I’ve mentioned The Hypergrid Stories Project before, but now Nara Malone, who has a name that sounds like she’s some sort of super sleuth, has unveiled some meaty details about the project. Now this is a catch it whilst its hot deal because in its current form, it’s running until St Patrick’s day.
Now don’t be put off by the fact that this is billed as a Hypergrid stories project, yes it is largely an OpenSim venture, but not exclusively, from Nara’s blog post we can see a list of participating grids and they include Second Life:
Participating Grids
- Next Reality Grid: Redlight Hotel from Mike Hart
- Metropolis: Independetly Spoken from Crystal Brewton
- Craft Grid: Spirit of Arcadia: Cogtown from Virtual Christine, Pitcairn: 111shawn from Shawn K Maloney, Aquarium from Tao Quan.
- OS Grid: Virunga Mountains: from Debbie Edwards and Fred Beckhusen, Transmedia Learning 1 and 4 from Nara Malone.
- NarasNookGrid: Greyville, Quarterz City, Siobhan Muir 1, Tina Glasneck 2, Series, Shadowling Manor, and Theria from the Greyville Authors.
- Second Life: Phaze Demesnes from Debbie Edwards and Fred Beckhusen, Karpov from an anonymous donor.
The project is taking interactive fiction in a new direction, you actually walk into a giant book to follow the story! Then you’ll be teleported to a scene in the story and will eventually find a landmark to the next scene.
The stories are in the short story category, 500 – 1300 words but if you’re not that interested in stories you can follow the poetry trail instead or simply explore the builds.
The featured stories are :
A Letter To Charlie by Tina Glasneck
A Letter to Charlie, a Spark Before Dying Flash Fiction Tale: Veronika knows what life inside the strip club means, but when a man comes offering her a chance at redemption, she can’t help but give in to his kindness. Every decision has consequences. This is flash fiction connected to the Angels Cry novella – a part of the Spark Before Dying Series.
The Twisted Circle by Shara Lanel
Star wanted the challenge and camaraderie of working magick with others, so she gave up practicing as a solitary witch and joined the Black Waters Coven. What she discovers is a history of murder and a quest to find someone who may not want to be found.
Blue Harbor by Nara Malone
Blue is a young girl full of secrets. Determined to protect the men who failed to protect her she stops talking. When her family decides she is an uncomfortable secret that needs putting away, Blue has to find a way back to sanity and freedom. Blue Harbor is an award-winning flash fiction/poetry mash-up adapted to interactive fiction for this project.
Incubus Dream by Siobhan Muir
Cassie knew dreams could come true, but she’d never expected a dream to be this real. Ivan needs a rescue, and only Cassie can do it, but dreams are tricky, the dreamer easily lost.
This is an innovative and interesting looking project. One of the plus point is that it crosses boundaries and shows great examples of collaborative working in virtual worlds, which is something that really isn’t emphasised enough.
For more information please do go and read Nara Malone’s site. There you will find information on how you can visit the project and much more. Please don’t be shy about OpenSim, it’s not that scary!