Brilliant Digital Entertainment (BDE) has invited 150,000 members of the GeoCities Web-site community to help evaluate its newly upgraded Multipath Movie -- an online "pay-per-view" technology.
Participants will watch and interact with digitally animated stories, choosing multiple plot alternatives that lead to distinctly different conclusions. Each movie lasts 30 minutes, with up to three hours of extended viewing time. The system runs over the Net, in conjunction with a system CD-ROM.
BDE has developed a series of its own software tools to create each episode.
One tool, ScripNav, orchestrates the branching scripts and their multiple outcomes. TalkTrack synchronizes facial expressions and mouth movements with voice soundtracks. And Digital Projector is BDE’s proprietary player application that mimics the look and feel of a television screen and remote control.
Geocities testers will be required only to pay shipping and handling for the Digital Projector CD-ROM.
Los Angeles-based BDE has deals with Packard Bell NEC and CompuServe to distribute its movies over the Web and has signed content deals with DC Comics, Universal Studios, and Bantam Doubleday Dell Books.
