™ technology on Thursday, September 7, 2006, during the fourth annual Games Developer Conference in Austin, Texas. The company demonstrated their artificial intelligence/adaptive psychology engine via a military simulation prototype, which depicts events in an Iraqi Village.
The advanced, proprietary Dynemotion People Engine and application program interface (API) allows developers to generate non-player characters (NPCs) that are life-like and dynamic. These contextually-aware and autonomous NPCs possess unique personalities and nuanced emotions, evolving memories and enduring relationships with other NPCs and human player characters. The engine and API, which integrates seamlessly with the Multiverse Platform, has been designed as a third-party solution that other developers can purchase and use in the development of their own games and virtual worlds.
Online Alchemy expects to release Dynemotion in Q1 2007. Licensing inquiries for the Dynemotion engine are welcomed. Contact info@onlinealchemy.com or call 512-419-9001 and ask for Dynemotion licensing.
Click here for a PDF version of the full press release.
9/6/2006 - Austin Game Conference: Craig Fryar Moderates Web-Based Casual Games PanelCraig Fryar presented an overview of the web-based casual gaming market and moderated a group of panelists including representatives from Sun and Microsoft. Craig has been an advisor for the Austin Games Conference since its inception, and continues to be a featured speaker and moderator each year.
Coverage of the panel may be found at the Hollywood 2020 blog.
7/6/2006 - Online Alchemy Awarded Additional DARPA SBIR Option I GrantOnline Alchemy received notice of an award from the Department of Defense (DoD) for an 'Option I' grant as part of its ongoing SBIR Phase II project. The company continues to adapt the Dynemotion® engine for use in Military Training and Simulation (MS&T) prototypes. The company will be integrating its Dynemotion People Engine™ API for use in a large-scale MS&T project. The prime contractor for this project is assembling components for a next generation MS&T toolset for use by soldiers in the field. The Dynemotion engine will enable soldiers to generate and simulate engaging, contextually-aware NPCs and even groups and crowds of NPCs that will realistically react and interact within the virtual simulation world.
This award also includes the company's first commercial license of Dynemotion. The above prime contractor has licensed the Dynemotion engine for a future commercial entertainment project (details forthcoming). Additional licensing opportunities and inquiries are welcomed. Please contact the company at info@onlinealchemy.com or call 512-419-9001 and ask for Dynemotion licensing.
4/12/2006 - Online Alchemy Completes DARPA Phase III Online Alchemy has completed the DARPA DoD contract for a military training simulation prototype that includes believable characters powered by our Dynemotion people engine. The "House Search" simulation features an NPC setup tool that generates intelligent, autonomous, contextually aware NPCs who perform a simulated training in which soldiers perform a routing search of an Arabic house. The simulation demonstrated the ability for Online Alchemy's patent-pending Dynemotion® technology to deliver believable, compelling computer generated characters.
3/25/2006 - GDC Presentation: GDC Coverage and Slides availableOnline Alchemy's Mike Sellers gave a presentation entitled "The Lifecycle of a Small Successful Game Development Studio" to a packed room at this year's Game Developers Conference in San Jose, California.
Gamasutra included a review of the presentation as part of their online coverage of the coverage.
The slides for the presentation are available here as a Powerpoint 2003 file (11Mb).
2/7/2006 - Mike Sellers joins the Multiverse Network Advisory BoardOnline Alchemy's CEO and Chief Alchemist has been named to the Advisory Board for the Multiverse Network, Inc., a company "aiming to become the world’s leading network of Massively Multiplayer Online Games (MMOGs) and 3D virtual worlds." Mike joins Academy Award winners James Cameron and Jon Landau; Joseph Siino of Yahoo; Max Sims of Technolution; and Maria Wilhelm, veteran of AOL, Netscape, and The WELL. With twelve years of experience in the MMOG sector, Mike will contribute his expert knowledge of online games to Multiverse as they launch a ground breaking MMOG technology platform and marketplace.
1/30/2006 - Online Alchemy at GDCMike Sellers will be speaking on "The Life Cycle of a Successful Small Game Development Studio" at this year's Game Developers Conference on Wednesday, March 22 from 2:30 - 3:30pm in San Jose California. This presentation will examine the life cycle of game development startups from inception through product development to final exit. It will cover issues including the importance of balanced team composition, creative vision, technical competence, original and licensed intellectual property, sources of funding, balancing risks, the question of whether to go big or stay small, and the various exit paths available. Examples will be drawn from experience in the trenches of current and past game startups.
1/10/2006 - "AI and Emotions" at AAASMike Sellers will be speaking on "Models of Artificial Intelligence with Emotions" at the upcoming annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in St. Louis, MO. This presentation will cover Online Alchemy's ground-breaking Dynemotion Artificial Psychology engine, including a discussion of its theoretical underpinnings and examples of practical applications. This will take place as part of the special session on "Physics and Economics of Virtual Worlds", on February 19th at 1:45pm.
11/7/2005 - Online Alchemy at DARWARS ConclaveMike Sellers will be at the DARPA DARWARS Conclave this week, presenting an overview of our recent work on our Dynemotion people engine. Online Alchemy continues to partner with DARPA in developing ground-breaking forms of artificial intelligence.
10/27/2005 - Online Alchemy at the Austin Game Conference!The Online Alchemy team will be attending AGC again this year. Mike Sellers will be on the panel Building MMO Worlds through Human NPCs, and Craig Fryar will be moderating the panel “I’m Bid Four Quatloos for the One Ring; Do I Hear Five?”. Other members of the OA team will also be in attendance.
9/30/2005 - Online Alchemy Lands Third DARPA ContractContinuing our established partnership with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), Online Alchemy has secured a third SBIR contract award. We are continuing to develop our technology for military training simulations in line with our commercial goals, and in this project will develop support parametrically generated crowds of believable characters. Potential uses for this include both military and homeland security preparedness training simulations.
5/10/2005 - Online Alchemy at The Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3)Mike Sellers, CEO and Chief Alchemist, will be participating on the panel "The upcoming forecast for online games: How visionaries and pragmatists are betting on the future" (Session 2.3, Wednesday May 18, 1:30-3:00pm) along with industry veterans Jessica Mulligan, Michael Cassidy, Richard Garriott, Richard Kim, and Gordon Walton. Sellers will be discussing the expansion of MMOGs beyond their current niche, new revenue models, and the '5Cs' model of gameplay.
3/28/2005 - Online Alchemy Awarded Second DARPA ContractOnline Alchemy has been awarded a second contract with DARPA! We will be extending our AI architecture to create a military training prototype using believable characters powered by our Dynemotion people engine.
2/28/2005 - Online Alchemy Continues Advancing Artificial PsychologyOnline Alchemy has been awarded a Phase III SBIR contract with the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). This work focuses on continuing research and development on Dynemotion, the company's proprietary, patent-pending artificial psychology engine. Online Alchemy is advancing this technology in ways that will enhance both military simulation and training efforts and add new forms of gameplay in the commercial massively multiplayer online game (MMOG) sector.
9/2/2004 - OA at the Austin Game ConferenceThe Austin Game Conference will be held September 9 and 10, and representatives of Online Alchemy will be in attendance and participating in panel discussions.
Mike Sellers will be appearing on the panel Designing for the Widest Possible Audience, 10:30 am-11:30 am on Friday, September 10. Mike will also be participating in the Military Applications for Online Gaming panel from 12pm-1pm on Friday.
Josh Fleming will be a panelist for East is East: Design Differences Between Asian and Western MMOGs, from 2:30-3:30 on Friday. Josh will also be speaking on the panel entitled Levels of Support: What is Good Enough? This panel will run from 4-5 on Friday.
If you will be attending the conference, feel free to come by and say 'hello' after the panel, or seek us out at one of the conference events!
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