New World Notes

Raph Koster's Stars Reach Kickstarter Succeeds in One Hour - Including 4 People Who Pledge $10,000 Each to Buy Their Own Planet!

The Kickstarter for Stars Reach, Raph Koster's highly ambitious galaxy sandbox MMORPG I wrote about last month, just launched earlier today... and surpassed its initial $200K target goal within an hour. So far it has over 1400 backers, with the majority pledging between $30-100 for early access to play the game, along with other benefits.

On the very highest end, four people have already pledged at the "Galactic Plenipotentiary Tier" at an eye-watering $10,000, which comes with your own whole world:

Claim a Planet: Choose a climate and planet type, have it named after you and assume immediate governance of the planet when the game launches. Disclaimer: Maintaining a planet requires an active population. [Emphasis mine! - WJA]

"In the game," Raph tells me, "planets can be abandoned, wormholes can collapse, and the map shifts over time. So you get a planet and skip the claim process, but you still have to be active enough to keep it." In other words, you can have your own world, but you need to keep maintaining it.

Stars Reach's success on Kickstarter demonstrates the willingness of gamers to crowdfund a new MMO, something that was very much in question even last month. In this current climate, with the game industry in painful flux, it offers hope that devs might consider crowdfunding their way into publication.

What advice would Raph Koster give other MMO/virtual world developers on crowdfunding their own projects?

"Have most of your game done first, so you can let people play and build their confidence that there’s something actually there," Koster tells me. "If your game isn’t good, it won’t go well, of course. But if the game is solid even in early stages, then you are providing proof that you are worth backing."

Watch the trailer below!

Kickstart This: Help Expand the Virtual Worlds Museum -- Benefits Include a Custom Virtual Exhibit Build in Arrival.Space!

The Virtual Worlds Museum just launched a Kickstarter to expand what's already the most comprehensive -- and now award-winning -- online resource for information on virtual worlds (in my somewhat biased opinion) into a full-fledged immersive experience and live community hub:

Visitors can interact with immersive, browser-accessible exhibits and experience WebXR and interoperable worlds from their devices on Arrival. Space. Paid tours will provide in-depth insights into milestones, from early web experiments to immersive environments.

You’ll also join MetaTr@versal portal crawls, where avatars explore interconnected worlds through portals. These unique events redefine what it means to travel across digital realms.

Much more here. The top supporter tier, for $9999, is actually quite a bargain for companies and brands to consider:

Collaborate with the Virtual Worlds Museum™ team to create a customizable 3D world in Arrival. Space featuring your product or service. Work closely with our expert 3D artists and receive pro-level consulting throughout the process.

I've been involved in projects like this in multiple virtual worlds, and the cost is usually more like $20,000-50,000.

Here's some examples of branded experiences in Arrival.Space, via VWM founder Julian Reyes:

Kickstart This: Trip the Light, a VR Game That Teaches Hand-in-Hand Partner Dancing!

Trip the Light is a new VR game on Kickstarter that's now painfully close to meeting its target, and that's no surprise: It's one of the most innovative virtual reality projects I've come across in some time. It leverages the VR motion controllers and sensors to... teach players how to ballroom dance with someone else.

Yes:

TRIP THE LIGHT is a fully immersive dance game that brings the connection of partner dancing to life. Whether you're a beginner or a seasoned dancer, you can experience authentic salsa, swing, hip hop, and line dancing in stunning environments or in your own living room. Dance hand-in-hand with virtual AI partners and instructors in real time, learning techniques while unlocking new levels, dance styles, outfits, accessories and more. Perfect for fitness, fun, and improving your real life dance skills.

There's been a slew of club-style dancing video games, where the solo partners don't touch, but this must be the first that simulates true couples dancing. It's lead developed by Patrick Ascolese, a veteran of both VR and AAA games.

"My wife and I were at a wedding dancing together and at that moment I just knew," he tells me, about the moment of inspiration. "I have the technical skills to pull this off and just happen to be competent enough at salsa and partner dancing to lead it. As it moved along we enlisted the help of professional dancers / choreographers." 

The game simulates touching and directly interacting with an NPC partner through a complex system that accounts for player motion and physics:

Will the Future of VR Be Less Virtual, More Augmented?

Commenting in this fascinating thread on virtual reality hype, reader "Rin" makes some smart points:

I have to say that I think that everything that uses a big headset like the Oculus Rift is a dead end and will never achieve any big success. It might have some specific uses .. training simulations come to mind, but I just can't see it finding it's way into the big consumer market. It is just too big of a hindrance to daily life to block everything out like this and sit on the couch with this headset on. Microsoft has the much better approach there [with the HoloLens] and even when I am uncertain of how it might turn out (or if it actually be usable at all), I think it is still the more usable idea then something like the Oculus headset. To be honest, I have not yet heard even one idea about what the one big application would be that brings VR "into our lap". Even most games would not fit well with it and not everyone who plays games would like to do it this way. So the market is even smaller ... but what is there beside it that would bring it out of specific work situations and into the homes of everyone? It actually also might be going against the current trend of everything being more and more mobile. And being in VR while walking down a street might not be the most healthy thing to do ... so instead of VR I think it should be more AR - Augmented Reality. That is where I would put my money into.

So presumably, Rin would want to put her money in a company like Magic Leap, just like Google recently did, to the tune of half a billion damn dollars. I share all of Rin's concerns around VR, though I'm very skeptical augmented reality will be a better alternative:

Back It This Weekend: Sunless Sea, A Steampunk Naval Roguelike Inspired By FTL

Janine "Iris Ophelia" Hawkins' ongoing review of gaming and virtual world style

There are practically hundreds Indie game Kickstarters making the rounds at any given time, but this month something truly special surfaced. Failbetter Games' Sunless Sea might seem like little more than an offbeat and borderline-Lovecraftian roguelike, until you realize that this is the same team that developed Fallen London. Fallen London is easily the most unique and intriguing browser-based game I've ever experienced, and it's a must-play for anyone with an interest in twisted and tangled Victorian settings.

Better yet, Sunless Sea and Fallen London will go hand in hand, with Failbetter's newest game taking place in (and expanding upon) the strange world of its predecessor.

Cancer-Stricken Designer Passes Away One Month After SL's Fashion Community Raises Over $12K For Her Care

Janine "Iris Ophelia" Hawkins' ongoing review of gaming and virtual world style

Last July, friends of popular Second Life designer Squinternet Larnia started a fundraiser to help support her cost of living with terminal bone cancer. She was no longer able to work, and her dwindling finances meant that she couldn't afford the care she needed just to spend her remaining time in comfort. Even as event organization got under way things looked very bleak, and plans were made for the proceeds of the event in case Squinternet herself didn't live to see it through. But she did. The fundraiser ended after raising $12,619.45 for her care and comfort in the final days of her life. Just as importantly, she saw a phenomenal and inspiring turnout of generous friends and strangers who came out and offered their support.

Sadly, in spite of strides she was making in treatment, the designer who moved so many of us passed on September 4th. But like so many before her, the story of the second life of Squinternet Larnia doesn't end there.

Second Life Fashionistas Start Fundraiser to Benefit Beloved Designer Squinternet Larnia's Fight Against Cancer

Janine "Iris Ophelia" Hawkins' ongoing review of gaming and virtual world style

Virtual world designers come and go all the time, but the disappearance of Italian designer Squinternet Larnia of Donna Flora fame was one that many fashionistas (including myself) lamented regularly, particularly as many of us knew of her experiences with cancer.

Notable fashion blogger Cajsa Lilliehook took the time recently to track Squinternet down, and the news is not good... But there may yet be some good news on the horizon. The fashion community is already mobilizing with a fundraiser to help support Squinternet. Keep reading for all the details on Squinternet's situation, and what you can do to help.

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: