For Immediate Release
Genvid Technologies and Pipeworks Studios Introduce “Rival Peak,”World’s First Massive Interactive “Reality” Show, Hosted by Wil Wheaton and Available on Facebook Watch
“Rival Peak” is a Unique, 24/7 Live, Audience-Driven Experience with a Weekly Recap Show
NEW YORK, NY and EUGENE, OR – December 1, 2020 – Genvid Technologies, Inc. and Pipeworks Studios, today unveiled Rival Peak, the first audience-driven, quasi-reality TV show, available on Facebook Watch. Rival Peak begins airing tomorrow, December 2, at 6:30 p.m. PT and involves 13 separate, interactive livestreams running 24/7, seven days a week, for the show’s initial 12-week season. Viewers can direct character actions and eliminations via the persistent interactive livestreams in numerous ways, helping or hindering the twelve AI “contestants” as they negotiate the treacherous Pacific Northwest terrain – and each other – while solving the ultimate mystery. “Rival Speak,” a weekly wrap-up show hosted by actor Wil Wheaton, will stream Wednesdays at 6:00 p.m. PT providing summaries of each week’s activity as well as interviews with the AI characters, highlights and outtakes, eliminated contestants, and additional clues to Rival Peak’s true meaning.
Rival Peak is an integration of an interactive game on Facebook through its Instant Games, and a live-streamed quasi-reality show featuring sophisticated AI characters. Viewers will collectively serve as judge and jury of Rival Peak’s contestants, sending one inhabitant off the show each week.
“Rival Peak is the result of the world’s biggest social media platform leveraging our proprietary AI and simulation systems, Genvid’s best-in-class interactive broadcast technology, and recruiting some of Hollywood’s best narrative writers to create a massive ‘live theater’ experiment — in just six months,” said Hal Milton, Design Director at Pipeworks Studios. “We’re super proud of creating something entirely different, and excited to see how it’s received by Facebook folks worldwide.”
Rival Peak was conceived, designed, developed and deployed in an incredibly short development cycle for a project of this size and scope. As opposed to a game, Rival Peak – while built partly in popular game engine Unity – is delivered as a live streamed viewing experience that includes a second, enhanced stream overlay enabling viewers to interact with the contestants and environment. Viewer interactions take the form of taps, or clicks, that cumulatively count toward each contestant’s overall score while also instantly influencing the actions and decisions of those characters.
“Rival Peak is a truly unique experience, combining the interactivity of video games with the traditional reality TV format,” noted Jacob Navok, co-founder and CEO of Genvid Technologies. “This is a living, evolving world that’s fun to simply observe, or even just have on in the background listening to the chill music – but the immersion and interactivity are always available, to whatever degree each individual viewer prefers, whenever they want it. It’s also the world’s first true cloud game, the achievement of a decade-long vision of our team.”
Using Pipeworks Studios’ state-of-the-art, Unity-based simulation and AI software and Genvid’s unique interactive livestreaming technology, Rival Peak is a persistent, simulated world inhabited by a dozen semi-autonomous virtual humans, with Facebook users worldwide empowered to not just observe but actually influence the contestants and their environment in real-time. Rival Peak is the most ambitious to date of a MILE, or Massive Interactive Live Event – a cloud-based interactive experience for an audience of unlimited size delivered entirely via livestream video.
dj2 Entertainment (co-producers of the Sonic the Hedgehog feature film) prepared the scripts and character development, and developed and produced the weekly wrap up show Rival Speak, helping to give Rival Peak and “Rival Speak” a unique feel that blends two media – games and television.
About Pipeworks Studios
Pipeworks is an imagination-driven development studio armed with a mastery of cutting-edge technology and a deep understanding of the player experience. They are leaders in the realm of Cloud Gaming, Radical AI, Interactive Streaming, Transformational Experiences and more. Their teams are creating original IP games alongside the on-going work with key game franchises and outside partners. Pipeworks believes in creating innovative and unique games that harness the creative spark of their teams and embrace the power of players and community.
About Genvid Technologies
Genvid is helping put the “meta” in the Metaverse by creating the most advanced interactive streaming technology in the world. The Genvid SDK, available for free at www.genvidtech.com, is easy-to-use middleware with enough flexibility to run on any streaming platform and infrastructure. Any game developer anywhere can build their own Rival Peak-like experience with Genvid’s SDK. In addition to enabling Massive Interactive Live Events (MILEs) like Facebook’s Rival Peak, Genvid’s SDK integrates with games built on all of the leading engines to power new kinds and levels of interaction and monetization from players and livestream audiences alike. Genvid was founded in 2016 by game industry veterans and is backed by Horizons Ventures, Makers Fund, March Capital Partners, and OCA Ventures, as well as strategic investments from Huya, NTT Docomo Ventures, and Samsung Ventures.
A complete media kit on Rival Peak is available here.
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