the 1.3 was released. Its pretty impressive all the changes. This is from their blog (some pictures edited out to meet the post requirements)
March 26th, 2009 by SmallWorlds Chronicle
Finnbjörn Sigurbjornsson stared at the whiteboard and reflected just how far away he was from his native Iceland. His current position at SWHQ in New Zealand was head of the New Release Names Committee (along with his colleagues Jenny the daredevil James, and Stuart go easy now Blake). They were working on their latest brilliant creation. The team had had many grueling sessions over the past week - Jenny had suggested some completely bizarre names for the new release, trying to convince him to go with things like Lightning Bolt or Superfusion. Stuart was not much better, his best attempt was one point three and his other version, one.three. But time was running out and the pressure was getting to them all. They only had 30 minutes before their decision was expected and they knew that the SmallWorlds team would have high expectations after their last brilliant submission. Then came the miracle Finnbjörn had been praying for. He took the whiteboard pen from Stuart, and knew he was in the zone as he wrote what he was sure was the perfect release name. It was simple, it was refined, it was what the release had always wanted to be called. He had defined its very soul.
Its 1.3″.
Thirty minutes later, Finnbjörn presented the name of the new release to the SmallWorlds team, confident that hed once again knock their socks off.
To report on all the information she wasnt able to give you in her Sneak Preview report, heres SmallWorlds reporter, Honesty Blaize
The 1.3 Release - A Special Report by Honesty Blaize
Greetings SmallWorlds citizens. Its here at last! The developers have all heaved a sigh of relief and started talking about taking a night off to catch up on some missed sleep. I even saw Finnbjörn skipping back to his desk after his presentation, looking happy as could be - the mans a genius, no doubt about it. Lets go - theres lots to share
Space Instancing - now available to all Spaces in SmallWorlds
When things get busy in a SmallWorlds-owned space, another version or instance is created, so that there are no limits on how many people can enjoy that space. This feature is now available to everyone. You can now make your spaces instanceable (if thats a word), so you can invite all your friends +more to your events and parties.
Fun Spot!
Its a club with lots of different rooms, each with a multi-player game machine! Im predicting that the Fun Spot will become as popular as the good ol Cue Club - another great space for friends old and new to hang out and have some fun together. Currently, youll find lots of Fast Draw machines in there, but there are some more really cool and fun multi-player game machines planned for the next release, so the Fun Spot will just get.. ah
funner.
Welcome to the Aqua Lounge (VIP Club)
Schmooze on in to the newest and most fabulous space in SmallWorlds, the new Aqua Lounge: the first VIP-only space.
The Aqua Lounge is a custom-made room with all new artwork, mood lighting and dance floor. Its totally unique; theres nothing else like it in SmallWorlds. Many items within it are unavailable for purchase, so its distinctive style and appeal will remain exclusive.
Wed like to extend a warm welcome to all VIP club members. Were sure youll enjoy your time in the Aqua Lounge. come on down and meet some new and interesting people! We have other VIP club spaces currently in the design phase, and look forward to bringing those to you in the future.
New Kitchen Items - Its Marble all the way!
Time for a kitchen redesign? Heres some awesome marble top items plus a rangehood for a really luxurious chef quality kitchen experience.
New oven / cooktop options to fit in with the fab new kitchen decor -
I also overheard whispers about some other kitchen items being released soon, so start swapping those recipes now so youre all prepared!
Shadows and Lighting
In my Sneak Preview report, I told you about the amazing new lighting effects. To summarize: rooms can be dark, with lit areas, lighting in a room can change as the day progresses, light can be tinted (colored), and objects that emit light (eg: lamps) will light the areas around them. These new lighting effects are really something special!
Just a warning for you, though if you use lots of lights it can chew up your PCs processing power, and make things run pretty slow. If youre having problems with what is commonly referred to as lag, heres a couple of simple things you can do right now to reduce it:
Heres a few scenes utilizing the new lighting effects, to hopefully fan the flames of your virtual interior designer:
Hand Held lighting items
Something that was kept tightly under wraps really is cool - and I know you guys will love it too!
New Hand Held lighting items are available! Check these out. On the left, the green glo stick, and below, matches, a hand held flaming torch and a flashlight!
All these items are available in Mysterios for all of your personal handheld lighting requirements.
Funky New Lighting Fixtures
Weve got some great new lighting fixtures; a modern table lamp, a modern floor lamp, and a white wall sconce. Visit Modern Living to purchase.
Dance Studio Update - VIP
Now, create three dances for your VIP Club Avatar! Once youve created them, you can choose to dance one straight after the other while you are in-world and strut your stuff in ways never been seen before in SmallWorlds!
Summary of other new features:
There were many other exciting features profiled in my 1.3 Sneak Preview report a week ago. Further social network integration, Improvements to the SmallWorlds Chronicle, Resizeability and an improved Missions User Interface. Rather than explaining them in full once again, Ive been a little more brief here. If youd like more detail, please do check back on the 1.3 Sneak Preview blog edition. More detailed information awaits you there on all items below.
Extending Social Network Integration
Theres now added newsfeed for FaceBook and Bebo, and weve also added Opensocial based network MySpace; now MySpace users can add SmallWorlds as an application on their MySpace page!
Improvements to the SmallWorlds Chronicle
An improved Enter World . Now you can select your avatar and your pet from the newspaper.
Its easy to access the Chronicle without leaving the room youre in, by clicking the Launch Chronicle button from the gray icons toolbar while youre in-world.
Improved missions User Interface
Rich Text Editor in missions panel (dialogue boxes seen by players when doing the mission) - you can add boldness, italics, underlining and change the font color.
Mission Dialogue Box Style Options - you can now choose between three options for the mission dialogue box: medieval, futuristic, and present day (illustrated left).
Resizeability
Smallworlds 1.2 displays a larger area than version 1.1. Sure, this looks great, but lets face it, it can be a lot slower on older PCs. Smallworlds 1.3 gives you the ability to easily switch between the smaller and larger display areas simply by clicking on the minimize button at the bottom right of the window.
A wee hint for our next release:
For some of you running around in SmallWorlds furiously completing missions and levelling up, you might be wanting a little more than just a sit-down to recover? perhaps even somewhere to freshen up a little? My lips are sealed
A Banquet of new features
So there you have it, SmallWorlds citizens. A veritable banquet of new features to chew on! SmallWorlds really does keep getting better and better, and I can say without a grain of doubt that theres a lot more where that came from. These Kiwis are a clever bunch and you can keep expecting more & better from SmallWorlds; but youve probably already come to that conclusion, without me having to tell you. Im looking forward to bringing you my next SmallWorlds report - I bid you farewell and trust youll enjoy Release 1.3!
~ Honesty Blaize
March 26th, 2009 by SmallWorlds Chronicle
Finnbjörn Sigurbjornsson stared at the whiteboard and reflected just how far away he was from his native Iceland. His current position at SWHQ in New Zealand was head of the New Release Names Committee (along with his colleagues Jenny the daredevil James, and Stuart go easy now Blake). They were working on their latest brilliant creation. The team had had many grueling sessions over the past week - Jenny had suggested some completely bizarre names for the new release, trying to convince him to go with things like Lightning Bolt or Superfusion. Stuart was not much better, his best attempt was one point three and his other version, one.three. But time was running out and the pressure was getting to them all. They only had 30 minutes before their decision was expected and they knew that the SmallWorlds team would have high expectations after their last brilliant submission. Then came the miracle Finnbjörn had been praying for. He took the whiteboard pen from Stuart, and knew he was in the zone as he wrote what he was sure was the perfect release name. It was simple, it was refined, it was what the release had always wanted to be called. He had defined its very soul.
Its 1.3″.
Thirty minutes later, Finnbjörn presented the name of the new release to the SmallWorlds team, confident that hed once again knock their socks off.
To report on all the information she wasnt able to give you in her Sneak Preview report, heres SmallWorlds reporter, Honesty Blaize
The 1.3 Release - A Special Report by Honesty Blaize
Greetings SmallWorlds citizens. Its here at last! The developers have all heaved a sigh of relief and started talking about taking a night off to catch up on some missed sleep. I even saw Finnbjörn skipping back to his desk after his presentation, looking happy as could be - the mans a genius, no doubt about it. Lets go - theres lots to share
Space Instancing - now available to all Spaces in SmallWorlds
When things get busy in a SmallWorlds-owned space, another version or instance is created, so that there are no limits on how many people can enjoy that space. This feature is now available to everyone. You can now make your spaces instanceable (if thats a word), so you can invite all your friends +more to your events and parties.
Fun Spot!
Welcome to the Aqua Lounge (VIP Club)
Schmooze on in to the newest and most fabulous space in SmallWorlds, the new Aqua Lounge: the first VIP-only space.
The Aqua Lounge is a custom-made room with all new artwork, mood lighting and dance floor. Its totally unique; theres nothing else like it in SmallWorlds. Many items within it are unavailable for purchase, so its distinctive style and appeal will remain exclusive.
Wed like to extend a warm welcome to all VIP club members. Were sure youll enjoy your time in the Aqua Lounge. come on down and meet some new and interesting people! We have other VIP club spaces currently in the design phase, and look forward to bringing those to you in the future.
New Kitchen Items - Its Marble all the way!
Time for a kitchen redesign? Heres some awesome marble top items plus a rangehood for a really luxurious chef quality kitchen experience.
New oven / cooktop options to fit in with the fab new kitchen decor -
I also overheard whispers about some other kitchen items being released soon, so start swapping those recipes now so youre all prepared!
Shadows and Lighting
In my Sneak Preview report, I told you about the amazing new lighting effects. To summarize: rooms can be dark, with lit areas, lighting in a room can change as the day progresses, light can be tinted (colored), and objects that emit light (eg: lamps) will light the areas around them. These new lighting effects are really something special!
Just a warning for you, though if you use lots of lights it can chew up your PCs processing power, and make things run pretty slow. If youre having problems with what is commonly referred to as lag, heres a couple of simple things you can do right now to reduce it:
- Close any other windows you have open
- Make your SmallWorlds window smaller (a new button allows you to do this easily - see details in the Resizeability section below)
Heres a few scenes utilizing the new lighting effects, to hopefully fan the flames of your virtual interior designer:
Hand Held lighting items
Something that was kept tightly under wraps really is cool - and I know you guys will love it too!
New Hand Held lighting items are available! Check these out. On the left, the green glo stick, and below, matches, a hand held flaming torch and a flashlight!
All these items are available in Mysterios for all of your personal handheld lighting requirements.
Funky New Lighting Fixtures
Weve got some great new lighting fixtures; a modern table lamp, a modern floor lamp, and a white wall sconce. Visit Modern Living to purchase.
Dance Studio Update - VIP
Now, create three dances for your VIP Club Avatar! Once youve created them, you can choose to dance one straight after the other while you are in-world and strut your stuff in ways never been seen before in SmallWorlds!
Summary of other new features:
There were many other exciting features profiled in my 1.3 Sneak Preview report a week ago. Further social network integration, Improvements to the SmallWorlds Chronicle, Resizeability and an improved Missions User Interface. Rather than explaining them in full once again, Ive been a little more brief here. If youd like more detail, please do check back on the 1.3 Sneak Preview blog edition. More detailed information awaits you there on all items below.
Extending Social Network Integration
Improvements to the SmallWorlds Chronicle
An improved Enter World . Now you can select your avatar and your pet from the newspaper.
Its easy to access the Chronicle without leaving the room youre in, by clicking the Launch Chronicle button from the gray icons toolbar while youre in-world.
Improved missions User Interface
Rich Text Editor in missions panel (dialogue boxes seen by players when doing the mission) - you can add boldness, italics, underlining and change the font color.
Mission Dialogue Box Style Options - you can now choose between three options for the mission dialogue box: medieval, futuristic, and present day (illustrated left).
Resizeability
Smallworlds 1.2 displays a larger area than version 1.1. Sure, this looks great, but lets face it, it can be a lot slower on older PCs. Smallworlds 1.3 gives you the ability to easily switch between the smaller and larger display areas simply by clicking on the minimize button at the bottom right of the window.A wee hint for our next release:
For some of you running around in SmallWorlds furiously completing missions and levelling up, you might be wanting a little more than just a sit-down to recover? perhaps even somewhere to freshen up a little? My lips are sealed
A Banquet of new features
So there you have it, SmallWorlds citizens. A veritable banquet of new features to chew on! SmallWorlds really does keep getting better and better, and I can say without a grain of doubt that theres a lot more where that came from. These Kiwis are a clever bunch and you can keep expecting more & better from SmallWorlds; but youve probably already come to that conclusion, without me having to tell you. Im looking forward to bringing you my next SmallWorlds report - I bid you farewell and trust youll enjoy Release 1.3!
~ Honesty Blaize
