Building the Steampunk Metaverse

What is easier to describe, I wonder, the metaverse, or steampunk? Both are rich in character and imagination, and probably different to each person who experiences them.

I'd like to make sure that Steampunk has a safe-haven in Decentraland, thus the idea of Steamworks came about. Steampunk is not going anywhere, there is a tight-knit community around it that keeps the ideals and ideas alive. Yes, it's not trending on the New York style scene anymore (phew!), but it's not dead, not dying, and to some, a way of life. 

In my local area I attend as many Steampunk festivals as I can, which now is about two. This adds up to a whopping 5 or so days a year that I can Steam out. Steamworks seeks to be a place for like-minded people to experience and enjoy Steampunk aesthetics for the rest of the 360 days of the year. So here's my question to you fellow Steamers.... 

If you could create your own Steampunk themed world, what would it look like?

Would you have winged pirate ships floating through the sea and the air?

Would you have giant gears slowly mining an unknown substance from down below? 

Would you have grit and grime, or something sublime?

So now you're probably asking what the heck is Decentraland, and what makes it different from other virtual reality worlds. Decentraland is built on the Ethereum blockchain, which is a new form of technology that lets users buy their own part of the online world. This means you can make your little piece of the world WHATEVER YOU WANT!!! (I choose Steampunk!)  In the future you will also be able to buy one-of-a-kind items that your avatar can wear, so you can finally rock that top hat you've always wanted! But creative people, do you know what this means? It means you can also CREATE your own special one-of-a-kind items, and sell them for real money in the virtual world. 

If you are reading this, then you must have some interest in either Steampunk or Decentraland. While Decentraland is still in the building phase, it will be up and running soon. 

Want to stay connected? The first step is to enter your email with Decentraland so you can be notified of the next phase towards Decentraland's opening here: https://decentraland.org/avatars/

Want to try your hand at building something for Decentraland? (It's fun!) Visit the free builder tool to see how easy it is to make something amazing! https://builder.decentraland.org/

Want to check out the Decentraland map? (Remember, Decentraland is still being built, and we can't actually "go into" it yet until sometime this summer) Check out the link to visit see where Steamworks is on the map: https://market.decentraland.org/estates/2227/detail

So what do I want from you lovely readers? Only the Steam of your imagination. I want to plant the seed of this world of Steamworks, and if it resonates with you, get involved if you'd like. If not, just check back in the future, and see what progress we've made. My perfect dream would be to see the same wonderful characters from the Brass Screw Confederacy walking around (recognizably) in Decentraland. 

Thanks for viewing, and let the Steam keep rolling on!

Decentraland Creator Contest Prize!

I'm so excited to finally see where the land I won in the Creator Contest is! I was thinking it would be in the Southwest corner of the map, but to my surprise, these parcels are right under the "Decentraland" sign! This was one of the first places I wanted to buy when I started looking at getting land, but since I bought elsewhere, I couldn't afford to get land here too. So I am SOOO happy get have a parcel here with all the other winners in the same area. 

I got parcel 55, -123, which is only 5 parcels away from the sign. There are a lot of other parcels for sale right now, and I wish I could add them to make an estate! But for now I'm content just enjoying the neighborhood and seeing what people create in the land around me. 

Decentraland Builder Creator Contest!

This is a blog post that is a little late, but I didn't have this site up and running when I first got the news that Decentraland had picked the final 50 winners from the Decentraland Builder Creator Contest. They had already announced the top 5, plus the CoinGecko, Exodus, and Bittrex winners, so I was still holding out hope that I could get a spot in the top 50. I may or may not have been checking my phone habitually throughout the day to see if anything had been announced. And then......

https://top50.decentraland.org/#/

I scrolled through some amazing builds, and I was shocked to see my castle build "Queen of My Castle" in there!!! 

I am SOOOOO excited to be included in these ranks of talented Creators! The honor of being alongside such talent is surprising and amazing. I'm not a designer in my own profession (I work with individuals with special needs), so this was an amazing experience.

My gratitude goes out to the judges who went through a whopping 9,000 entries! Art contests are so hard to judge, because art by it's nature is so subjective. Everyone appreciates art in a different way.

I put my 7,500 Mana to good use by using it to help expand the Steamworks Outpost, and I can't wait to see where the parcel of LAND will be. I don't think I'll sell it, because I think it's pretty special (at least it is to me!)

 Thanks for reading, and I can't wait to be able to walk through all the other submissions when they put them in Decentraland!

Decentraland Creator Contest Submission #5, The Keeper

This was actually my second scene working with the Decentraland Builder tool. I thought the stone house was super original, and made sure that you couldn't see light through any of the cracks in the walls.

I have a thing about fairy houses, and so this was sort of a mystical and whimsical house where the "Keeper" abides. 

I loved the way the accents looked inside. The logs were support, and the lanterns added a great pop of color. 

Near the house stands the arch, which hides the mysterious rock garden. 

So it's a little hard to see what this is from this angle, but from above...

...it is the map of plazas in Decentraland. 

I left a few treats in the woods in case the judges went that far. I'm not sure what this is, it sort of looked more like a grave the more I worked on it, so it's open for interpretation I suppose!

Thanks for looking, and have fun in Decentraland!

Decentraland Builder Contest Submission #4

Even though this is one of the smaller builds I made for the Decentraland Creator Contest, it is one of my favorites! I love how the red jugs made the perfect substitute for ceramic roof tiles!

Decentraland Builder Contest Submission #3

My third submission for the Decentraland Builder Contest was ahem, slightly designed with Bittrex in mind. Like, I totally stalked them for this one. 

If the giant Bittrex logo wasn't enough, I sort of Googled their HQ address. After I found the building in Seattle I believe their offices are in, I set out to recreate it in virtual form. 

(I was especially happy when I found the pieces that worked for creating the "800" on the outside of the building!)

 I doubt anyone will ever realize what the building is if I didn't say it, but it was really fun to try to get it as close as possible to the real thing!

I was also really excited to learn how to create a new pattern out of the existing tiles we had to work with!

I also wanted to create a sense of futuristic wonder, so I added a few airships with a landing pad.

What's this on top of the airship????

Well there's a party inside the airship of course!

And when you're ready to leave, you can hop on a slide that takes you out the back of the airship, and hopefully you miss the prop on the way down!

I'm not sure if this one ever made it to the Bittrex judges, but my guess is they are pretty busy people. I had more fun making this one, just because it offered certain challenges to overcome. 

Thanks for looking!

Decentraland Builder Contest Submission #2

Decentraland Builder Contest Submission #2

The Ruins of Nautilai

This was actually one of my first ideas, before I really got a chance to play with the Builder tool much. The shape of the nautilus is gorgeous and mathematical, so I tried to create something built around that shape.

I love that even though you are in the middle of the structure looking up, you can still see the shape of a spiral shell above you. 

I wanted a somewhat ethereal and ancient sort of feel. The insta-fog supplied exactly that! I also tried to use a color palette of yellow trees flanking the borders to prevent anything from obstructing the view of the ruins.

I created an archway which invites the viewer to stand in, and thus gives them the best, straight shot of the ruins. 

From above the shell sculpture can be clearly seen. I wonder if the judges get to see it from this angle?

I'm really happy with how this turned out, because I never knew what a nautilus-shaped structure would really look like. It was fun to walk through, with the blocks slowly forcing you tighter and tighter until you get to the middle. It was fun to make, and I hope you enjoyed the little tour!

Decentraland Builder Contest Submission #1

The Decentraland Builder Contest may have come to a close, but the new builder software is still up and running, and I just LOVE seeing what I can create! The software is pretty basic with options of what it will allow you to do, but in a way I love that you have to be that much more creative to make what you want to!

Here are a few pictures of a castle I created. The parcel is the max size allowed, which I had to do in order to bypass the triangle limits. Each brick tile is almost 200 triangles, so I kept hitting triangle limits as I built, and had to get a larger parcel size.

The castle is furnished inside, and you can walk through the entire thing. 

I wanted to create a medieval market of sorts in the front, but I didn't have enough triangles to build much. I wish I would have made a castle that wasn't as wide to preserve tiles.

The gate was made with bridges and fences

There is a sky light with dragons framing the tall dance hall. 

I love the fog effect! Even from a short distance, you feel like you are looking at something far away. 

In the end, I was pretty happy with my castle. I didn't have any plan or sketch when I started it, so there was no comparison with how the final product turned out. I just wish (and hope!) that we will have more triangles someday to work with so we can create similar structures without having this much land to work with!

Thanks for reading!

Decentraland Virtual Reality

Our reality is different from one another, even though we may share the same soil, the same house, the same sun in the sky. Sometimes we long for another reality where our dreams are a bit closer to our grasp.

Decentraland seeks to be a new online gaming/building platform that offers the user a virtual reality experience. There are forests, casinos, distant lands, and more. Sounds similar to other virtual reality realms, nothing really groundbreaking here, until, that is, we talk about the underlying technology that Decentraland is built upon. Decentraland uses the blockchain to verify each transaction, making sure that the "real" money each user spends is purchasing something that cannot be duplicated in the digital world. That doesn't sound like much of a big deal, unless you like to collect rare online items, like this extreeeemely rare directors chair, http://www.webkinzinsider.com/2011/ask-creative-director-contest-win-ultra-rare-directors-chair (which the author happens to be the 11th person in the world ever granted one).

And there's one more thing that Decentraland offers that other VR platforms don't:

You can own your own piece of the game.

Not like an award or a high score list, but real, actual digital land! (insert chuckle at the sound of what I just wrote) Through the technology of the blockchain and it's online ledger, users can buy parcels of land, which then belongs to them. They can build a house on it, build a casino on it, they can even build a giant middle finger on it, I suppose...if they wanted to. The point is, it belongs to them, and they can do with it what they like. Imagine exploring a world where everyone could be as creative as their imagination allows them to be. Well some of it would be quite scary I suppose, but a lot of it would be pretty dang awesome too.

So here's to the dreamers, the radicals, the risk-takers who have stuck along with the project long enough to see it to the current state. Decentraland was, oddly enough, the first alt-coin that I ever bought. I sold it to buy some other coin, but later bought back in. This blog is dedicated to the progress of my own land on Decentraland, as well as other projects that are breaking new ground.

Only time will tell if we are lunatics buying pixels, or visionaries who braved the nay-sayers. Either way, the journey will be an interesting one...