Archive for November, 2009

A couple of variations on a theme have been released this week at Ultrateque. First up is the Xmas Edition of GAR-E closely followed by The Lucky Dip Xmas Edition.

Gary gets a makeover for xmas season with a few little touches. The cutest little Santa outfit fits him just nice on his sculpty body. Which wasn’t as easy to match up as you may think! Plopped on a little floppy Santa hat and Gary was almost good to go!

But, I took the time to rescrript his little jet system. It now blows out little cute xmas stars. Stars from Uranus if ya like! lol. The chatbot system still running via Pandora bots of course and I have added some more xmas lines to his knowledge base. Of course, the Xmas edition still has the option to use your very own pandorabot, so the choice of questions and answers are pretty much endless. Of course his greeting messages have all been changed to festive ones too. Again, these can still be edited and changed by yourself to suit your own needs.

Gary has become very popular over the last few months especially with his new EVE look. And alas, the old Gary is no more. GAR-E is available in store in the following colour options:

White, Red, Blue, Green, Purple, Pink, Grey and of course Xmas Edition. The Xmas edition is on sale for less than one third of the normal GAR-E price as it is a seasonal product. And before you all think that you can simply change his textures and use him all year round….so why buy the more expensive product….then think again. I ain’t that stoopid! Gary knows when his outfit has been fiddled with and will simply wear it again as if by magic. Clever little chap he is.

And finally, yes he can still be renamed. Of course the obvious choice is to name him as Santa and I’m sure a few shall be named as such.

Talking of Santa…I simply couldn’t let Xmas time come without a special edition of The Lucky Dip being released. And what better way to do this than to convert the old standard barrel edition into a nice sculpted Santa sack full of pressies.

Basically you fill the sack with freebies and some of your own gifts you would like to give away for Xmas. Folks come along and delve into the sack and they randomly get a freebie or a gift. Sure it’s all free to play. Just good honest Xmas fun for everyone.

Developed to promote stores and clubs, the Lucky Dip (Barrel Edition) has been a good choice amongst many throughout the months. Followed by the UFO Lucky Dip  Edition. And now with this festive edition, the choice is even wider. (I just missed out on Halloween Edition due to other commitments! Maybe next year…).

So, the Xmas Lucky Dip made it in time for Xmas….and to give that something extra, I took the time to make a nice Christmas backdrop Scene which is given FREE with the Lucky Dip.

  Little winter wonderland if you will…complete with Santa in his sleigh and snowman. Setting the scene just right. And as with the Xmas Edition of GAR-E, the Lucky Dip Xmas Edition’s price has been kept real low too. Again, as it is a seasonal product, a cheaper price range was the idea from the start. Let’s hope your customers have as much fun playing with it, as I had creating it.

As of yet GAR-E/GAR-E Xmas/Lucky Dip Xmas are NOT available on XStreetSL!!! The Lindens have decided not only that they want to charge commission for each sale, but also for each listing! It won’t be long before all free items on XStreetSL shall vanish and of course a top range of excellent products too.

For now, I am not listing future products on XStreetSL until I have more news on the costs involved. But it looks like products listed there will certainly start having a higher price tag…

Silly little Lindens! Pfffft! For now, all products are still available in-world at the store which you can visit using the links to the right or by clicking HERE.

Many months ago I created a greeting script for SL which presented avatars with a choice to join an sl group and also to receive note cards etc. The script grew and grew and before I knew it, I was working on a very complex bit of scripting!

Weeks later I was out shopping in RL and saw a kiddies ride and decided there and then that instead of a normal “door mat” type of greeting, as is the norm on sl, that I wanted my greeter to look different. And so Gary Greeter was born. A big red ball with arms, face, baseball cap etc.

Next came the chat bot, created via calls to pandorabot servers. Now the greeter was complete. Everyone could chat to Gary and with my usual charm (ahem) I added some nice replies to a lot of questions he was being asked.

As the weeks went on, I had so many requests to release Gary for sale. I swore I would never do so. That was until now!!! However, the fact remains that the original Gary will not be sold. Instead, I reworked the scripts from the ground up and remodelled Gary on a well known robot named Eve from the Wall-E movie. So what else could I name this clone but GAR-E!

So what does it do?

He greets folks, he holds a list of everyone he meets, emails the owner, can store messages, gives out note cards and landmarks, can allow folks to join an SL Group and of course he can gab like an old lady at a bus stop. Basically answering any question thrown at  him.

Not only does he have all the functions the original Gary did, this model goes a few steps beyond. As this was being created for sale, I had to keep the customer in mind. And with that, some neat features have been added such as the ability to rename GAR-E and also to use your very own pandorabot too. Now everyone else can do their own questions and replies to suit their event, store or club etc.

Of course it does all the other stuff such as hold a visitor list, but with a nice added feature or two. GAR-E now greets folks in IM to cut down on chat spam. He also does this using a random message which the end user is in total control over. Once again the customer can change any of the messages to suit their needs. On top of that, GAR-E now also emails the list and location of himself on a daily or weekly basis. Giving the customer a nice break from having to cut and paste the list manually every day.

Of course, most folks don’t care about the visitor list side of things, they want him for the chat bot. And with the feature to use your own pandorabot, what could be better? GAR-E is now in store at Ultrateque on Second Life and awaiting a release date. For those who care to do so, feel free to click the link for a direct TP to the store to check him out. Ask him anything at all. As long as you have the name ‘gary’ in your sentence he will respond

Have fun everyone….and thanks to everyone who has been so supportive of this project over the months. It has been fun working on Gary and GAR-E. But I now must move onto other projects. The final GAR-E work to do is various colours. Which shall be released in time….

Of course this week saw Halloween and of course that meant party time. And not only that, but it was the grand opening of Moments on Second Life. And I had the pleasure of being the DJ to open the start of a full five hour event. Which included 2 DJ’s and 2 Live singers. Myself and DJ Jil pumped the choonz and of course the awesome live artists who were Molly Serpente & Taunter Goodnight. Such a professional line up for the event it had to be said!

Caitie did a marvellous job of setting the scene just right for Halloween too. Not to mention all the work she did throughout the event to as the hostess.  Contests included huge 1k l$ prizes for fishing and 1500l$ for best in fancy dress. Oh which I won! So thanks to all who voted. It was truly a great time for all.

So many great costumes were worn by everyone and below are some pictures of the event.

(click on them to enlarge).

THE PARTY BEGINS…

FISHING FOLKS AS THE REST OF US PARTY OUR ASSES OFF

MYSELF (MJ) AND MANAGER CAITIE

EEEEK! CHAMON! EEEEEE!HEEEE! (ME AGAIN)

TRACY AND HONEY – I THINK THE SPIDER ATE IJA!!!

HORNY BUNNY HOTSHIT (NOT VERY BUNNY-LIKE LOL)

IJA – THE DEVIL MAY CRY!

TRACY – VERY FRILLING

KANDY – PERFECT NAME FOR HALLOWEEN

DJ JIL – SPOOKS US WITH HER ERRY COSTUME AND MUZAK!

(Oh and Caitie sneaking up behind…..SCARY! lol)

DUK and TIA GETTIN JIGGY!

THE PARTY CONTINUES WITH ANGELA SPARKLING THE NIGHT AWAY

Thanks to everyone who turned up for my gig. It was a blast as always and great to see you all there. I shall be live at Moments every Wednesday (12-2pm SLT) 8-10pm UK. Click the MOMENTS link for a SLURL to tp directly to the venue.

Looking forward to working there if the opening was anything to go by, then it sure is gonna be one great venue of friendly folks indeed. Cya Wed everyone

OH! I gotta also add, if you want full details of all events at Moments, join the group mailing list at the venue. DJ’s and Live singers every week. From country to Rock. Disco to Dance Classics, music for everyone. Hell, even the Live singers take requests….More details can be found via the kiosk and of course you can always send an IM to the Manager, Caitie Beaumont in world.