New World SLurl: Drowsy, a Storybook Shopping Island

The island of Drowsy is a storybook town, a sprawling hamlet built around a seaside mountain, and it's full of wonders, nooks for exploring, from cobbled roads to a fairy meadow nearby, every detail rich with artistry and love.

It is actually a shopping island for the Japanese SL clothiers Kurotsubaki, BP, and Zero Number (I first read the announcement of its opening on the Kurotsubaki's blog), but the rich and textured details of the place demand you explore.

Consequently, it's the kind of place where fashionistas in high heels congregate alongside Kawaii avatars, and if you happen upon a couple of them floating along with balloons that lift you half off the ground, they're liable to give you your own balloon, so you can float too (to wit, below).

Among the creators of Drowsy is sato Yifu, and she tells me the isle was built over the course of two months. (BettiePage Voyager, Mai Runo, and Nico Rotaru were her collaborators.) And while every feature of the island seems rich with stories (for instance, why is there a giant ragdoll statue near the pond?), the folklore of Drowsy hasn't yet been told. "The story is not yet established," Ms. Yifu tells me. "We want to make a story."

The place is so gorgeously wrought, you'd think it was created by professional game developers in their spare time. (It calls to mind the whimsical design of Sony's Free Realms, only to be quite honest, Drowsy is far more beautifully made.) But sato Yifu tells me she is not that, and didn't learn her 3D building skills through official study. It's just that she learned to create builds and clothes in Second Life over two years of doing so. As she puts it, "I studied it by making them."

Now it's time to visit the isle of Drowsy yourself: a direct SLurl teleport at this link.

Comments

[Skate Foss]

Drowsy is a wonderful magical sim to explore. sato's fun apples (her scripted pose balls) are all around to click on and have a playful time! The detail and textures are amazing and makes me proud that we have such gifted, creative people inhabiting our world.