Since open sourcing my quails in 2010, a few people have had a go at extending the scripts, or even just being inspired into making their own breedables. Some have even reached out and have become good friends.
One such friend is currently working on a brand new breedable - one which has already taken Second Life by storm, even though it’s not yet finished.
People are excited, and some - perhaps understandably - a little impatient (it’s hard when you’re excited!)
Things have changed a lot in breedables since 2010, traits, mesh, animesh, server based breedables, exploits, etc.
It’s become a lot more than just making a pet that reproduces. While I would say my quails were fairly simple - they were still complicated! things are now even more complex.
You need to be able to:
- Design mesh (or have someone do it for you).
- Texture mesh - and you’re going to need a lot of textures for each of the traits.
- Animate mesh.
- Administer a server (probably linux).
- Code in LSL, and some other language for your server side code.
- Administer a database.
- Design web sites, for the front end.
Then there is the community management, which you may be able to outsource, but you need to be able to trust them - oh, and pay them.
Now you can create the in world breedable, which you will need to pay extra special attention to, because if there is a vulnerability, you can bet someone will exploit it and ruin everything you’ve worked so hard on - but not only that - your customers have “invested” in your breedable and it’s now worthless.
You will also need to be prepared with tools to handle Second Life issues, like item duplication, connectivity issues, and inventory loss.
You’re probably also juggling a family and a real world job too.
Now, my friend is working through all this, and is very keen on getting it finished, but - for better or worse - he’s got a community of excited fans already!
Fans to be kept engaged, interested, and looked after. Now while many fans are encouraging, thoughtful, and just happy to be along for the ride, if you’re anything like my friend, you’ll want to make the ride as enjoyable and rewarding as possible.
It all takes time, and there is so much more to it than just slapping together some LSL scripts and popping it in a mesh.