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Ubisoft unveils PC UGC platform

Setting for Track, Shoot and QuestMania.

Ubisoft has announced plans to create a user-generated content platform for PC called ManiaPlanet.

Speaking during its packed E3 conference, the publisher said TrackMania developer Nadeo is involved, but the idea is to expand ManiaPlanet to include other games.

Two were mentioned. QuestMania will go into beta soon, while ShootMania is targeting Q1 2011.

Ubisoft said that TrackMania currently has 10 million players across its various guises, and TrackMania 2 will launch in Q4 2010.

TrackMania's big trick - apart from wicked handling and just-one-more-go level design - was to give you a track editor to assemble your own courses from a limited number of track pieces, the idea being to post a fast time between pre-defined checkpoints.

It's easy to imagine that QuestMania and ShootMania will take that idea and run with it - presumably in the direction of the RPG or shooter genres.