Virtway is a game development studio located in Oviedo, Spain. It was founded in 1999 as a general IT consulting firm. In 2006 Virtway spun off from its parent company to focus on 3D development and

video games Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This feedbac ...

as an independent branch of the Indigo Group holding.

Overview

The main focus of the company has been developing a

simulation A simulation is the imitation of the operation of a real-world process or system over time. Simulations require the use of models; the model represents the key characteristics or behaviors of the selected system or process, whereas the s ...

system to allow learning through gaming, called VTS (Virtual Training System). The platform was presented at the 2008 Games + Learning + SocietyPerspective-Based Feedback in a Virtual World Training Simulation and the Effects on Learning
b

an

/ref> conference in partnership with Robb Lindgren from Stanford University. The company's products are applied to several areas of training, such as Firefighting and Iron/Steel Industry. Virtway has collaborated through the Índigo Group with the

University of Oviedo The University of Oviedo ( es, Universidad de Oviedo, Asturian: ''Universidá d'Uviéu'') is a public university in Asturias (Spain). It is the only university in the region. It has three campus and research centres, located in Oviedo, Gijón ...

and Stanford University in different research and development projects.

Products

''Molina Digital'' was the first large-scale 3D project developed by Virtway. It re-created a Spanish town (

Molina de Segura Molina de Segura is a municipality of Spain in the autonomous community and province of Murcia. It is located 10 km from the provincial capital, Murcia. It borders the towns of Las Torres de Cotillas, Alguazas, Lorquí, Ulea, Archena, Ab ...

Murcia Murcia (, , ) is a city in south-eastern Spain, the capital and most populous city of the autonomous community of the Region of Murcia, and the seventh largest city in the country. It has a population of 460,349 inhabitants in 2021 (about one ...

) and enabled users to chat, drive cars and play

Pétanque Pétanque (, ; oc, petanca, , also or ) is a sport that falls into the category of boules sports, along with raffa, bocce, boule lyonnaise, lawn bowls, and crown green bowling. In all of these sports, players or teams play their boules/balls ...

through a

Web browser A web browser is application software for accessing websites. When a user requests a web page from a particular website, the browser retrieves its files from a web server and then displays the page on the user's screen. Browsers are used o ...

. Part of the ''Molina Digital'' project was the development of an interactive theatre application where users could take a role in a virtual play. Each user handled an avatar on stage and controlled its body language and facial expression while talking with other players. Everything was recorded by another user, the director, who edited the footage later, in a way similar to a machinima production. The regional government of

Asturias Asturias (, ; ast, Asturies ), officially the Principality of Asturias ( es, Principado de Asturias; ast, Principáu d'Asturies; Galician-Asturian: ''Principao d'Asturias''), is an autonomous community in northwest Spain. It is coextensiv ...

contracted Virtway to develop a 3D virtual visit to the city of

Llanes Llanes (the ''Concejo de Llanes'', ''Conceyu de Llanes'' in Asturian language) is a municipality of the province of Asturias, in northern Spain. Stretching for about 30 km along the coast at the extreme east of the province, Llanes is bound ...

, so Virtway produced a website where users can visit said town in 3D using

x3d X3D is a royalty-free ISO/IEC standard for declaratively representing 3D computer graphics. File format support includes XML, ClassicVRML, Compressed Binary Encoding (CBE) and a draft JSON encoding. X3D became the successor to the Virtual Re ...

technology and a port of the landmarks to Google Earth

KML Keyhole Markup Language (KML) is an XML notation for expressing geographic annotation and visualization within two-dimensional maps and three-dimensional Earth browsers. KML was developed for use with Google Earth, which was originally named Key ...

models.

Videogames

Virtway started the development of a project called ''Born To Run'' in 2004 and presented it in late 2006.Born to Run, el primer videojuego internacional desde Asturias
(in Spanish, translates roughly as ''Born to Run, the first international videogame from Asturias'') It aimed to be one of the first First Person Shooters with photo-realistic graphics made in Spain, and slated to hit ''next-gen'' systems ( PC,

PlayStation 3 The PlayStation 3 (PS3) is a home video game console developed by Sony Computer Entertainment. The successor to the PlayStation 2, it is part of the PlayStation brand of consoles. It was first released on November 11, 2006, in Japan, November ...

and

Xbox 360 The Xbox 360 is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. As the successor to the original Xbox, it is the second console in the Xbox series. It competed with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generati ...

). There has been no more information about the game since its announcement, and it is now considered to be

vaporware In the computer industry, vaporware (or vapourware) is a product, typically computer hardware or software, that is announced to the general public but is late or never actually manufactured nor officially cancelled. Use of the word has broade ...

. On 6 October 2008, Virtway entered into a partnership with ICYou, a

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

company, to further develop their Interactive City platform, a persistent virtual world with tie-ins to the real world of its players through a blend of the virtual and real

economy An economy is an area of the production, distribution and trade, as well as consumption of goods and services. In general, it is defined as a social domain that emphasize the practices, discourses, and material expressions associated with the ...

References

{{Reflist

External links

Official Virtway website
Asturias Spanish companies established in 1999 Simulation software Video game companies of Spain Video game development companies Virtual reality companies