Free Pixel

I had the chance to visit the MovieStorm folks (twice this summer, actually). Last week I bumped into them during their demo show for the HCI 2009 showcase in Cambridge. I talked them into demoing the not-yet-released next build of MovieStorm… The interface has been reworked overall but maybe the most important coding change I noticed was the faster loading performance. Assets now load continuously, which - citing Johnnie Ingram - means a seriously improved performance for the artist overall.

However the image below seemed to me to be maybe the most relevant change.

Now you can see the assets that available depending on the packages you bought - but you also see the assets that you have not yet acquired. Those assets are x’ed out but you still get an idea of how they look. This might end up to be a very smart marketing move and possibly encourage a lot of folks to buy more packages and thus feed MovieStorm. I am sure that Matt will post a ton of much more detailed info on the next version somewhere here; but if it works out, then this interface move might be a smart way to support the company overall and a glimpse into future marketing models in Machinima to come.