Gaming - BuildCity Updates

Hey everyone, if you've followed me for a while you'll know that I manage the BuildCity Gaming World in AW.  I've been meaning to get things in order there for a while (meaning that they'll mostly manage themselves) so I took some time this weekend to do some maintenance.  Here's what's new:

• Off-season play rules are still in-effect.
• Abandoned/Incomplete plots have been maintenance and are available to new builders.
• Tourist building has been disabled.
• The global bot is ONLINE 24/7... this grants access to global chat and jump points for ease of reference. It will also save your last in-world location so you don't start in the tutorial when you enter the world.
• Players can earn Airpark Achievements for completing certain tasks, such as completing their first build or earning a certain amount of credits. Check the signs in-world for more info on that.

I am still maintaining the world so telegram me if you want to play, but expect a 1-3 day turnaround time as I'm not active daily anymore. Alternatively, you may reply to this thread and receive a quicker response as I am active daily on the forums.

Halloween Millionaire - Photo Blog

A crowd assembling before the event begins.  The studio was dark and reserved before the show, and users were arriving at least a half an hour before the event began.

The studio flares to life in an animated introduction sequence as the show begins, filled with lights and sounds.  The game then randomly selects a player from the audience, and the fun begins.

A colorful board describes the player's progress with animations and effects.  The lower buttons describe current earnings, and the 3 buttons at the top describe lifelines -- the red x describes a lifeline that has already been used.

A look back towards the ~20 user crowd.  According to GSK, this weekend was one of the most successful turnouts for the Millionaire event.  Several users from a Millionaire fan forum were present as well.

The color differences in the studio reflected the mood and actions of the game's progress.  Colors change in response to questions and actions by the player.

A shot at the main screen as a question is being asked.  The question is asked in chat, as well as on the main screen.  Players can choose to answer the question, use a lifeline for help, or walk away with their current earnings.

The millionaire studio inbetween games.  The purple and yellow colors reflect the Halloween theme for this weekend.

A look at one of the contestants.  Contestants play from the center stage as GSK operates the game from the hidden control room.

Noticeboard: Millionaire in 30 minutes @ Airpark

Millionaire event will be starting in 30 minutes at Airpark in ActiveWorlds for any interested.  They're usually a good bit of fun.

Users already showing up for the event, 30 mins prior

GSK has gotten a new HUD set up in the world and people are already showing up.  Looks like it will be a nice event, and its certainly nice to see things going on!  Come on in for fun and prizes!

AIRPARK: http://network.airpark3d.com/
TELEPORT: http://objects.activeworlds.com/cgi-bin/teleport.cgi?airpark

I've Been a Bad User

Hey, I don't recognize that world?

That must have taken *ages* to align correctly...

I never want to say AW is in dire straits, but, well, it's been pretty quiet lately.  We've had a hard year in AW -- Tom left and two of our prominent citizens have passed away -- and I think its taken its toll on people.  Even stalwart users have been showing up less often, and I personally have begun looking to expand my horizons...

Here's hoping AW 5.3 will have some strong offerings.  I don't know about you guys, but I look at my long past with AW and when I see all the content and effort I've put into a reputation, it's a bit disheartening.  As I become a better programmer I imagine I'll have more open doors, but I do still enjoy building and the screencaps above are some of my first forays into building within Second Life.  If you've ever used Google SketchUp, I find the building operations and manipulations to be very similar, with the exception that the surfaces and lines are replaced by primitive, solid objects.  The building system there was very intuitive to me as I've used 3D modelers before, and I was building in under an hour.

If you've spent time here developing skills, I think you'll find that many of them can easily translate into projects beyond AW.  Perhaps not the building interface itself, but certainly the design sense you pick up in a community like this, and the intuitive geometric relations that you can recognize while working with modular objects.


Anyway, that's it for now.  I'm probably going to continue laying low, until AW 5.3 comes out.  Later guys.

Too little, too late?

Hey guys, just wanted to drop in to share an update to AW that hasn't been applied to the release notes for whatever reason.

• The Contacts List has been reordered
• Sorted by ONLINE and OFFLINE users
• AFK users are denoted by a yellow check
• After X minutes, users can be automatically toggled AFK by the browser.

I like the yellow checkmarks as they offer some visual consistency to the notifications in the contacts list.  Hopefully someone will get some use out of it... I came in today to check it out and I didn't have very many friends online. :(