Playful Pastimes at the Arcade!

As promised, here’s the image with all the things I have in the Arcade this round!

Promo Shot from the Arcade, with all the prizes
The 14 prizes in our Gacha machine for this round of the Arcade!

I did all the mesh for these, and about half the textures. Marianne McCann did the other half, as well as the scripting and animation in the Pinwheels.

The pinwheel animation lets you hold them, and wave them back and forth. They also spin or stop spinning when you touch them. So you can stick them in the ground, or anywhere else you like, and have them spin as well.

There are three different puzzles, with photographs by Mari on them. The box is a separate object, and the top slides open and closed with a touch. So you can close it and put it on a shelf if you like, or you can slide the lid forward so you can see it better while assembling the puzzle.

There’s also an empty white puzzle texture, full perm, so if you have extra puzzles and you want to modify one, you can put your own image on the puzzle. (There’s a top without a title, too, so you can put it there as well.) Instructions for all that are included, if you need them.

Mari did the covers for one pile of comics, and I did the other. Once again, if you have extra piles, you can replace the cover on the top with the cover of your favorite comic book or magazine.

Tintable clay kittys and snakes

Tint the clay to get whatever color animals you want.

The clay is really based on white, so you can tint it any color you like.

If you want a white kitty, or a purple and pink snake, or anything else at all, you can have it!

The top of the jar of clay is tintable too, so you can have piles of them, and pretend that you have all the colors of the rainbow!

The jacks are tintable too, because I always liked the colored jacks, when I was a kid.

In fact, the only prize in the machine you can’t do anything with is the bag of dice; but those are so much fun, I don’t think that’ll be a problem. 😀

SL Arcade Sneak Peek 2

A puzzle jigsaw with a picture by Marianne McCann
Sneak Peek 2 – A puzzle featuring a photograph by Marianne McCann

Today’s Sneak Peek from The Arcade in Second Life® – A jigsaw puzzle, with a photograph of Archie by Marianne McCann.

There’s more to this one than you can see here, but you’ll have to wait until the image with the entire contents of the of the gacha machine is released to see the box with a cover that can open and close.. I mean, the rest of it! Yeah!

There are materials in this one, too. It has both Shine and Normals, so it looks very realistic, just like a puzzle in First Life!

Getting Ready for the Arcade!

It’s less than a week until setup for the September round of the Arcade opens in Second Life®!

Most of the things I’ll have in this round are finished, and on my worktable. For some of them, I’ve collaborated with Marianne McCann. I did the mesh, and she did the textures.

Continue reading Getting Ready for the Arcade!

The Gacha Grove

In Second Life® we have a thing called gacha machines. You might be familiar with them in First Life (or Real Life, if you prefer.) Like the real ones, you put money into the virtual machines in SL™ and get a random prize. Like the real ones, some of the prizes are common, and some are rare. Like the real ones, for many the goal is to complete a set, so there’s a fair amount of trading your duplicate prizes for ones you need.

Continue reading The Gacha Grove

Taking the Long View – Why Blogging?

For most of my life, I’ve  learned in isolation. For many years, it was just me and my books, and then just me and my computer. This doesn’t really make me self-taught; the books (and computer, and videos) help a lot. I’m learning from others, even if they have no idea that I am.

But every now and then I have a chance to learn with others, as part of a group, with feedback and a teacher who is actually there.

Right now, I’m taking advantage of that. I signed up for Blogging 101.   Continue reading Taking the Long View – Why Blogging?