CBS Interactive is launching an ambitious artificial reality game based on the CW’s hit show America’s Top Model, wherein subscribers can control their favorite models rise to the top of the modeling elite and pit their models against one another.

The game, scheduled for release today in the U.S., uses avatars or screen representations of real contestants from the show. A user picks his or her favorite and least favorite model and uses games cues to guide the favored model down the path to stardom, overcoming challenges and making key professional decisions that will impact her career. Conversely, the customer can sabotage the unfavored model’s career by playing virtual tricks on her.

CBS has also built multi-player aspects into the game allowing players to send models between phones, essentially entrusting those model’s careers to friends or competitors. That aspect of the game is particularly key to what CBS plans to make Top Model a viral game, spreading between players rather than from business-to-consumer channels.

The game engine was created by Hong Kong developer Artificial Life, which has developed an artificial intelligence software that it plans to use in creating several more interactive games for CBS in the future. Both Sprint and Cingular will offer the game on specific Java-enabled phones.