Shep Korvin - Blog is the new Black

Who ya gonna call?

 

On Halloween, we're launching Lucky Designs most ambitious project yet - The Halloween Ghost Hunt!

We've got 40+ venues on board (more signing up every day) in order to produce a huge - distributed - Halloween trick-or-treat event, that'll run from Wednesday until Sunday this week. The game involves collecting a special "goodie" bag from our Haunted House game-hub, and then exploring an assortment of locations around the grid in search of our escaped Ghosts (you can see me trying to apprehend one of said beasties in the picture above!). Every time you find a ghost, a new prize will be dropped into your goodie bag - at last count, we had 150 ghosts out in the wild, each with goodies for the taking. By the time you read this, there'll be even more!

I'm really excited by this project - fundamentally, it's an experiment in trying to create a large-scale event that's distributed across a bunch of small, independent venues. We've got a system of "teleportation portals" set up, to ferry people from one venue to the next, and a central dispatch point that weighs up the traffic at participating venues, and steers ghost hunters to their next destination. Will it be a hit? Who knows! ... but it'll be cool finding out! ;)

 

The central "game hub" (pictured above) also houses a number of concession stands, featuring Halloween content from an assortment of SL creatives (so if you forgot to dress appropriately for a night of trick-or-treating, there'll be plenty of last-minute shopping opportunities!) ... and a walk-through "haunted house" attraction, where you'll be introduced to the seven different types of phantom that you'll encounter on the hunt.

If you run an SL business, we also have a couple of interesting advertising opportunities available. The master "game control" board will be the focal point of the game, and is surrounded by an array of scripted billboards. For a modest payment, we can add the texture of your choice to our ad rotation, with a click-through map link to any in-world location that you desire.

In addition to this, we have a single sponsorship slot available, at the official "Goodie Bag" pick-up point. Every player in the game needs to claim a goodie bag before they can start picking up gifts - and all bags come from a single point of distribution, so this is a pretty attractive proposition. If you become our sponsor, we will automatically distribute a single item (be that an object, notecard, texture... whatever) of your choosing along with each and every goodie bag that gets collected. In other words, your item will be dropped into the hands of *every* player taking part in the game - that's a pretty unique advertising opportunity!

The sponsorship deal is currently open to bids. The starting price is L$1 and the auction is running on a bidbox, situated at http://slurl.com/secondlife/Jokung/177/14/36/ . The auction is running for 24 hours only, and should end at - roughly - 12 noon tomorrow, SL time. Though - as with all SL scripted objects - the auction might be subject to grid-based time dilation, so bid early and bid often! ;)

Aside from that, if you want to be involved in the hunt in any other way - e.g. by hiding ghosts in your store - join the in-world group "Lucky Designs" and flick through the last few group notices to catch up on what's been happening!

The event is scheduled to start at noon SLT, Halloween (7pm GMT). We think it'll be a lot of fun - see you there ;)

Halloween pimpage...

...So, while I have your attention.... (I know, I know, I only seem to post when I want to sell you something) ...I should also announce that the Halloween Department is open for business at Lucky Designs!

Everything you need to promote YOUR store this Halloween, including:

The Unlucky Chair

...a 3rd Generation Lucky Chair, complete with an assortment of grisly death animations, bloody particle effects, and stomach-churning sound effects. Watch out for the rotary-saw head-chopper, that's my favourite!

Ye Olde Haunted Apple Bobbing

The traditional Halloween game, re-imagined for SL... A great new mechanic to attract people to your store - and keep them there! :)

Lucky Jack'O Lantern Hunt

Back in spring, I released a "Limited Edition" Lucky Easter Eggs game that was so popular that people still ask me for copies! This is a seasonal remix of that same game ... install this device in your venue, and grinning "Lucky Lanterns" will appear at random locations and intervals around your store, with lucky chair-style letters + prizes  ... keeps your customers searching; you never know where one might appear next!

All items are AVAILABLE NOW at Lucky Designs - and be sure to check our bundle deals for extra discounts!

Have a great Halloween!

The Electrolux Innovision Award

I'm extremely proud to announce that I picked up a rather cool item of (virtual) silverware earlier this week - the "Electrolux Innovision Award", in a special event intended to "recognize and celebrate the most creative and exciting inventors in Second Life". You can read more about the shindig over on the Millions of Us blog, here.

I was really pleased to be invited to the event - aside from getting to carry home some phat l3wt, it was nice to mingle with a few people whose work I've always admired from afar ... and perhaps somewhat affirming (and pleasantly surprising!) to discover that so many them knew who I was too, and what I'd invented. I guess when you work as an independent developer, it's easy to fall into a little bubble, where you don't really have the best idea of how your work is perceived outside your immediate circle of friends/customers, by the world at large... so ... yeah... I was really hyped up and happy by the time I left :)

Not a bad little event either... really nicely-designed venue ... the "innovision" build resembles a huge light-bulb, floating out of a giant electrolux cardboard box. I find these abstract, in-your-face-metaphor builds are sometimes a bit hit-and-miss, but this one was perfect; really nice work, and *just* the right size too. I think my only criticism is the inclusion of (possibly) the most frustrating physical elevator I've ever encountered in Second Life... it took me a good 4 or 5 attempts to get up to the presentation area inside the light bulb (I don't think it jived particularly well with prim shoes!), and it claimed several other victims over the course of the event...  

The event kicked off with a short presentation from Deva Bade (aka Carola Lundell of Electrolux), about their presence in Second Life. They seem to be taking an interesting approach. No doubt warned away from the (obvious) folly of trying to sell prim fridges and prim vacuum cleaners to SL residents, they instead seem to be trying to promote themselves as some kind of facilitator for SL's inventor/gadgeteering community, and pushing for some kind of brand association with virtual world innovation. Or -- maybe in simpler terms -- trying to be the "inventor geek" equivalent of Pontiac's Motorati ;) (my words, not theirs). It's an interesting approach to take - but from the materials they put out, they do appear to be playing a long game. It'll be very interesting to see how their presence pans out.

The presentation was followed by a short "panel discussion" about a few topics of general interest to SL inventors. The electrolux blog describes this as a "fast and furious chat conversation about how to provide customer service of new innovations and how to integrate web sites and email into Second Life" ... but to be honest, it was probably the weakest part of the event - didn't really have enough formal structure to be considered a proper "panel" imho, ... and the discussion got a bit random at times. Nevertheless, the hostess - Daphne Molinari, did a pretty good job of keeping things moving ... and for that matter, the hosting throughout the event was pretty slick and impressive. Top marks on that front :)

So, onto the awards - you can read who got what, and the introductions were given to each award over on the MoU blog, so I won't waste space repeating that here, other than to say I was really happy with my introductory blurb; somebody had obviously done their homework :)  ...worryingly, Daphne crashed out just as I was walking up to receive my award - but she got back in-world pretty fast, and I guess SL wouldn't be SL without at least one good crash per event ;)

Then we all went downstairs - (or *tried* to go downstairs - the demon elevator _really_ wanted everybody to stay upstairs, and took some considerable fighting to convince otherwise) ... for the unveiling of a new contest being run by electrolux. They want people to invent a new word, bringing to mind innovation in SL - you can read all about it at the electrolux "innovision hub" in-world. The prize is L$100,000 ... to be awarded in a fortnight's time.... gotta be worth a try, right? 

The music was turned on, and the event ended with a party. Flea Bussy impressed us with some *amazing* avatar designs - a few of which made it into the flickr pool here ... but - sadly - it was already time for me to make my excuses, and leave.

Dressed as a fish.

(thanks Flea!).

Anyway, I had a great time, it was _wonderful_ to be awarded a prize, and I'll be watching with great interest where electrolux go from here. Thanks to all involved! :)