JasX Games Part 2

By Locke Esgal

    In the previous segment, we took a look at how Jasdac Stockholm of JasX Games got his start in creating his different games. Jas had created a game called Fable of the Unknown that took SL by storm, setting the framework that helped create Tentacles in Space. However, it wasn't his first game.

     “Somewhere there I also made a Halloween game. I think that might have actually preceded all of those. Well before all that tentacle stuff, I do remember making a Halloween puzzle game. Basically just a big haunted house (like Fright). I got permission to rez it and play in one of the sandboxes during Halloween and a bunch of people had a lot of fun with it. Even though it was VERY crude, that game kinda spawned a running gag. In the game you'd first find a shovel, then you'd find a frying pan and pitchfork to tie to the shovel to remove spider webs, then you'd find a key holder to add to it to keep your keys in one place. Then finally, you'd be able to add a bolt launcher to it. The 'shovelnator' made it's way into TiS. I think there might still be a shovelnator poster somewhere in Fright. It's not in BARE though.”


    References to Jas's other games do occasionally pop up in the background of BARE maps, but they weren't the only inspirations for some of the games.  “Anyways, moving ahead to 2010. A friend and I play Borderlands a lot. I decide I want to make a similar thing in Second Life. Thusly, TiS is born. A new function has been added, llSetLinkPrimitiveParamsFast(), which lets you reduce lag by a lot. Also by implementing a sort of "LOD" which makes monsters only animate when players are near. So TiS is still laggy, but at least it's better than FotU.”

    Even with TiS' success, Linden Scripting Language is notoriously limited for such large-scale complex projects. “Some time a few years ago, I stopped selling and took down the remnants of FotU, because it was a security hole. Right now, TiS is the security hole in by back. Going back, it's awfully scripted.  But TiS is nonetheless where I got my first popularity, if you can call it that, in SL. It's a really good learning experience, if I see something I like, I tried implementing it. It was fun all around to make, even if it's a pain now.”

    “TiS today has 4500 registered users. That sort of game is really not meant for SL, though. It does have some major issues, most of them stemming from it's size and age. High lag, high prim cost, and a steep learning curve makes it not a game for everyone. But it did get some very dedicated fans, and I made enough money to keep going at least.”

    Not all of JasX games were the successes we know today. In the next part, we'll take a look at a game that didn't do so well, as well as some more of the well known games. See you next time for Part 3 of the Jasdac interview!

Locke Esgal

JasX Games

by Locke Esgal

Second Life has always been a beacon of creativity in online sandbox gaming, predating games like Minecraft by years. People have been able to make avatars for people to use, clothing to wear, places to live, and even games to play. One company, JasX, has taken a spin on the usual card games and has managed to create exciting games like BARE, a card-based fighting game, TiS, a first person shooter similar to the Borderlands series and Fright, a Halloween themed scavenger hunt. However, many have wondered about the man behind the JasX logo. Well, I've been fortunate enough to grab an interview with Jasdac Stockholm and got to ask him the big question: How did you get started in creating games in Second Life?

    I came across him coding for his next new game, a branch off from a pen and paper game, "Dungeons and Pandas." After a little persuasion, I got Jasdac to spill the beans on his rise to Second Life fame and his history creating games for the virtual sandbox.

    Jas wrote, “Well, it started off with a flash game someone made. I liked the idea of a furry game with tentacles and went like, 'Wait with my scripting knowledge in SL, maybe I could make something'. So I made a prototype...To position the player, I made a little invisible vehicle the user would have to rez and sit on called a 'walkpad'. My first prototype was just an obstacle course and it was laggy, as well, because sculpt swapping (sculpts had just been introduced) was laggy as s**t, and still is. I just had the little thing as a test. Then I made FotU.”

    "Fable of the Unknown," while not on his current list of playable games, is recognizable to many long time fans as the predecessor to his first person role playing game, Tentacles in Space.

    Jas continued, “FotU was kinda like my previous game except it had very rudimentary combat. You got to pick between 3 classes, I think. You still had a walkpad which would cause people to fall over and it had achievements...But the monsters were now mobile! It was still laggy, but not as bad.”

    Back in 2007-2008, many functions in the Linden Scripting Language didn't exist, so it made certain aspects of coding difficult at best, lag-inducing at worst. Despite this, FotU did rather well.

    “...FotU was my first 'success'; I was so happy when I made 10k Linden Dollars (around 50 USD) from it. It was heavily focused on puzzle solving. It got popular enough to warrant an expansion. The coding was terrible, but it did pave the way for TiS.”

    Ten thousand Lindens is nothing to sneeze at for a first game, especially when you consider most of the JasX games available these days are free to start, save for the 300L TiS. While FotU was a rousing success, Jas moved on to create even more games. We'll move even farther down the path that led us here, along with a glance into Jasdac's current projects in Part 2!

Locke Esgal