Genetic Love Interview

By Cyfir (Cyfiremmerich)

Last week, my article mentioned a release party for a new mod for the SPACE-A-LOPE at MIDI and Furzona This week, I got to interview the creator of the now released SPACE-A-LOPE, Dr Prawn (badasslobster) (also known as Doc), and pick their brain about their creative processes when working on mods and more.

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Cyfir: What got you started in modding and why did you open a Second Life store?

Doc: So modding was a consequence of being held back by the traditional sandboxes. I decided to do what I wanted instead.  Early on when I started Second Life, I heard it was an open world full of possibilities. So, I took that to a literal sense. Thus, I made a screaming house fire. Which got me labeled a griefer. But I was laughing, why couldn’t everyone else? As time passed, I wondered how I could make content that kept my childish whims while creating something beautiful and tangible yet inviting to all levels and types of people within Second Life.

Cyfir: How did you come up with the name for your store?

Doc: Genetic Love’s name came from an old project that got revived for a time, but didn’t make it in the end, although now it shares the same name as my upcoming comic. So, I put it into the mod store. I have a deep and enthralling love of science and genetics, so why not change the DNA of your avatar?

Cyfir: What programs do you use?

Doc: Sai 1.0, Sai 2.0, Z Brush, 3DS Max, Motion Builder as well as Daz for conceptual imagery.

Cyfir: What advice can you give to anyone thinking about starting to mod for Second Life?

Doc: Fear nothing. Do whatever the hell you want to do, and more importantly what you love. Take the raw imagination in your head and put it down on paper no matter what. Don’t be afraid if it doesn’t look perfect, everyone starts somewhere. Be proud that you took those first steps. Make sure to give yourself ample time to complete your commitments while still tending to your mental health and celebrate fiercely when you complete anything.

Cyfir: What was the inspiration for the SPACE-A-LOPE?

Doc: Last year I moved to Texas to join the moon of my life. After leaving New York and regaining some creativity, I became fascinated with lore of the south. So, what better than the crazy legend of the Jackalope. As for the space part, that came in because of my history with Genetic Love. My first mod was the Space Dragon, which lore wise are exactly what they sound like. Your traditional dragon, but with exotic colors and love of fiestas!

Cyfir: Can you walk us through the process of the SPACE-A-LOPE’s creation?

Doc: Before you even model a single polygon, it all starts with a preliminary sketch. I wanted to be done in a reasonable time, so instead of doing my usual massive amount of conceptual art, I googled pictures of Jackalopes and sketched next to them until I found the iteration I loved most. There were even versions with wings! But, at the end of the day a lot of the crazier versions detracted from the simplicity of what Genetic Love’s concepts are. So, I cut back, I knew the horns were the centerpiece, so from there I began color blocking, finding what the right feel for this avatar was going to be. Once I found that, I put some money down on a shading kit, and began my work on the actual mod itself. There were a total of 12 prototypes until I settled on the final pattern that you see on the mod today. From that point, there was a lot of focus on color theory, figuring out which colors would be the most appealing to market. The classic Space-a-lope is very much a carbon copy of my original space dragon, right down to some of the original raw files used. Once all the texture work was done, I coded all the Omega Appliers.

But what a lot of people unfamiliar with being a creator in Second Life don’t know is the insane amount of time that goes into marketing and launch. It’s one thing to make a mod or a creation, and an entirely different beast to make the vendors, and build the gallery. I work hard to ensure even the pictures on the marketplace are flawless. Some of those pictures took hours to get right where we needed them so that we could separate ourselves from other makers as truly professional. When you step into a Genetic Love pop up shop, or go to an event, we want to make sure you feel whisked away to another world, to our Bauhaus so to speak, that the product speaks for itself. I do have the luxury of an excellent team, in fact, the vendors were made by my great friend and MIDI founder Lain Lycoris. My friend Zooks helped with some of our photography, and even my other half Altair Luna Sol modeled the Space-a-lope for the launch so people could better understand what they were investing in. We go so far as to develop each version of the space-a-lope into a fully-fledged character. Zooks and I have an everlasting and passionate love of fighting games and drew deeply on that when it came to building the personality and lore for each version of the Space-a-lope. For example, the “Natural” color of the space-a-lope is named Sparrow. As you will see from the pictures in the gallery he loves to spar, as he is pictured having it out in an old school brawl with “Kala” the classic Space-a-lope. As you will see all the other colors and versions are full of lore and personality. This was truly a labor of love, through and through. In fact, there will be a full bio for each character on the marketplace listings.

Cyfir: Tell us a little bit about your club MIDI.

Doc: So, I should clarify I don’t own it, that would be Serra / RaishiFox, with the help of Lain Lycoris. Rather, I got into MIDI long ago and was lucky to find a home on staff. I was DJ’ing at the ARK, but I felt like I didn’t have much of an audience, or rather one that was into my abstract music. But one day, I was offered a job with MIDI before it had even opened yet. I was unsure at first, but I had nothing to lose, so one teleport later and I quit immediately with the ARK and went full time at MIDI. It was the first time that I found home. I felt understood and accepted for who I was, and was allowed full creative expression as an artist, without any of the traditional and archaic club rules that prevent a lot of talent from blooming.

Cyfir: What do you have in mind for upcoming projects for your store?

Doc: First things first. I’m going to create a brand new, open source shade kit for the Second Life body, as well as Omega compliant bodies. The reason why I’m working on that first, is that most of the shade kits you see on the marketplace now are incredibly restricting. Also, I had a really horrible personal experience with the shade kit I purchased recently. I think it’s unfair the stranglehold that some of these creators have had on the marketplace, and the “Boys club” that some of this has become. So it’s my goal to make this open source, and community driven! So, anyone can go ahead and add any component, remove anything they want from the shade kit and put it into their own projects. And the best part is, it’s free, because I believe everyone should have freedom of creative expression without barriers.

After that is completed, the Genetic Love team and I will begin work on the SunF**** project. It will be in keeping with our current theme of mythical creatures. It is a nod to my current fursona, and a nod to one of my favorite bands, Swans, who has a song of the same name, which describes the creature in question. We are extremely excited to share this with all of you!

Cyfir: What would you say is most rewarding about making stuff for people in Second Life?

Doc: What’s the most rewarding part is seeing people get excited or fall in love with our products. Genetic Love is truly its own entity and different from many other stores. We are mod and creator friendly by design, which has really done a lot to make people go nuts for things that we make. Even better seeing what people do with our mods when they begin to sell. The way they make unique and original characters for themselves to live their best life. It brings me so much joy to help give them that. Another thing I absolutely love is when people take a species we have created, and make yet another new species from it, like a blossoming family tree! It’s truly the heart of what Genetic Love hopes to share.

Cyfir: Is there anything else you would like to plug?

Doc: Shout out to all the pears! Zooks, Art, my right-hand man and brother. Lain, my mentor. Altair / Infidailia, my loving partner for helping translate my nonsense, and keeping me sane, without her, this interview would’ve had far more profanity and broken desks. Shoutout to Xii from Apricot Paws! Shoutout to all the people who support us, and this project for over six years now! Of course, shoutout to MobianAngel for keeping me together, and being an amazing advisor and friend. (Checkout their YouTube! Smash that like button!) Finally, thank YOU Cyfir for this interview, I hope we get to do this again soon.

Doc, OUT *Drops Mic*

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You can find Doc’s store here: https://marketplace.secondlife.com/stores/148126

All SpaceAlope mods can be found here: https://marketplace.secondlife.com/p/Geneticloves-SpaceAlope-Natrual/19456334

Cyfir

Interview with Nams of Static and the Gacha Guild

By Cyfir (Cyfiremmerich)

Nams (Nama Gearz) is the owner of Static and the Gacha Guild. Just before the Gacha Guild started, I had a chance to send them a few interview questions. Unfortunately, they were so (understandably) busy that they just got back to me with the answers recently. Fortunately, it’s still a good interview and they were able to send answers that were pertinent to the upcoming Halloween event this Fall as well as some new information about her store.

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Cyfir: What inspired you and the other founders to start the Gacha Guild?

Nams: In the very beginning the main founders got together and started this event because there were all these great events centered around human avatars and there were basically none at all for the furry community. Since there were none, we made one! .GG. has blossomed so much in the past few years, more than we'd ever expected! We're not JUST a furry event though, even though we have our roots in that community.

Cyfir: What’s new at Gacha Guild this time around?

Nams: Unfortunately since I just now had time to respond because of all the craziness in the world lately, the spring round of .GG. is basically over. BUT I can say the next event will be a spoooky carnival theme and will be just as awesome as last year's Halloween event!

Cyfir: It must be challenging to put on such a big event with so many avatars trying to get in on opening day.

How do you and your team meet those challenges and what makes it worth it to you?

Nams: Oh man, it's a lagfest if you don't do things just right, but we're so thankful that the event is popular enough to have this problem. lol The off-sim shopping area helps a whole lot, so we're trying new ways to make that convenient for everyone. We try our best to make script time on the event sim as low as possible too and remind visitors to wear event friendly avatars. But honestly, what makes it worth it is seeing all those crazy avatars and people enjoying themselves.

Cyfir: Who all is involved in making the Gacha Guild happen?

Nams: It's definitely a group effort to get these events rolling, especially for Hallows. Much of the building and advertisement I'm in charge of, and Xuxu (Xulael Resident) helps out with a lot of the building as well. Scripting makes the magic happen, so Argon (Lazer Frog) and Skyler (firefox22771 Resident) get a lot of the credit for making the event function, and making all of my crazy build ideas work out. And the true heroines are Catloaf (Katyjlol Resident) and Sunny (Usada Izumi), the blogger / creator recruiting dream team! Bringing in the talented creators and bloggers that make this event truly special~

Cyfir: Being a fan of Hayao Miyazaki, I’m digging the theme for this Spring’s event. What are your favorite Studio Ghibli movies?

Nams: Spirited Away is at the top! But my second would totally have to be Howl's Moving Castle.

Cyfir: What Gacha Guild products are you personally excited about this year?

Nams: Before .GG. Spirited Festival started up, I was totally stoked to see what cool avatar accessories we'd see around. Clothing is also a thing I like to look around for. Since you said "this year" I'm gonna go ahead and say, I'm looking forward to absolutely everything in Hallows. I can't wait to see those Halloween horrors!

Cyfir: What’s new from Static?

Nams: I am in the midst of a rebranding of sorts. Re-working my logo, working on a new in-world shop design and overhauling my advertisements. It's a huge job to get all these things updated, but it's gonna be totally worth it.

Cyfir: What would you say inspires your products the most?

Nams: Honestly, I only make things that I'd personally like to wear. If I wouldn't wear it, why should anyone else? And if I'm totally into the project, the heart I put into it shows.

Cyfir: Can you describe your creative process when working on things for your store?

Nams: Sometimes an idea just pops into my head and I can just go crazy on it. When I'm a little stuck and searching for ideas, I hit up pinterest pretty hard for inspiration. It's an amazing resource. Once I'm totally stoked on an idea I have, I'll just jump into modeling it and not really stop until it's done. I really try to consider the user most though during the creation process and how I can make it the most convenient and easy to use, so a lot of thinking goes into some of these projects before I even hop into a 3D program.

Cyfir: Anything else you would like to add or plug?

Nams: I normally wouldn't plug events that aren't my own in something like this BUT I'd like to get Fantasy Faire as much attention as it can. I'm in this event coming up on April 23rd, and proceeds for some of the items I'm selling are going directly to Relay for Life! Fantasy Faire is also huge, with nearly a dozen sims (or maybe more than that!), each decorated differently. It's really a sight to behold. It's a great time just roaming around and I hope people check it out. Here's their site to stay updated! https://fantasyfairesl.wordfress.com.

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Nams’ store can be found in Second Life at Caisteal (221/85/32) and on MarketPlace here. Information about the Gacha Guild can be found at https://gachaguild.com . Nams Tumblr, Flickr, and Ko-fi can be accessed at https://telepotato.cat, https://www.flickr.com/photos/namacat, and https://ko-fi.com/telepotato .


Cyfir

My Top Five Second Life Creators

By Cyfir

I want to start off by saying that this is not my full list of favorite creators. If you are not on here and know that I use your products, please do not be offended. I likely forgot and will likely make another one of these lists later. These are just the ones that I’ve thought of as of writing this, and I tried to order them in as fair a way as possible which was very hard. My boyfriend isn’t even number one on the list. If you have any suggestions for future such articles or are a creator yourself, don’t hesitate to message me. I’m always wanting to give those who give to the Second Life community the recognition they deserve. I usually AFK when I’m in bed but I’ll get back to you when I can. Without further ado, here is the list:

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5: Isil Designs - Beth Delaunay

From furniture, buildings, building kits, streets and lights, this mostly sci-fi themed store has it all. It also helps that their work is absolutely gorgeous and well textured and takes full advantage of advanced lighting. I’ve used their products for years and I would recommend them for anyone who is looking for quality sci-fi themed stuff.


https://marketplace.secondlife.com/stores/135577

4: Candle and Cauldron - November Nighthearth

As a practicing Wiccan, I’ve loved the quality C and C products. Unfortunately, there’s currently no MarketPlace to link to because they are currently on hiatus. For details on why, you can read their FaceBook post here. I really hope they decide to come back refreshed and enjoy what they’ve created for us in the community again. What I’m trying to say is, please come back

3: Lab Rats - Rick Xerx

 Full Disclosure Again: This is my boyfriend. I may have a little bias, but he’s on this list because he’s helped me so much in pulling off custom texture work that I’ve needed done, most notably for my catseye feet paws for my black and purple DSD Fennec. They just wouldn’t have lined up with the rest of the avatar’s texture any other way but I wanted to use them with the Signature Gianni body.

https://marketplace.secondlife.com/stores/167096

2: TOXIC-X - Sugar Paw (AKA Casio)

Full Disclosure: She’s my Second Life sister, but she does a lot of coding magic for the Second Life community behind the scenes and absolutely deserves to be on this list. I’ve treasured everything she’s ever made for me and I use products from her store daily. 

https://marketplace.secondlife.com/stores/119306

1: Dark Spot Designs - Oken

My fursona may be a demon, but I’ve mostly always come back to the Dark Spot Designs purple and black fennec for my Second Life identity. There’s just something about the head and ear shape that resonate with me. I got to meet Oken and DJ for the release party of the DSD Fennec 3.0 which I still wear today.  

https://marketplace.secondlife.com/stores/18996

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So who are your favorite creators? Which products in Second Life do you like the most? Sound off in the comments and let’s give some Second Life creators the recognition they deserve.

Cyfir
Update: After sending in the article, I found out Candle and Cauldron announced, "Due to popular request the in-world and MP stores will remain open, though support will be limited."

Inworld: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Utherland/52/76/3020
Marketplace: https://marketplace.secondlife.com/stores/7725
 

Club Furzona

By Cyfir (Cyfiremmerich)

I recently happened upon a club that impressed me so much that I applied. Not only was I impressed with the design of the club and the lighting effects, I was also impressed with how friendly and inviting everyone was. I could tell that this was a passion project, so I had to also interview Game Wylder who is the club’s owner.

You can find the club here.

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Cyfir: Can you tell us about the history of the club.

Game: Furzona was started back in early 2010, and has always focused on providing amazing EDM music and live DJ’s. We did this for a solid 5 years before going on hiatus, hosting large festivals like events, and providing a truly unique experience. We always have invested in our DJ’s, training them to become better. Hell, some of our DJ’s are actually making a living off of their work. It’s a prideful thing, as all of us were essentially family, we all cared about one another.

Cyfir: Why did you decide to bring the club back?

Game: When I first joined Second Life, I spent a few months figuring out what I wanted to do. I eventually stumbled upon Furzona. I don’t know what, but something enraptured me. It could have been the lights, the people, or the club itself, but something made me want to stay.
   
I eventually became a DJ at Furzona, and started out as a playlist DJ, just having stupid fun, but over time, I developed my skills and taught myself how to mix. Eventually, I found myself being promoted to Host Manager, and then eventually a Director.
   
About five years ago, the club went on hiatus, as the previous owner wasn’t able to dedicate any more of his time or money to keeping the club open. Around this time, I was already on a hiatus myself.
   
When I came back a year or so later, now about three years ago, things had changed in SL. Many clubs were focused around adult content, and the quality of music had died down. I spent some time club hopping, and resided to hang around a few clubs that somewhat reminded me of Furzona, but just left more to be desired.
   
Around this time, I suffered a house fire, and while no one was hurt, and everyone was safe, I became displaced while the house was being rebuilt. During this time, I had cut all ties to Second Life, as I wanted to focus on my own personal life.

After a bit of a rocky road in real life, I eventually got things settled down. One day I decided to log back onto Second Life in almost three years, and revisited the old hangouts that were still around. During this week though, I noticed that the problems we had before only got worse, with there being places where people just go afk and poseball. It didn’t sit well with me.
   

After someone random accidentally called the Club Furzona Group in SL, an old friend of mine and I started talking, and I had that crazy idea: Let’s revive Furzona.
   
Him and I just started talking logistics for a bit, and eventually, we decided to reach out to some old team members, we immediately got a yes from them, and once we had a handful of people, I reached out to the old owner, to see if we were allowed to use the Furzona name, and we got approval. At that point, there was no turning back, we decided to bring back Furzona for good.

Cyfir: What can patrons look forward to when visiting Club Furzona?

Game: We designed the new Furzona with some key features in mind. While music would be our number one priority, we understand the landscape of clubs has changed in Second Life. We decided to focus on making an awesome place to hang out as well as a place to listen to music.
   
While designing the new club, we pulled inspiration from many places, including our old club designs. In homage to an old design, we stuck with a Red vs Blue theme, with the left half of the club being Red, and the right half being Blue. This creates a visual distinction between the two sides, and allows us to be a bit more creative with our space.
   
Additional inspiration sources come from other real life venues, like the Franklin Music Hall in Philadelphia, and Radio City Music Hall in New York.

If you ever go to Radio City Music Hall, you’ll notice how the entire ceiling tapers down towards the stage. This not only looks amazing, but has a purpose, attributing to the acoustics of the venue, while providing a feeling of grandeur. We decided to replicate this in our own fashion, by tapering the ceiling down towards the stage itself.

If you ever go to the Franklin Music Hall (previously known as The Electric Factory), you’ll note that it has that warehouse club vibe. They utilize the dark interior to enhance the lighting effects performers use, as well as projection displays to enhance the theme of Benjamin Franklin, and the lightning bolt. Towards the back of the venue, they have plenty of seating area, with bars on both the bottom and top floors. We took inspiration from this venue to design a more ergonomic layout, allowing people to relax in the back, while still being part of the action.

This brings me to the lounges, which we took inspiration from previous iterations of Furzona. In every iteration, we always had an Ice Lounge, that would act as a separate area to chill and relax out of the way. In the Red vs Blue iteration, we had a Red and Blue lounge, which people loved. The Red lounge would always be where people went to have fun and talk on voice, while the blue lounge was more of a relaxed and cuddle kind of place. So, we’ve decided to bring that back, with the Red room acting as more of a gaming room, and the Blue room remaining the same, as a place to relax.

However, we’ve done something different for this iteration of the club. About 500 meters above, outside of voice and chat range of the club, we have The Mainframe. It’s a place where people can go to relax, that is completely out of range of chat and voice, allowing them to still relax and enjoy the music, without having to leave the club.

Cyfir: What does Furzona offer that other clubs may not?

Game: Our goal at Furzona is to provide a nice place to hang out that is focused on providing an amazing music experience. One thing that you’ll find we discourage is Adult Content. While nudity in our club is allowed, all of our furniture is PG. We want people to enjoy the music and the atmosphere, and hopefully to meet like minded people.
With that being said, what we pride ourselves on is our featured Live DJ’s, who actually mix music live on the air to make a custom set experience. Furzona has also always been known for our light shows during these sets, allowing DJ’s to sync the lasers up with the music itself. In the old days, this was done with prims, and made it difficult to navigate a camera around, but this time we’ve upgraded our display to be mesh, which means it doesn’t interfere with moving your camera around.

Combine this, with the attention to detail that we’ve been keen on, and we’ve made a club that really works well to use the advanced lighting models of the Second Life engine to provide a really amazing looking experience, while at the same time, making sure that older machines don’t miss out on the cool effects we’ve done.

Additionally, the sim we’re on gets restarted every week, ensuring that our sim is running at peak performance each week. We want all people to be able to enjoy this club, no matter what hardware they may have in their computer.

Cyfir: Who all helped make the comeback possible?

Game: The entire team we’ve put together was vital to making this whole project a success. Most of us were from the original run of the club, and decided to come back to revive it, and all of us have developed individual skills that are vital to the project. We have an in-house mesh modeler, an Audio Visual technician, programmers, artists, designers, you name it. Each and every person involved in this project has been a vital part of the feedback system we’ve implemented.

I’ve told my team that no idea is a bad idea, and just needs to be tested to see if it fits. With this process, we’ve tried hundreds of different ideas, and gave each one a chance. The ideas that worked are what we stuck with, slowly building upon one another to create a cohesive feel to the whole club.

Cyfir: What have been the challenges of re-opening the club?

Game: The biggest challenge we’ve faced is bringing people back. All of us have had changes happen in our lives, making it difficult for us to dedicate more time to this project, but that’s where the passion drives us forward. While we don’t have all the time in the world to build this place, we’ve put our resources together, and within 15 days, we had a club ready to open.
   
We still are looking for more people to join, as most of our DJ’s and other staff members have drifted away. If anyone is interested, they can go to http://apply.furzona.club,
   
Additionally, we had roles that we simply never had before, such as a Vendor Manager, and Host Manager. These jobs used to be handled by the General Managers, but I decided to open those up as we were restructuring things.

Cyfir: How did you overcome those challenges?

Game: We began reaching out, and asking around to see who was interested in these positions, we found people who are absolutely willing to go the extra mile, and cross off all the checkmarks. This allows us to delegate tasks much easier, allowing the rest of the team to focus on smaller adjustments and tasks so we can get just another step closer to opening day.

Cyfir: You also run a MarketPlace store. What products can users look forward to finding there?

Game: I sell a lot of gestures and little accessories I've made back in the day. They’re really cheap, and available for everyone. One of my favorite items is the kindred mask that I give out for free, but my absolute favorite is the leaf umbrella that I worked on. I made the umbrella without any references, and absolutely no knowledge of texturing, and yet it turned out great!

Cyfir: What is your favorite part of being part of this community?

Game: The Furry community is an interesting one to say the least. It’s one of those communities that is made fun of in the public eye for being different, but I like that: being different. Normal is boring, weird is fun. I have met so many creative people within this community, and while I don’t fully consider myself to be part of it, I really appreciate the love and attention people have put into it.

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Full disclosure: I now work at Furzona. While I haven’t had the time to settle in to my role yet, I should have more free time in the future. As I’ve written about in past articles, I’ve struggled to find a community to call home since leaving communities that I’ve been a part of in the past. This may end up being my new home.

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Bikini%20Bay/221/162/1501

Cyfir

Rolling Restart Issues Trouble Second Life

By Cyfir (Cyfiremmerich)

For nearly a day, some sims seemed to be down and my viewer showed a weird error whenever I tried to teleport to them. The error read: “Teleport failed. Routed to wrong region. Please try again.” This seems to have happened to both my personal parcel on an Azure sim and my Second Life home (which I believe is part of the mainland). It also seems to have been an issue for other sims such as TWI, the Safe Waters Foundation, and possibly others. This error also caused some huds and chat groups to stop working. This does not seem like it was a typical outage although Linden Labs seems to have blamed it on the sims not coming back up after rolling restarts. At least some of the sims are now back up. Both my parcels and TWI came back online around the same time.

In addition, Matoazma Kazyanenko had some trouble with their sim; The Hidden Valley Community. “[The] sim automatically restarted three times.” She said. “One at the usual 3AM time, but then unexpectedly restarted about three hours later when I thought everything was all done for the day. So we had to flee again. Then it happened again five hours after that. So yeah, it was pretty jarring when the sim kept restarting unexpectedly. We had begun to speculate that LL had messed something up with the restarts somewhere along the way and had to roll back.”

This may be a none-issue by the time this article posts. However, I believed that this event was particularly notable because in my seven plus years on Second Life I’ve never seen an issue where so many sims just refused to come back online after the rolling restarts. It’s a reminder of how much a disruption in services can effect users. I guess we should be thankful, though, that the grid doesn’t go down nearly every month like it did in the early years of Second Life. Most users seemed to be pretty chill when dealing with the issue believing that Linden Labs was working on it and would take care of it. I guess that’s a testament to how much Second Life has gained a hold on these issues over the years.

Cyfir

Return Of Sonic’s New World: An Interview With Shadow and Kono

By Cyfir (Cyfiremmerich)

The original Sonic’s New World (a Sonic The Hedgehog inspired sim) started back in the fall of 2009 and had a run of about two years. It returned in 2011 after an almost one year absence and ran for another two years before shutting down again. Those who were fans of SNW may be pleased to know that it’s back for version three and currently being built. What has been built so far has impressed me and being a Sega and video game fan in general, I had to interview Shadow (Shadow Hepzipig) and the builder/co-owner Konohatu Lahamaras Kalantu (kono.moonites) (known as Kono).

Cyfir: What inspired you to start the sim originally and how long have you been a Sonic/Shadow fan?

Shadow: I grew up playing the Sonic games from back in the days of the original Sega Genesis when I was a kid, so I have always been a fan of the characters. When I heard of Second Life and the different worlds available, my first stop was to find out if there was a Sonic themed sim, and it was in a Sim called SRPS - Sonic's Role Play Sim - run by ZoraSlade that I bought my first avatar Shadow the Hedgehog. It was also this sim and SCU - Sonic's Classic Universe- that I fell in love with the idea of opening my own sim and providing a place for others to call home.

This became the main concept behind SNW, but I had no idea how or even what I would build for our new home. One day I came across Kono Moonites as he was just relaxing in SCU and asked him if he knew how to build. Now I didn’t really know the guy mind you. To him, I was just another schmuck wearing a Shadow avatar that was wanting to get something from him. But he said that he did know how to build. My response was "Good. You're going to build me a Sonic sim." More than a little pushy I know, but it kicked off a friendship and partnership that has spanned the past ten years.

Kono: For me it was simply being asked. I was just a nobody with no skills but a want to build and the Sonic community had been very accepting of that. I actually wouldn't be as much of a fan if it wasn't for Metal Knuckles from Sonic R. I grew up with Sonic but something about Metal Knuckles' design really stuck with me so much. So I've made my own and to some extent became known for it.

Cyfir: For Kono, what got you started building?

Kono: Want. When getting into Second Life, I took notice of how most of the things I could buy or wear weren't always from one company or creator, but from many. And freebies were everywhere. If anyone could do it, why couldn't I? So I did.

For the sim, it was being asked, Shadow bought the first SNW and paid for it on his own. I couldn't let him down. Even if he did come out of nowhere and 'Tell' me I was doing it. You tell me how many people out there get the offer to just build a sim based around something they like with someone else who enjoys it footing the bill.

Cyfir: Also for Kono, what are your inspirations?

Kono: To make a community and perfect my skills. I love people. Time after time I have been given chances I didn't deserve. SNW is a perfect example.

Shadow was the inspiration. He wanted a home. A place to hang out with people who wanted to hang out and trusted a stranger enough to help him do it. We knew there would be problems, drama, trolls, but I think it's important to understand that me and shadow had NO standing in the community and no SL experience. We were nobodies who just wanted a place to belong. Seeing someone with a goal like that, I mean it sounds simple. Never is though and that inspired me to get it done.

Cyfir: Why did you decide to bring back the sim again?

Shadow: The previous two times that I decided to close SNW was not due to hardships or because of drama as many sims have been prone to do, but because during those days, the Sonic community was flourishing. There were several other Sonic themed sims that had opened or were being run by close friends that I felt that we could close our doors on a high note. Our safe home was no longer needed. The community had grown to the point that many had found new homes and moved on. So it was time.

But this time, I came back after nearly six years to the Sonic community, and found that it had fallen on hard times. The community had shrunken greatly. Instead of the several sims that I had left behind, there were only two left that had the main focus for Sonic, or three others that only had one or two builds themed for Sonic. ALL of them were labeled as Adult. SNW had always been a moderate sim, mainly because many guests would use foul or other inappropriate language that would not be reasonable for a G rating, myself being the main offender for the language part. But it was still somewhere that everyone could come and feel welcomed and safe. But there wasn't anywhere like that anymore.

I actually had gone to Pixel Hills, just to see what build they had for it when I ran into a few new friends; Rapptor and Matchada, that led me to the Chao Gardens that were there. And it was there that I found an old friend and former admin of the original SNW, Blueblur Chrome. Within minutes I found myself surrounded by ten or more old and new friends, all of us having an amazing time and it reminded me of the joy that we all shared back in the day, and it reignited that spark, that drive to create a place where we could all call home. It was time for SNW to return. My first move was to call Kono once more, and shared with him the feeling I had, being surrounded by our old friends and just joking and laughing all night. It was during that talk that I learned that Kono had been feeling the same, that it was time for us to return to the Sonic community, though I think he expected me to take some time to think on it. Instead, though, that night I purchased the sim, nearly giving Kono an aneurysm in the process as he rushed to log onto Second Life and start work on building us our new home again.

Cyfir: What have been the challenges of bringing it back now as opposed to originally starting it?

Shadow: Surprisingly it hasn't been challenging to bring back SNW as it was when we first started. I still had the old group with still over one hundred members in it from the second iteration of the sim, so I was able to let everyone know that our home had come back the same night as I purchased the land.. much to Kono's dismay because he didn't have any builds barely started yet, but I just couldn't hold in my excitement in knowing that our home was here again. So I guess the biggest challenge was more for Kono feeling rushed in getting some of his old builds set up so that we had something here for people to visit.

Though this was par for the course. The first time we opened the sim I did the exact same thing, however Kono was not as skilled as he is with his builds today. Our first ever build was "Angel Island" which was supposed to be a floating island in the sky with a shrine that housed the seven chaos emeralds and the master emerald. Instead, we had several prim platforms with a pile of rocks to make a cave so we could set up a mall type area. The other challenge was learning on the fly how to deal with griefers and trolls. I remember that at one point a petition had actually been started on change.org, attempting to close SNW and remove me from Second Life entirely. This sort of set the precedence on just how we would handle such issues, because I signed that petition myself and told them "Good Luck." After that it became a game of almost cat and mouse. Griefers would come to try and crash our sim, so my admins and myself would notify the whole sim that the Griefer hunt was open, and end up crashing our sim ourselves with explosions and gunfire and Dragon Ball style attacks on them instead. Good times.

So it has definitely been easier this time than the original opening with one exception, the avatar limit of owning a homestead sim. The sim has been growing in popularity rapidly and I have seen more times than not where the region will be too full and others can not come visit. This has kick started a number of conversations amongst ourselves about moving to a full region. However, those can get pricey and we would not want to risk closing due to funding. So it is still a possibility that we may upgrade, but just not at this time.

Kono: People, like it or not throughout SNW's history the team-up works as such, Shadow takes the front of everything and I attempt to fix the fallout. What it lead to was leadership that was balanced out. Shadow wanted a stress free home and I wanted a happy community , but shadow was always shoot first ask questions later . I knew in the long run that it would eventually run everyone out and though I wanted to be left in the background to build I couldn't stand by and watch innocent people get banned or arguments be allowed to blow out of proportion over nothing.

Because of that undying need to help people and keep a happy home I became known to the sim members and now more then ever trying to find some time to build in peace, make textures in peace, and script. It's impossible but they are happy here. That speaks volumes for the sim.

Cyfir: From what I’ve seen, your builders are doing some pretty amazing work so far. I love how you can collect coins, jump on enemies, and get thrown by the bumpers. Can you tell us what people can look forward to in the final build?

Shadow: Now this has been one of the best attractions for the sim in the past. There will never be a "Final" build per say. The builds almost have a life of their own under Kono's eye, always evolving, growing, or being changed out for whatever new idea we have cooked up this time. The only reason the sim is still labeled as 'Under Construction' is because we have only been open for nearly a month now, and we haven't completed enough to feel that the builds can stay the way they are for the time being. However some of the features we will have is going to be a nice mall section on the ground floor build which Kono and Zenzen have modeled as a mixture of Marble Gardens and Emerald Coast from the games, as well as Blueblur's corner build of a level from Sonic Lost World. We will also be setting up a night club that will offer Live DJs to come and have a party, and we will be setting up a hub of sorts that will allow people to teleport through the sim via Second LifeExperience, as well as portals to the other sims that wish to be affiliated with us.

Kono: "Final?" (smile) What is final? The sim is a piece of art and I imagine it will continue to grow steadily for a long time to come. There is a lot to look forward to mainly all the changes. If I can manage the big plan is to make things a lot more interactive and make new builds whenever possible or recreate current ones if it fits.

I hope that what can be looked forward to is just more or [a] better path of what is already here; a happy community and a calm sim that feels like home.

Cyfir: Who else is involved in bringing back the sim?

Shadow: I have to say that the credit for inspiring me to reopen the sim would have to be Sonikku, Blueblur Chrome, Zetsae, and some new friends Rapptor and Matchada who showed me the Chao garden to spark my desire to bring the sim back.

For the actual development of the sim it has been Kono Moonites, Blueblur Chrome, Zenzen, and Wolfy Zemenis who have either brought back old builds or been working on new builds to give us the main foundation for our home once more.

Though he may deny it sometimes, it is myself and Kono though that are the owners of the sim. He mainly prefers to stay in the background as sort of the head builder, letting me take the credit for owning the sim instead so that way he can try building in peace, though that still doesn’t always work out for him.(laughter)

Kono: It's more a question as to who isn't? While yes that comes down to me and shadow paying for it, our friends and the community in it are what from day one got it off the ground.

Builders: Myself , ZenZen , Blueblur.chrome , Wolfie Zemenis.

Owner: Shadow,  but cheesy as it might sound to some, the members, Sonikku, Zetsae, Sykes, Matchada, Rappy, Sen , Wendi , Razor [here at time of typing] are what help us feel like it is a home and them being here at the start and even before are the who and what that are involved in bringing it back.

Cyfir: For Kono, what is most rewarding about your builds?

Kono: Learning. This community has taught me everything I know or at the very least taught me the basics and then also beat me over the head about the details to do things right. A lot of people don't realize how relevant Second Life is to making an actual game, or learning animation. The reward is learning and getting to enjoy what I create, alone or with others.

Cyfir: Do you know when everything should be finished or are you just taking it one day at a time?

Shadow: Well, like I said, the sim will never truly be finished as we always seem to come up with new ideas for builds or ways to improve existing builds. But even with the current builds half finished, we opened our doors to everyone and anyone who wants to just come home, hang out, and feel a sense of safety and companionship that you would as if you and your best friends were just relaxing and gaming at home. As for the date for when we feel ready to remove the 'under construction' label from the name, well that one we are taking one day at a time until we can at least finish our landing hub, mall, and club.

Cyfir: Will there be any other Sega or other video game inspired features on the new sim?

Shadow: I can't say for absolutely certain on this one, but as the name implies, Sonic's New World will most likely remain true to the Sonic universe. However, we never know what the future may hold.

Kono: Yes and no. It really depends on the builds. It's a Sonic sim and I would like to keep it that way to an extent. I love mixing ideas and a personal long term goal of mine is to make Shibyua Terminal from JSRF with a sonic twist to it. We will have to see what happens . Luckily SEGA IPs all have a 'sega' style.


Cyfir: Will there be events?

Shadow: Yes. Our main event will likely be once we finish our club for live DJ shows. Our main DJ so far is Raiyn Delwood with her Manic Monday radio show making its comeback. We have yet to look into other DJs yet until we get the club closer to completion and set up our server to allow music to be played in-world.

Kono: YES! I hope. I want to plan some but the main things for now will be the DJ club and maybe some hidden item scavenger hunt type things. The way things are right now . We need to get a bigger sim to do events. I would have never dreamed SNW would become so popular that at least four times a week if not once a day maybe the sim becomes full.

Cyfir: What else can people look forward to on the sim when they visit it now and in the future?

Shadow: At this level of completion, what people can expect is to be able to call this sim home. Having good company, good friends, and be able to relax in safety. We have no tolerance with griefers and trolls and deal with them as they come. As long as those who come and respect the sim's M rating and treat others with respect, then we are more than happy to welcome anyone home. They don't have to be a Sonic character to come. Just be themselves as long as its M-rated.

In the future they can expect ease of access to the different builds with a teleport system thanks to the Second Life Experience. A mall with cheap rental spaces, a club with live DJs almost weekly, and still a fun place to call home.

Kono: Bigger sim? More builds? Sweet Rave Party!?!? Who knows! Hopefully now and always what they can look forward to is a home . A place where people come to actually have fun and get along. Look, real life sucks that's why we're all here. Come in and chill out and relax while you're here.

Or you can look forward to being the center of attention in one of our sim wide troll hunts if you decide being a decent person is just too hard. What a fun past time.

We'll be here a good while, so let’s take the future as it comes to us.

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I honestly believe that Second Life needs more experiences like this sim to provide users with things to do. At the risk of sounding corny, it’s creative experiences like these that really show off the art of what’s possible in Second Life while providing a social setting that can foster friendships that help everyone grow.

Landmark to SNW: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Bandits%20Beach/103/89/24

Cyfir

Rand Lupindo of Timber Wilds Industries

By Cyfir (Cyfiremmerich Resident)

Rand Lupindo (Randermander) is known as a talented avatar creator and a role play community owner within Second Life that has been around for the past ten years. I had a chance to interview him about the history of their sim as well as their next avatar release and future plans.

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Cyfir: How did Timber Wilds Industries start?

Rand: Timber Wilds started as a small, casual, wolfpack-themed roleplaying destination in 2009.  Myself and a couple friends; Rabid Ghost and Jackal Avril, had met earlier in 2009 while roleplaying as wolves on the Lion King themed "Lost Pridelands" sim.  We initially rented a small Homestead region (basically a lighter, less powerful sim that can handle fewer people, but is cheaper than a full region), and had a blast landscaping forests and mountains and caves and swamps and all manner of natural perils for Wolves to play around in.  But $100 a month for a hobby is a lot, especially as I was a student at the time. So, I thought, if I could make some kind of quadruped wolf avatar to synergize with our wolf roleplay area, it might help pay the bills and keep the sim running.  It took a few months but in August 2009 I released the first Timber Wilds Industries Wolf Avatar, and everything exploded. 

 It sold way better than I was expecting or hoping, but quickly got into controversy.  Another avatar company, which I won't name, thought I had "copied them" and made some pretty public accusations of theft.  I had certainly been inspired by the idea of their previous Wolf avatar, which was a quadruped body with its own Animation Overrider and a wide assortment of active poses and action animations as well as a marking customization HUD.  I was pretty naive at the time and could have made more effort to distinguish my avatar from their wolf, but what they seemed to be claiming was that I had somehow stolen their actual animation files or something, which is bogus of course. I hand animated everything, sometimes taking ideas for what kind of movement to animate from existing avatars (such as the left or right step to shift weight during an idle pose), but come on, you can't copyright "A wolf stepping left".

The accusing company published a whole youtube video lining up my avatar next to theirs to supposedly prove their case.  It wasn't very convincing, because it seemed to drive more skeptical customers to buy my avatar than the few of their loyal fans who came to make trouble.  A few vendor malls wouldn't rent space to me as a result of the connections of the accusing company, but I don't think that it significantly held back interest in TWI avatars.

 I didn't do anything to fight back, hoping the situation would eventually blow over, and it seems to have done so.  The company seems to have left Second Life at some point over the intervening years. I hope that I didn't cause them to leave. I really wish we could have just coexisted. Other companies have made competing avatars to mine, some with features that could have been references to mine and attempts to "one up" my avatars, and I never flipped out about it. That's how the market works. If someone else makes a better avatar than mine, the customers get a better avatar and I get fresh ideas of how to improve.

I feel like the whole ordeal taught me that it's really shooting yourself in the foot to get overly litigious and try to dominate a market through fear rather than simply making better products. Especially in artistic fields, where the quality of products is often subjective, and there will always be a segment of the population that prefers one or another for seemingly random reasons. No competing avatar is going to knock out 100% of your sales.

Cyfir: For those not in the know, what is TWI and the sim all about? What does it offer?

Rand: Timber Wilds is a place where you can be a wolf, or a fox, lion, eagle or a bear!  And soon, a deer!  Basically for people who love the idea of being wild animals (called Ferals on Second Life and in the wider furry/animal fandom).  Become one, get accessories and skins to make yourself unique, and meet & chat with other ferals who have done the same.

The avatars are I think the central inspiration, namely the TWI Timber Wolf, Red Fox, and Lion made by me, and the BRD-MRT Eagle and Bear made by long time sim staffer Raven Seraph.  The sim is primarily the mall for these avatars and third party accessories for them, but we also have a pretty popular but laid back sandbox/hangout area, and an expansive roleplaying/exploring area. 

The mall has, in addition to the main avatar vendors, about 45 third party vendors selling all sorts of skins, wearables, animations, sounds, and other accessories for TWI and BRDMRT avatars (and some others, but we try to enforce at least majority TWI/BRDMRT).

The sandbox is a kind of casual hangout, where people (of all kinds, human or animal we don't discriminate!) come to try out their new bodies or skins, or loiter while testing new stuff they are building/painting, or just shoot the breeze and chat with other guests. It has a real laid back vibe I think, usually with at least a few folks lounging about or running around and goofing off with toy guns or other items. It's a great place to come if you enjoy meeting new people, especially in a low-intensity peaceful setting, and especially people who like wild animals!

The roleplaying area is in my humble opinion one of the prettiest areas on Second Life, landscaped mostly by BRD-MRT creator Raven Seraph. It's got ice caves, glowy caves, scary caves, mountains to climb, hidden secrets to find, beautiful vistas and cozy coves. Our policy on roleplaying is to be less restrictive. We don't require any HUD or meter or anything, instead focusing on text roleplay or allowing guests to roll with whatever system they prefer. The area does have a fantasy backstory, and a free custom-built optional HUD with utility functions like dice, titler, Out of Character/Away from Keyboard indicators and some TWI avatar-compatible animations.

Cyfir: What were the challenges of starting a business and community in Second Life and what advice can you give to anyone looking to do so?

Rand: It's really easy to set up a business in Second Life, which is why I think almost everyone I've met who uses the software for very long ends up getting curious about creating content and selling it. It's a very simple process to set up a vendor in-world, and free software (Blender for modeling/animation, GIMP for texturing, Audacity for sound effects) and training/tutorials (via youtube) exist for almost all types of content creation. To become a large or successful business in SL requires a bit more time and effort, but is still very accessible to even a solo creator. You really only need a good idea, and time. My advice would be to spend some time exploring, and enjoying, the world of Second Life for a while in order to get a feel for what kinds of items are in demand or popular. Whatever cool stuff you find and enjoy using, you can learn to make yourself and maybe even make a unique improved version. 

Communities are often related to products; since it costs money to maintain a region/space, it can be smart to have some kind of product line in development to help pay your sim fees. If the products synergize with your community theme (like clothes/fashion accessories for a club, or animal avatars for a wild animal roleplaying sim), it makes all the more sense as those interested in your products will probably become interested in the community and vice versa. 

Cyfir: In a recent article I did on Albright, she mentioned that TWI would be releasing a feral deer avatar in the near future. Can you tell us more about that and is there an estimated release date yet?

Rand: It's true. I am making a deer avatar. I am hoping to have it done sometime in the next month or two but I can't put a hard date on it yet. I'm very slow with avatar work, I think partly because I have high expectations and I insist on continually re-doing things until they are as good as possible. I take inspiration from Blizzard Entertainment, which would usually release their games later than initially planned, but only because they always took all the time they needed to get everything perfect, never rushing unfinished work to release because they had set a deadline. 

Cyfir: Are there any other projects in the works that you are able to talk about?

Rand: We have a few other avatars of different species in production, as well as some animesh experiments in the works!

Cyfir: What do you enjoy most about being part of the Second Life community and is there anything else that you would like to bring up about the sim or store?

Rand: Hmm, I guess I just appreciate being able to see all the creativity coming out of Second Life, driven by the ease of content creation and monetization. A lot of the content created is questionable, and the nature of Second Life means it's sometimes hard to keep trolls and problematic content away, but I think the freedom in SL allows a lot more amazing and awesome things that wouldn't otherwise see the light of day. Every day I log in to Timber Wilds I see stunning new textures, wacky third party animations, and scripted toys and doodads that pique my curiosity.  We've even had an in-world theatre company perform plays at our sim using SL avatars (some TWI and BRD-MRT ones!) as the actors, which was a really unique experience. I'm just eager to see what the SL community comes up with tomorrow, and the next day, and every day after that.

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You can check out the TWI store here: https://marketplace.secondlife.com/stores/32831 and their sim here:

https://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Silent%20Hills/172/32/2

Cyfir

New Crux Avatars On The Way

By Cyfir (cyfiremmerich Resident)

Sovereign Wolf, owner of Cerberus, is an accomplished mesh and avatar creator who is working on bringing the original Crux avatar to a more modern shine. I recently had a chance to interview her and ask questions regarding this and more.

Cyfir: What got you started in 3D work and avatar making?

Sovereign Wolf: Maybe it's kind of anti-climatic to hear, but I was tired of relying on other people for mod parts! I realized I had a knack for it. I've always wanted to do avatar design and creation, even back when all there was were prims. I've been meshing for mainstream human stores for the past 7+ years, and now I've decided it's time to take those skills and try to get into full time avatar creation!

C: What have been your inspirations when it comes to your work?

SW: I used to be a huge Sonic nerd and I'm a huge Disney nerd too. Anything animated, 3d or traditional. Huge nerd for it and now here we are! Some of my in-world influences are Curious, KZK, and Mutation Industries. Just to name a few!

C: What got you interested in redoing the crux in modern mesh and bento?

SW: I loved my MI fox and MI crux, (I still have my original crux somewhere in the depths of my inventory, ha). I just felt like the following the crux had would appreciate a modernization, as I felt I would, too! I would have never stopped wearing mine if it had been updated to bento. The crux has influenced so many people. This is much more of a passion project for me. It's very nostalgic!

C: What have been the challenges of recreating the crux to "modern" standards?

SW: Definitely the facial structure; the brows and lids mainly. A lot of stylization of the original crux was sort of due to the limitations of sculpts at the time. And so trying to find a middle ground that doesn't change the look too much has been a bit of a task!

C: What does the original creator of the crux think?

SW: She told me, quote, "I think that if the folks who liked the sculpted version just want a mesh update without heavy design modifications that would be pretty ideal!"

C: Can you tell us what features will be included in the new crux?

SW: So far, I'm trying to make a full facial expression AO. The tongue should have multiple states, maybe some animated ones. The ears will have an AO setting, as well as poses. There will be two selections for styles of teeth. I'm going to be including a full mesh body, and standalone versions of the parts and head (as fitments allow). I will probably offer multiple sizes of the limbs; toony proportions and maybe less exaggerated. I'm testing out various configurations for bento animating the tail, but will probably include static versions just in case! I'll be trying to stay as close to the original textures as possible, but offer multiple choices for things like teeth ( Clean or dirty ). Hopefully the final features will be too long to list!

C: Some original crux modders rely on sales from different color mods. Will there be a color palette chooser baked in to the avatar?

SW: I will only be covering the colors originally released. I will include shading PSDs with the avatar, as well as UV maps and everything else anyone will need to work on the av and modify it! There will also be an applier system! I will be splitting the original colorations into 3 packs of 6 (There's 18 original crux).

C: Is there a general release date window yet?

SW: Afraid not. This is in the pretty early stages. Avatar development usually takes me anywhere from 3-4 months (and I'm about 2-3 weeks in). I might decide to give it more time to add all the details and options I want to add in.

C: Is there anything else you would like to add about the new crux or your store in general?

SW: Yes. Please, all you die-hard crux fans out there, keep in mind that this remake will in no way stop you from enjoying the original. I know I'm not Malluch, but, I assure you that I too am a fan and I will do everything that I can to pay homage to this influential avatar! I am going to handle it with as much care as I can possibly give!

It seems that the new Crux avatar is in good hands. Those who have wanted to see a new version of the Crux will have to wait a bit longer, but it should be well worth the wait!

Cyfir