Tag: Misc Events

Of hellish rides, ashes and potty peas

Posted on by Inara Pey

Seven months ago, on Halloween 2012, MadPea Games opened Carneval, a phan-tastic series of rides, puzzles and games set in a ghostly fun fair which is itself an awesome and atmospheric build, and one presided over by none other than Cthulhu himself.

Now it seems that Cthulhu has had enough of the ghoulish revelry, and has decided to call “time” on the Carneval and the wickedness within. Perhaps it wasn’t wicked enough for his dark heart?

Already, fires are burning within the ground of the carnival, and Cthulhu’s minions are at work destroying parts of the build, and at midday on the 31st, we’re told the zombie hordes will arrive to wreak further mayhem before the entire place is swept away in a 48-hour Demolition Party focused on the Carneval main stage.

The fires are lit and the countdown has begun at Carneval
The fires are lit and the countdown has begun at Carneval

So, if you’ve not had time to visit the Carneval and drink-in the atmosphere (I’m not entirely sure how many of the rides are still operational, if any), you only have a few short hours in which to do so – so hurry; even without the rides being operational, the build alone makes this a worthwhile visit.

Nor is Carneval alone in facing The End. The Lost Treasure of the Inca Warrior is also closing (one that I’ve admittedly not had time to visit) after its own extraordinary run, in what the MadPea team are calling “the end of an era”.

Cthulhu's minions are already at work bringing the Carneval to a suitable end
Cthulhu’s minions are already at work bringing the Carneval to a suitable end

“Is This the End for the Potty Peas and Their Devious Developments?”

Not at all. New games and activities are promised, as the blog post announcing the closures states:

From the ashes and dust rises a brand new MadPea bigger and better than ever before.

Whole new games with immersion never seen before are on their way. We are creating together with the best of the best to take SL by a huge surprise.

To help fund their plans, the MadPea Games team are running a raffle which features a range of special items – some of which are from their well-respected hunts, others of which are one-of-a-kind offers. The raffle items are all on display opposite the Carneval stage, and will remain available through until midnight SLT on June 1st.

And a teaser has already been produced, hinting at what is coming in the future.

In the meantime, and if you’re up for getting some snaps of a truly inventive build and fancy an hour or two listening to music, dancing and blasting seven bells out of a zombie or three, why not grab your camera, put on your dancing shoes and slip into your favourite anti-zombie outfit and pay a last (or first) visit to the Carneval?

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1920s Berlin celebrates four years

Posted on by Inara Pey

4th-anniversary-poster

On the 30th May 2009, Jo Yardley first opened the doors on a new immersive venture in Second Life: the 1920s Berlin Project.

Since that time, the project has become one of Second Life’s long-running successes, having grown from a parcel on a region to a full sim of its own, which is both open to the public and home to a thriving community.

To mark the anniversary, four days of entertainment and activities are being planned, commencing on Thursday 30th May and running through until Sunday 3rd June.

Events are still being worked out – and updates can be obtained directly from the 1920s Berlin Project blog and the project’s Facebook page. However, the events currently planned comprise:

Thursday 30th May

A small-scale keller party at the Keller Tanzlokal where there will be some freebies handed out, and everyone will be encouraged to the drink, chat and, if they feel like it, “get up on stage to tell about their discovery of Berlin, their life here, to perhaps sing, do a trick or show off another talent”!

Friday 31st May

The Grand Anniversary Dance at Unter den Linden.

1920s Berlin Project
Unter den Linden, location for the anniversary Grand Ball (image courtesy of Jarla Capalini, via the 1920s Berlin Project Flickr Group)

Saturday 1st June
Will see the normal rules for the region relaxed for the day and allow people time visit and mingle through a number of special events (all times SLT):

  • 11:00 – Tea Dance
  • 12:00 – Pool party
  • 14:00 – Eldorado evening – the opening of a new building

Sunday 2nd June

Kids’ day with a special class, playground games and a football game.

1920s Berlin project - 4th Anniversary
1920s Berlin project – celebrating four years at the end of May 2013

So, don’t sit alone in your room this weekend, old chum – go hear the music play and join in the cabaret and festivities marking the 1920s Berlin Project’s 4th anniversary!

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World Goth Fair underway

Posted on by Inara Pey

World-Goth-Fair

The World Goth Fair started in Second Life on Wednesday May 15th, and will run through until the end of the month.

Some 75 merchants from across Second Life are participating in the fair, which is being held across two regions: Cursed (Adult) and Port Seraphine (Moderate).

As well as showcasing some of the top designers in Second Life who supply the goth market, the primary aim of the event is to raise funds for the Sophie Lancaster Foundation, a UK-based charity that was founded in the wake of the brutal murder of Sophie Lancaster, a young woman who was killed for being a goth. The event is also officially sanctioned by the organisers of  World Goth Day.

World Goth Fair, Port Seraphine (image courtesy Broxelf / World Goth Fair)

To mark World Goth Day itself on May 22nd, 2013, and to further raise money for the Sophie Lancaster Foundation, Club Gothika on Cursed will hold a special musical event, which will run for about 14 hours and include numerous contests with hosts of prizes. All donations received at the event will go directly to the Sophie Lancaster Foundation.

Anyone wishing to contribute prize items to the event (RL or SL items) can do so via the World Goth Day at Club Gothika web page.

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Bobbiekins on Designing Worlds

Posted on by Inara Pey

On April 25th, I blogged about a unique collaboration called BobbiekinWorld which brings together a range of talent connected with Second Life and which includes Tony Dyson (best known for creating Star Wars’ R2D2), machinima maker Chantal Harvey, Slim Warrior and Dawny Daviau, in order to create a series of interactive children’s books which utilise Second Life as a medium for telling and filming elements of the stories.

Currently the subject of an Indiegogo funraiser, BobbiekinWorld will be the subject of a segment of Designing Worlds to be recorded on Tuesday May 14th, 2013, and Second Life users are invited to be a part of the audience.

Both Tony Dyson and Chantal Harvey will be on-hand to talk about the project, and will also be taking questions from the audience about the project.

If you’d like to attend the recording, please make sure you’re at the Designing Worlds studio no later that 13:00 SLT on Tuesday May 14th, when filming will commence.

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Catch-up with Designing Worlds and the SSA / Materials special

Posted on by Inara Pey

If you missed the live premiere of the Designing Worlds special I blogged about as being shown on Monday May 13th at 14:00, you can now play catch-up here.

The show is also available on the Treet TV Designing Worlds channel.

Materials Processing and SSA – a Designing Worlds special

Posted on by Inara Pey

designing-worldsOn Monday May 13th at 14:00 SLT, Designing Worlds will be premiering a special show in their current series which explores some of the new Second Life shiny which is coming out of Linden Lab at the moment.

The show, recorded earlier in the month, features Brooke, Oz, Troy and Nyx Linden as they discuss the upcoming deployments of Server Side Baking/Appearance and Materials Processing in SL.

Nyx, Troy, Oz and Brooke Linden during the recording of the Designing Worlds show (image courtesy of Wildstar Beaumont)
From left-to-right): Nyx, Troy, Oz and Brooke Linden during the recording of the Designing Worlds show (image courtesy of Wildstar Beaumont / Designing Worlds)

As regular readers here will know, Nyx Linden has very much been the public face / lead of Server-side Baking, and he’s joined in the show by Troy Linden to explain what is going on with the project, and why people need to understand the importance of ensuring they are running a viewer which supports SSB/A.

Following this, Oz and Brooke Linden will be explaining about Materials Processing and the use of normal and specular maps in Second Life. They’ll also be demonstrating some of the capabilities of Materials Processing, using samples of various items on display at Hippotopolis. Just remember that if you want to go and see them for yourself, you’ll need to download, install and run the Materials Processing project viewer until such time as the necessary code is made more widely available in the main SL viewer and TPVs.

With and without: how materials will look when running a viewer in differed mode (top) and in non-deiffered mode (bottom). The differences are clear, but the in-world experience in non-differred mode is not in any way "broken"
How materials processing can alter the appearance of objects: the top image shows a series of objects which use material properties (normal and specular maps) as seen through a viewer which can render them. The lower image shows the same objects in a viewer which is not using the materials processing capabilities

All of the Lindens attending the show took time to answer questions put to them by the Designing Worlds team on behalf of users.

Saffia Widdershins, who co-hosts the show with Elrik Merlin, said to me in discussing the premiere, “We were really pleased to have been able to do this show and discuss the issues with people from the Lab. Changes like this can worry a lot of users, and it was good to have the issues and benefits clearly explained.”

Watch the Show Live

If you would like to watch the show, you can do so in one of two ways:

If you missed either of these, catch up with the broadcast via my blog, or via the  Designing World’s channel on Treet TV.

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