Shep Korvin - Blog is the new Black

Lucky Tribe

Wow... it's been a crazy few months. You might remember - in my last post - I mentioned a new "grid wide" game that I was working on, called "Lucky Tribe". Well, the game launched in early May, and I've barely had a moment to sit down and rest ever since!!

Lucky Tribe is a kind of "meta-game", bringing together a bunch of diverse (and fun!) activities in SL. Basically, you travel around the grid solving puzzles, playing games, and completing various tasks to earn "Kudos Points". These points are shown on a special hud, along with a set of badges you collect for all the tasks you complete. Some tasks are simple (like sitting in a particular lucky chair, or solving a particular lucky fortunes machine), whereas others are much more elaborate and involved...

Take part in mysterious, puzzling rituals at Lucky Tribe HQ

Brave the monsters that lurk in the Fnordian Moon Labyrinth

Try your luck on our daily, hosted gameshow - "Detonation!"

Solve Professor Korvin's Mysterious Mycological Muddle

Stalk special kudos-boosting lucky chairs around the grid

Go fishing for lucky fish!

Collect a HUD full of kudos badges, and win prizes!

... hey - wait a moment - did he say PRIZES? ...

That's right... every time you accumulate 100 Kudos points, you can go and claim a prize from one of our sponsoring merchants. Right now, we've got 80+ of SL's top content creators creating gifts for Lucky Tribe players, with the number rising every week!

This is only a small taster of the full range of activities on offer via Lucky Tribe. To get involved, visit this SLURL: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Samoa/107/183/1004 and follow the instructions on the BIG sign between the two tikkis in the landing area. You'll also find it useful (some might say "essential"!) to join the "Lucky Tribe" group ... we're a friendly bunch, and very welcoming of lucky tribe newbies, so don't be scared! ... You'll also find further reading over on the official Lucky Tribe Blog, which is here.

So, if you're at a loose end for fun stuff to do in SL, come and hang out with the Lucky Tribe. We'd love to meet you :)

(with thanks to members of the Lucky Tribe Flickr group for all the snapshots!)

Tease-O-Rama

Bored of grid-wide hunts?

Seeking interesting new diversions in your Second Life?

Looking for new ways to score kewl freebies?

You might have heard a rumour that I'm about to unveil something *big*...

If you'd like to be amongst the first to know more, join the "Lucky Tribe" group, in-world, before 12 Noon (SL Time) Saturday :)

EDIT: The group doesn't seem to be showing in search yet (grrr!) - but you can hopefully get there by looking at the groups list on my profile.

Getting high on your own supply...

Despite being the inventor of Lucky Chairs, I've never really been much of a "chair hopper" myself... OK, there's maybe been one or two prizes in the Greenies' Lucky Chairs that have been *slightly* tempting, but other than that, pretty much the only time I "play" my own games is when I'm demonstrating them in-store (or, occasionally, when I get pestered by a friend to go and do a Lucky Fortunes test... they're convinced that I have some kind of secret god-like cheat mode installed that makes all the Lucky Fortunes machines like me - NOT TRUE!) ... but other than that, I rarely play any of my own merchandise.

At least... that was the case until a couple of days ago.

Somebody drew my attention to a new-ish in-world group - Midnight Maniacs. They'd run a big event at the start of the month - A "Midnight Mania Lockdown Party" (in essence, they get a bunch of merchants to set up stall with Midnight Manias as the central attraction, and then have several hundred people visit the sim, slapping as many boards as they can). It sounded like a pretty cool event, so I signed up to the group so that I could keep track of when they're hosting the next one.

Well... it turns out that Midnight Maniacs is a pretty lively group (1577 members as I write), and there's a pretty constant stream of announcements of all the latest and greatest MM offers sliding through the chat channel. Amidst all that text, things started to catch my eye. It was a Pirate ship that initially did it. I mean, I don't actually _need_ a pirate ship... especially not a 200-plus prim, full-size, meticulously-crafted pirate ship... but, when the SLURL is sitting right there in front of you, and all you need to do is click on a board when you've reached the destination, you tend to think: "hey, why not... there's nothing to lose; it'll only take a second" ... and the deed is done.

Then somebody mentions a pair of men's boots.... and I could really use some new boots...

So, yeah, I think I might have a bit of a Midnight Mania addiction coming on, and it's an entirely bizarre experience... I mean, I *made* this thing, and now even I'm hooked on using it. That never happens. Dangerous stuff!

Anyway, if you're bored, and want to get fixed up with a Midnight Mania addiction of your own, I'd strongly recommend checking out the Midnight Maniacs group. Alternatively, if you operate a Midnight Mania, and want to pimp your wares to some entirely willing victims... well, now you know where to go :)

Co-incidentally, I've finally got Midnight Mania up on XStreet SL. Of course, I'd prefer it if you bought them in-world, as the Lab already gets a hefty slice of my profits without the added XStreet commission on top... but if you're the kind of person who prefers to shop from the comfort of the web, then the XStreet listing is here.

Midnight Mania

We Must Stop This Evil!

Lucky Cupcakes

Easter is approaching... and because it's simply not possible to have TOO MANY sticky sweet treats at Easter time, we've added a new attraction to the Lucky Designs line-up...

That's right - a GIANT PRIZE-GIVING CUP CAKE! What's not to love?

Lucky Cupcakes are a heavily-modified special edition of our popular Lucky Dip game. They feature all the functions of the standard Lucky dip game, plus:

• Low-prim sculpty design (minimal footprint is only 3 prims)
• New text & sound effects (om nom nom / oink oink oink....)
  
• Colour-change menu ... Lemon/Chocolate/Berry frosting at the touch of a button... or re-tint it yourself!
  
• Built-in support for the luckyloot.info website
  
• Includes ready-baked mini-cupcakes to give away as booby prizes.
  
• Fully-themed signage & prize display board to promote your Lucky Cupcake
  
• And most importantly of all: CUPCAKE APPEAL!!! These have been one of the fastest sellers I've ever put into Lucky Designs - Cupcakes are a pretty hot trend right now... Get a slice of the magic for YOUR STORE today!

Lucky Cupcakes are available in both standard and copyable editions - check them out at Lucky Designs.

Caption Contest...

Neat pic on the Rezzable Caption Contest this week! ... I'm sure this is a situation that one or two of my regular readers will sympathize with ;)

There's a L$2000 prize for the best caption - Go here!

Prizes for Picks

Forgot to post this yesterday... I think my brain was a bit scrambled after a weekend of scripting... anyway, here comes the sales pitch!...

"Prizes for Picks" does pretty much what it says in the ad ... bribe your visitors into adding your location to their profile picks, in exchange for daily freebies! ;)

You load the device with a bunch of prizes, and it'll automatically rotate through the full set - one prize each day, switching at midnight. Any visitor who has your location listed on their profile picks can click on the sign and claim the prize. Offer a series of related prizes (e.g. individual components of a complete outfit) to encourage visitors to keep your pick active for several days, and to come back again and again!

What's the benefit of encouraging customers to add you to their picks? Well, in five simple words: PICKS ARE THE NEW TRAFFIC! Your placing in the SL search results now depends almost entirely on how many SL users have got you nominated as one of their profile picks. If you're not working to optimize your search engine placing, then you're losing customers!

Prizes for Picks give you an edge in the new battle for hearts, minds, and profile picks, and is available right now at Lucky Designs ... get it before your competitors do!