Madpea Games – Ciaran Laval

September 24, 2015

Celebrity Auction To Help Build More Classrooms For A School In Kenya To Be Held In Second Life This Weekend

Friday September 25th sees the start of a three day celebrity auction in Second Life with the aim to raise funds to help build more classrooms for a school in Kenya. I’m talking about the country of Kenya here, not a region in Second Life!

The celebrity auction is associated with an official charity, Feed a Smile, Live and Learn in Kenya. The charity has been active in Second Life since 2010 and was featured in episode 16 of The Drax Files : World Makers.

This weekend’s event is getting some support from other Second Life residents, most notably in the form of MadPea Games who have been blogging about this for some time. A recent blog post explains how the event has been gathering momentum as they announced; We’re Gonna Need A Bigger Boat! :

Since we released the video from the school in Kenya that we’re fundraising for we’ve had even more well known residents sign up to put themselves on the Auction Block for our star-studded Celebrity Auction. We even have 2 Lindens put their brave avatars forward for the challenge!

I’ll also embed the video at the end of this post.

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August 13, 2015

MadPea Games May Well Be Changing Strategy, But The Are Still Adding To Their Second Life Collection

MadPea Games recently announced; MadPea Changes its Strategy :

There come certain points in life when we have to do a little re-evaluation of who we are and where we are going. After some discussions within the team, we came to the conclusion that we are stopping the UNIA development on THIS platform.

UNIA is a massive production in terms of games in Second Life. Over two years in development and at a cost of over US$12,000 it was a bold production. Unfortunately MadPea Games ran into some unexpected circumstances during development, losing their sponsor and 19 members of their team, including a long standing lead developer.

However they were determined to see UNIA through, but going forward, now that they have a smaller team, the focus will be on smaller games. An important point to note here is that MadPea Games are not leaving Second Life. Indeed they are still positive about games in Second Life and have a full roadmap ahead of them :

Our roadmap is already full for the rest of the year and we’re going to spoil you rotten! Our next adventure is being scheduled to launch October 1st and it’ll be epic.

However you don’t have to wait until October to sample something new from MadPea, The Collection launched on August 7th and will run until September 30th.

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April 21, 2015

UNIA From MadPea Games – The Trailer And Ziki Questi Ate My Sandwich!

I’ve been taking a short break from blogging these last few days. A combination of getting ready for a lot of blogging, The Mighty Villa making it through to the FA Cup final and having trees cut down in my back garden have distracted me somewhat.

However, last Saturday I was invited to a blogger preview of MadPea Productions forthcoming game, UNIA. Alas a combination of confusion (the launch had been delayed by a week) and being forced against my will to go to the pub (no really ….) meant I missed the preview. This led to Kess Crystal sending me a photo of two people sitting in a diner, with the message :

at the end of the tour Ziki Questi and Kiana ate your tuna sandwiches in the UNIA diner 😛

Charming! The incriminating photo will be stored in my file of incrimination. However, what of UNIA I hear you ask, I mean after all, that’s why we’re here! Well the game is scheduled to launch on April 27th. Originally it was set to launch on April 20th. However the good news about the delay is that it gives people longer to enter a photo contest, details of which can be found here.

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April 7, 2015

UNIA From MadPea Games Gets Closer To Release

With Remnants Of Earth being covered by Kotaku, PC Gamer and Massively Overpowered, amongst others, releasing a game in Second Life at the moment might be good timing. Second Life is also getting some decent publicity for a change in other quarters, although some of that is due to Linden Lab’s as yet unseen nextgen virtual world and the hype cycle around Virtual Reality.

However, long time Second Life game makers MadPea Games will soon be releasing their most ambitious title yet, UNIA. They have already enlisted the assistance of Draxtor Despres to make a promotional video showing the people behind the avatars who want to play UNIA :

The advertisement will be created by the incomparable Draxtor Despres, who is known for his videos depicting the many facets of Second Life and the humans behind the avatars.

MadPea have also been asking : What are you doing to get ready for UNIA? However you may be wondering, just what on earth is UNIA?

UNIA is an action-packed game unlike anything you have seen in Second Life before. Full of puzzles and monsters, it will keep the players on their toes the whole time.

Bold claim indeed.

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March 6, 2015

An Interview With MadPea Games Regarding Creating Games Inside Second Life

I should point out here that I have no affiliation with MadPea Games, other than that I bug Kess Crystal for information. However I find myself sat in a chair watching images of previous MadPea Games productions, which are being displayed to me on a screen.

I’m in a cinema at the new home of MadPea Games in Second Life, Kess Crystal has been eyeing me suspiciously. I’m awaiting news from the great storyteller herself, Kiana Writer. In a somewhatWizard Of Oz moment, the curtain twitches and a voice booms out “What do you want to know?”

Well let’s start with an easy question, I think to myself and then ask when did you first start creating games in Second Life?

“Our first game came out in 2008, about 8 months after I joined Second Life.” replies the voice.

I feel a little more comfortable now, although Kess Crystal is making damn sure I don’t see what’s behind the curtain. Next I ponder on an issue that many people may have pondered, Second Life does not have a reputation for being a platform where interactive games thrive, what made MadPea Games decide Second Life was a suitable platform for games?

“I never thought that “Oh, SL is suitable for games!” Most of all, I’m a storyteller and I saw Second Life as a platform where I could bring life to my stories. I was utterly surprised when I saw people actually enjoying them and my hunger started to grow to make the stories into games.

That still applies to our games. The storyline and narrative are the most important part of the adventure,” replies the voice of Kiana Writer.

Next a very important question, thought I, what is the process for developing a game for Second Life? (Do MadPea Games write the story first and then develop the game)?

The curtain twitches, and then I hear “It all starts with an idea or often a dream I have. Sometimes it’s just a vague idea like with BURIED that I started building with Axiomatic and the story was born during that process. I never think “What would people like?” It’s like a nagging idea that takes hold of my brain and keeps growing and growing, with characters starting to talk to me and I just need to let them loose.”

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