Swedish development studio MindArk AB has released two screenshots from its upcoming online role-playing game Project Entropia. The massively multiplayer game takes place after a group of robots has colonized the planet Calypso in preparation for human arrivals. When the human settlers arrived, however, something went wrong and the robots revolted. After a long and difficult war, the humans finally rid the planet of the renegade robots, only to find a new threat in a race of mutated humans that appeared after the war ended. Project Entropia begins in New Haven, a safe city on the planet that is being threatened by the mutated humans and an invading force of powerful robots from the Akbal-Cimi system.

　　Players will only be able to play as humans in the game, and the characters will not be divided into classes. However, the characters can develop more than 50 different skills based on combat, wilderness survival, a psychic power called Mindforce, and other activities.

　　The business model used by MindArk is particularly interesting. The game will be completely free to users to download and play. The way MindArk will make money is through a percentage of the transactions made in the game currency, which can be converted into actual US dollars. Players will be able to buy and sell goods through 3D shops, department stores, and supermarkets, some of which will be real-life merchants. In addition, the virtual cities will feature paid advertising from real-life businesses. Through this business model, MindArk does not anticipate that it will need a publisher.

　　The developer estimates the game will be released in August 2001 after the completion of the open beta, which is scheduled to begin early next year. For more information about Project Entropia, visit the official Web site.