Happy New Year: Next Dimension Tales Debut

 

Hey folks, hope 2023 is going well for you so far. The Nook gang had their first meetup of the New Year yesterday and spontaneously decided it was time for us to create a Next Dimension Tales YouTube channel. Our focus is all things related to 3D Storytelling. We'll share details of our works in progress, tutorials on how we create 3D stories, and cute little animated clips that depict life in the next dimension.

The theme of this clip is joy and we're wishing you buckets of joy in the coming year. We hope it makes you smile. 

~Nara

 

Subscribe to the channel so you will know when we post. 

 

The End of One Adventure is the Beginning of the Next for Hypergrid Storytellers

We launched Immersive Edge this weekend and celebrated at the after party last night. It's the Monday morning after.

What Next? 

Well to start let's talk  about Next Dimension Tales which is a brand new grid that quietly launched  as part of Immersive Edge.

 world.nextdimensiontales.com:8901

We wanted a place that was not linked to any particular commercial or private grid, something that could stand on it's own as a common ground for the hypergrid community. This is a library for 3D stories. If you create one we would like to link it via a holographic scene or a gate back to your grid. If it is a story built by a multi-grid team we can make space to host some. This is a free service so finances will create limits to how many can be directly hosted. Future projects from our teams will be hosted here. Immersive Edge will remain here open to the public.

How to submit a story to Next Dimension Tales:

1) It must be a 3D story.
2) It must be a story: a clear beginning, middle, end.
3) If both the above are true, you get in touch with Nara Malone via FaceBook, G+ or inworld and let her know you'd like to place a story at Next Dimension Tales.
4) Don't be intimidated by the rules because I am notorious for not following them. 

What will this look like?

I have a vision of a catalog region of floating books that rez a scene when you land on it. You would then walk through the scene as an introduction to the story and go through a teleporter into the book which may be hosted on another grid. I think of it as a library where you check into a book rather than check a book out. Ideas often shift and refine themselves as you start making them a reality, but that's where it stands for now.

We will be a resource for storybuilding as well:

The tools we used to build Immersive Edge, the tools we use to control NPCs are all there. Other creators are already contacting us about including AI, making ebooks that contain portals into worlds, holodeck novels and so on. We will add to current resources as new methods are developed.

Exploring the future of fiction:

Nara's Nook Greyville Writer's Colony was created to explore the future of fiction in virtual reality and how virtual reality can continue to inspire better traditional text stories. The Immersive Edge project demonstrates that it takes more than a writer to tell a 3D story. It requires artists, scripters, musicians, etc. Fortunately our grid projects have been a gathering places for folks with these skills, sometimes those skills are all wrapped up in one person. Most Nook members have homes on other grids but come to Nook to join our experiments. Others enjoy making their homes with us. Either way, Nook is where the plotting and experimenting takes place and we welcome anyone who wants to explore the future of fiction with us. If you decide to join the Nook grid, please hold off until next week as we are in the process of moving to a new server and would lose any new members registering now.

world.narasnook.com:8900

Hypregrid Stories Project: Building Community Across Virtual Worlds

Our Magic Books donated by Whitestar Magic

Hypergrid Stories is a project we've been cooking up at Greyville Writer's colony for a couple of months now.

The overall goal is to build community across the borders of our hypergrid worlds while we are building stories to entertain the citizens of the metaverse.

Yes, we are even sneaking across the garden wall into SL and back with a scene from one of the stories. More on that on release day.

We've been quietly working with some grid and region owners already. We're amazed by the welcome and support our project has gotten. Whitestar Magic donated magical prim books. Fred Beckhusen contributed the brilliant game controller scripts. Mike Hart of Next Reality Grid has gone out of his way to help us.

Beautiful dressing room set Mike built for Tina

Peek in window at room he and Siobhan are working on.

Siobhan and Grizz slaving away over story plot in Redlight Spa

Dancer Martin in leopard thong provides...um...creative inspiration.

Future home of bookstore for hypergrid authors at Redlight Hotel

Crystal Brewton, indie author extraordinaire and owner of Independently Spoken, was gracious about all our newb mistakes like forgetting to wear or group tags  and wondering why our prims disappeared.

 She's generously allowed us to take over cabins at her colony and build sets inside. She even parked her boat out on Nara's Nook grid in the Quarterz City region. I may have to put a poem in her boat.

Crystal Brewton's boat at Quarterz City.

Poem you ask?

Yes in addition to stories, Jeff Cuneo and I are putting together poems and song lyrics to set out along  a poetry trail. If any of you poets out there have a poem or two you'd like to add, let me know. We're also still looking for places to plant our poetry prims. If you have areas in your region you want to highlight we just need a spot to plant  the book we place the poem in and another prim to hold the script that goes to our game controller to deliver clues to the next scene.

Merrie Schonback, owner of the lovely new Pilliars of Mist world, agreed to host some of our poetry prims at some of her intriguing builds.

Amid the pillars in ruins on Pillars of Mist

Mine Entrance on Pillars of Mist

When the work is all done you will be able to step into one of the story books we will set out in Greyville Park and be teleported into a scene on another grid or region. Then the adventure begins with clues to find the hidden bits of story in each scene. When you finish a scene you will be transported to the next scene.

Yes, we do have plenty of interesting settings around Greyville and the Nook that we'll include too. But the point here is to to show off some other beautiful builds out on the hypergrid.

Good Karma Shop in Greyville

Tarot fortune-telling deck inside Good Karma

Author Shara Lanel's house in Greyville.

We're still looking for settings to put poetry. If you have areas on specific regions you want to draw traffic to we'll happily drop some poetry prims there. We also need a good spot for a Wicca based scene and a harbor of  blue water where you won't mind having a greenhouse floating for a few weeks. Project will be on display Feb 14 thru March 17.

If you'd like to be involved contact Nara: +Nara Malone on G+,  Nara Malone on Facebook , or email nara_malone [at] yahoo.com