3D Mailbox: Email Meets Videogame

Shepherdstown, WV -- (ReleaseWire) -- 06/21/2007 -- Imagine if your email software and The Sims met each other and fell in love. The resulting child would be 3D Mailbox, an email client for Windows that represents your mail with avatars and exotic 3D locations.

Level 1 of this hybrid tool/game is set in Miami Beach. The scene is filled with a crystal-clear ocean, an olympic-sized pool, a hotel, an ice rink, Bossa Nova music, seagulls, and other resort goodies. Upcoming levels will be set in such places as an international airport, Outer Space, and Ancient Rome.

Each mail you receive is represented by an avatar (whose gender matches the person who sent the mail). When they enter the front gate, they are inspected by a Bermuda-clad policeman, who represents the built-in spam filter. Good email gets to hang out poolside; uncertain mail goes to chill in the ice rink; and spam gets sent to the beach, where they await their fate at the jaws of the Great White Sharks. Private bars are your custom folders, and a trash alley behind the hotel serves as your Trash mailbox.

But 3D Mailbox is also a serious e-mail application, with an integrated, user-friendly SpamBayes spam filter; a "Cool" and "Uncool" sender whitelist/blacklist; extensive message filters; and more.

"Email is the killer app," says Savage. "But it's deadly boring. 3D Mailbox makes it fun." He adds, "After years of using utilitarian programs like Outlook and Eudora, I knew there had to be more to email. Using them is like driving around in a Jeep with no shock absorbers. 3D Mailbox is like having your own tour bus, and you're the star."

3D Mailbox was created by a team of 40 people, led by Robert Savage, the creator of VisitorVille (www.visitorville.com), which depicts your live website traffic in a 3D world. The first level is available for free from http://www.3dmailbox.com/