Summer Axon and Detect Surface tend bar
Recently I stumbled across a dark and beautifully foreboding industrial town, and on further investigation, learned it was Sector 13 in the City of Abaddon, on the island of Merrick's Landing. (Direct portal at this link.)
I begged the owner Detect Surface to tell me about building it, and he happily obliged with a deluge of description and richly-textured postcards-- and a brochure of the 'bots which finance it. Take the tour after the break.
The City He Made
"Abaddon is a new sim, created back in January 2007. The theme of the place is a post apocalyptic/cyber punk/tech sim, designed to bring the beauty of a desolate, damp environment, that looks like its being rebuilt after some catastrophic war.
"Basically, it's supposed to represent the old and the new, bringing a relatively true-to-life atmosphere. [There's] three main shops of Detect Surface, Orochimaru Kuramoto, and Acid Zenith, warehouses, abandoned buildings, apartments, a multi-story car park, the main 300 meter tall skyscraper, an enclosed building complex and many other things.
"Abaddon, in Biblical poetry (Job 26:6; Proverbs 15:11)... [means] 'place of destruction', or the realm of the dead, and is associated with Sheol. Abaddon is also one of the compartments of Gehenna... it's fitting to the story, that the City is the last place on Earth that is still functional, before it was destroyed the first time, life on Earth was peaceful and kind.
"It also has the active bar, Bar Substance, which is the official bar hosting events especially for the sim, which is run by my wife, Summer Axon.
How He Discovered Second Life
"I'm a graphic designer, professional graphic illustrator and web designer by profession. I've worked for companies such as Warner Brothers, Cartoon Network, Nickelodeon, Hasbro, D-Rights, IGT of America and some others, so I've always been keen and very highly interested in keeping creative.
"I'm a Mac addict, so I occasionally browse through some releases on Apple's website, and one day back in 2005, I came across an interesting idea called Second Life. I didn't know much about it, only that it was a massive multi-player online game and thought I'd give it a go.
"After a day of wandering about Luskwood, I came across a guy wearing a really cool mecha avatar... and the thing was, I looked like every other new person that comes to SL, so I was obviously curious how people created these and was nervous the answer would be 'You do it in a 3D program, like Maya...
"I would have screamed as I had never done any 3D work, ever... So you can imagine how astonished I was to find that you built, textured and so on, within Second Life. So, with that, I jumped down from the tree and got to work, learning everything you could do here.
How Abaddon is Financed
"[I]t's a simple answer, the Cyvers [above] speak for themselves really. I never though when I first started, how popular they would become. And now, they pay for everything... the sim, uploads, external projects I need to outsource like technical scripting. But everything else is done by me, the builds, the texturing, animations, advertising, PR and other scripting ideas. [laughs] It's simply amazing what you can learn here in two years.
"I was strangely surprised how popular the Cyvers got a few months into selling them around July last year. Estimations of how many of the units have been sold, ranges from around 3000 to 4000. I don't like to price my units too high, gives more new comers a chance to [buy them].
The Future of the City
"The sim itself will be shortly adding a combat system, designed especially for the sim and an roleplaying to suit the style... The combat system itself will be mainly a strategic melee system, using such things as futuristic swords, staffs and other Eastern weaponry. Projectiles also play some part of it, but instead of using bullets, they will use NRG, in which they will eventually burn out and will have to let them charge.
"The combat system is still in the works at the moment, so I can't really show the current Cyvers battling with it, which is a shame, I'd love to give a sneak peek."
All images by Detect Surface. Read more about Mr. Surface and Abaddon at his blog.
And where in the world do you call home? Take a look at the entire Window series for inspiration, read the details for submitting to NWN's World From My Window series, then send me a screenshot or video link of your SL home or favorite haunt.
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