New World Notes

Sinespace Winter Sale: Hundreds of Items on Sale Up to 50% Off Every Day

NWN partner Sinespace has a massive sale of fashion and other fun content, running from now until the early new year, with hundreds of items discounted from 15 to 50 percent off. Part of the fun is finding out which item is for sale an any given day, because the discounts are changed daily:

We will be running a series of time limited store-wide discounts on selected content from today until January 3rd. Each day we'll be changing what's for sale - so check back every day for new items on sale, each item will only be on sale for only 24hrs before being replaced with a new item. 

More details on the Sinespace blog!

Contest: Create a Winter-Themed Region in Unity 3D for Sinespace, Win Prizes -- And Sell Your Entry in the Store!

Sinespace photo by RAMB0 Joel

 New contest for Unity 3D-savvy designers and artists from NWN partner Sinespace:

Create a Winter Region and enter the Winter Wonderland Contest

• Create a region in Unity to pass the Sinespace Review process
• Should have some of your own models or textures (more substantial originality for selling as a template)**
• Judging will be on the balance of the following criteria: Overall look, download weight, ease of movement, and expression of winter beauty
• Deadline to enter the contest: December 20th
• Deadline to upload your region and open it to the public: December 29.
• We will be touring and judging beginning Sunday, December 30.
• Two winners! First Prize: 2500 Gold; Second Prize; 1500 Gold

More details here. In Sinespace, whole regions can be sold as templates in the in-world store, so even if you don't win the contest, you can still sell what you created. For inspiration, here's some other Winter scenes that are already in Sinespace:

Sinespace Black Friday Offers: 30% Off Gold & 33% Off Annual Subscriptions

NWN partner Sinespace has some special Black Friday discount specials for virtual world shoppers: From now until next Tuesday, a discount on an annual subscription, normally costing $119.40, discounted to $79.95. Annual subscribers get these bonuses over twelve months:

• 150 Gold in your account every Wednesday.
• A bigger home region with 512mb space and 25 concurrent users.
• Unique Title and Achievement.
• Premium support.
• Name tag colors.
• Special launch discount.

And there's another Black Friday Sinespace offer:  A 30% discount on all Gold purchases of USD $20. To get it, be sure to download the latest viewer (2018.11.b2), click the "+" button on the top bar, which brings up a Gold purchasing window -- scroll down for the 30% offer. 

Questions about these offers or anything else Sinespace related? Post in Comments for Adam and his team below!

Watch Live: Acclaimed Game Designer Warren Spector in Sinespace

Fantasy & Sci-Fi Avatars & Accessories in Sinespace for Cosplay Fun

NWN partner Sinespace has a ton of fantasy and science fiction-themed avatars and accessories available in its in-game store -for instance, this amazingly detailed, surprisingly buff "full body" zombie avatar, by Gorgelay. (I'm posing here in the BlakOpal region foyer.) So it's the perfect place to search for cosplay options if you feel like dressing up (and you totally should) for Warren Spector's Sinespace event next week.

Creator who wants to customize your own avatar's skin, tattoos, or makeup? Watch this Sinespace tutorial:

Meet Warren Spector in the Virtual World: Sinespace and Escapist Host an Hour With the Influential Game Designer, Nov 17 at 3pm (PST) - RSVP Now!

Click here to RSVP for a very unique Sinespace event I'm proud to co-host November 17 at 3pm (PST): An hour with renowned game designer Warren Spector (Ultima Underworld, System Shock, Deus Ex, Epic Mickey) who'll discuss his latest game, Underworld Ascendant, the future of game design, getting started in games, developing in Unity 3D, and whatever else our virtual audience of avatars cares to ask him. The event (and live video stream) is being co-hosted by The Escapist magazine, with editor-in-chief Russ Pitts interviewing Warren alongside me.

The acclaimed titles Warren has helped lead development on have been incredibly influential on the art of games, helping pioneer a new genre of immersive simulation which rewards player creativity and choice. Its heirs include the Thief, Dishonored, and BioShock franchises, among many, many others. His new game, Underworld Ascendant, is very much part of that tradition, and is a spiritual successor to Ultima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss.

Created way back in 1992, Ultima Underworld game is not only a landmark in 3D simulation games -- it helped inspire the development of virtual worlds. As I wrote in The Making of Second Life, it was a key reference for Philip Rosedale, as he started formulating the framework that would eventually become Second Life:

Upcoming Halloween Events in the Unity-Based Social MMO Sinespace

Catacombs in Sinespace's Illuminati Region via Lyric's Flickr

NWN Partner Sinespace has Halloween-themed events this weekend and next week, starting this Sunday at 3pm PST with live music at the Harvest Ho-Down at 381 Club, and a Best in Orange and Black Outfit contest for gold prizes. And on October 30 at 5:30 PST, there's Boo-tastic club music and a gravely huge gold giveaway. And for generally scary exploring, visit the Illuminati region (pics above and below). More on the blog and Twitter.

Sinespace Featured on VentureBeat With Report on New User Growth & Revenue Numbers, Certified Creators Program

Kudos to NWN partner Sinespace for this great coverage by Dean Takahashi on VentureBeat:

Sinespace is billing itself as a massively multiplayer online sandbox world in VR, and the company is launching what it calls a Certified Creators program to try to boost the creation of user-generated content in Sinespace. It hopes that it can stand out from others because its technology won’t be “pinned in time,” but rather will change with the times as graphics and other technologies move forward.

 “We are trying to build a virtual world that is future proof [says founder Adam Frisby]. "The goal of what we are doing is to make it accessible to everyone."... He said that the company’s monthly active users grew from 10,000 in June to more than 15,000 in August. And Sinespace players are also buying more content from creators, with the average revenue per paying user (ARPPU) in August hitting $20 a month, up from $17 a month in June.

More about the Certified Creators program and its special advantages on Sinespace's blog. Highlight:

What a Sinespace Dance Club Party Looks Like in Full Swing

Great footage shot by Michael Emory Cerquoni  (Nebadon in Sinespace) at last weekend's opening of the SoundBar club (built by Calum), and featuring a hilarious mid-stream interjection by the DJ. Really admire Calum's use of colored lighting effects to create a true dance club feel.

Disclosure: Sinespace is a sponsoring partner of NWN. Further disclosure: I've been known to dance fairly freakily at San Francisco clubs in the SOMA.  

Sinespace Launches New Teaser Featuring User-Created Scenes, Avatars, Poses, Animations, Scripted Games & Vehicles, In-Game 3D Model Editing, & RL Facial Capture in Unity-Based MMO

NWN partner Sinespace just posted this online, a new teaser video showing off the massively multicreator platform's latest features including Archimatix dynamic model editing and webcamera-to-avatar RL expression capture. Video was shot by the excellent Brian Arndt, a veteran of major game developers ZeniMax, Bethesda, and above all, Rooster Teeth.

What do you think? Please post feedback (positive and negative) in Comments, and I'll share it with the team.