Week 12 - Who's Building What?

Today we finalised who is building what in our Second Life world. Here's where we're at:

Main structure:

Will and Garrick - main communal dome/space shuttle environment
Ed and Jay - Evil Lair, including the elevator and inside the Eye
Chris - the chambers or hallways connecting the domes
Tinny - entrance dome (ie entrance to main structure)

Other:

Dimitri and Rene - clothing
Waseem - Spinning Wheel
Parv - Town Hall
Nathan - private 'nature' dome
Simon - space guns
Nelson - private dome
Enoka - musical theatre
Andrew - bar (Enoka and Andrew to coordinate their two areas)
David - creating backstory to Evil Lair

Note: David has created an elaborate backstory that we discussed in class briefly, and that the class seemd to be happy with. David will post the entire story on his blog site: http://davidatflinders.blogspot.com/

You can go here to comment on the story, suggest changes etc. Next week you will work with Dale to decide how to incorporate this story into the physcial space you're building.

Second Life world - what we've agreed on

- the world ('platform') will consist of a central dome with connections to a number of smaller domes

- the platform will be either in space or underwater (undecided as yet)

- to get to the platform from the ground, there will be either an elevator or teleportation function (undecided as yet)

- the central dome will be an entry point, with the various functions and activities occuring in the smaller domes

- it's been suggested that a theme/aesthetic might be a fantasy mix of old world and futuristic, plus a jungle theme to the central area (Arthur - chekc his blog for more detail)

- the class has agreed that we will have some of the areas previously researched: bar/gun shop/evil lair/costumes. Some are being debated: elevator/holodeck/biodome

THE STORY AND SECRET:

- The evil lair is called a brain called "MMShare". It's in a dome at the top of the platform that seems to be inaccessable.

- People need to go to every small dome and get a letter. Combined these make up a word. People will need to go somewhere to type in the word. This opens a door to the evil lair. When the first person gets there they get item/s of clothing eg tshirt, super cape, uniform (detail to be worked out)

- We haven't yet worked out the details of the story/history of the evil lair and what happened. We will mull this over during the semester break and we'll decide once we return. In the meantime we'll put up ideas for this on our blog sites.

Last week's class

For those who weren't there last week (Class 8):

• we covered non-linear stories and story shapes: http://art.tafe.vu.edu.au/sschutt/wmm/nonlinearstory.html
• every student is to find an Alternate Reality Game (look it up in Wikipedia if you're not sure what this is) and write about it in your blog
  

Dale's blog site

Hi guys.

letting you know that Dale also has blog site where he is posting stuff from the Writing for Multimedia classes he's teaching at Flinders St and St Albans, as well as the Interactive Storytelling class he's teaching with the games students.

Check it out to catch up on more notes from your class and to see what the other classes are doing:

http://oztron.blogspot.com/

Character Kit stuff

Hi guys.

Just to make it easier, I'm copying in this email the Character Kit that we worked on in class today so you have a record of it in your email. Here it is:

Think about your Second Life character/avatar and apply the following set of criteria to them. Imagine you are that character and answer these questions:

* Super-objective (what is your aim in life?)
* I see myself as (five words)
* if I were a car/food item/alcoholic drink/sport/action hero/animal I would be a.....
* I dress to accentuate my.....
* I dress to hide my.....
* I lead with my....(body part)
* My idea of a good night is......
* My idea of a bad night is.....
* I value my best friend because they.....
* Favourite book/film/TV show/music/web site
* Relaxing means.....

This is what's known as a "character kit" - a set of questions you can use to build up the depth and believability of a character.

The Secret - initial brainstorm

Here are the initial ideas we came up with for our town secret - we'll do more work on this next week:

- hidden room
- underground/hidden chambers
- golf course
- time & space shifts/ ie 'Lost' show
- Town food supply provided by zoo animals
- secret door to another world
- celebrity hangout (VIP only)
- haunted house/prison
- prison slaves
- mafia
- candy shop using secret ingredients

Writing for Multimedia - Second Life town details, Week 2

Hi WM1 guys.

Here's what we came up with for our Second Life town concept:

- a "green" theme with parks, animals and car free zones
- holiday-style setting with cafes, cinemas etc

Details of who is going to build what, thus far (note - this may change but will be set by Week 4):

Canals/cinema/art gallery - Peter, Rene, Arthur
Stadium/Colosseum - Waseem, Simon
Carnival - Enoka
Cafes - Nelson/Nathan
Lighthouse - Dimitri, Chris, Ed
Swimming Pool - David
Pub - Andrew, Tom
Casino - Will, Garrick, Dwayne
Race track/drag strip - Enoka
Town Hall - Jay, Parv, Tinny
Open Zoo/Park - Chris, Jay

Note that we will have to work with Dale to see what is doable and to share the work load around, so this is subject to revision.