TGoR Multiverse expansion: Second Life side project

As I described in the previous post, the majority of the work on TGOR has lately been very programming-heavy, which is Hopfel's department, and because of that I got a bit of "free time" if you can call it that...

So, logically, I've decided to spend that "free time" by loading even more work onto myself and pursuing yet another old dream of mine - making avatars for Second Life.

What is Second Life

If you're not familiar what SL (Second Life) is, I could explain it as a 3D social platform. Despite that it might look like an old game from over 15 years ago, it is closer to something like Facebook rather than a videogame.

If you think about it from this perspective - both SL and FB been around for approx. 15 years, yet we don't consider FB as old and outdated.

Second Life still has its relevance to this day, because, to my knowledge, there is no other place (yet) where you can freely walk around as your own custom made fursona. It's also virtual world that probably has the largest concentration of Furries.

Surely there is VRChat that might appear similar - a much more recent social game as well, however its not as permissive. For example adult content is not officially allowed in VRChat and it lacks any kind of marketplace for creators to sell their products. It also doesn't have scripting functionality like SL.

Over the years the graphics has been significantly updated in Second Life (especially if you use a custom modified viewer client) and new creator opportunities added, like full mesh avatars with support of additional tail, wing, quadrupedal leg bones. It sure isn't perfect, but it is unique in its own way.

The past influence of SL on TGOR

Without going into details I could say have a personal story involving SL that established some important aspects of my art back in year 2009 that I use to this day.

Needless to say that The Gateway of Realities (TGOR ) as an idea was influenced by that too. It is not about following the SL example though, rather the opposite, making something to contrast.

Some people expressed that  TGOR is similar to SL, but I always denied that - because TGOR is a game, while SL is a social platform - very different things by definition.

However both might offer somewhat similar experiences of "being your own non-human character", which is especially valuable for Furry Fandom and similar subcultures - not a lot of media can offer that indeed.

SL is also a place where people can explore their adult fantasies, which is also going to be true for TGOR.

But, as the core difference is that TGOR is a game with combat, crafting and exploration mechanics, it is an immersive life simulator first but it aims capture a similar feeling to SL in a way - all while providing greater gameplay substance without hindering its usage as a social place.

SL is a platform for creators (and consumers) where anyone can upload almost anything, and our game, while still moddable, has a specific world building setting, it focuses on alien creatures, non-human worlds, simulation of life and anatomical correctness.

But perhaps the furry side of SL and TGOR have just enough things in common to cross-pollinate.

Perhaps if I do indeed start producing content for SL like I wanted years ago, it can work as an advertisement platform, plus if sales are decent, the income can help support further TGOR development.

Additionally it shouldn't require much more time to make such content, I can re-use some of my TGOR work and port it over to SL as "official merchandise" of sorts.

Actually what we've made in SL

Since Sergals seem to be popular within SL and furry fandom in general (and for obvious reasons, I love them so much as well) and I had a finished sergal model laying around, I decided to try importing it into SL!

Prior to that I had to do some market research by pestering all my friends who play SL (as I haven't stepped in SL for 9 years I needed to re-familiarize myself)

Overall art-related process of importing the model into SL was pretty easy and straightforward, and it was pretty quick too! However the bulk of the work is scripting-related.

Thankfully I asked Hopfel to help with that part, and together we started to make a bunch of scripts to rule them all: an "avatar engine" that can significantly reduce (or completely eliminate) the amount of scripting needed to make new avatars in the future.

These systems are currently unfinished, but the avatar generally works - it's just a matter of adding features and fixing bugs.

Speaking of features, like all my work, avatars are going to be "fully equipped and anatomically correct". Depicting organic creatures with all the orifices to be able to perform basic bodily functions is something I strongly advocate for in my work all across the media.

The avatar's control HUD - fully configurable via a config text-file (notecard), letting us and users add more buttons, sliders, and other properties to control the avatar. It can save and load presets and many more. It's still WIP as it is missing some pretty icons and tabs.

Your input on the matter

Uncensored version of this image is at the end  of the post, in attached files (SL_SergalAvatar3.jpg)

Of course, not everybody here on our Patreon have played or are playing SL, and not everybody should be. Some have negative memories of it, some had the time of their life there. Some stopped logging into SL, and some just started...

Regardless of your experiences - think of Second Life like if it was just another platform where people can find our work and learn about The Gateway of Realities, like if it was Facebook, Twitch, DA, PornHub or Twitter (just an example - I'm not saying that we are using those platforms, though we have a reserved Twitter account for future use)

If you play Second Life:
I'd like to hear your opinion about the avatar, I need interesting ideas for the features and improvements! As well as what you think about this idea in general.

Of course it isn't done yet, avatar needs more work, mainly fixing all the script-related issues and adding the features. After it is done we will have a solid code base to produce more avatars very quickly, focusing on art while reusing all the scripts for them.

If you want to try the unfinished avatar for yourself, help with advice and feedback, please let me know by messaging me here or on our Discord server (Discord is better because I will reply much faster) I can personally give you the current version of the avatar and any updates for it afterwards, think about it as a close beta testing as well :}.

PS: Fun story - during this month while exploring and researching SL, I randomly stumbled upon a couple of our patrons and it was amazing! Very surprising and humbling to visit a place and hear people say - "OH, YOURE SALIRETHS! THE PERSON BEHIND TGOR!" This is so unreal xD Thank you all so much for all the love <3