Friday, February 18, 2011

If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?

By Lord Lisle

Today I was invited by Celestial Elf (freesky Republic) to view his latests Easter machinima taken in Second Life. Although it is still winter in the northern part of the Old World where I live, viewing this made me smile and kept my mind off the bitter cold weather outside.
Although being set in the Autumn, it also reminded me to Shelley's 'Ode To the West Wind' ...If Winter comes can Spring be far behind?...


I hope that you enjoyed this as much as I did... Thank you for sharing this with us freesky!

Thursday, February 10, 2011

The 'Dead Man's Hand' Hunt is on...

By Lord Lisle


A few days ago I was attended to the 'Dead Man's Hand' hunt created by the MadPea Productions team. Having admired other creations of that team, I became curious; needless to say that it did not took me long before I entered the game!

The Dead Man's Hand begins from a mysterious house of a notorious serial killer. You are supposed to investigate the crime scene and search the house and surroundings for clues. The killer kept all his 52 victims in the house for a certain period of time and each of them has left something behind that gives you a hint where they have been buried. A card has been left behind in the burial places, once you find a card, you will win an instant prize. When you have found all 52 cards, you will unlock a new area and be rewarded beyond imagination. The hunt will run from February 1st till March 31st.


The arrival point: the scene of the crime, here to be seen in the bleak morning hours. The Police has arrived and sealed the entrance of the estate....


Participating to the hunt is easy: at a vendor (the one near the entrance shown above) you can purchase a HUD for 100 L$. Wear it. It will set in its correct position on your screen. The cards will flash images of the clues that you need to search for in the house and in its surroundings. Once you find a clue, you will receive a hint and a SLURL of a location where to go and look for the card. The HUD will keep track of which clues and which cards you have found, simply click at the image for more info

This is a screenshot of my HUD. Here shown are the hearts cards with still 4 clues to be found in the estate, 9 already found and with three (crossed) cards actually found at the vitims burial places

Lord Lisle at the drawing board at one of the places where the bodies were buried. One of the cards is hidden at this location...hint..hint..

Yesterday, whilst exploring the Dead Man's Hand estate for clues, I had the pleasure to meet the founder and director of MadPea Productions, Kiana Writer. I took the opportunity to ask her a few questions which she most willingly answered.

LL: After a few days in this game I realise that an enormous lot of work must be involved in creating and organising it. Did you got help from a team and can you tell how much time it approximately took? (for example only the contacts with 50+ sim-owners must have been a time taking business)

Kiana Writer: The Dead Man's Hand Hunt is certainly a hunt, but it's also an experience and very different to the other hunts in Second Life. It's by no means a new concept, as we have had similar hunts in the past.
MadPea Productions is a team of creative individuals who design all kinds of experiences for people to enjoy in Second Life. We collaborate with rl companies and private persons as well as SL business owners and individuals. We have been creating dozens of games of various genres since 2008.
Our team consists of following creatives: Kiana Writer, Madcow Cosmos, Smiley Dyrssen, SweetDevil Magic, Colin Nilsson, Judi Newall, Allco Nostram and Lorin Tone.
Our islands are owned and generously sponsored by Cha Klaar and Dusan Writer

The DMHH was created pretty fast actually. I can't give you any exact times, since we are always working on multiple projects at the same time. Since we've done so many hunts before, we're starting to be pretty organized with them now. :) Usually the HUD scripting and database creation take up the majority of the time. For this hunt we had Colleen Desmoulins and Shana Pizzaro from the Loft decorating the house and they did a really amazing job with that. The house and barn themselves were donated by Amo Lambeau and Fornicola Butuzov from Pre Fabulous Homes.
We're quite strict with selecting the vendors for the hunts. Above everything else, we need reliability and store owners who are excited about the hunt, instead of just having our hunt being 'one of the hunts'. For DMHH we've really had amazing vendors who have been communicative and supportive, promoting the hunt and helping the hunters. Several of the vendors are even hunting themselves!
The DMHH lasts for two months. We're curious to see if will get enough hunters for the second month as well to determine if that's a good way to go. A week after the hunt start we already have 711 hunters.

LL: The Dead Mans Hand Hunt will be finished at the end of next month, unfortunately. Have you got plans for such an event in future?

Kiana Writer: We are currently planning a sequel to this hunt, where the mysterious Joker will be playing the main role. ;) The new hunt is estimated to begin April 1st.


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Have you become curious? Why not have a look at the the Dead Man's Hand estate at Hoshi Island/111/77/750/

For more info about the Dead Man's Head Hunt see the MadPea website and facebook:
http://madpeagames.com/dmhh/
http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/MadPea-Productions/144352134687