Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Sanity Falls Day 16


"Three things cannot be long hidden: the sun, the moon, and the TRUTH."

Monday, January 30, 2012

NEW HUNT April 1st


Ok, so I'm gonna be a tease right now...

I have the poster for the new MadPea hunt set to open on April 1st and run thru June 30th 2012.

We are accepting application now- 50 vendors will be selected. If you would like an application to be a vendor for this hunt send me an IM or drop me a Note Card inworld- Clicquot Oh and I will get you right away.



For hunters- get ready to be surprised all over again- this is gonna be even better than the last hunt!

Stay tuned for details, join the MadPea group inworld, check the Madpea BLOG,  like us on Facebook FaceBook find our videos on Youtube and post your pictures of MP related goodness to Flickr.

So, we will see you soon- I will have prize pics later as always.. and we will "leak" story details soon...so consider yourself warned that you will be teased!

Cheers~

Clicq
(POST duplicated from  http://clicqsnonfashion.wordpress.com )

Honours by Honour


Well known SL blogger Honour McMillan wrote a great blog post about MadPea sim.

Check it out here: http://honourmcmillan.wordpress.com/2012/01/30/when-vegetables-get-annoyed-in-second-life/

Come and have fun with the peas. These are the last days!

Taxi: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/MadPea/136/111/24


 




The Dream Team recorded: Ultraviolet Alter + Tyrehl Byk

Yay, here is the recorded live stream of last week's show:

Watch live streaming video from madpeaproductions at livestream.com

The live show of the dream team yesterday again was a highlight, if not even better than the previous one. Here are some photos:

We hope to see much more of the Dream Team. It was again a joy for mind and soul. Thank you both!

by Quan Lavender
  

Lorin Tone MusicMan

We met Madpea Games very own sound machine Lorin Tone walking on an iron bridge and dressed like a Monkey.
"I am making environmental sounds for Sanity Falls" he said
Mr. Lorin Tone

We caught up with Lorin a few days later and asked him if making music was something he did in his real life. He admitted that he had been doing sound production for a very long time and he was a professional sound producer, he also played the pipe organ, percussion, keyboard and synthesisers where his "thing" and that he was a professional rocker. His friends Eolene and Paramparamm arrived whilst we where talking about his real life and Eolene asked if he could play bagpipes like her brother. Lorin happily turned into a bagpipe bird that had been created by Madcow. You have to smile at the unreality of Second Life, from a monkey to a bagpipe in two seconds flat.



Lorin the Bagpipe Bird


Lorin became involved in Madpeas Games via his friend Madcow who introduced him to the group. So "you're a seasoned madpea then" we asked, he told us he had been around a year, that is a long time in the world of second life, where there are four days in one of our days, thats the equivalent to four years. So he had been working on quite a few hunts and he gets involved in the production of the video productions like this one.

MadPea Games Video

We wanted to know if Lorin was responsible for the deadly screams on the dictaphone at Peatonville Asylum, he admitted that he was, "but its not me screaming" he laughed. He uses professional sounds that he has either produced or has the license to use in production of screaming dictaphones, sinister yells or even horribly creaky doors and floor boards. Lorin said he found Peatonville very enjoyable and that he was enjoying his work on Sanity Falls. So just how far do the sound effects go in Sanity Falls we cannot wait to find out for our selves.

Disappeared from Flickr, was this Dictaphone too mad to show.


Where there is need for a noise, its probably Lorin that made it, and we cannot wait to hear to final cut of these wonderful effects. If you think about real life everything has a noise, so its the silence you start to fear. Go around any sim in second life and you will hear the sound of rushing waters, birds cawing, singing, even the howling of wolves and you think you heard it all before. Yet when we walk around the secret location of Sanity Falls we discover that the sound is almost real, sounds you never heard before mingled with familiar ones.

That is the magic of a good soundscape, we took our victim for a walk on the bridge, and heard things from our nightmares. It wasn't long before we started jumping and turning at noises and asking  "Who's there" but no one answered so we walked a little faster and again we heard haunting melodies and unerving noises, they really are unlike anything we have heard in second life before.

Dressed for her dreams, our victim posed, pyjamas/pj's optional but not required for Sanity Falls, you might want to bring your teddy bear or cuddly rock for company though. Madpea Games production is all about using your imagination afterall, when that goes awry it starts to feel like a bit of nightmare.

Blogger screaming pj's optional. Teddybear essential.

Running for our lives.
Make of it what you will when you join us on April 1st to play the game/hunt called Sanity Falls.


Before we leave you to ponder the mysteries of Sanity Falls, just take a peak at Lorins home, where there is a second life steam pipe organ for you to play, you can buy this and take it home with you, there are smaller versions for prim limited homes. Or you can play in your very own sound studio. You can't do any harm because everything in second life is safe right? Nothing bad can happen in second life. Will you think the same after you have experienced Sanity Falls.

Playing Lorins pipe organ its on sale.
Messing with sound in Lorins studio also on sale.


We want to leave you with Lorins own thoughts, of his madpea game colleagues. "I'd like to add that Madpea is a great team to work with, full of great folks who have great creative and artistic skills.It's an honor to work with them, always.

 When we open the hunt called Sanity Falls we invite you all to as Lorin put it "walk the path and experience how SL's proximity based sounds can be used for evil purposes!" he laughed in a madpea sort of way, manically!!!
So there you have it folks, fellow peas, our sweet little green peas, without sound Sanity Falls wouldn't be the scare of your second life.

Sunday, January 29, 2012

Sanity Falls Day 14


"My Mind is my own Church."
- Thomas Paine

Two Great Events at Two: ‘Show and Tell’ and Ultraviolet / Tyrehl – Live

We are not only looking forward to the 2nd ‘Show and Tell’ as aready announced here. It will again be held at 2 PM SLT on the MadPea Base sim.

Taxi: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/MadPea%20Base/136/195/25

Madpea offers another great event:
After the huge success and many requests Ultraviolet Alter and Tyrehl Byk will present again their live show. Here are some screenshots of last weeks event:
So if you could not make it last week, make sure to be on time on MadPea sim. But there good reasons too, to revisit the event. Tyrehl said: “Ultra and I have some new things we are going to try…”

For a smooth event, PLEASE follow the following instructions and detach ALL lag causing items!

    1 - You must be seated in a chair to be able to properly view significant parts of the event.
    2 - Set: World > Environment Settings > Midnight
    3 - Set Draw distance = 128 m
    4 - Set Particles to maximum
    5 - Please Disable voice
    6 - Press ESC several times to release all camera controls.
    7 – Turn the music stream ON
    8 - PLEASE REMOVE ANY SCRIPTED DEVICES YOU HAVE ATTACHED TO YOUR AVATAR TO REDUCE LAG!!
  9.  OPTIONAL:  HIDING NAME TAGS   You can make your viewing experience much more attractive by turning off everyone's name tag in your preferences.

Today, Sunday at 2 PM SLT!

Taxi:  http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/MadPea/147/123/3821

by Quan Lavender

  

Saturday, January 28, 2012

YAY! 'Show and Tell' on Sunday!


After the great relaunch of the builders event “Show and Tell ” two weeks ago tomorrow it will be held again. 

"Show and Tell" has been a popular event for almost 7 years. MadPea generously host the event now and donated 1000 Linden for the prizes. The pot can be increased significantly by visitor donations. Each participant will receive guaranteed 100 Linden, the rest will be distributed to the winners.
Talk with host Lorin Tone
Each participant has an area of 25x25m available for the builds and an hour to present and comment the work.
Takni Miklos presented a nice particle script
The wonderful host Lorin Tone explains how the winner will be chosen: “The audience decides the winners by voting on our voting board. Prize money will be awarded proportionally to all the presenters. Attendees can also contribute to the pot. That's the fun of Show and Tell, everyone is a part of it, whether they show or not.” Lucky winner of last week Marianne McCann won 1008L!
Marianne McCann won with a Multiple Picture Frame
„Show and Tell“ tomorrow and every 2nd Sunday held at 2-3 PM SLT.  The board will fill up again pretty quickly, so builders are recommended to show up early.

You are cordially invited! Builders and visitors don’t miss it! It will be again a great fun!

Taxi:   http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/MadPea%20Base/136/195/25

by Quan Lavender

  

Sanity Falls Day 12


Sanity Falls will be launched in Second Life April 1st.
You have no idea what you're getting yourselves in for..

Sanity Falls Bridge

We met Midgard in Hoshi, he had not long completed a beautiful prim/sculpted iron bridge and now he was working on another project for Sanity Falls. So how did Midgard become involved with designing and creating object in second life and how did he become involved in madpea game productions.

 Midgard told us he was fairly new to the MadPea Game production team but no less valued by everyone, he is new to the building game with prims. His experience comes from programs such as 3DS Max, Wings 3D,  Daz Studio and Bryce. State of the art drawing programs that encourage the builder to formulate and reproduce designs, using vertices and rigging to create object that are then textured and rendered. Very similar to building with prims in second life, but these programs allow you to store the UV maps and Obj files on your computer for reuse, and resell. Thats probably why Midgards natural progression in this design game is like many others, heading towards the use and concept of mesh in second life builds. Mesh is the latest "tool" for builders that has been introduced to second life is it the best thing since "sliced bread" well it eats prims thats one thing people don't realise about it. Although we are as interested in mesh as the next builder we are more curious about Sanity Falls Bridge and of course its creator Midgard.

"It looks like real iron," we suggested, he laughed because we both know its not real iron but when you look at the work he has applied to this bridge you can almost believe it is really iron. Its been beautiful textured and rendered and really is a state of the art masterpiece in Second Life.
We wanted to know where Midgard's idea for such a state of the art bridge came from. He grinned and showed us the original real life picture of a bridge one of the team of writers, behind Sanity Falls had given him.

Yes we can see how Midgard creation resembled the real life iron bridge, it is a sight to behold and we cannot wait for players/victims to see it for themselves. Every detail has been lovingly created, sculpted we imagine and textured. Just look at the intricate workings of the bridge. Deliberately muted to protect Midgards design rights.

This beautiful bridge is very significant to the story that is Sanity Falls, so how did Midgard create that iron work. He mentioned an old tool that help to align prims making the textures as seamless as possible. We admitted to having an affinity in real life to anything that looked like a bridge, be it a wooden whicker bridge over a stream or our fantastic Silver Jubilee Bridge that stretches across the River Mersey near our home. Bridges are something to be admired, Midgard agreed that he had a collection of real life Bridges. So having this beautiful masterpiece of prim engineering right here in our favourite sim, was a joy for both of us.

So what is the significance of this iron "monster" your probably wondering. Well it is very significant to the story that the writers have weaved for the game Sanity Falls and it is only game right? and its safe. Yet to play the game you must suspend belief to live out that story with the character, and why not suspend belief to live or die in a game, that we desperately want to finish, to beat, to end, to WIN at all costs.

We play games to win, we hunt to win, spin the concepts of hunting into a game and you have an idea what Sanity falls was built upon. We can't tell you much about the actual story behind the game Sanity Falls, its all a mystery even to us. We are just going to have to wait like our dear readers to find out what is so special, so frightening about Sanity Falls. We do know that this iron masterpiece is very significant to the story.
Where does it all start? perhaps it starts right here on a bridge in the middle of a wilderness, surrounded by trees and mystery, and water. Are YOU out of your depth, can YOU get across the bridge without ending up back where you started. Are YOU? game for Sanity Falls. What is Sanity Falls, its a game and you will be calling its name for months to come. "Remember Peatonville?" they'll say and your look on in sadness or happiness and say "I tried Sanity Falls" so compelling you try again and again, but will you WIN that is the question.

Are you Ready for Sanity Falls?

 By Rowanessque Whitewood.

Thursday, January 26, 2012

Fun for a Single Player: Escape Room

There are days where you come online, and no friend is around. What to do? MadPea offers also single-players fun and amusement. A great example is the Escape Room near the bingo game. Inconspicuous from the outside, it reveals inside its full beauty! * hehe *
Seventies design at its finest: Wallpaper with huge eyes, lava lamp, Kiss poster, record player ... everything there! But once if you're in, you will notice that you cannot get out there. Now the game starts! On top of the computer you get on click a HUD.
Wear it and start to collect objects. In the chat you'll get hints how use the objects once you pick them up. Click in the objects in the HUD to make use of them. With a little patience, it is not that difficult to get out. Escape Room offers a single player real fun. It took me about 40 minutes; experienced players will succeed faster.

Taxi to Escape Room:  http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/MadPea%20Base/190/200/25

by Quan Lavender


  

Saturday, January 21, 2012

Great Live Event!

Be prepared for a sensational event. The master of particles in SL, Tyrehl Byk  and the master of electronic music in SL, Ultraviolet Alter are celebrating a live event to say goodbye to the MadPea sim. While MadPea is creating new fun and adventures on the remaining 3 sims, Madpea was already empty and gave this great opportunity.
Tyrehl Byk (taken by Tim Deschanel)
Tyrehl is an outstanding creator of particle effects. His former shows “Phantasmagoria” and “Catharsis” has been a huge success. Sasun Steinbeck said about Catharsis: "This is by far one of the coolest things I have *ever* seen in SL... and I've seen a lot!" And Rebeca Bashly commented: "This is just brilliant, i have never seen such thing here! it was super! that camera control thing is awesome!" Tyrehl also did live shows before, here is a video:

Ultraviolet is a universal gifted artist. In Second Life, she is Builder and Composer. Her live performances of electronic music have a huge fan group in Second Life.
Ultraviolet Alter (taken by Tim Deschanel)
Pol Jarvinen said about her music: “Listening to Ultra's music, it's like sitting by the ocean and listening to wave after wave gently lapping up on the beach. Because it goes "nowhere", you stay where you are and you are transported to a state of peace and timelessness. Within minutes of first hearing her music you realize that you are hearing a live show of incredible beauty and warmth.” Sadly she never records her performances, but if you want to get an idea, I recommend visiting the installation “Art Planet” by Betty Tureaud. The sounds are composed by Ultraviolet especially for this work.

This is the first cooperation of these outstanding artists and we are looking forward to an event that people will talk about for a long time. Seats are strictly limited, so make sure to appear on time.
For maxium enjoyment, it is important that on arrival you set your viewer to the following settings:

    1 - You must be seated in a chair to be able to properly view significant parts of the event.
    2 - Set: World > Environment Settings > Midnight
    3 - Set Draw distance = 128 m
    4 - Set Particles to maximum
    5 - Please Disable voice
    6 - Press ESC several times to release all camera controls.
    7 – Turn the music stream ON
    8 - PLEASE REMOVE ANY SCRIPTED DEVICES YOU HAVE ATTACHED TO YOUR AVATAR TO REDUCE LAG!!
    9 - OPTIONAL:  HIDING NAME TAGS   You can make your viewing experience much more attractive by turning off everyone's name tag in your preferences.

Let me add a personal recommendation:

FASTEN SEAT BELT! YOU WILL BE BLOWN AWAY!

Tyrehl Byk and Ultraviolet Alter at MadPea on Sunday 22. at 2 PM SLT

Taxi:  http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/MadPea/142/133/3827

by Quan Lavender

Ti'chelle a member of the Host Team

We met Ti'chelle on her home ground and discovered that we both love dragons, some are simply beautiful others are adorable. Created by Wraithe Designs, a must future buy for us as we are very partial to mystical creatures.


We asked her how she and the team prepare hunt locations and what sort of work goes into the process. Without Ti'chelle and the teams work, and diligence there wouldn't be a hunt it is a tasking business that is vital to the cog and machine work of a good hunt.

Once the set is designed for the game a Poster is prepared, here is the one from the Peatonville Asylum Hunt. This is sent to all interested vendors and posted in many locations, then the Vendors have to apply to be prize hunt locations.

This was the last hunt Poster


Ti'chelle explained that they get far more contenders and applicants than they have room for, so not only do they have to sift through each application they have to "vet" each application. One rule is paramount. No Adult Sims are used, Mature, Moderate and PG are ok but nothing Adult. Some hunts do have Adult sims included, but Madpea Productions does not.

Virtual imagery of all those applications

After checking applications Ti'chelle and the team of host vendors visit each location, so if 100 apply and 90 are suitable each one will get a visit. There are four team members and each one will be allocated a group of shops to visit.


From a Previous Madpea Games Hunt


Ti'chelle explained the process "We visit each shop, even if they have been in a hunt before, because people do change their shops. We get a feel for what they sell.  We do groups visits to shops that none of us know about, just to be able to talk about what each of us thinks.

So how do they get the poster and information to the shops and vendors who are going to be involved in the prizes?
Ti'chelle: We send the poster and notecard to it to SLHunts blog, and other bloggers that we know.  Also hunt groups like Happy Hunters and Hunt Applications.   We also each send to shops that we like and or know. Or a shop that has been in a hunt and we liked their goods. Sometimes a vendor hears through a friend and contacts us.
From the collection they recieve every application is documented on Google spreadsheet Then we sort them into ones we know we will use , and some that we still need to decide, and then those that we cannot use at all. By doing this Ti'chelle and the team run successful hunts every time.

Virtual Imagery of Application Process

We wanted to know how do you choose shops, venues, genre and what sort of prizes can hunters expect?

Tichelle explained.  The prizes are a mix of different genre, for example full perm textures, furniture, fun, clothes and other interesting products that the hunters will enjoy finding and keeping.
Kiana likes us to get stores that we have not had in a hunt before too. Its difficult trying to decide which store is in and which ones are out. We limit them to 50 stores. If the prize is for example clothes, they have to provide unisex or male and female prize in the package. They encourage the stores to provide themes, but this is not mandatory. Most shops fit their prize to the poster which is why the call for applications don't start until the poster is ready to go.
Sample Prize Locations Peatonville


Ti'chelle and the team have to decide what is best for the hunt, theme, area, location of host vendor, store cooperation, its very difficult when they have to turn down personal friends because they didn't meet the criteria they are looking for.


We wanted to know the time scale from poster, application and selection, Ti'chelle said its about two weeks, which is a very fast turn over. They must work really fast on this application process.


Ti'chelle said "once applications are in thats when the big job starts, tracking and visiting."

We always wanted to know who hides the object, shop or the team?

Ti'chelle said "The shop hides the item, then they send us the slurl.  We visit and make the hint.  Kiana does most of the hints.  She likes them to fit the theme of the game and she is very good at rhyme. Most hunts rely on the shop to make their own hint, but we are also doing a game and we want things to flow in the storyline. Our hunts are the only ones that makes the hints.

Sample Prize Locations The Dark Room

Ti'chelle added, "Once they are chosen it becomes rather standard, send a welcome kit with poster and instructions.  And yes, we go around and check. We also go around and check their prize slurl location, and then when the hunt  item is sent and placed, we check it works, and then," she laughed
"we go around and check once prizes are in the hunt item, so yeah, we make many visits to each store.



Phew, we felt exhausted just thinking about all the work it takes to make a good hunt work. We have no doubt at all that Sanity Falls and consecutive hunts will be run just as meticulously as past hunts. So now you know what makes a good hunt tick. The inner workings of the hunt, the graphics, the art work, the building and most importantly the placing of those all important gifts that we all hunt so desperately for or do some of us just go along for the fun of it all. Just the sheer magic, and a little time to just absorb our avatars in to a unique self role play if you will as the story plays out. We guarantee there is nothing like Sanity Falls in Second Life, we have been told this by our wonderful production team.

We hope to glean some information from the Writers, but that folks is so top secret even we with our invisibility cloaks cannot prise it out of their fingers. All we can say is they are working to write and weave a little bit of second life magic that is going to drive you Insane. Now where are we going to put the Peatonville Asylum for all those poor avatars who suffer, either withdrawal, mania or euphoria when they finish or at least aim to finish Sanity Falls. We will be back with more news as we get it, for now, the wrappings are sealing around the secret location and we are bound by Madpea Games clauses of confidentiality and official secret pease acts to keep silent about the game.

The game you will all be saying "Yeah I loved Peatonville, but that Sanity Falls um yeah? who am I again" from your small cells that awaits you, on a sim near you in an asylum that was so scary it blew its self up. Be happy Peas.
By Rowanessque Whitewood.

Friday, January 20, 2012

Sanity Falls Day 4

"The long and winding road
That leads to your door
Will never disappear
I've seen that road before
It always leads me here"

Music Fun Today: ♫~D R U M~♫

It will be loud – it will be fun. Drum is a group of high class live performers well known as creators of beautiful rhythms. The DRUM group have collaborated to create the unique sounds, drums, and animations.

To give you an idea, here is a machinima of a show:
The Show of DRUM presents 9 different cultures of drumming from all over the world: Japanese, Native American, African, Latin, Indian, Mallets, Stomp Wall. The team plays besides that a special set of Rusty Drums.  DRUM does not use pre-recorded music, so each show will be unique.
DRUM is very well known and popular. We expect a large audience. Make sure to appear on time. There is so much to do on MadPea sim!

DRUM at MadPea on Saturday 21. at 12 PM SLT

Taxi: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/MadPea%20Base/161/200/26


by Quan Lavender