Community projects have always been a big part of Atmosphir, since the very beginning. Users collaborate together to create a finished project that everyone can benefit from in some way. A popular example would be modifications to the game. A group of users get together and divide up some of the common tasks involved with the process; some gather audio, others work on textures, and the rest work on various other steps in the process. Once the process has been completed, the community enjoys the end result, a finely crafted product that the contributors should be proud of.
Anyone who has been around the forums should be familiar with the name Prototype. A common face in the community, he admits that actually playing Atmosphir isn’t a strong point. As he described himself, “When it comes to the actual game, I'm not that skilled of a player. I can play a maximum of intermediate levels. SOMETIMES Advanced. But I would consider myself a creative designer. All of my levels I spend over a week on. But my levels aren't that well known.” While he may not be the most popular person in-game, he’s certainly a trustworthy friend to the community members.
Mid-September, Prototype announced a new community project that would involve anyone who wanted to contribute. Titled “Project Ozone,” he wished to make a movie using Atmosphir’s resources. When I asked him if this would be classified as a “Machinima” project, he said no. When I asked what else would be involved, he replied “Well, that part is a SECRET right now. I can't release that much info until I have posted the actual thread.”
The community still questions what the project is meant to achieve, however. “ProtOzone is meant to entertain people, and to give a sense of accomplishment to the Atmosphir community,” Prototype answered. “If you have worked hard on something, you'll want it to look good. So I, Prototype, strive for perfection. Most of the Atmosphir community is made up of younger users, and most of them don't experience that sense of accomplishment very often.”
On October 5th, a sad announcement was made, stating that due to lack of participation and interest, Project Ozone was cancelled. After some thought however, the project was revived October 15th with the promise of a new name and system.
The new name was ProtOzone. The objective remained the same: To tell a story through Atmosphir. Details have not been officially announced as of the time of writing. In a forceful statement addressed to the community through the official ProtOzone topic, “ProtOzone isn't going to be like the last one. I'm NOT turning it in for a book report, it's NOT going to be based on a story that no one cares about, and most importantly, it's NOT going to be engineered where if one person doesn't do their part, it causes the whole project to be on a standstill.”
Also included in the topic was a trailer for the project. With impressive music and clips, this trailer may have restored some faith in the project without revealing much of anything. It felt reassuring to see actual clips with decent quality and impressive titles. ProtOzone will definitely be a project that should catch some eyes as long as it continues to progress with the same assurance this trailer showed us.
When asked, Prototype requested to leave some closing words for the readers: “If you have ANYTHING at all that you would like to submit to ProtOzone, than send it in a PM to the user Prototype. An official thread will be up soon announcing more info.”
Whether you plan to be involved or not, ProtOzone certainly looks promising and has attracted some attention on the forums. The Atmosphirian will be working closely with ProtOzone to keep you updated on any interesting happenings as the project goes on.
Be sure to check out the ProtOzone topic here: http://www.atmosphir.com/forum/index.php?topic=9656.0
The trailer for ProtOzone can be found here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5mNXBiDUyGU
Thanks for reading!
Great!
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