This is the first such round-up, so has to briefly cover the preceding two years. However, much of our history is already detailed in our news section on the main web at www.aifactory.co.uk, and so the reader is also referred to this for the long term information.

Apart from our on-going contract work in Japan and England, our main focus is to continue to strengthen our base of game engines. As these have rolled out, we have continued to refine the generic interface and testbed facility, and then backdate existing engines to conform with more recent improvements. Such is the strength of our existing AI toolset, that new engine roll-out is now really very rapid.

A second on-going development is to move our 2D game products into full 3D games. This is built around a base model, originally devised for the new game "Legion", and since worked on in our new "Chinese Chess" product. The genre of classic turn-based games has not developed far in the last 10 years, but with the advent of fast quality 3D graphics, it is possible to lift these games to join the plethora of high quality 3D games around today. The public have grown to expect impressive graphics set in high quality 3D environments. Flat 2D or fake isometric 3D rendering is no longer an acceptable alternative.

We are also engaged in negotiation for work on the new handheld devices coming out. Also for networked gameplay and a number of other interesting projects. Among these is a large on-line game, which is currently still at the design stage.

Of course, our business will continue to follow what opportunities are presented. If on-line gaming suddenly takes off in the West, then no doubt that is where we will be!