Lessons Learned in Alpha Testing

I ran a 24 hour alpha test on a Something’s In The Air Demo I was thinking of releasing, and it was good that I did.  Feedback was decidedly mixed, so for those that keep asking when will I release it, the answer is, “When it is ready!” and it is not ready.

As a novice visual novel author, I learned a couple of things about writing during the alpha test.  Lesson #1 is I need to work on the stuff I’m not good at just as hard as the stuff I am good at.  I have a talent for visuals and plot, and a weakness for dialogue.  So I have been writing serviceable dialogue quickly to fit with the terrific visuals and plot, and as a result I have been losing the characters. In other words I got a lot of rewriting to do.

Lesson #2 is I need to trust my instincts more.  If I can’t get excited about a plot or a scene, then it will suck, and it either needs to be rethought until I do get excited about it, or dropped completely.  On the other hand, I need to stop ignoring those feeling of “Wouldn’t it be cool if I…” moments because as it turns out: yes it would be cool, and it is exactly what I should do.

Lesson #3 is I need to forget about this ever becoming a commercial success.  In an effort to do something different, I have taken many different genres, threw them in a blender and hit “puree”.  One of the comments I got was along the lines of, “Is this supposed to be a comedy? or a slice of life drama? or a plotless sex romp, or what?”  My answer is yes to all.  Like the Date Ariane game, there is enough “adult” content to keep it out of the mainstream, but not enough to interest the adult gaming market.  It’s sort of a romantic dramedy with some mystery and speculative fiction thrown in. By design, it defies categorization, meaning it will not be marketable.  Make the story that I want to make, and let the chips fall where they may.

So, for not the first time, and probably not the last, I have a new plan of attack. My original plan was to have 6 stories, all of approximately the same length and content.  Well one of those 6 stories, I have spent a lot of time trying to figure out how to make it good, and in the spirit of lesson #2 it needs to just be cut.  So now it is 5 stories long.  Another story is good but very short, and I have been thinking how to “balance” it and make it longer with no good ideas.  In the spirit of lesson #3, “balance” is a marketing concept, and therefore it can be ignored.  So, the stories will be exactly as long as they need to be, no need for lengthening short stories, or editing long ones.

This has greatly simplified the master plan.  I’m finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.  Post production is going easier than I expected, thanks to finding some decent free and cheap royalty free music and sound effects which adds a whole new dimension to the game.

Good feedback, even though some of it was negative, has made me more excited about working on, and eventually finishing this project.

Moving to Zindra

In SL, I have lived in the same mainland spot for 6 years. In RL, I have moved twice during the same span.  I used to like the quiet sim I was on, and the access to Governor Linden land right next door, basically my own personal sandbox.  But then Linden sold the space, and it was bought by the same person that owned the land on the other side of me.  I don’t like being completely surrounded by ban walls, and I recently stopped selling anything, so no need to keep the same spot.  The upshot with being surrounded is that I have a motivated buyer for my land, that means I could sell the lot at a high price and get it, which I did.

So with new found wealth of Lindenbucks, and 512 sqm of free tier to use, I went looking for a new place to call home.  I found it in another overpriced water bordering lot on the Zindra continent.  I have written about Zindra a couple of times, the “adult” rated mainland continent.  I bought the lot and started going with a “tropical” theme that has caught on with my neighbors on either side of me.  May as well blend in.  Got my boat dock, found a low prim Tiki Bar in the market place, a few free palm trees from the library, and a reggae/ska streaming station to set the mood.  Then dubbed it home.

The last time I visited Zindra 3 years ago, this was my reaction:

In the June essay, I mentioned two possible scenarios of where Zindra will head: 1.) A sanctuary away from alt griefing and kids pretending to be adult, or 2.) an adult oriented ghetto.  Many of the more established successful businesses have relocated to private estates rather than Zindra. Because of this, its looking more and more likely that the second scenario will prevail.

A quick tour around Zindra today is like a big mall of mostly crap. A good 90% of adult merchants do not know how to make a good store build. Lots of bright tacky colors, or way too big textures that cause load lag. I went to some of the busiest businesses and either found a lot of bots / camping chairs, or builds in private skyboxes.

That to me is a virtual ghetto.

There is still a bit of that ghetto feel.  Picking a random hot spot called “Whore Street”, turned out to be a clever red light district build, but the large population I saw on the map was nothing but camping spot campers.  None of the promised tawdryness the name suggested.

The whole idea of an “adult continent” has (ironically) matured in the last 3 years.  Some of the crap I mentioned from 3 years ago is still there, but there also can be found some beautiful builds.  Especially around the riverbanks I now cruise in my old prim boat.

Except for people that specialize in “adult” items, merchants have found that stores on “general” rated land get more traffic.  That means Zindra has a lot fewer places to shop, which is in my opinion better as most stores in SL tend to be rather tacky looking places.  What is mostly found in Zindra are clubs, and residences, and an “anything goes” attitude.  Something that is also found on Zindra that is missing from the rest of SL is people.  I put up the mini map and I see green dots everywhere I go.  My old place I rarely saw any green dots.

Some other surprising things about Zindra:  Even though avatar sex and nudity is allowed, I don’t see it, at least not in the open.  A much more common occurrence is erotic wall art, rarely visible from the outside though.  The two most popular spots on Zindra, are the two Linden operated visitors centers in Arapaima and Oritz, the two places where nudity is off limits.  These are the gathering spots to meet “adults”.

Zindra reminds me a lot of the way SL used to be when I joined.  Lots of people, lots of experimentation, lots of erotic images posted on walls, and lots of fun to explore.  So in reevaluating Zindra 3 years later, it seems to me more like the “sanctuary” than the “ghetto”.  There are still “ghetto” parts, definitely, but so far I am liking the “sanctuary”.

3D Virtual Worlds Are In Decline

Catching up with the news on 3D Virtual Worlds, has been getting a little depressing lately.  Bottom line: they are all down in traffic.

Lets start with some news on the LL/SL front:  Linden Lab announced two weeks ago that they bought an interactive fiction company called LittleTextPeople. The small company develops 2D interactive fiction for play on mobile phones from what I can tell.  The group will develop new products under the Linden Lab roof, but they will not be associated with Second Life.  In other words, Linden Lab is finally diversifying its gaming line up.  This is what happens when you hire a game developer as your CEO, you start to develop new games.  Not reported anywhere is that one of the 3 developers at LittleTextPeople is Richard Evans, lead AI programmer for The Sims 3 who no doubt worked with LL CEO Rod Humble when he was in charge at EA/Maxis.  The other two are Emily Short, writer/programmer of text adventure Galatea, and Andrew Stern co-creator of a really cool experimental 3D interactive game called Façade.  Both are available for free.

So from the sounds of it, Linden Lab is looking to get into the mobile app market with interactive fiction.  Based on my minimal level of research, the project(s) that LittleTextPeople are working on are pseudo menu driven graphic interactive fiction. (since typing things on a phone/tablet is an annoyance to begin with).  Looking forward to seeing what they come up with.

But that is not all from the Linden Lab front. It seems LL has stopped publication of statistics for Second Life. The unanimous consensus is that the reason for no publication is that the numbers are way down.

Lets put these two items into perspective.  Linden Lab is diversifying their product line towards mobile apps, while Second Life is dropping in traffic, land sales, etc.  Linden Lab is looking to a future without its signature product.  I said before that I believe SL will close its doors when it stops being profitable, and we seem to be close to that point it sounds like.

I decided to take a look at other 3DVWs and see how they are doing.  IMVU is seeing lower numbers these days too.  There Inc is not seeing the huge influx of returning customers it was hoping for when it reopened its doors. It seems that maybe the age of the 3DVW is about up.

Some of the smaller ones are doing OK: NuVera is finally out of beta, and it seems a lot more stable. Avination says they fixed the sim crossing problem for vehicles in OpenSim.  InWorldz is now big enough to start holding a conference in Las Vegas. Onverse is still expanding with new lands and content. Despite some small time success, I am not hearing about any new ones lately, not even new OS grids.

What’s driving people away from the big 3D Virtual Worlds? Probably boredom, social networking, and the influx of “free to play” MMORPGs which are learning to incorporate the social aspects that used to be exclusive to 3DVWs.

I’m not expecting a lot of closures though, just the usual 3 or 4 a year. These things have long tails, and can get by for quite a while with loyal fan bases.  But the “golden age” is behind us.

 

Meet Rachel

I promised earlier that I would introduce some characters of the visual novel when I was done doing their story.  I finally finished story 4, which is the largest of the 6 stories, and the one I needed to finish to get it out of the way, so I could move to the easier stuff.  I am trying to make each story have a different tone and style, but my fiction writing skills are not at the expert level, so I pace myself and think things through.

Story 4, which I dubbed “A Man About Town” is the most “visual novel” like story, the most like the dating simulator (though no where near as complicated).  There are 13 different location sets in the various possible branches of the story, six of them are sets from the original date simulator, four more (the bar, the movie theater, the salon, and the dress shop) are ones I blogged earlier, I’ll talk about another in a future post, the last is a spoiler, so you’ll just have to wait.

Defining Characters

I mentioned before that writing a visual novel is like writing a novel, meaning you have to define your characters and stay in character when you voice their dialogue.  Otherwise everyone starts sounding the same, which is boring.  That means I have to define each character before I start writing them.  That means I had to define Ariane as a character.  Ariane’s online persona is me of course, a science and sci-fi geek and a gamer.  But in the dating simulator she never expressed those types of interest, so I could define her character differently.  Based on her actions in the dating simulator (and in the sequel), Ariane has two defining characteristics: she loves to do daring things, and when she gets mad she gets brutally honest.  Combining those characteristics with the fact that she drives around in a four wheel SUV with no doors or a roof (a free model I found online when I needed a car model, had I found a free sedan model she would be driving a sedan), and Ariane is defined as “action girl”.

The upshot of that definition of Ariane is that it frees “science and gamer geek” for another character.  Rachel is the main character in story 4, she is the “Ariane” of Something’s In The Air and will likely be the most talked about character when I finally release the game.  Hence the title of “science and gamer geek” fell on Rachel, thus helping me write her dialogue.  Besides an interest in science and video games, Rachel is also a social butterfly feeling comfortable around crowds.  That is kind of a contradiction, I know, but it will all be explained eventually.  For now I can tell you that she is a 19 year old college sophomore taking summer classes because she missed the spring semester.

For those of you keeping track, there are 6 total stories.  I’m now mostly done with two of them, leaving 4 to go.  That means I’m about a third of the way done with this project.

12 Great Events in the History of Arizona

A little bit of departure from my usual stuff.  This month marks the 100th anniversary of Arizona as a state, and being someone who lived here most of my life, I’d thought I’d share a little bit of history of the place. Basically, I’m hitting the top 12 highlights, with links to wiki articles for the full story.

So where to start.  I could start with the Grand Canyon whose rocks at the bottom are 4.5 billion years old, as old as the earth itself, but that is a bit too far.  Or I could start with the archeological finds south of Chandler, AZ that show humans have lived here for at least 16,000 years.  But instead, I will start with an event that actually had an effect on modern Arizona.  It starts with a Volcano.

1024 – Sunset Crater becomes a Crater

The last time a volcano exploded in Arizona was almost 1000 years ago.  We know the exact date thanks to tree ring studies.  The Sunset crater explosion spewed ash for miles.

Now the cool thing about volcanic ash is that it retains water, making it easy to plant in and grow food.  Combine good soil with a fairly consistent river (known today as the Little Colorado River) and you end up with a good place to live.  The Wupatki ruins are one of the oldest and largest pueblo ruins in Arizona.  What we know about the place is that tribes from all over came to the region to live.  You can find a Kiva, a round ceremonial circle used extensively by tribes to the north, and a ball court, a sport imported from Mexican tribes to the south.  The gathering of many groups to Wupatki meant a sharing of technology, and improved lifestyles.  Pre-Wupatki housing consisted mostly of sticks and mud.  Post-Wupatki housing consisted of rock and mortar.

Eventually, water and resources got scarce and Wupatki was abandoned.  Tribal groups went their separate ways.  The Anasazis moved east and built an even bigger city, known today as the Aztec ruins in New Mexico.  Another post Wupatki settlement was Old Oraibi, Arizona, considered to be one of the oldest continuously inhabited settlements in North America.

14th Century – Invasion of the Dine

At some point around the 14th century, the tribes on the Colorado Plateau stopped building cities on the ground, and started building them in well protected places like the sides of cliffs.  The most likely reason seems to be an invasion from the north of nomadic tribes who called themselves the Dine (pronounced Din-Eh).  Their Athabascan language was very foreign, and genetically they are related to natives of Mongolia.  Today we call them the Navajo and the Apaches, and their affect on regional history is still having an impact today.  There is a 600 year feud between the Navajos and the Hopis, that is no longer fought with weapons, now it is fought with lawyers, and still has an impact on politics today.

It is amazing how many people don’t realize that Native Americans are not all the same race.  There are at least 3, with 3 different groups crossing from Asia (the Inuits are the third). Intermixing over the centuries has mostly erased the genetic differences, but linguistically and culturally they all continue to maintain separate identities.

Though generations removed by the time they reached Arizona, one could call the Dine invasion an Asian invasion. If you think about it that way, the Asians beat the Europeans by a couple of centuries.

1539 – An African comes to Arizona

When it comes to who got to Arizona first, Europeans came in last place.  The first non-native to set foot in what is today Arizona, was an African slave named Estevanico.  He was one of only four survivors of a shipwreck on the coast of Florida in 1529.  Led by Cabeza de Vaca, the four men made their way across America, surviving only by “going native” with the tribes they encountered.  When they finally reached New Spain, it was 8 years later.

A Franciscan Friar named Marcos De Niza was planning an expedition north, and wanted the help of Cabeza de Vaca as a guide.  DeVaca turned down the offer, wanting to return to Spain, but as a slave Estevanico didn’t have a say in the matter and was basically drafted.  Marcos De Niza was not a fan of slavery, nor was he a fan of the big savage beast Estevanico had become after 8 years wandering in the wilderness, nor of his harem of native wives.  So De Niza basically let Estevanico go ahead of him, telling him to build a cross when he finds something important.  That is how an African crossed into Arizona before the Europeans did.  Estevanico did not get very far, he was brutally killed by the Zunis, just a few months into the expedition.  Finding out about the death De Niza, a man of peace, was forced to turn around.

He was followed a year later by an invading army led by Francisco Vasquez de Coronado, looking for the legendary cities of Gold, which did not really exist.  The “golden cities” was an illusion caused by the sun reflecting off the mica flakes common in the adobe mud.  Coronado made it all the way to Kansas before returning in disgrace.  His only major discovery was a giant hole in the ground known today as the Grand Canyon.

1540 – 1810  The Pimeria Alta Colony of New Spain

For 250 years, Arizona was ruled by Spain.  Most of that time, Spain considered it worthless desert land and left the natives alone.  But, eventually gold and silver was discovered, so they felt the need to expand their influence, and started moving in.  Arizona actually gets its name from a successful silver mine operated by Spaniards. The most famous of the Europeans to come here was Father Eusebio Kino, a Jesuit priest, and Italian by birth.  He had a mission to bring Christianity to the tribes of Southern Arizona, but he used a carrot instead of a stick.  He brought education and new farming techniques to the natives.  He was also opposed to slave labor and other bad stuff the Spanish brought to the region.  The natives were big fans of Father Kino.

During his time in Pimeria Alta, Kino established 24 missions and towns, including what is today Tucson, Arizona.

1847 – The Mormon Batallion

In 1810, Mexico gained its independence from Spain, and Arizona became part of Mexico.  Some “Mountain Men” from America occasionally came into the territory, but except for a few mining operations, nobody bothered the area since the natives in the region were considered rather vicious.  One of those Mountain Men was famed explorer Kit Carson, who was the first American to traverse Arizona from east to west and back again.

America’s first war of aggression was to move against Mexico in 1846 in hopes of seizing the land from Texas to the Pacific Ocean.  America had already established interest in California before the war started, and were anxious to take over.  What they did not have was a land route to California, the only way to get there was boat trips around South America.  The closest they got to California was a road to Santa Fe.  Meanwhile, the Mormons were recently chased out of Nauvoo Illinois, and were now holed up in Council Bluffs, Iowa.  They wanted permission to establish a colony in the “promised land” of Utah, and made a deal with the US government to supply men to build a road from Santa Fe, New Mexico to San Diego, California.  The 2000 mile march of the Mormon Batallion was one of the longest in military history.  They basically blazed a path following routes established by the previously mentioned Kit Carson and others.  During the entire march, they never actually saw a battle, but they came close to hunger and dehydration a couple of times.

The truth is, they got very lucky.  The best path across Southern Arizona is the one that follows present day I-10 to I-8.  After heading south from Santa Fe, they completely missed an important right turn at Dos Cabezas, and ended up going around the Chiricahua Mountains.  That pass was called the Apache Stronghold, and would become a dangerous and deadly pass to travelers during the Apache Wars.  Had they gone that way, they would have no doubt been attacked by the Apaches.

1853 – The Gadsden Purchase, or Congress proves that they are a bunch of stupid morons.

Every history class in America has a map of America carved up into what year the US acquired the land, and there is this little sliver of land in the southern New Mexico territory called The Gadsden Purchase.  I doubt anyone ever asks why we bought the land from Mexico, or why it was necessary to do so, and even if some kid in class asks the question, I doubt the teacher can provide the answer.

So I will tell you the answer: Congress is filled with a bunch of stupid morons.

We won the Mexican War and proved our “Manifest Destiny” from sea to shining sea.  The question before the people negotiating the Treaty of Hidalgo is, “Where do we draw the Southern border?”  Well the dominant northern state oriented congress wanted to draw the line as north as possible, because Southern Arizona and New Mexico is south of the Mason-Dixon line and therefore could become a slave friendly territory.  So they drew the border to follow the Gila River because “We could just boat down the Gila River to get to California.”  and so that is what Congress decided.

Stupid thing #1: The Gila River is dry 9 months out of the year.  When it is not dry it is either in the form of dangerous rapids through narrow canyons, or shallow washes not deep enough for a boat.

Stupid thing #2: The US just spent a ton of money and the hard work of the Mormon Battalion building a road south of the Gila River to San Diego which we just gave away back to Mexico.

Stupid thing #3: Slavery was already outlawed in the New Mexico territory in 1810 when Mexico was still in charge.

After the idiotic mistakes made by Congress, Ambassador James Gadsden went to Mexico to negotiate a purchase.  Mexico needed the money and actually offered  most of northern Mexico and all of Baja California for a decent price, but instead Congress again only authorized the bare minimum to get the road built by the Mormon Battalion back into US hands, again because they were afraid of adding more slave state territory.  (sigh!)

1871 - The Camp Grant Massacre

Under Mexican law, land claims by native peoples were recognized.  Under the Treaty of Hidalgo, the US was obligated to recognize those claims.  They didn’t.  Under US law, if you don’t have a deed you don’t own the land, and the Native Americans rights to the land in newly acquired territories were treated the same as the Native Americans in the rest of the US.  They didn’t have any land rights.  Were the natives angry about this? You Bet!

It was the Apaches who put up the biggest fight.  The period from 1848 to the 1886 surrender of Geronimo became known as the Apache Wars.  It was the reason the southern half of the New Mexico territory (calling itself Arizona a popular name for the region when Mexico was in charge) joined the Confederate States of America.  After the US recalled their troops to fight the Civil War, Texas sent troops to Tucson in exchange for CSA territory.  The arrangement only lasted a few months, the US sent in volunteers from California to chase out the Texans, resulting in the Battle of Picacho Peak, the western most battle of the Civil War.  In 1862, President Lincoln would split the New Mexico Territory in half vertically, the western half would retain the name Arizona.

By 1871, a lot of the fighting with the Apaches had subsided enough that the US was withdrawing troops.  This did not sit well with merchants who depended on the troops for income.  A peaceful band of Apaches took up residence outside Camp Grant,  then on April 30, 1871, a group from Tucson attacked the peaceful band slaughtering up to 144 mostly women and children (the men of the tribe were in the mountains hunting).  The people that were responsible were caught and tried, and found innocent.  Arizonans did not consider killing “Indians” to be that big of a crime.

Back east, news of the event made headlines, and got a sympathetic ear from President Grant.  The Camp Grant Massacre was not the first mass act of genocide against Native peoples, nor was it the last, nor was it even close to the biggest, but it did change US policy towards Native Americans leading to the autonomous reservation system we have today.

1881 – The Gunfight at the OK Corral

What can I say about an event that has been discussed in dozens of books, and portrayed in dozens of movies, even in an episode of Star Trek.  What I can tell you is that the legend is far more glorious than the reality.  Tombstone was never a really violent town.  It was mostly a mining town famous for drinking, gambling, and prostitution, and in its heyday did not have a reputation for murder.  Most of the big entertainers of the day (on their way to California) made a stop to perform at the Bird Cage Theater.  The upper decks of the theater had brass beds where the prostitutes plied their trade.  Big windows allowed you to watch the show below, and people below had an obscured view of what was going on above.  The song “I’m just a Bird in a Guilded Cage” was written about the prostitutes at the Bird Cage theater, before being adopted by Tweety and Sylvester cartoons.  As for gambling, below the stage was a poker table that housed a card game that went on continuously, night and day, for 12 years.  Dozens of famous people at the time played in that game including Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday, and Bat Masterson.

This is the kind of stuff Tombstone should be famous for, but the thing everyone talks about is the Gunfight, a battle that lasted about 30 seconds leaving 3 dead, 3 injured, and 3 unharmed.  Few people bother to mention that at least two of the Clanton-McLaury side were unarmed, making it somewhat of an unfair fight.  The legend is much bigger than the reality.

The Gunfight at the OK Corral has become a symbol of the lawless west. As Cracked.com pointed out recently, it is a reputation not deserved.

1885 – The Thieving Thirteenth Legislature

Arizona politics is notorious. The recent furor over SB 1070 is the latest in a very long line of political controversy in Arizona.  Politics here is contradictory to most of the rest of America.  Conservatives tend to be more Libertarian rather than of the social conservative variety.  This leads to many contradictions.  Arizona was one of the first to allow women to vote and was the first to allow the recall of judges, and one of the first to allow public petitions to override the legislature, and even the state constitution.  Recent reforms include public funding of state races and a citizens commission to draw new lines for congressional and legislative districts, stuff a lot more states should be doing.  Arizona has had four female Governors, can any other state say that? And yet, these “progressive” reforms are coming from one of the most conservative states in the country.

The strange politics of this state can be traced to 1885 and the 13th Territorial Legislature.  Up until 1885, Arizona had relied on troops fighting the Apache wars to provide for their economy.  With only a small band of Chiricahua’s left to fight, Arizona needed new sources of revenue, and new institutions to modernize the state.  The Territorial Legislature spent money like crazy, creating a prison in Yuma, an asylum in Phoenix, a teacher training school in Tempe (eventually to become Arizona State University), and a college in Tucson (eventually to become University of Arizona).  They also created bonds for roads, bridges, and trains to transport goods and connect to the rest of the US.

The good that the “Thieving 13th” did to the state is still recognized today.  And yet at the time, the massive deficit spending was considered criminal, and in the next election, all but 1 of the members of the legislature were voted out of office.

1911 – Roosevelt Dam and the Salt River Project

OK, we got ourselves some much needed institutions, now all we need is basic necessities like water and power.  The Phoenix metro area wasn’t very big yet, but they had already outgrown the irrigation system built by the Hohokam some 500 years earlier.  It was time to upgrade.  In 1902, federal funding was granted to build Arizona’s first hydroelectric dam.  Roosevelt dam was constructed out of brick, between 1903 and 1911. Until it was enlarged and covered over by concrete in 1996, Roosevelt Dam was one of the worlds largest masonry constructions.  Three other dams were eventually built along the Salt River, then more along the neighboring Verde and Gila Rivers supply much of the water and power to the Phoenix Metro area.

1912 – Arizona becomes the 48th State

Its 1912, election year, and President Taft is looking to be remembered for being more than America’s fattest President.  So he proposes filling in the blanks and making New Mexico and Arizona into full fledged states.  Arizona actually got its paperwork and new constitution submitted first, but President Taft was not happy with the provision allowing for the recall of judges and told them to change it.  New Mexico came in and became the 47th state on January 6, 1912.

Arizona came back with a revised constitution without the recall of judges.  Originally Arizona was to be made a state on February 12th, but that coincided with Abraham Lincoln’s birthday, and it was thought improper (this despite it being Lincoln who created the territory in the first place).  It was finally made a state on February 14th, 1912, resulting in the nickname the “Valentine State” for a while.  Because of the large number of copper mines, they tried to be the “Copper State”, which was lame since California already claimed to be the “Golden State”, and Nevada the “Silver State”.  In an effort to bolster tourism, we now call ourselves the “Grand Canyon State”.

Once we achieved statehood, the first thing we did was amend the state constitution to allow the recall of judges.

1928 – The Invention of Freon

Before 1950, the only attraction Arizona had was a few fringe industries known as the “Five C’s”: Citrus, Copper, Climate, Cotton, and Cattle.  If you weren’t part of these industries, the only reason to come to Arizona was for health reasons, like Frank Lloyd Wright did in the 1930′s.  It was miserably hot here most of the year.  Still is, except today we have Air Conditioning.

Before modern AC, houses were built with a screen porch.  Wet sheets were hung over the screens, and the evaporation would cool the porch.  The entire family would sleep on the porch during the summer.  With electricity came swamp coolers, consisting of a water pump continuously moistening a canvas mesh and a fan sucking air through the mesh and blowing it through the house.  Swamp coolers are still extensively used today, but during the humid months generally between mid july and mid September, the cooling effect of swamp coolers completely fails.

It was the invention of modern air conditioning, that led to rapid growth.  Between 1950 and 1960, Phoenix tripled in size, and doubled again every decade until 2000.  Phoenix is now the 5th largest city in America, and air conditioning is the #1 reason.

There you have it 12 great historical events that shaped modern Arizona.  Happy 100th Birthday, Arizona.

The 3D Content Community

As you know I have been spending a lot of time working on my Visual Novel rather than writing in this blog, which is a good thing, because I want to get it done just as much as some of you want to play it.  Part of doing this project faster and better involves extensive use of the 3D Content Community.  I have never really talked about it much, it is kind of an odd subculture, so I thought I’d give it a shot.

One reason some of you might be interested in learning about the 3D Content Community is that getting into this hobby has never been cheaper.  Daz 3D has released 3 programs for free during the month of February, including Daz Studio Pro 4, Poser’s main competition.  Why would they give away $800 worth of software for free?  Well Hexagon and Bryce are easy to explain, they are minor 3D programs with lots of competition.  The “professional” community primarily uses Autodesk’s 3D Studio Max and Maya, these are the “Photoshop” programs in 3D and if you want to do this stuff professionally, it is what you need to know.  The cheaper and easier alternative is another Daz 3D owned property Carrara. It’s the “Paintshop Pro” of 3D, and gets a lot of support online. Not only it is easy to learn, it can open and save 3DMax files.  The free open source option is Blender, and its the GIMP of 3D.  Blender was the first to export SL “Sculpties”, making it popular in the Second Life community.  Left out in the cold is Hexagon (a 3D object builder) and Bryce (a 3D scene building program specializing in terrain building and atmosphere effects).  Making them available for free builds up their market share.

Daz 3D Studio Pro is becoming more and more popular.  For figure animation and rendering it is in second place behind Poser, and growing in popularity as it is now equal in capabilities.  Why would they give away a program that it already selling fairly well?  That answer is easy.  In the 3D community, the money is not in the software sales, it is in the content sales.  Getting more people interested in buying 3D content is the name of the game.  Daz (formerly Zygote) is the most popular provider of 3D content.  They make the “Millenium” models, the most popular is Victoria and Michael.  Victoria 4 and Michael 4 have been out for about 4 years now and far and away the largest amount of support, especially when it comes to vitally important accessories, like clothes, hair, textures, shapes, poses, and sets.  Recently Daz 3D introduced the “Genesis” model, which is a higher resolution version of Millenium, and Victoria 5 is the premiere product on this platform.

The problem with Victoria 5, is the same problem for all new models: Very little content.  That will change in time as the model gets more popular, but for now Victoria 4 is the queen of content, and the difference between V4 and V5 is not big enough for people with large V4 inventories to switch.  Hence Daz 3D needs new users, and giving away Daz 3D Studio Pro, will hopefully make that happen.  You can also get the base model Victoria 5 for the cost of a magazine.

Now that I have shown you how to get into 3D art, the next question is “why?”  The answer varies from person to person.  Mostly it is some creative outlet.  Renderosity was built on being a showcase for budding 3D artists to show their work.  Now that deviantART and Flickr have taken over that role, Renderosity has become the largest content provider.  A lot of us got into it by doing interesting stills.  I myself have taken some photography classes, and I have used the things I have learned in photography to help my 3D stills work.  What drove me was an interest in animation, which proved to be a lot of work, so I took an in between route and  learned to tell stories with pictures.  This has proven to be an awesome creative outlet, not too difficult or expensive, and lots of fun.  I am finding 3D story telling communities popping up, and I find it rewarding how many quote my dating sim as an influence.

There are dozens of websites that specialize in 3D models, mostly for the professional Autodesk users for commercial renders and animation.  Since my program of choice is Poser, I limit myself to sites that specialize in Poser content. The above mentioned Daz 3D and Renderosity are the two most popular, rounding out the top 3 is Content Paradise which is owned by Smith Micro, the makers of Poser.  Their library is more extensive than the other two, but the quality control is not as tight, I use it for stuff I cant find anywhere else.

As usual, there is also the “free” content sites, the largest is ShareCG.  I have managed to find some good quality stuff there, but a lot of it is unusable.  Be careful with the licensing on that site too, a lot is “non-commercial” only.  The guitars and drums in the picture up top came from this site by a 3D artist Music2u4u.  I wish these props were more animate-able, but they are great quality for “free” models.

In a future post I should like to discuss the differences between the 3D content community and the Second Life content community, and how they could learn from each other.  Meanwhile, I got some new toys to play with.

Two New SITA Sets

I’ve been doing lots of cool stuff for the sequel game Something’s In The Air (SITA), but I don’t want to show it all because that would spoil the game.  But a few teaser renders wouldn’t hurt.  Back in October 2010, I was showing off sets I built for downtown locations.  Those sets will show up in SITA as well, but so will a few others.

Heidi’s Salon

The above picture is Heidi, one of the datable characters in the game, but the salon shows up in three different stories, so I had to build a set for it.  After searching every 3D source I could find, no one has ever built a “hair salon”, not even a barber shop.  I found a few pieces scattered here and there, and found a tanning salon that I could convert.  Basically it took a while to come up with something resembling a beauty parlor.

For you sticklers of continuity, Heidi’s Salon does make a brief appearance in the Date Ariane game:

And if you are really a stickler of continuity and still upset about Ariane’s change of hair style.  She does shows up at the salon for a change of hair style:

Looks, like Heidi has her work cut out for her.

The Dress Shop

The second set I’ll share with you is the new Dress Shop.  The dress shop is of course very familiar to players of Date Ariane, and was built using props from The Sims 2.  In fact it is the last thing in the Date Ariane game that uses stuff “borrowed” from other games (earlier versions were mostly made from video game screenshots).

Well I had much better luck finding a pre-made boutique set I could exploit. So dress shopping in SITA looks like this:

Maybe if I have time, I’ll redo the dress shop in the first game to match.  I’ll add it to the bottom of a very long “to do” list.  Hope you enjoy the preview.  Next on my list to do is a giant crowd scene at the night club. What was I thinking when I wrote that scene?