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)

Aria Clash

For the past few months, a team of builders have been working on a new combat sim, one that’s been described as a “feudal Japan/sci-fi crossover” - Aria Clash. The setting: an advanced world develops the ability to travel to other worlds and comes across a world lower in tech, but the locals are very good at melee and magical combat.

To start playing, head to the Aria mall at Aerynth (44, 216, 2157). and pick up the free Combat Heads Up Display. Before playing, decide if you want to play as a warrior engaging in melee combat or a ranger whom fires at a distance. After opening the box and the warrior and ranger packages, wear the “AC Headset” HUD plus either the warrior or ranger HUDs. Then choose one of the weapons provided, the HUD package containing one from each class of weapon. You’re ready for action. Press “Q” after disabling chat to draw the weapon (press it again to put it away). Don’t rez the HUDs themselves on the ground as they will disappear.

Combat falls into two categories: Player vs Player - combat between residents playing the game, or Player vs Enemy - players fighting the computer controlled opponents. Attacks offer the chance to gain a skill point, and defeating PvE monsters may result in a gold drop that players can pick up. Players have both an energy bar and a health bar, moves costing an amount of energy, and successful attacks dealing an amount of damage. Once a health meter reaches “0,” the player is knocked out. Defeating player’s isn’t usually necessary, and after a player is bested he/she recovers 10 seconds later to full health. Sheathing a weapon allows one to recover lost health faster. For every 5 skill points made, the character levels with a blue flash, and becomes a little more powerful, with higher hitpoints, stamina, and a bonus skill point.

Skill points help with specific abilities. Warriors have Strength, Speed, Defense, Spirit, and Valor. Rangers have Aurora, Soldier, Tools, Officer, and Machine. Both also can put skill points into weapon class abilities.

Aria Clash is not just “hack and slash.” There are a couple unarmed attacks. Pressing “R” allows the player to kick the enemy, possibly knocking them back and be stunned for a few seconds. “X” is the sweep move, briefly knocking everyone else to the ground. Warriors can air-jump (jump while already airborne with their weapon drawn), backstep (spacebar), and wall-stab (“R” while airborne with weapon drawn and next to the wall). Rangers armed with pistols can also backstep. Warriors can also press “C” to block, reducing the damage of blows by half.

Weapons also have different abilities. All bladed weapons have a 25% chance to cause a bleed for 10 seconds after a successful attack. Longswords are average in attack and damage. Sword and shield are short in range and damage, but can block damage by 75%. Dual-Wield, are also short in range and damage, but have a faster attack speed. The Heavy-Blade, “the huge swords that many anime fans gush over,” is slow but has a long range and hits hard. Blunt weapons, the huge clubs and warhammers, are also slow but long range and heavy-hitting, but instead of bleeding have a 25% chance to knock the opponent down.

For rangers, weapons are also a bit different. Assault rifles have an average damage per shot, and inaccurate but a high rate of fire. Sniper rifles have a low rate of fire, but are accurate and heavy damage. Pistols are low accuracy with average rate of fire and damage, and allow the wielder to backstep. Siege-class weapons “are intensely varied ... excel in very specific situations ... while failing in normal situations.” These include lasers, flamethrowers, and Gatling guns. The Cannon is a long range weapon, with high damage and accuracy, with a strong recoil that can “throw the ranger around (for better or worse).”

The team member I met first was Aasha “Geecku” Kohime. I first met Aasha a couple years ago while looking over a martial arts combat sim, a cheerful and spunky lizardgirl whom was happy to help out new players such as myself. As it turned out, sparring wasn’t the only thing she was good at. She showed me a combat arena she was working on, one that the owner could chose of one a few scenes for players to fight on, each requiring a different strategy. Today, she brings her experience as a combateer and builder to Aria Clash.

Heading the team is Kamiko Fazuku, also known as “Sylu the Scientist.” Aasha introduced me to her, telling me she was a genius scripter. Kamiko called her comments flattery, but admitted, “I made a pretty brilliant AI. I wanted to develop an AI which could in fact play as well as players, or give players a good fight.” A nearby player commented, “So far, you are doing a damn good job. (grin)” Kamiko gave one creature as an example, the wisp, “So far, the wisp, despite having INFERIOR abilities to players, has a pretty good kill rate against them. He only has 300 hit points, and his attacks do only 100 damage and are fairly easy to dodge. Yet due to his sophistication, he's got a good kill record.”

Kamiko offered to show me how the wisp worked in the area. In the sim, the Arena is the place for player vs player combat. The staff doesn’t mind friendly sparring in the mall too much, especially when showing new players the ropes or showing off something, but ask that scraps be kept away from shoppers. The area I normally saw as a high-tech maze, dark with orange walls. It had the appearance of a reflective floor, but was told that was an illusion, the images not a true reflection. But there was also an ice room mode, with slippery floors and easy to fall off ledges and a bridge. And in this moment of testing, it had a high-tech look with the white walls, but with the uneven floors was no ordinary lab.

In the arena, Kamiko rezzed the wisp, a Level 25 monster, launched a blade attack at it, and missed, “notice how he dodges.” The wisp proved a bit tricky for her, moving around, and for some reason getting close to me. But eventually she got it, “To explain what happened, the wisp has a natural slight dodge tendency. This is to dodge bullets, but he also tries to stay out of reach, which is why I had a pain trying to catch him with my sword.”

Kamiko went on, “Additionally, you noticed he started hanging around you while still shooting at me. This is an additional feature. Let’s say you and I were on a team, and you had a gun. The wisp is following you, or dodging you and staying near you, and it shooting at you. Let’s say I try to ambush it. Well, the wisp will start following me instead, but still shoot at you, his first victim. That way he can dodge multiple players, he dodges whoever gets close to him. But still aims for that first victim ‘till the victim is defeated, then he swaps targets.”

Kamiko asked Aasha to help demonstrate. Aasha drew a gun. Kamiko rezzed the wisp again, and another fight started. But once again, the battle plan did not survive contact with the enemy. The wisp kept near me and one other visitor. After it was beaten, Kamiko decided it needed a script reset, “I had rezzed it before so it has me as it's prime target. (grin)” starting the battle again, it behaved more as expected, and this time dropped some coins, “It drops gold, we're still working on implementing that as an ingame currency of sorts. ... I'm making this alot like an MMO.”

Kamiko then stated, “Before you came, I was working on an NPC boss monster. The Queen Bee.” She showed a smaller worker first to demonstrate, which at Level 10 was easily beaten. She then rezzed the big one, which was Level 40. Made for team fights, it bested Kamiko in a scrap, “If the victim tries to run away, the Queen Bee will spawn assistance. You either fight it or you die.”

Kamiko went on, “I've been working on many ways to make AI alot more sophisticated than your simple "follows the player till they die" type AI you get alot in games. I want AI that give the player a challenge, or make the player feel like they are fighting another player. I know alot of players fight my beta Wisp AI to get better at PVP, they are that good. Bees are stupider than wisps, the bees just ... heh... ‘bee-line’ to their victim. ... NPCs have been my latest project. After them I want to return to adding more Ranger weapons and adding more to our beta Caster hud.” Aasha added, “I made a ton of poses for the weapons, more for melee though. Guns can get by with a stance, aim, and fire.”

They then showed me the PvE area, which started with the “Forest of Death,” where the hornet hive was, “The number of hornets varies on how many players are near it, and the hornets spawn from random directions.” Combating them proved unpredictable as other players would run through, and stir up more of them, “Do you people have to piss them off?” She wondered if she should lower the spawn time. The workers were Level 10, and the soldiers Level 15.

Also in the Forest of Death is a rocky area with spiders, Lvl 20 creatures. A cave leads to another area, where the Lvl 25 wisps are.

“I have tons planned for this system,” Kamika continued, “new weapon types, new classes such as Caster and Brawler, loads of new monsters. A pet system even. I want players to be able to, on rare occasion, earn themselves a pet. The pet would be semi-intelligent so that the player wouldn't really have to boss the pet around unless they needed to - I would want the pet mostly automated. The player could customize it's color, and as it leveled up it would grow in size. there would be a pet stat system as well to allow further diversification. I want pets to possibly serve as mounts, depending on the pet, and when they get large enough.”

Other detail about the HUD is it allows a player to have a name float over them, or change the color of the bleeding blood.

Kamiko and Aasha on different occasion showed me a couple “bosses” involved in the game, much larger than the Queen Bee. These were actually 40-50 ft tall macro avies at the moment, though would be in the game later. Aasha made clobbering one a group event once, offering a prize to the player who landed the final blow.

Besides the free weapons provided, one can also buy weapons at the mall. Comparing them to a few weapon stores I had LMs to, the blades were less expensive than other brands of melee weapons. Also for sale are medkits and other aids for players.

On August 1st, I attended a PvP tournament, attended by a number of players. It was recorded on Youtube, my match being the first (and the shortest). The winner was SeafaringWarlord Resident, also known as Eridian Ampora. As a player, he was always acting “in character” at Aria, talking in boastful tones, “I AM THE HERO!” Others told me he’s not always like this, and he did earlier offer yours truly a few suggestions how to play, saying character height affects the range one can kick, but naturally also affects the ease guns can strike as well.

And oh yes, with the heavy-blades already making the place look a bit like an anime, the background music is often in Japanese, or is playing some theme music of a Japanimation. I recognized the tunes of a few shows while there.

While doing some active research on the game, I ran into another friend of mine. I had never mentioned the game to her, so perhaps this is a sign of the game gaining popularity. We spared for a while, and went into the Forest of Death a little. So far, I've leveled several times.

I have yet to see everything about the game. And of course the team is always looking for things to improve or add. But the place is definitely worth a look, especially if you’re a fan of combat games.

Head over to Aerynth (44, 216, 2157).

Bixyl Shuftan

Garden of Dreams

A couple of weeks ago, free-falling from 4000 meters, I saw a skybox in the air reading "Garden of Dreams." It was a giant enclosed box with their logo on the side, and after slowing my fall enough that I could briefly cam in, decided to take a look at their creations. Their "Dream Scenes" cost between 1600 $L and 2000 $L and are copyable and modifiable. They are sized anywhere from 40x40 to 55x55 (from what I could see), so you need a moderately-nice chunk of land to place them.

The Dream Scenes have a "bubble rezzer." You rez the bubble, sit in it and it sends you 1000 (this value can be changed) meters into the sky and then rezzes the scene and skybox around where the bubble once was. Many of the scenes feature a bar you can click on for drinks, many, many places to sit and sitting animations, a way to have one bubble store multiple scenes (I don't know if it can rez more than one at a time, as I only bought one). I thought the work that went behind these was worth it, so I dumped a bit of $L into their Lava Lounge, preparing to modify it into a dragon cave for my Seawolf Ancient dragon.

Buying it gives you two options. You can rez the bubble each time and have it rez the scene each time you use it, or you can simply rez a more permanent skybox and send the whole thing into the sky. I rezzed my permanent skybox for a look, and sure enough, it was very spacious and the work to get it "done right" shows. The roof turned out to be too small to suit my dragon well, and since the roof was made of many pieces together that weren't linked I didn't want to spend all that time getting it just right and make it work. I'm lazy.

Then I zoomed out and decided to play around. I unlinked all the pieces, then deleted the outside box. Turns out only half the space in the box is being used! One of the photos in this story shows where the "top" prim of the box is in relation to the "room" of the Dream Scene. Reminds me of a bag of potato chips - half the bag is just air. Still, the roof was high up and not many would NEED all that "air" space in the box. Even if they did, the Dream Scenes are copy and mod, and are easily built to anyone's specifications.

I'm going to give this a solid 4 Dragon Hoards out of 5. The effort shows, I think the price is right, and there is enough of a selection that if you don't fine the one you want, an existing one can likely be modded with a few hours work into the one you want to keep.

The Garden of Dreams can be found at the Garden Of Dreams sim.

Xymbers Slade

Toy's Art Gallery

A grand re-opening of Toys Art Gallery was held July 17 and 18 at its location on Grojnowski (33, 19, 1001). The show is titled “Mirages of Art”. I wasn’t able to attend the reception, but I went over early to check out the new gallery.

Toysoldier Thor is the multi-talented artist, builder, and designer who created the work. The gallery, which is said to have taken 5 weeks to design and build, is a unique, circular structure with a colorful walkway that winds around the 5 levels of gallery space. The top floor opens onto the Starfield Patio. Throughout the gallery, subdued lighting highlights the art work.

Unlike real-life galleries where touching is forbidden, Toy encourages residents to touch his art. He has created a notecard for each piece that explains his creative thought process, often provides the Second Life location of the photo, and shares other helpful or creative information. For example, his “Farm Falls Frost” was taken on the Alirium sim, located at Alirium (204,119, 22). He stated, “This is a place I strongly recommend my fellow SL'er must visit and explore. I wanted to express a peaceful abandonment of a home long since vacated and the view from a window of this home as the land around it overgrows. The arrival of winter is hinted with the frost on the few remaining panes of glass as well as no leaves left on the trees.”

In contrast to this pastoral scene, one of his other works is “Stormy Streets”, an urban street scape from the sim Sin City – Hard Rock Park. He added layers of additional color and elements to the Second Life photo, including some elements taken from real-life. The result is a vibrant scene, with symbolism and danger lurking everywhere in this city.

One of my favorites, shown in the second photo, is “Black Mamba Floral Delights”. Toy created this as a collage from photos he had taken of the many flowers found on the Black Mamba sim and which he enhanced with Photoshop.

The last photo shows another of my favorites, “Morning Meadow Hunt.” Toy found his inspiration for this work of art at the Gulf of Loon. On his notecard, Toy wrote, “I ended up bumping into this amazing Crane (at least that’s what I think he is) that was hiding in the cattails actually hunting for fish - and even caught one right in front of me. I had to capture his morning meadows hunt onto digital canvas! After several photos of different angles and a lot of photo manipulation to set the tone of the day, this is what I came up with.”

Toysoldier’s other works are equally varied and complex. Some of them, like “Magi’s Realm,” depict the mystical side of SL. Other of his works, such as “Barren Harvest” and “Floral Fox” include images from his real life that he brings into Second Life. Toys Art Gallery brings such a wonderful variety of colorful, unique art to SL that you will want to visit it often.

Grey Lupindo

Goddess Apparel

The fashions of the twenties are the basic foundation of many of today's dresses explained Athene Forder in the first floor of Goddess Apparel's Roaring 20’s Chicago location.

"If you look at the ball gowns of today, the slender style came to fruition in the twenties," stated Forder as she sits in a high-back chair, dressed in an elegant silk gown of her own creation, "It was a time of pushing limits. Men found that women would no longer be forced into the subservient mold of the past. Women had tasted the power of the vote and had learned that they could make changes in other areas of their lives as well."

Perhaps the more men pushed to control women, the more styles limits were pushed, was Forder's comment. Women's hair was cut shorter, as well as their skirt lengths. The best dressmakers of that time were women, but men held the pocketbooks prior to the twenties.

The most popular dress of the era was the flapper.

"Well, my guess would be because of it's flair," Forder declared. "It flaunted the staid, lady-like moray of expected female behavior. The style for a woman always included some type of hat. The twenties headdress kept that tradition, but once more pushed the limits, using pearls, beads, and feathers instead of, or in addition to a regular hat."

As for fabrics, Forder stated that cottons were still used, but mostly for the poor. Though the small detailed patterns of these cotton fabrics are a twenty's earmark. Satins tended to replace the heavy silks and beaded fabrics became popular. Though satins were originally from Asia, fabric manufacturers began duplicating the fabrics the best they could to fullfill the growing demands.

"An unusual fact about fashions during the twenties was the flat-chested look," she added. "Many of the women would actually bind themselves to fit the style."

At Goddess Apparel, Forder is making creative decisions. She has styled what she is proud to add her signature to since June of 2008. Her work began with a commission two years ago. Today, she has a portfolio of 79 different gowns. She also has men's jerseys, shirts and jeans. She works two hours a night and six over the weekend.

After a great deal of research about the flapper style, she created "Marika." Her goal was a dress that would allow the wearer to select the amount of fringe she wanted. By using actual photos of styles she loved, she'd then go to her drawing board and attempt to recreate them. She tries to keep a balance of soft pastels, bright jewel tones and dark, muted colors in her gowns. Marika comes in black, lilac, red wine, sapphire and teal.

"I was looking for a sexy style in the flapper tradition. I shortened the length for that bit of edge and then went wild with the fringe," she confessed. "It moves with you as you walk."

"Since then, I've been adding more and more period dresses to the gowns in the Goddess Apparel line," she said. "It wasn't until I looked through my line, with Chicago in mind, that I realized how many of them fit the style of the 1920's, especially the ball gowns."

"Zelda" is her second flapper dress. Instead of a feather, it has a little hat and veil and a more traditional cut to the top. The gown is made out of sequined material and comes in nine different metallic based colors," she informed me.

Forder selected a variety of colors that she could give a metallic sheen to. She named the dress after Zelda Fitzgerald, stating that Zelda was the icon of the day. It was her husband that wrote the Great Gatsby. I note that the gown she is wearing during our interview is named Lady Gatsby. It is available in a number of pastels with two exceptions: one is blood red and then she added black to a cream for a dramatic effect. She said that sales of this dress have been doing very well. Both have the shimmer of satin as you move and the skirt sits nicely without adjusting a sit script.

Forder created an alternative dress. She liked the lines so much and the jewels on the back straps, that she made a little cocktail dress from it, "Siren was actually designed as a challenge to myself," she confesses. "I wanted to try my hand at a split skirt... so I split more than the skirt. Siren is done first in silks, but it has a second set inside that is done in see-through chiffons...all held together with silver clasps."

Some of her gowns are adoptable to different time periods. She stated that most of the slender gowns may be considered a modern ball gown that fits nicely into the 1920's. Some of her older Victorian gowns have slender skirts to allow it to fit more eras. The outfits on the second floor of her Chicago location she considers to be more universal in look than the twenties, but would pass in Chicago.

We move on to the playful Leto, which is one of her early creations. She enjoyed adding the feathers. "I was trying to create a design that might catch the eye of the singer Katia Keres. The high cut skirt is surrounded by the feathered flexi. I tried to keep it feathered, so when I changed the colors, I kept as much of the white base of the feather there. This would keep them from all blending into one mess, preserving the outlines." With the more formal style skirt, she created a salsa version with the feathers which lead to the Leto Edge.

One gown demands my attention and I'm entranced with its detail. The Psyche is an elegant wedding gown. Without the train, the gown is perfect for bridesmaids. And, yes, she has veils available so you don't have to visit another store looking for one.

Forder is updating her main store to include multi-dress vendors that will have a note card of the included outfit parts. Some accessories are sold separately beside the appropriate dress.

She has conducted fashion shows in the past and hopes to do them again. Forder is also working on expanding her stores a little. Her main store, located in Newport Keyes, now has a dance area.

Netera Landar

Tiny Empires

About a month or so ago, I was pointed at the in-game game known as Tiny Empires. It's a simple turn-based hud game where you, in the role of lord and liege, need to gain land and gold (usually for a lord and liege that you're sworn to). The more gold and land you gain, the higher in rank you achieve.

You start as a Wanderer, and can advance all the way up to Queen or King of your own kingdom. As of this writing, I was a few acres of land shy of Prince; I've got a LONG way to go before I make King --- I have a gold amount in the hundreds of thousands; most of the Queens of the kingdom I am in are well into the millions and -make- millions per turn.

The first thing that I saw upon playing is that in order for you to get subjects of your own (or to swear yourself to a liege), you need to find a player who also has the hud attached --- all subjects and lieges in the game are other residents of Second Life. Then you stand near them and when a turn passes, the opportunity comes up to become their liege or subject (depending on rank). This can be good if you're social and hang out in a lot of social areas (where there might be many people playing at once, but if you're a social recluse like myself, you might have trouble finding a liege or subjects. Fortunately, there is a Tiny Empires Recruiters group you can join in order to look for other players.

The game has a trial period, after which you'll have to pay 800 $L to get the full version. For another 600 $L after that, you can upgrade to the Federation version, which offers a LOT more options (The Alchemist, a Festival every now and then, the ability to form Alliances with other players, and the Path to Royalty among them). You'd need to upgrade to the full version first before buying the Federation version, however.

During the game, the hud often will pose a "vote", or an event will happen that gives you gold (a "gold windfall"). So far there aren't any events that I've seen that drain gold (except if you bet wrong on someone during a festival). If your vote is in the majority, the Emperor will give you an amount of gold (and sometimes a kitten, I guess he's a cat person). Gold gained seems to be in proportion to the amount of land you hold; the more land you have, the richer you get.

Sometimes the Trader will show up (again, price of his item is based on land), and other times the Alchemist will show up ("The moon shimmers with a red glow") so if you somehow earned an item known as a Gold Bar, you can trade it to the Alchemist for a potion of some kind. Some potions grant gold windfalls, others protect you from "sabotage" (where another player damages your land and you lose up to about six or seven acres, and it can rebound against you!), and still other potions could get you more land the next time your Liege grants a land tract to all of their subjects under them.


After playing it for a month, I've found it's addicting enough for me to keep playing because I ended up in a group with a lot of nice people in it --- you can meet a lot of new friends this way. There are not a lot of events or variations of the vote, so you'll see a lot (and I mean a LOT) of the same stuff. It's also exponential --- the more you buy land, the more expensive the next acre of land is and the more expensive other things are as well. At the time I write this, an acre of land costs me 537,000 gold and the next one will be even more expensive. I think this game has the serious potential for improvement if the Emperor (Ultralite Soleil, the man behind it all) finds time to code in more features into the hud.

One thing made me think. What's to stop someone from making a lot of alts and using those as subjects and allies, padding someone's gold and land stash? I asked Ultralite Soleil this, and he basically said "Nothing's stopping people from doing that, but it ruins the spirit of the game." I like his honesty about that; rather than fight a losing battle against billions of alts, admit it's a problem and that if people want to do it that way, then fine. :)

I'm going to give the game Four Dragon Hoards out of five. It's fun enough to keep playing even if it is a bit on the repeating side. You can find it at the Kitster sim (149,42,53) and the $L cost is well worth it. There is also Tiny Empires 3000, which is essentially Tiny Empires in a space theme instead of medieval one.

Xymbers Slade

Monarch Motorcars - Drive One Home Today!

In an impressive showroom with glistening white and black tiles, an inviting red carpet and the latest luxury motorcars, you will find Yorba Naidoo. Dressed in his best business suit, he will introduce you to everything your heart desires in a quality automobile.

Packard was America's Rolls Royce, beginning in the 1900's. Naidoo fell in love with the line after attending a car show as a child. "It was all about quality and that's what I have tried to be inspired by ... or as much as 32 prims per car will allow me," he joked.

He joined Second Life two years ago, wandering around the many communities until he met Monica Weir of Weir's Way Commerce. She took him under her wing and taught him how to build. JonyBlade Codesmith, with The Guided Tour Company, does his scripts.

"Quality is in the eye of the beholder. I would say, once I had built these models in the early fall of this year, I felt like I had accomplished something I could be proud of and they started selling well," he explained, while adjusting his tie. He admits that patience isn't one of his strongest traits, but you wouldn't know it when you see the exceptional detail of his models.

Beginning with a picture of the actual automobile, he will start the building process and change the car as he goes along. The first model in his line was The Black Monarch Imperial Limousine V12. It's a sleek ride that's the cat's meow. "It took one month of hard work," stated Naidoo, "It's the flagship of the Monarch DVG Brand. "Some parts, like a real life car maker, only have to be made once. Otherwise I rebuild to suit."

Monarch Motorcars' main showroom, located on the sim Mobilis has been in business for two months. A second location has been established in Chicago. It's straight down the street from the jazz club. His line features a handsome variety of roadsters to limousines, for the working man to the collector. You'll be sitting pretty when you pull up to your favorite club. The line includes a Monarch Imperial Cabriolet Limousine, a Wedding Town Car, 500HS Roadster, Town and Country Station Wagon, even a taxi cab for the working man.

The motorcars are precisely designed, textured and scripted to enhance your driving experience here in Chicago. Getting married and looking for that special car to drive to your honeymoon? Then check out the luxurious Monarch Imperial with a rich white and beige interior, a texture change option "Just Married" sign and the Wedding March as an option. Seats three, all four doors open and the wheels spin when you drive.

The Monarch Snow Tracker and Police Cruiser are his newer models. One look at the fine craftsmanship of the luxury or practical working car and you'll know you made the right choice in selecting a Monarch.

"Building cars is my passion and seeing other people enjoy them is a huge thrill," he said with smile.

By Netera Landar