Scenes From the Bellisseria Anniversary Grounds

 

 By Gemma Cleanslate

Sunday I took a tour of the marvelous area that will be the location for most of the celebration for the Bellisseria 5th anniversary . It has been coming for a long time and now it is here! From April 2 through April 30 there will be activities going on. The actual anniversary is April 15.Watch for all the notices about activities. The Planning Committee has been working months on the event. They are “ Prudence Anton, Cian Wycliffe, Riot Hax, Kalia Anatine-Hax, Stephanie Gardner, KrystalKandy, Varistentia Varriale” .

The new “fairgrounds “ is specially constructed for touring, dancing, collecting gifts, and much more.The streets near by are adorned with various houses that a Bellisserian resident can select. Each is filled with decorations by various members of the community. It you touch the billboard out front it will pass you the information about everything in the house.

I visited Xia Xevious' log house 

 

and walked through admiring the décor she chose for this type of home.

Then I went over to Victorian 

 

where she did a different style of décor that fit that home.

The Bellisserian Hammies,The Bellisseria Hamster (JessycaJayne Resident) and Varistentia Varriale, owners of the Animal Sanctuary have set up a Zoo full of animals, birds and reptiles. 

 

Each has their own environment and in the middle is a rock growth covered with seals and penguins. A lovely picnic area is there for your convenience. I spied some nearby food stalls. Vari said”We haz a lil Belli City Zoo for da peeples” in Hammie talk.

I recommend taking the automatic tour ride when you arrive , You will learn the history of the the Bellisseria Homes and when they first appeared. The tour “guide” will chat with you and tell you places to see during the month… and tips about hunt and searches and more gifts to be found all over the regions.

I will be suggesting more places to visit during the month. All residents of SL are invited to the celebration. Do not miss it!! The gift plaza is out of this world! Well known creators of SL have donated so many lovely items .. get ready for inventory overload!

This will set you down right next to the Automatic Tour on which two can ride .  

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/SSPBA1/161/115/32

Gemma Cleanslate

 

Urban Furry's Winter Area

By Bixyl Shuftan

Some clubs just set up a Christmas tree or wreath for the holidays (or perhaps a perverted snowman). Urban Furry did more than that. The club's staff created a winter wonderland area emcompassing a quarter sim. The center of the area consists of a frozen pond one can skate on, with the club's logo under the ice. At the edge of the pond is a DJ booth. Around the place are winter trails and paths, leading to cabins, campfires, a Christmas tree, a crystal cave, an outhouse, and more. Next to the pond is a skate-giver, which provides a pair of skates just by touching it.

I recently met up with Urban Furry owner Whiskey (Thorrin Resident) and some of his staff at the club's new Winter area. Most of the conversations were in voice, so I didn't get quite every word down. The normally canine club owner was in a decorated reindeer avatar. Whiskey told me that the idea for the place came just as they were taking down their Halloween area, "Everyone I spoke to loved the Halloween build." He stated the place had a "decent turnout" that did best during the FCA (Furry Club Alliance) Club Crawl. Once the spooky build was down, "we had the platform available." So they began working on something for the Xmas season.

Whiskey told me he left building the holiday area open to his staff, two of whom stepped forward: Soundshift (Fel Serpente) and Toxicum (ToxTheFox Resident). The snakegirl responded with a bow while the canid humbly commented, "Sound did 80% of the work, I just looked cute." Soundshift chuckled, "She's good at that." "Much better at that than any sort of decorating, heee." "I stepped up to take care of things ... I wanted to do something different." She went on to say they already had a beach area, in addition to their main club area with it's city feel, so they wanted something with a different feel altogether.

When asked what their favorite part of the build was, Sound pointed out the crystal cave, "I like the cave, it's pretty." Whiskey pointed out the circular lines on the ice, looking like they had been made by ice skates, "lines, so people know where to go, like a roller skating ring."

When I asked what events were planned here, Whiskey told me they planned a Christmas party in the winter area on Sunday December 16 from 4 to 8 PM SL time, with a contest for the best Xmas outfit. I heard that they planned to have their partied there between then and Christmas, though if the DJ wanted he or she could have the event in another part of the club. Manager Rayron VR (UNIDJShieldonLLL Resident), who was in an ice dragon avatar, joked, "I apologize to the Australians who aren't used to the snow in December." Rayon went on to say they wouldn't be having events on Christmas Day or New Year's as he wanted the staff to have "real-life time."

There were a few chuckles in the interview as Itzy Mistpaws (TatianaMistpaws Resident) was overheard in Voice talking to her kid in a higher-pitched tone that she needed to use the computer. Whiskey told me, "Itzy here is our designer. She'll be creating our (avatar) mods for Urban Furry." Itzy then resumed work on a Christmas mod, saying she was trying to get the snowflake patterns on the red and white surface just right. I heard from Rayon that they planned a mod release party in January, one that would be sold only at their place, "an avatar mod exclusive to Urban Furry."

Rayron went on to say that the winter area "represents a place people can get away from drama ... a place to have fun 'cause that's what we're all about here. We have some of the best staff to offer, not just to the furry community, but all of Second Life. I'm damn proud of each and every one of them." Whiskey added, "I couldn't ask for a better staff."

Talking more to the staff, they were proud of the "Furry Prom" that they did in September, which Whisky stated averaged fourty-five people at any one time during the four hour event, and maxed out at "fifty-one people of the fifty-three in the sim were on this parcel." They were also talking about doing a "Spring Fling" event in 2019 after winter was over.

To get to Urban Furry's Winter Area, head to the club's main entrance at Mystic Timberland (168,158,2713). From there, walk to the teleporter a few feet to the northwest, click it, select "Christmas Place," and hop on.

Urban Furry is a member of the FCA, which also has Club Cutlass, the Happy Vixen, Club Zero Gravity, and Xanadu as members.

Bixyl Shuftan

Furry Fashion's Halloween Area

By Bixyl Shuftan

Furry Fashion is going all-out for Halloween. Besides being part of the "Quest Fur Cover" shopping hunt, they also have a special Halloween area above the sim. Besides the frightfully fun scenery, it also offers a Halloween Hunt with thirty items to find.

I had a few words with the owner of Furry Fashion, Amethysia (Amethyst Crystal), about their display. She told me, "Albright and I are both pagan and adore Halloween, witchcraft, etc. And we went to the occult shopping event a few months back and got the idea from buying way too much there, heh. Then she managed to get hold of a rare DRD mansion from a gacha that was just perfect as a witch house. And we just built around the house using it as the centrepiece. Over the years we've done everything fr a sim wide maze to a zombie game map to a asylum so we wanted something we hadn't done before. It's getting quite difficult to come up with new ideas after so many years.

"There's not only the witch house, but a skeleton basement (decorated by Klomonx), and a graveyard and a maze hidden under the basement. The hunt objects are red balloons - inspiration taken from the new "It" movie and encouragement from FF Admin I might add. And as usual QFC and Sim Merchants got offered free shops too for displaying their Halloween/fall products on top of the hunt. We'll be having a full weekend of Halloween parties in the Halloween area for the final October weekend."

Asking about the influence of the movie "It," Amethyst told me, "Yeah, 'It' is the new remake of the Stephen King movie. (I'm) not a clown fan myself, but several of the staff got hyped about it and when the suggestion of balloons was made for the hunt item, I was encouraged to use it, heh."

So what was the feedback from those who braved the area? "Most enjoy it," Amethyst answered, "Some say it's too scary, especially with windlight, heh. I plan to add extra prizes towards the end of the month as we get closer to Halloween too. Security have been doing shifts up there to make sure cheaters don't win. They've got to dress up in  Halloween avatars and outfits, and I think enjoy it." I asked what kind of Halloween avatars, and she pointed to the small avatar near me, "Rick behind you has been making Halloween stuff too. That's a mod he made that he's wearing right now. It's a Halloween pup version of the Crux. Rick's one of my staff leads." The pup's ears showed a definite Crux style, but the modded avatar was less strange and more cute in appearance, "He might even get me to wear it," Amethyst told me with a smile.

Amethyst reminded me as a business, Furry Fashion had multiple openings for jobs, "I've been pretty busy anyway. We're open for every position right now, and all staff are pitching in (smile). (It) always gets this way for Halloween. It's our favorite time of the year. I'll do a Xmas thing as expected, but Halloween is everything for me." Amethyst stated she wouldn't play Christmas music until well into December, "I was in catering, in a hotel kitchen, the same Xmas CD on repeat Oct to Jan., 7AM to Midnight every day..." One of Amethyst's staff spoke up, and that led to a conversation on the subject that lasted a few minutes.

Finally someone came over inquiring about where to find the Halloween area. Amethyst mentioned of the people doing the Halloween hunt, "we've had over 500 hunters so far." She offered to show me the place. Looking around, what I noticed the most was the darkness and fog, which gave the place an erie spooky air. There were various stalls, made to look like old buildings, where various merchants had their goods, outfits, avatar mods, and other goods.

There was also the witch house, which had a few cats and a "broom parking" area on the outside, in addition to a spooky cemetery next to it. One could open the door and to inside, looking among the rooms. Some rooms were stranger than others, one room full of books, another with ingredients, another with scrolls. Underneath was the cellar, which had a few skeletons and the entrance to the maze. I had my headphones on, and could hear various barks in the distance, screams, cries for help, and near the witch house cats meowing.

In places were various tombstones of the Furry Fashion staff. The first I noticed was Amethyst's: "I told you I was sick." I asked her about it, "Yeah, I let all staff pick their own graves, heh." She pointed to the one for Minty Melody: "Rainbow Overdose." Amethyst explained, "Minty is a unicorn in SL and rainbow addicted." She showed me a few others, which included, "should have gotten decaf." Amethyst grined, "I take no blame for the sayings, they all picked their own." She did say they tried to be fairly PG about their epitaths. Other than that, they all had a free hand with them.

Remember, there are 30 red balloons around the Halloween area to find, each with a free item. Looking around I found a number in less than a half hour. While many are just for women, some can be used by the guys. So visitors get some treats along with the tricks.

To get to the Halloween area, head to http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Furry/217/197/3501.

Happy Halloween from Furry Fashion,

Bixyl Shuftan

Behind the 8-Bit Area

About a week or so ago, I wrote about the 8 Bit Area, a place I thought was abandoned and was very pleasantly surprised to see that it had not. I went back and tracked down a pair of the main creators of the "new" area over in Electrobit City, Jei Desoto and Kris Spade.

Xymbers Slade: I really thought it was just going to be abandoned. It's nice to see that this was made. (smile) I see a lot of ideas for Mario-themed areas, but they almost never take off.

Jei SCR-16: Hello. (smile)

Kris Spade: Nah, we have high hopes. No worries about this being abandoned anytime. (laugh)

Xymbers Slade: I'll say, all this work for nothing would REALLY be a low point.

Jei SCR-16: Well, there've been 8-Bit Mario builds even before me. I'm just the first "Living and Breathing" 8-Bit game build.

Kris Spade: Oh yes we know, been fiddling with all this stuff for a long while now

Xymbers Slade: A long, LONG time. 2007 or so, right?

Kris Spade: Well it started with The 8-Bit Area, Jei can be more accurate on the timeline with that

Jei SCR-16: Yes. we were public opened in 2007. And it's been a roller coaster ride.


Xymbers Slade: What was your intent then and how did it change to what it is now?

Jei SCR-16: Our updates were so far and few in all that time while we worked (you could probably count them on your paw), so most thought it was abandoned. It was originally a game test. To see what LSL could do in a game engine term. But we thought it'd be nicer to have a more original flavor.

Xymbers Slade: Were you disappointed? I don't normally equate LSL with being efficient. Or functional.

Jei SCR-16: In the textures you see here, 90% of it is original and from scratch.

Kris Spade: As you might notice, being a visitor of the original 8-Bit area. This new rendition uses a lot more custom custom sprites and ideas?

Xymbers Slade: I noticed, especially the Goombas. Though I have yet to see any Bowser related quotes. What happened to make everything take so long? Just real life stuff?

Jei SCR-16: Real life stuff, and fighting with Linden updates that could sometimes cause rewrites in code.

Xymbers Slade: How long did it take to build all this in total? This must have taken months of careful planning, though to me it looks like it just sprung up overnight.

Kris Spade: Jei manifested The 8-Bit area well before we did what is seen here today. I only recently started working with him last year. This is now, a full sim playground, to exhibit all of the awesome 8-bit art/skills/talent.

Xymbers Slade: I'll say it's awesome. I was especially pleased with the working pipes; I hadn't seen those in any sim before. What is one thing you want to do, but find you can't?

Jei SCR-16: Holes and pits that can warp you to another world much like the 'secrets' in Super Mario 64. That would take a real force-teleport command. Many things beside that that are along those lines.

Kris Spade: I don't think we have reached and "roofs" yet. Just a lot of work to be done. What is slated next, is to make all of the "raw" areas more "engaging" in terms of play, and fun, any actually being a game in Second Life.

Jei SCR-16: But yeah as he said. other then that no real roofs. There's alternate things that can emerge in place of what 'can't' be done.

Xymbers Slade: Back when this place was in "preview mode" (in another sim), I tried flying in and found myself pushed down all the way to the ground. How did you do that? I was in my giant Seawolf dragon and came in from the sky and was forced to the ground. So I went "Hey, gravity!"

Kris Spade: The lack of teleport functions that SL offers is the biggest obstacle, but there are crude work arounds.

Jei SCR-16: That was the magic of Mortland. (big grin) Flight is wrought through magic powerups. Second Life flight is something of another world. (grin)

Xymbers Slade: It was a definite surprise for me, and something like that would probably be useful in other sims (if it's not already common knowledge).

Kris Spade: I am not sure if Xymbers is familiar with Mortland, but it's now an area here to look at.

Xymbers Slade: I did. I like that one pipe that has the changing perspectives as you're pushed along. Will there be an ongoing story line, and RP opportunities, in either here or Mortland?

Jei SCR-16: Yes. the gravity is not in effect, as I plan on a more accurate method that has less overhead.

Kris Spade: Actually, the answer to that is YES, for Mortland. Jei can elaborate.

Jei SCR-16Jei SCR-16 nods: What we'll do is expand the environments, and add a simple engine for RPG elements. While that's not uncommon in Second Life, we'll be doing it very differently.

Xymbers Slade: It will be nice to be able to use my Bowser av in perhaps an RP setting. I noticed that some [?] blocks had mushrooms, that there were coins in various areas, and that there were Thwomps at the ready and Goombas wandering around. Are they for show or do they have a function besides being stomped on?

Jei SCR-16: Well, while it's not a "Mario Sim" it still has an inspiration that makes the fanship shine. So that'd not be a bad thing . (grin)

Jei SCR-16: Coins and mushrooms currently work.

Kris Spade: Yes if you don't have a mushroom here, you can't bash the bricks. (grin)

Xymbers Slade: I was thinking a hud and coins could be collected to show up on the hud where you could buy video game related stuff with them.

Jei SCR-16: Though there are no immediate displays for the tokens, they are tracked. Mushrooms will allow you to break breakable blocks.

Xymbers Slade: What of the coins then? They're all over the place. (grin)

Jei SCR-16: We've planned a HUD for 3 years now... haha !We want to also make alternate ways of knowing so that HUD isn't -required- but just an advanced experience.

Xymbers Slade: I am just waiting for the invulnerability stars to be released... heh. With the advent of mesh, will this change the way the place works in any major ways?

Jei SCR-16: Well, as Spade says, without the mushrooms the bricks don't do much. The coins will be much the same. They will act as a game currency. It will be a more proficient version of what's here with more detail. Other things... will go unmentioned.

Xymbers Slade: Heh. Can't spoil everything, I know. I can envision fire-shooting gloves, hammers, or various other things though... maybe the mushrooms deform you to giant size. That'd be neat to see. What's the next big thing you have planned for here? More worlds/sims planned? A sim can only hold so much.

Jei SCR-16: It can. But I have two worlds with a few regions and barely shoot over 1k in prim count. And the function is all but sparse, but runs like a dream compared to many places (especially the mainland).

Kris Spade: The idea, is to create an interactive game, in SL... and offer a big "nostalgia" sense. You can collect objects such as mushrooms, objects, and THEN SOME when it's all manifested. Mortland, the other more "realistic" project will be more classic RPG based. Fun times ahead. You would be surprised what you can actually get out of a sim, when you think in X,Y,Z terms. Many people think in flat space.

Jei SCR-16: Yup. If we hit a roof, we might open an add-on region. It's just not necessary right now.

Xymbers Slade: Second Life has been around a long time, almost to the point where what can be made HAS been made. Do you see SL as getting "progressively worse" (as a lot of people do) to the point where things collapse and people look for new social platforms? That would mean all your work was for naught, not lasting very long at all if Second Life were suddenly on its last legs. Some seem to think it's on its way out.

Kris Spade: No I don't think that, I think mesh is a "big jump" for SL. People really need to think "outside of the prim" and use the resources offered in a unique way. We are not thinking conventionally. We hope to present a very engaging environment that is unlike the SL cliche. Lots of great times ahead ?

Jei SCR-16: I don't think any of the work here is for naught, because Second Life though not the FIRST of it's kind was the most innovative in idea, and will definately go down in history. If i were to make a world like this in another platform, this one will be not only remembered, but continued. The labs work to stay cutting edge to an extent. It looks bleak in some areas, but don't count the eggs before they rot.

Xymbers Slade: If people have ideas for things, like items or a storyline or whatever that they want integrated, are you accepting "outside submissions"? I know a few people (me included) that would have a lot of ideas.

Jei SCR-16: Not at this time. But once it has more momentum, yes. The reason, is that a lot more (A LOT) is planned than what you see here. It has to be realised in a basic form before adding on newer ideas.

Kris Spade: Ideas and community are very important to us yes. While we have a fixed momentum on what we wish to do next, the feedback, and support from everybody who loves it is taken into massive consideration. Still on the "full steam ahead" mode, but we've had a lot of interesting people visit and we hope they will be part of the unique community here.

Jei SCR-16: Yeah. there will be a shelf for ideas... And we dust regularly. (grin) We just need to over come some hitches and things, so people can get a better vision of our direction.

Xymbers Slade: Well, I for one will definitely be interested in seeing what else ends up showing up here besides the Thwomps and the goombas. (grin)

Jei SCR-16: Trompers and Chesters... the razzers of World One. ;)

Xymbers Slade: In either case, that pretty much wraps up the questions I had in mind, so I'll do another story with the interview and my editor should have it up in a few days. (grin)

Kris Spade: If you can imagine it, we're only using a tiny fraction of the sim's resources here. Lots of expansion on the way, and we love all of our visitors/enthusiasts and their feedback.

Jei SCR-16: Well, good talkin' to ya' This was pretty sudden for me, so be gentle y'know? Haha! (big grin)

Xymbers Slade: I will, (grin), giving this place 5 Dragon Hoards out of five for sure (I did in the last article I wrote a couple days ago). Cheers. (grin)

Then I leapt into the nearby pit, being sent back to the beginning of the sim.
8-Bit Area II: You've died, and have been thrown from this reality!

Five dragon hoards out of five. Without a doubt. Go visit!

Electrobit City (64, 33, 3228)