The birth of Timeless Treasures and The Red Rose

It is with great pleasure that I'd like to humbly announce the formation of a new store in the marketplace called Timeless Treasures, which will offer quality products at reasonable and quite affordable prices, The store will be managed by my friend Ronnie (ronhuber), and is jointly owned by Marie Monk (another scripter), Lori Novo, and myself.

Although we have big plans for the store, it started out earlier this month due to some fortuitous circumstances. I had made a sculpted red rose for my friend Marie a week or so ago, and added a couple of particle effects to it before offering it to her. She liked it so much that I decided to add more effects to it, as well as including an easier to use dialog menu that popped up when the red rose was touched by the owner.

The resulting red rose was so cool that I started thinking about selling it so more people could give their loved ones roses that actually did something, instead of simply sitting there. Unfortunately, the item did not fit well with the two stores that I had, which sold sex toys and security and rental boxes.

Marie had been thinking about starting her own store called Treasures, so I talked to her about it, and Lori as well, and we finally decided to create a new store that would hold all the miscellaneous items that didn't quite fit into the other stores, and thus was born Timeless Treasures.

 The first product in the store is the Timeless Treasures RED ROSE with Love Effects, Chat, and Pose Animation, which Lori discusses in some detail in her blog post.

The second product is one that we are just starting on, but should be finished by next week.

So stay tuned for more information about this new store, and please address any questions about the store to Ronnie (ronhuber). But please, no drooling when you meet her.

Say Hello to Timeless Treasures' New Store Manager

Tusk Games #2: Phant Zombie Apocalypse

Bring on the Phant Zombies!

I took a break from the Tusk project for a few days working on a secret project that will come out soon, but now I got another epiphany about the Tusk games.

It currently boasts two full game types right now, the first being the Elephant Hunt, and the second being the Hunter's Run, but I felt there was an intermediate portion between the two that I may have skipped.

In the first game, the hunter stalks and kills the Mama Elephant, but in the second game the tables are completely reversed and the hunter is being stalked by armed Matriarchy Assassins. There seemed to me to be a spot in between which should show how the hunter is first overcome and made to wear the Phant Mask.

This was Sunday night, and I was talking to Lori when she mentioned going to watch  the Walking Dead show, and suddenly it clicked in my mind what the intermediate game would be.

I was familiar with the storyline of this Zombie comics and TV series (and I even read a very good book based on it called Rise of the Governor), and when I first came into SL in mid-2011, one of the places I went to when I was just a week or two old had walking Zombies which you blasted using freebie guns.

Noobies hate zombies too!

Although I can't fathom the strong attraction to being chased by smelly decomposing walking corpse sausages, I decided there must be something to it, and the intermediate game in the Tusk series would involve gun-wielding players (including the original hunter) being besieged by walking "phant-mask wearing zombies" sent by the Matriarchy.

The zombies in this case would be simple animated bots that gravitate towards players automatically, and when close enough would score points against the player and drain their "energy", while at the same time players could score points by blasting the continuously rezzed zombies.

As before, the Tusk Hunt Engine used for the zombie game can later power stand-alone games in future products, so in one sense, this big Tusk project is laying the foundation for future development at the Depraved Monkey.

The Bounty Hunters

The Bounty Hunters (MK and Lori)

Thanks to the sweet and beautiful Lori Novo for inviting me to go bounty hunting with her. I did mistakenly shoot a pig or two in all the excitement, but we had a good old fashioned Texas barbecue after, so nothing was wasted.

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Archived poem:

Into grimy gulch they rode,
their horses parched and trembling,
saddles packed with bags of gold,
beneath the sun all gleaming.

The ever gorgeous Lori Novo,
with dashing MK following,
bounty hunters from the badlands,
ill winds blow to mark their coming.

The good people of Kitty's Birthday,
run and hide when they see striding,
black boots crunching on the hay,
hunters on the scent and prowling.

Into the saloon they march,
Lori with six-shooters blazing,
MK with his trusty shotgun,
as the wenches go in hiding.

When the gun smoke clears at last,
legs and arms are all sprawling,
in the bullet-ridden bar,
bad guys by the dozens dying.

In the aftermath of battle,
gunner eyes intent and wary,
as he finishes the job,
MK counts the day's brute tally,

Oh Lori, sweet Lori,
brave lady with blazing guns of glory.
Oh MK, brave MK,
lifts his face to the dawning of another day.

The Matriarchy and Hunter's Run

The Phant Mask

We had been wrestling with the storyline of the Tusk project for awhile now.

We know that the hunter in the story will get his or her comeuppance, but I could not figure out how or who would exact revenge on the perpetrator of the elephant genocide.

Then I was approached by a Matriarch of a secret organization called The Matriarchy, a religious cult that has existed for millennia and patterned their culture loosely on those of Elephant societies. These warrior priestesses had vowed vengeance on humanity for its slaughter of ongoing pachyderms, and I knew then how the story would pan out.

In several days time we set up scene 2 of the elephant tale, where the hunter has been transformed into a half-elephant creature who is hunted by gun wielding hunters. In an ironic twist, the hunter now feels what Mama Elephant felt when she was being stalked, hunted, and killed.

The game, called Hunter's Run,  involves the hunter donning a Phant Mask and trying to evade the bullets of other players shooting at him or her. Each hit by a player scores one point, and the hunter needs to stay alive for a set time limit in order to gain his or her freedom and transform back into a human being.

We basically took the hunting framework from scene 1 (The Hunt) and reworked it so it used an avatar as the prey instead of an animated elephant. This took quite a lot of modifications, and is really more sophisticated than the older system, but it seems to be working fine now.

In future, we can simply use this hunting framework for other toys that involve shooting and hunting.

The Hunt Scene finished

The Great Hunter starts The Hunt

 I pretty much completed the Hunt Scene for the Tusk project today. It was grueling work, but I'm happy with the results.

This scene sets the stage for the story, and is where the bad hunter goes and kills the Mama Elephant. I created the scene as a game, and two elephants (a Mama Elephant and Baby Elephant) are rezzed from the Tusk to start the scene.

In it you will use a so-called MK Phant Gun (lol) shooting bullets to try to bring down Mama Elephant, which will appear and disappear within a certain range, only staying in one location long enough to browse.

Every time you hit Mama Elephant you get 1 point, and it will take 20 hits to bring down the heroic creature.

You can have more than one hunter in the scene, and each hunter's hits are tallied and displayed at the very end of the hunt, so this allows people to see who can get the most points during the hunt.

There will also be a Baby Elephant in the scene which can shield the target mama Elephant on one side, and anytime you hit the baby you will be assessed a penalty of 1 point.

The MK Phant Gun and all other props (cuffs, collars, etc) and instructions can be taken by users from the Tusk Chest, which also opens and closes (surprisingly).

Next part is thinking up more scenes, and getting the voice scripts done. I also have to add more animation to the second X-rated Tusk, which is MLPV2 powered and has display, torture and fuck poses.

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The use of voice sound clips to enhance products

Star Trek's Picard and the Depraved Monkey

 
We were thinking of incorporating voice sound clips in the last toy (Plumber's Revenge), but for one reason or the other never did. This time, given the more complex storyline on TUSK, I thought it would be nice to add it in.

SL restricts sound clips to 10 seconds maximum, though you can always string together clips for longer playing times.

Intstead of being directly invoked by the user using buttons on dialog menus, we envision the voice sound popping up at select intervals during particular scenes. (with the option of shutting down the sounds for people who'd rather not listen to them).

So, for example, when the hunter shoots at the mama elephant and hits it, we could have a voice pop up and say "A direct hit! Take that you monster!"

The main chore would be identifying points in the scene where voice would enhance the production, and then creating short scripts for those points.

The organ-damaging, heart-breaking TrixxyBell with her sexy cute voice will provide the clips once we've assembled the scripts, and I look forward to seeing (that is, hearing) how the clips integrate into the toy scenes. I think it'll go well, and I hope people think that too once they hear it.

Tire Kicking

We've never done end user feedback before a launch, but this time I decided suggestions, criticisms, and comments about the TUSK project might be helpful in creating a significantly better product, so yesterday night I plucked one of the Alanis girls over to give the toy a good run.

Judging from the "wow"s and gasps and other exclamations, it looks like we're on the right track so far, though I should encourage negative criticisms as most people are probably too polite to voice them.

Nevertheless, end user feedback will now be a permanent fixture in the development cycle of all major products at DM. Viva progress!