JasX Games Part 3

By Locke Esgal

    In the previous part, we learned about how JasX managed to succeed in game creation, but Jas has also had a few mistakes. While games like TiS, BARE and Fright have done extremely well, one game didn't quite top the charts in sales.

    “jFish. Nobody plays jFish," Jasdac Stockholm explained, "I wanted to take on 7seas, but I guess fishing just isn't popular on SL. It's a bit of a niche, something you could do when there was nothing else to do. jFish was a really good learning experience for website-scripting though. By today, jFish has 1377 players. I'm not even sure if I've made back the Lindens I spent uploading content for that game, so I guess it's pretty dead in the water.”

    Not to be deterred by a single loss, Jas moved on to some more familiar projects, ones that are still played today. “jFish was released in early 2012. Since jFish was not doing well, I decided to start anew at an adult game. This time I wanted to explore PVP, so I came up with Fright. Fright is probably the quickest 'big game' I've ever made. ... Oh yeah, mesh came out just as I was rounding up TiS, so Fright was the first game I made where I completely abandoned sculpties, since they're really bad. I think Fright took less than a month and a half to make.”

    During the creation of Fright, Jasdac began to sit down and show his process to his growing fanbase, starting to create on stream for all to see. From these, others could learn how to make their own mesh objects, including potential levels for both Fright and TiS “I also remember streaming a lot of tutorials on mesh. When I made the game I wrote down all the meshes I'd like to use, then I'd sit and stream for hours at a time while I just worked off that list. It wasn't very fun, but some people enjoyed it.”

    “My reason for making Fright was to just make something people could enjoy for Halloween, but it did get some traction, so I made two additional maps and some extra game modes. It was fun all in all, even though the fun of playing died down for me quite fast.”

    Stay tuned for part 4, when we take a look at BARE, what inspired it, and talk a bit about Jasdac's Dungeons and Pandas branch!

Locke Esgal

A Look at Horror-Themed Sims

By Theonlyjohnny Resident

Second Life is full of sims of all types. There are clubs, stores, rp sims, and many more. There are even horror sims, for people looking for a good scare. This reporter is one of those people, looking for the best scare I can find.

However, there is a bit of a problem out there. Most "Horror" Sims, aren't truly horror sims. Out of 50 horror sims I have visited, very few of them can be called horror sims. Of those few sims, only a small number, are actually up to their potential. The others, of these few, have not met their potential yet. The rest are either sims that have horror in their description to get more visitors, or sims that need a lot of work before they can truly be called horror sims.

Two of the great horror sims are, Toxian City (of course), and Larisa Incident. Some would argue that Siden be in there as well, however, Siden is more of a survivalists sim, not a horror sim. Of Larisa Incident and Toxian City, we can really see how genre doesn't matter. We have Sci Fi/Horror (Larisa), and we have Rural/Horror (Toxian City). Both sims have not only met their potential, but have exceeded it as well.

A trip to Toxian city is filled with mystery, as one doesn't know what might come out of the doorways, if anything. It is also expertly designed, for rural horror, with a dark air around a falling apart city. This sim is one of the very few true horror sims.

On the other side of the hand, we have Larisa Incident, a horror RP sim based around science fiction. Just going into the cargo hold, makes one feel scared. Not only due to the dark air around them, but also due to the quietness. It gives even this reporter the shivers, thinking about what might jump out and attack.

Some sims advertise horror, and might be trying, but either aren't trying hard enough, or are trying too much. Take a look at *The House on Haunted Hill, a superb ghostly haunt*. This sim even says it's superb in the title, so one might assume it truly is. However, I am sorry to say, they are a bit mistaken.

While the sim does have potential, they tried too hard to make it scary, and ended up making a house with so many scares, it borders on comical. In fact, in one bed, they have enough scares to fill a small room. Not to mention, in that same bedroom, they have another piece of furniture that moves, as well as a demon (or ghost) in the wardrobe. If they remove quite a few of their scares, they would be able to say it is superb, but right now, it's not true.

All that is needed to make a perfect horror sim, is a vision, a computer, and the knowledge of what is too much, and what is not enough.

Theonlyjohnny Resident