January 2015 – Ciaran Laval

January 31, 2015

Buried From MadPea Games – A Look At The Game

Buried from MadPea Games is an interactive experience that takes place on several locations across the Second Life grid. The best place to start is of course the starting location, which isn’t yet open to mere mortals, fortunately I managed to sneak in a get a preview.

Whereas I’m not in a position to give the game a full review, I can provide some insight into the game. The starting location is where you get your HUD and start your progress. As in most MadPea games the HUD is important and therefore it’s good to know what it does and how it’s used.

Clicking the ? in the top right hand corner of the HUD helps you to understand the HUD and what you can do with it. The view will change depending upon what you’re doing, sometimes text will appear there, for example. The basic controls allow you to go to Buried Island, get help, which comes via the MadPea website at the moment. There’s an option to join the MadPea group, which will also be a good place to discuss the game. Then there’s the option to go to MadPea’s Facebook page and finally an option to listen to a funky youTube stream whilst playing the game.

However be warned, the game does at times require you to listen to something that is happening inworld via interactions via objects.

The game is linear to a degree, locations need to be unlocked by finding clues in your current location. Available locations are marked with an X. Simply click the x for an available location and you should be teleported there.

There’s also a souvenir shop at the main starting location, which will sell souvenirs but may also have items that will assist you in your quest.

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January 31, 2015

Buried From MadPea Games – The Story Concept And Background Info

Buried from MadPea Games launches tomorrow and at last night’s blogger preview Kiana Writer, Axiomatic Clarity and Kess Crystal explained some of the story concepts, the work that has gone into the game and a bit about MadPea Games too.

First of all, let’s take a look at the story concept :

BURIED is a story of a writer for self-help books, Lily Morano, who gets interested in geocaching.
She spends the summer on her island writing and researching until she finds C-Me.

C-Me is a highly secret organization providing interactive geocaching and is invite only.
The C-Me capsules contain cameras and record the treasure hunters, allowing them to leave messages for each other.

Lily receives the app and starts the hunt. However, she realizes that something sinister is going on and gets involved into something big and evil..

The game begins when Lily has been missing for two weeks. Her husband is offering a $500 000 reward for the one to find her as the Police has been completely useless with their search.

Equipped with their tablets, the players will find Lily’s hidden ‘Lilypad’ and learn about C-Me and start a search through the grid to discover a thrilling story.

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BURIED is happening at the current time and date.

The game is described by MadPea as an interactive adventure and there’s a lot of detail regarding the game in a blog post from MadPea :

We all know, however, that there will be more to this … much more. A story, a HUD to help us carry out the adventure, objects to interact with for clues, hints, and tools to use to find our answers of the day. We’ll also get sent all around the grid in search of clues to further the story, and get closer to solving the mystery.

This is a grid wide interactive adventure, it’s more than a simple hunt, you’re going to have to work for rewards in this game, although there will be a group inworld which will aid people to share hints, tips and troubleshooting.

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January 31, 2015January 31, 2015

Buried From MadPea Games – The Press Release

I’ll be embarking on a few posts regarding MadPea games latest venture today. The new game is entitled Buried and launches tomorrow, February 1st at 12 noon SLT. I attended a bloggers preview last night and MadPea games have provided me with an excellent press pack, which means I don’t have to do that much work!

In my other posts I’ll look at the game concept and my own early experiences.

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January 30, 2015January 30, 2015

Rod Humble’s Chaphat Reveal Details Behind Cult & Daggers Game

I’ve talked about Rod Humble’s Chaphat more than once, most recently a week before Christmas when I noted that their game, Cults & Daggers was scheduled for a January release.

As January comes to a close, official news about Cults & Daggers has started to be unveiled. A press release on Steam has appeared :

As the Old Gods plot to destroy a planet they can no longer rule, you are tasked with creating your own religious faith to fight a secret war for the soul of the world. Recruit loyal disciples throughout the Mediterranean in order to spread your faith by preaching to the masses and converting noble families. Along the way, you’ll have to deal with spies, assassinations, martyrs, occult forces, prophets and blasphemers, all while battling the Old Gods and other rising cults for the hearts and minds of the world.

The press release also includes a quote from Rodvik himself :

“With Cults & Daggers, I sought to explore beyond the traditional strategy game model of ‘build and fight’, and offer up a more cerebral experience,” said Humble, CEO of Chaphat. “At the same time, I wanted players to challenge themselves by navigating the chaotic web created by corruption, religious avarice and betrayal as rival factions vie for power.”

Rod Humble’s name still carries quite a lot of weight in the gaming community and this can be seen via some articles that have appeared about the game.

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January 30, 2015

The Drax Files World Makers Episode 26 – Absinthe, Portrait Of A Virtual World Fashion Model

Episode 26 of The Drax Files : World Makers takes a dip into the world of Second Life fashion, more notably the world of a Second Life fashion model, in this case, one who goes by the name of Absinthe.

Now regular readers of this blog may well be aware that fashion in Second Life is not my comfort zone, but this is part of the beauty of Draxtor Despres’ excellent series, it breaks down barriers in a simple fashion by letting the person being interviewed do most of the talking.

In this case we also see someone who plays a role in Second Life that is not a direct representation of their RL self. Absinthe in Second Life is a white female. The person behind the avatar is an African American female. An interesting point to note here is that the person behind the avatar admits that she doesn’t really see colour when it comes to people and she puts this down to growing up with a father who was in the armed forces. This meant that she grew up with different cultures and different races.

This even extends to the point whereby the RL person behind Absinthe doesn’t really view her as white, more of an extension of her inner self.

We also get an insight into what being a Second Life fashion model entails. The Second Life fashion scene is huge and plays a major role in the economy and therefore plays a large part with regards to the content users create. However being a model entails a bit more than some may think, you need to know about animation overrides, poses and Absinthe even admits that she gets performance anxiety when performing at a show, even though she’s only pushing arrow keys.

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