SL8B: first exploration to the exhibition grounds

By Lord Lisle  (who gives just his PERSONAL impression and view here!)

The opening

The official opening speech on the first day was attended by numerous avis. This appeared to be, however, as a bit of a disappointment to all because the speech turned out to be rather brief.....

Saffia Widdershins of Prim Perfect and Designing Worlds fame, Captn Wildstar Beaumont, photographer and buccaneer, and myself (in the centre) awaiting the opening speech for SL8B

Magic in Motion

SL8B Spellbound/229/219/21/

An interactive Magical Experience by Calla Cela (Known from her In-World classes and Workshops)

I had a couple of rather nasty experiences at Calla's exhibit when she asked me to volunteer in testing some of her 'Magical Experiences.... Fortunately enough I had my camera at hand to show you some evidence (with Calla evily grinning standing in front). Ohh, and a wise advise: do NOT feed that creature outside, its dangerous and it likely have you for a snack... (err, well done Calla!)

Remember your Magic...

SL8B Spellbound/220/180/21/

The Virtual Railway Consortium

Just hop on the miniature train and see what will happen...an extraordinary SL experience, what one may expect from the VRC...

Virtual Surf

SL8B Electrify/36/62/21/

Surfing your dreams, SL Virtual Surfing

Soaring with Magic

SL8B Spellbound/115/158/21/

A fascinating entry to the SL8B exhibition by Windyy Lane

This is really a must-see. With her entry 'Soaring with Magic', Windyy has created one of the top entries in SL8B (to my opinion..ahem)

Escape the Room

SL8B Electrify/108/28/21/

A Madpea creation

A challenging tasks awaits you if you are silly enough to enter that room. Clues to unlock the door are in the room, along with a free hud.

Honeyswamp

SL8B Impressive/140/24/21/
A marvellous creation by claudia222.jewell

The result as seen on this and the next snapshot are achieved if you set Windlight in your Phoenix viewer in just one click. Follow the advice put on the informative notecard (with gift) which you receive after clicking the painting. Somehow, this entry reminded me a bit to the famous paintings by Hieronymus Bosch...thank you for this experience claudia222.jewell

If you feel mounting one of the giant bee's, here is your chance...I explored part of SL8B riding on one..until I crashed... Visiting her homebase, I was even more surprised to see Parallel Worlds, but that may be in another Blog...

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.

________________________________________________

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