Hi all!
First, some quick news: I’ll announce the first, unique VR-related promotion for NooSpace tomorrow! Keep your eyes peeled.
Meanwhile, here’s some world-building info about NooSpace itself. It’s a little geeky... but go ahead, indulge yourself.
I always enjoy the maps in fantasy and science fiction novels. I’ll often peruse a map in detail before reading the book, to help set the stage. So I’ve worked up a map for the first floor of NooSpace’s OldWorld dimension. It ain’t pretty yet -- the idea is to have a real artist create a nicer version one day.
But first, some background.
NooSpace is a virtual world where each player owns an area (or group of areas) within which they can create their own 3D environments, characters, objects and programming. Surrounding each person’s space is a community environment where players can interact, participate in events, go shopping, or just travel around.
Axon and Miranda, who you’ve met in the first chapters, handle tech support in this world, helping players create and maintain their spaces. And stopping break-ins too, of course.
Each player space has two parts: an external facade, and an internal private area. The facade is public and can be seen by everyone. The internal space is private, and accessible by invitation only unless the owner decides to make it public (as many owners have).
The player can create their own 3D facade -- within the design and decency guidelines of the NooSpace floor they are on -- though most choose to use stock templates like Western Store, Victorian Home, Art Deco Office, and so on.
The interior of each space can be set to a different scale than the outside, so players can create huge interior environments if they want. Whereas a standard space is 20 meters wide, the interior of that space can be up to 2 kilometers (1.24 miles) wide, a 1:100 scale. Each facade has a door, and when a player steps through the door their visual scale changes, and they see the huge interior space at normal size. Players who purchase adjacent spaces can create virtual worlds that are many kilometers in each direction.
NooSpace began with a single "floor" with a pre-planned layout. The following image shows the central area where the early action happens in the NooSpace novel.
I’ve posted the full map of Floor 1 on my blog, if you want to check it out.
Look for another update tomorrow!
Rob
I really appreciate all of you who are supporting NooSpace! Everyone will get a copy of the book when it’s published, but publication can take a while, so there must be something else I can offer.
The standard promotion by other authors is an Amazon gift card giveaway once the book hits a pre-order limit.
That’s great, but I’d rather do something that fits with the Virtual Reality theme of NooSpace itself.
NooSpace is a 3D virtual world, owned by its players and backed by the blockchain, the same technology that powers Bitcoin.
For months, I have followed a similar VR-on-the-blockchain project called Decentraland. Like NooSpace, Decentraland will let people buy plots of virtual land and create their own structures and immersive 3D experiences on it.
Their project has just begun, so you can’t go online with it yet. But the Decentraland team just raised over US$25 million, so their Metaverse will get built in one form or another.
So here’s the promotion: Everyone who pre-orders the NooSpace novel has a chance to win their own plot of virtual land in Decentraland!
I will buy the land for you, and also build a 3D scene there straight from the NooSpace novel. You will have your choice of one of these scenes:
I’m open to other suggestions too -- even one of your own design -- as long as it’s not too complex. I already own MANA (the Decentraland cryptocurrency) to buy the land, and I can create the 3D content there for you to enjoy.
When the NooSpace novel gets funded, I will randomly award a lucky supporter their own slice of NooSpace in VR! (Or, the winner can choose an Amazon Gift Card worth $50 instead. But wouldn’t owning your own virtual space be more fun?)
Here’s a video about Decentraland, just to get you more excited.
Please repost and retweet this, if you are so inclined, to spread the word.
I have another promotion in the works too, which might be slightly more awesome. More about that next week.
Cheers, Rob