New World Notes

SL-Based Interactive Sci-Fi Webcomic Splintered Rock Needs Your Support

 
Iris Ophelia's ongoing review of gaming and virtual world style

A couple months ago I wrote about Splintered Rock, an interactive webcomic influenced by Dune and shot in Second Life using a cluster of truly magnificent and gritty sci-fi sims. What makes it so innovative is that the story develops based on several different kinds of interaction that readers can have with creator Darren Green, including polls and the use of tokens to bolster the stats (and therefore survival chances) of their favorite characters.

It's a neat concept and it's pretty well executed, but it's not all smooth sailing either. Projects like this don't create themselves, and Chapter 1 proved to be a pretty time-consuming endeavour. That's why Splintered Rock needs your help...

Forget Printing in 3D, Why Not Write in 3D?

While I'm not sure how huge 3D printing is going to be, I'm somewhat more sure writing in 3D will be pretty huge. Watch this jaw-dropping video:

It's a Kickstarter project, and when I first saw it last night, it had raised about $10,000. Less than 12 hours later, nearly $200,000 had been pledged. So guess I'm not the only one jazzed about the idea of writing 3D into reality.

Watch the First Animated Short Featuring SL's Raglan Shire Tinies Made from Last Spring's Successful Kickstarter

I wrote about the Raglan Shire Kickstarter last March, which raised funds to bring Second Life's beloved tiny avatars to a real life mass audience, and now via project lead Zayn Till, here's some fruits to that crowdfunder -- presenting "Wootberry Joos!", which is, as Mr. Till explains, "our first complete animated short", specifically, "a mock commercial for a mock product to show that these characters ARE entertaining no matter what situation you throw them in". The results are highly-polished and face-punchingly cute:

Follow the project's Facebook page for updates. As you may have noticed, while these Tiny avatars were first created in Second Life, this short was not shot in SL machinima. Instead, Till tells me, they recreated the Tinies on other platforms to make them more commercial:

Cool Kickstarter: Word Realms MMO from Kingdom of Loathing Team -- Think WoW Meets Words With Friends

World Realms is a very new cool Kickstarter game project with a great premise: MMO questing combined with word games matched to the uniquely wacky humor that made Kingdom of Loathing such a successful indie MMO. Think WoW meets Words with Friends, and watch the hilarity-spiked pitch:

As I suggested above, it's from Asymmetric Productions, the guys who made Kingdom of Loathing, so even the Kickstarter write-up is pretty funny. Don't take my word for it, read the FAQ... I mean, the NUTSAQ:

Five SL-Based Crowdfunders I'd Love to See and Help Promote -- And Two I Probably Won't

I love blogging about crowdfunders of cool game/interactive projects, as you may have noticed, and I'd love even more to blog about those which began in SL, like the successful Raglan Shire crowdfunder. If you know of such projects (or are thinking of launching one yourself), here's several I'm particularly interested in:

• An SL-based musician who wants to crowdfund a full-length album aimed at a mass market audience.
• Developers who want to convert their popular SL-based game to a game for iOS, Android, the web, or Facebook.
• SL fashion/jewelry designers who wants to fund production and sales of real world versions of their styles.
• SL machinima developers who want to create a high-end franchise meant to reach an audience beyond SLers.
• Content creators who want to convert their sim or build into a 3D interactive experience for the web, iOS tablets, or Steam.

Those are just the first five off the top of my head, and I'm sure there are many more that would excite me just as much. You'll notice a pattern in all of them: SL projects aimed at reaching a wider audience. While it's still unclear if SL can grow its userbase any more than it has already, there's many cases of SL projects which went on to find a larger market beyond it. Think Kermitt Quirk's Tringo game, which became a web and Nintendo Gameboy title. Think machinima like Douglas Gayeton's Molotov Alva, which ended up on HBO/Cinemax.

Those in mind, here's a couple crowdfunders I probably can't get behind (or if I do, very reluctantly):