Saturday, May 29, 2010

Welcome to a New Build :)

Some people have been wondering if the store is open again, and the answer is yes! I've been on a slightly "soft" opening while I work out issues with my vendors. The thing is, there have been some technical difficulties and I was hoping to have them resolved before I posted about the sim, but no such luck.

It's not the grand opening I was hoping for, with a big unveiling of a whole new look with a whole new card system. Of course since the actual building process went so well, fate wanted to make sure I knew I was her bitch and so decided to throw other things at me to show me that no, you can't plan for everything. The card system is still down, but being worked on, and some of my vendors are missing due to a very obscure SL security measure that's made me unable to rez them. I have a ticket open and I'm still waiting for a resolution, I'm really hoping that they'll be able to help but if not, I will have to redo them. Some of the vendors are still a bit screwy, so please bear with me while I iron out the kinks.

Anyway, I'm focusing on the bad things when the truth is I have a beautiful new store that I feel is well designed, will be easily expandable, and reflects what I'm capable of as a builder. It also makes a hell of a picture.


I'm planning on holding a Flickr contest soon, so you guys can enjoy some of the views and details I've pored over for the past months. I'm planning on making the price one of my new gift cards, so when the system is up and running I'll announce it officially. Until then, come visit and see the pretty :)

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Carnivale/202/82/45

Sunday, May 23, 2010

Sim to be Closed on 5/25

It's finally ready. I've tweaked my textures, revamped my vendors, primped my products and looked over my layout. The store is almost ready to be put in place, so I'll be closing the sim on Tuesday, the 25th in order to get things into place.

I can't say for sure how long the sim will be closed, but I'll be sure to announce the minute it opens again to Masqueraderie and on my Plurk. I'll try to get an entry out as well to detail what's new :)

One of the new things will be a card system that works with my current menu vendors. Problem is, there's currently a technical glitch which prevents the full amount to be refunded if you cancel the transaction when using your card, so I want to be sure it's fixed before I open. If it isn't, I'll have to leave the card system unavailable until it's fixed. I'm still very excited about it, when it's working I think it's something you guys will really enjoy.

Until then, I'm just incredibly excited about my store becoming this:

Booyah.

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

I'm back home and working hard. I'm taking inventory of everything I have out in the store right now, making revisions to the vendors and updating everything that needs it. This is the big clean-up I've been wanting to do for ages. It feels good to take stock of everything, go through older items and revise the prices, or do new pictures for items that aren't well represented. I'm sorting and grouping items in new ways, revising old scripts, and trying out new organizations for the store layout.

The store build itself is, for the most part, done. There are a couple little things that I have in the works for it, but the prims are in place, the layout is solid, and the exterior is set. I'm proud to show you a few more teaser pictures, taken with viewer 2's gorgeous shadows.



It doesn't even look like SL, does it?

I'm excited and proud to have this finally in the works, and progress with the vendors is coming along (despite it being even more tedious than doing ear skin tones, which I didn't think was possible). I think I'm comfortable with saying that I'll be able to finish and make this official sometime in the week of the 16th. I'll be shutting down the sim for a few hours to get everything into position, but I won't require any more than one day. The sim will be completely closed, so I'll try to pick a week day that's not too busy.

Unfortunately, there will be no new releases to unveil (unless I can whip something up), my efforts are completely spent on getting this in place. I am planning on doing something special for the grand opening though, not a party but a sale. I never do sales! So save up your money and start eyeballing items ;)