seems like a pretty rocky road to me.
Long time no see, eh? well I'm still alive, still kicking.. and it has been quite a weekend.
The other day, someone posted a comment on a review of the ER Ares Penis, saying they were having some technical issues. The hud, for whatever reason, was disappearing off the top of the screen when they tried to minimize it.
Now, I've never used Firestorm, but the last couple of weeks I've been using it, and when I pulled up the hud and found that just like the commenter, MY hud vanished off my screen.. I knew right then and there that this needed to be fixed. And because the commenter did so on a product review, I had to be FAST or sales were going to suffer, hard.
I've done a lot of tinkering with that hud, and the minimize function hadn't been something I'd really used much in my experiments. I figured the quick and easy fix was to just remove the minimize button, pack it back up, and ship it.
That was the wrong move.. on a lot of levels. I was rushed, I was hurrying, I wasn't taking my time and checking every angle.. and the release failed as soon as someone tried it out. Now the color picker was broken.
I tried hunting through the code to find the issue, and finally just reset the script and it fixed itself? I HATE fixes like that.. but I worked to integrate a script reset into the 'first use by a new user'.. and it was good to go this time.. right?
Nope.
Turns out in my haste to remove the minimize function, I'd forgotten that the title-bar of the hud could be used to minimize the hud too.. but with the maximize button now removed.. once zipped, it couldn't be unzipped.
My offline messages were on fire when I woke up this morning.
SO..
I took the product completely offline, and I tore the whole thing apart. I mean really.. every piece of the HUD re-positioned, every line of code pored over. I found remnants of code that weren't being used anymore, later found places that were using that code, and so on.. back and forth all day long... til finally I had a HUD that was working, reliably, for me.
The minimize function is back by extremely passionate popular demand. It's function completely reworked, the math completely refigured. The hud itself rebuilt.
I tested, I re-tested. I tested with an alt, then another, then another. Different viewers, different regions, some wearing the parts, some rezzing them. I contacted friends, and begged them to test it. We've hammered buttons, filled message buffers, done everything we can do to break it.
In the end, I think it's stable. At this point, version 1.6.0 is the most well-tested version of an item I've ever released.
I appreciate all of your patience as I've bungled this release.. and I hope you'll find that the work, the hiccups, and the annoyances will have been worth it in the end, for a much more stable, reliable, and even a touch faster product than before.
Now, I'm going to bed.
Monday, June 7, 2021
They say the road to hell is paved...
Tuesday, January 8, 2019
Tuesday, July 19, 2016
Been a while... sorry about that.
So it's been a while. It happens, right? It certainly has happened to me before, and I'm sure it will happen again.
So what's been going on for the last couple of years then?
Eh, the short version is.. relationship. The longer version takes some explaining.
Suffice it to say that the relationship of the last couple of years was very intense, very close, and very personal. My partner in that relationship offered many times to help me focus and refocus my energies in regards to ER, helping me streamline the product catalog, make transitions to new product lines, and so on.
That didn't so much happen.
It's not a matter of assigning blame though. I certainly could have taken the reigns and forced progress on my own. But I had really hoped that our working together would be a bonding experience, and would help me do my very best work; and because of those hopes, I prioritized waiting for those opportunities, over getting things made.
I want you all to know, that I have a very long list of ideas, product ideas, ways to streamline the store's offerings, decisions on which items and product lines I should retire, which ones need an overhaul, and so on. I have long lists of notes for products I've always wanted to update too.
What I've been missing and to a degree still am, is my muse: the spark, the divine afflatus that doesn't simply inspire a good idea, but provides the animus that can not only overcome the inertia of starting, but can drive the projects through the hard parts to completion. That special something that makes the difference between the things I put together because customers wanted them, and the truly special 'labor of love' items that I make because I wanted to.
You can probably tell which ones those are, because the items I loved making.. are the ones that sell so well.
The next few weeks/months, I'll be working on trying to get that spark back. I'll be making some changes at ER, and be beginning the process of retiring some of the items that, if I'm honest, really have no place in the store that ER has become. While they do reflect the 'Eclectic Randomness' that gave the store it's name.. I know what ER's good at selling, and what I'm good at making.
And you'll hopefully be seeing more of those things in the future.
Stay Shiny.
So what's been going on for the last couple of years then?
Eh, the short version is.. relationship. The longer version takes some explaining.
Suffice it to say that the relationship of the last couple of years was very intense, very close, and very personal. My partner in that relationship offered many times to help me focus and refocus my energies in regards to ER, helping me streamline the product catalog, make transitions to new product lines, and so on.
That didn't so much happen.
It's not a matter of assigning blame though. I certainly could have taken the reigns and forced progress on my own. But I had really hoped that our working together would be a bonding experience, and would help me do my very best work; and because of those hopes, I prioritized waiting for those opportunities, over getting things made.
I want you all to know, that I have a very long list of ideas, product ideas, ways to streamline the store's offerings, decisions on which items and product lines I should retire, which ones need an overhaul, and so on. I have long lists of notes for products I've always wanted to update too.
What I've been missing and to a degree still am, is my muse: the spark, the divine afflatus that doesn't simply inspire a good idea, but provides the animus that can not only overcome the inertia of starting, but can drive the projects through the hard parts to completion. That special something that makes the difference between the things I put together because customers wanted them, and the truly special 'labor of love' items that I make because I wanted to.
You can probably tell which ones those are, because the items I loved making.. are the ones that sell so well.
The next few weeks/months, I'll be working on trying to get that spark back. I'll be making some changes at ER, and be beginning the process of retiring some of the items that, if I'm honest, really have no place in the store that ER has become. While they do reflect the 'Eclectic Randomness' that gave the store it's name.. I know what ER's good at selling, and what I'm good at making.
And you'll hopefully be seeing more of those things in the future.
Stay Shiny.
Thursday, October 30, 2014
"New Product".. what does that mean?
Recently, I began working on a new version of the Doll Display Case. I put a lot of work into it, perfecting the model, getting the textures just right, and so on.. doing all the little things that no one ever really expects goes into making a product for SL.
As the project was nearing completion, the question of "how to sell it" came up again.
This is a question I hate dealing with. I'm not some master capitalist, or super sales-woman.. I'm a builder, and I enjoy building. But when it comes down to brass tacks, I do kind of need to get something back for the work that I do. The land that my store is on, those mall rentals, etc.. they all cost money, so I've gotta make some money to keep things going. That's just the way things are.
When I pour a lot of work into a updating a product, or making a new version, it's always a struggle to figure out how I'm gonna get paid for that work. I can't just spend weeks working on stuff that I'm giving away for free, and I can't keep raising the price on things and making new buyers pay for everyone else's free updates either. Sadly, SL doesn't really lend itself to any sort of "discount for existing owners" either.. I wish it did, but even if I came up with such a system, there's 8 years of missing sales records that wouldn't be in the database.
And so, the question has come up in the past, of what does, or does not, constitute a 'new product' at ER, and what will, or won't be released as a free update? If I were independently wealthy, everything at ER would be free. I'm not.. so.. I can't give everything away, as nice as it would be. As such, I'm going to try and explain exactly what I think constitutes a new product, versus an update I'd normally give out to existing owners.
So how does this all relate to real ER products, and how I've updated/replaced them in the past? Well in the past, I've been pretty sloppy about it. I'm still only one person, and I'm human. I make mistakes. But there is a general pattern to what I've done... and it does mostly line up with the above.
The ER Isolation Pod. This product received several incremental updates, and at some point, a complete change in it's appearance. Heck, at some point, I changed the permissions too! Each of these incremental changes were given for free. At the point where the actual appearance of the product changed, I probably should have begun selling it as a new product, but I didn't. Thankfully, I didn't receive much pushback from people who didn't like the new design... I dodged a bullet there.
The ER Action Jetpack. Originally I offered two jetpacks, one with a "G.I. Joe" theme, and one with a "Cobra" theme. At some point, I decided to tear the whole product apart and rebuild it.. pulling the 'flight assist' script out of the pack itself and moving it into a separate hud. I combined both packs by adding a color and texture changer, so the pack could change to any of several different designs. As I recall, I released this as a "New Product" because it was so radically different from the originals, and added a lot of new features. I also changed the price.
The ER Ares Penis. The original product that this replaced was the ER "Deluxe" Penis, and it was anything but deluxe. Back in 2006 it was pretty awesome for the price, but in 2012, no way. Yet people still kept buying it. The Ares was a complete rebuild from the ground up.. new model, new textures, new scripts, new hud, etc. This was released as a new product with a different price.
The ER Fetish Doll Hood. The product that this replaced was the ER Isolation Hood. outwardly, the two products had a similar look, but the Fetish Doll Hood added the ability to color change, and added a lot of new controls for laces and straps visibility, added a 'mouth' hole, and a text label on the front of the hood. This, in combination with the multitude of included hood skins earned this product a "New Product" status.
Which brings us to the most recent case:
The ER Mesh Doll Cabinet. This product replaced the older ER Doll Display Case. Being reworked from the ground up as a mesh model instead of sculpties, the land impact was cut in half, and the whole posing system was switched to use nPose and 9 new animations had to be created to give the box some fresh doll poses. A new core script had to be written from the ground up, to enable RLV trapping features and optional door lock modes. The tinting color changer of the older box was replaced with a smaller selection of wood and fabric textures, but the ability to select custom colors was preserved through the inclusion of greyscale textures, at the cost of forcing people to manually apply their own tints using the SL editing tools.
I know that this decision won't please everyone. However, I hope that the amount of new features, and the quality of the new design, new textures, and so on, will make people want to own the new product.
As the project was nearing completion, the question of "how to sell it" came up again.
This is a question I hate dealing with. I'm not some master capitalist, or super sales-woman.. I'm a builder, and I enjoy building. But when it comes down to brass tacks, I do kind of need to get something back for the work that I do. The land that my store is on, those mall rentals, etc.. they all cost money, so I've gotta make some money to keep things going. That's just the way things are.
When I pour a lot of work into a updating a product, or making a new version, it's always a struggle to figure out how I'm gonna get paid for that work. I can't just spend weeks working on stuff that I'm giving away for free, and I can't keep raising the price on things and making new buyers pay for everyone else's free updates either. Sadly, SL doesn't really lend itself to any sort of "discount for existing owners" either.. I wish it did, but even if I came up with such a system, there's 8 years of missing sales records that wouldn't be in the database.
And so, the question has come up in the past, of what does, or does not, constitute a 'new product' at ER, and what will, or won't be released as a free update? If I were independently wealthy, everything at ER would be free. I'm not.. so.. I can't give everything away, as nice as it would be. As such, I'm going to try and explain exactly what I think constitutes a new product, versus an update I'd normally give out to existing owners.
What constitutes a "Free Update?"
- Bug Fixes. Pretty clear here.. if I did something wrong with the coding, and the old product isn't working as expected, I'll definitely do my best to fix that for free. If Linden Lab changes something about the way SL works, and it breaks the item, I'll do what I can to fix it, or to patch the bevahior, or replace it with something that works better.
- Incremental features. Every once in a while, I'm playing with an old product, and I think "wow it would be cool if I added color change to this" (for example). Assuming the feature is optional, and doesn't change the look of the product so significantly that the original look/behaviour can't be made anymore, this will probably be a free update.
What constitutes a "New Product"?
- Difference. Obviously, if two products are wholly different, I'm going to consider that a new product. No one would expect me to give them a free chartreuse catsuit when they bought the green stocking set. Also, new colors, if the colors are being sold separately, are generally going to be a new item.
- Rebuilds. If I redesign a product so that it looks different from the original, I'll probably release that as a new product.
- Significant Changes. If I add one or two new features, I may consider that for an update. If the features of the product change remarkably, either by adding features, or taking them away, to the point that I feel customers may complain about the changes in the new version, I will probably release those as an entirely new product, retiring the old one.
- Significant Effort. This needs to be mentioned as well. If I spend weeks tearing a script apart and rebuilding it from the ground up, the chances of it being a free update start dropping, the more work I have to do.
Edge Cases
- More Colors. The question of what to do about updates that increase the number of colors available in a color changing item. If I were to add new latex colors to the catsuit line, I'd want to add those colors to the color-changing attachments as well. This is an issue I'm struggling with deciding how to solve, but so far it hasn't been a major issue... yet. The number of colors or new textures involved might be a deciding factor.
- Appliers. I'm still on the fence about how to deal with the applier situation, but
that's a topic for another time. What it's really going to come down to
is "how much work was it?".. sadly, appliers are a lot of work when
you're doing 80 or more of them, and the way third party products have
recently had a habit of disappearing from the grid (see WowMeh, Phat
Azz), well it's difficult to decide which brands are reputable enough to
spend a bunch of time investing in making appliers to support their products.
- Clothing Items, Eyes, and Skins. There's no way to put a script inside a 'system layer'.. so there's no way for your ER Catsuit to check if a new version is available. Similarly, I really don't have 8 years of sales records. Some vendor systems (Hippovend, Caspervend, the SL Marketplace) do keep sales records for longer than 30 days, but unless you purchased through these options, after 30 days, I probably don't have records of the sale. So if new versions of catsuits or whatever come out, they'll be "New Products".. though in future I'll probably include an "update checker" with new clothing sets.. how that will be implemented remains to be seen, depending in part on what I decide to do with appliers.
So how does this all relate to real ER products, and how I've updated/replaced them in the past? Well in the past, I've been pretty sloppy about it. I'm still only one person, and I'm human. I make mistakes. But there is a general pattern to what I've done... and it does mostly line up with the above.
The ER Isolation Pod. This product received several incremental updates, and at some point, a complete change in it's appearance. Heck, at some point, I changed the permissions too! Each of these incremental changes were given for free. At the point where the actual appearance of the product changed, I probably should have begun selling it as a new product, but I didn't. Thankfully, I didn't receive much pushback from people who didn't like the new design... I dodged a bullet there.
The ER Action Jetpack. Originally I offered two jetpacks, one with a "G.I. Joe" theme, and one with a "Cobra" theme. At some point, I decided to tear the whole product apart and rebuild it.. pulling the 'flight assist' script out of the pack itself and moving it into a separate hud. I combined both packs by adding a color and texture changer, so the pack could change to any of several different designs. As I recall, I released this as a "New Product" because it was so radically different from the originals, and added a lot of new features. I also changed the price.
The ER Ares Penis. The original product that this replaced was the ER "Deluxe" Penis, and it was anything but deluxe. Back in 2006 it was pretty awesome for the price, but in 2012, no way. Yet people still kept buying it. The Ares was a complete rebuild from the ground up.. new model, new textures, new scripts, new hud, etc. This was released as a new product with a different price.
The ER Fetish Doll Hood. The product that this replaced was the ER Isolation Hood. outwardly, the two products had a similar look, but the Fetish Doll Hood added the ability to color change, and added a lot of new controls for laces and straps visibility, added a 'mouth' hole, and a text label on the front of the hood. This, in combination with the multitude of included hood skins earned this product a "New Product" status.
Which brings us to the most recent case:
The ER Mesh Doll Cabinet. This product replaced the older ER Doll Display Case. Being reworked from the ground up as a mesh model instead of sculpties, the land impact was cut in half, and the whole posing system was switched to use nPose and 9 new animations had to be created to give the box some fresh doll poses. A new core script had to be written from the ground up, to enable RLV trapping features and optional door lock modes. The tinting color changer of the older box was replaced with a smaller selection of wood and fabric textures, but the ability to select custom colors was preserved through the inclusion of greyscale textures, at the cost of forcing people to manually apply their own tints using the SL editing tools.
I know that this decision won't please everyone. However, I hope that the amount of new features, and the quality of the new design, new textures, and so on, will make people want to own the new product.
Sunday, May 18, 2014
The path forward
With the lock script finished, I can now turn my attention to "what's next".
When all this started, it started because I wanted to add new colors of latex. Most of my latex products have been developed on the same 12 colors that I started with back in 2008. Those colors were borrowed from Powers of Creation, at a time when I didn't think I'd ever make my own catsuits.
In addition to the "Series 1" catsuits and their applier kits, ER has 11 color-changing latex attachments.
Some of these are among ER's oldest items... and some are among ER's best selling items even to this day.
One new color of catsuit for "Series 1" would mean that all of these items would need to be updated. That's not a small undertaking.. made more complicated because these "Series 1" items (with the exception of the boots) made use of "dialog" menus.
Dialogs are limited to 12 buttons, and conveniently, Series 1 had 12 colors. It worked out pretty well, but as we saw with the "Fetish Doll Hood", once you start adding a few different textureable areas.. things start getting complicated, and it starts becoming awkward to keep the menus looking organized.
The HUD has changed that. Now I'm not limited to 12 buttons, and of course I can use actual texture samples right on the button, so you can know if "Red" means dark red, or light red before you even press it.
Like I say, I'm no longer limited to just 12 buttons per texture-able area. There's a technical limit, of course, there's only so many textures I can store in a script.. but that too can be worked around with the HUD system I'm using now.
The oft asked question came up again a couple of days ago..
This is something that I've been asked before.. really since the "Tattoo Layer" was released in 2010. The problem is the same today as it was in 2010.. I can't practically offer "free updates" to clothing items. There's no scripted attachment in that set which checks for updates, there's no "proof of purchase" item in there either. (the idea of something like that wouldn't occur to me until years after I'd released the sets). And there's no way I can practically deal with handing out hundreds of free items to anyone who asks.
The workaround solution then, is to sell a "tattoo hood pack" that would be purchased separately. This was one of the product ideas that made me realize I NEEDED lower-prim multi-color item vendors. If I could make several variant designs, I could sell them separately or in small packs, to keep the costs low, and increase ER's product line at the same time.
Making a "Series 1" hood clothing item is easy enough.. and I'll probably put that idea on a "fast track" in the short term future. A unified "total body catsuit" on the tattoo layer.. that's something that will need to wait for Series 2.
I was never happy with the "Generic Shiny" effect that features so heavily on so many of my earlier products. Those textures were designed at a time when I was trying to make attachments that would work with other makers' latex clothing. Once I made my own catsuits, I started wanting to make the attachments really 'blend in' with the catsuits.
You've seen how good it can look when I do that. The Plateau Boots, the Jouet Doll.. the new appliers for the catsuits.. the look and feel of the newer items is more finished.. and just better overall.
A while back, I started working on trying to improve my latex base, and thanks to some inspiration from Coyote Seattle's Rubber Skunk project, I was able to really get things looking nice and glossy. You've seen the results of that in the Jouet Doll's skin.
The Series 2 latex base (the base textures that get cut up and modified to make clothing layers) will have some of that look. It is similar to the "Series 1" catsuits, but more complete. The Series 2 Latex attachments will have textures more consistent with the catsuits as well.
But Series 2 presents me with 2 major obstacles.
Now, I want to be clear here.. this doesn't mean that the older items will be completely abandoned. Some may get rebuilt, while others may just continue the way they are. I have no immediate plans to stop selling any of the existing latex items.
Similarly, Series 2 items may provide some backwards compatible colors to work with Series 1 items. This is something I'm still trying to sort out in my head, so it's not exactly a final decision either way.
So then, what does this all mean? In part, it means that I want to make new colors.. and some of the older items may not always work with all the new colors. (they certainly won't at first!). I am only one person, and ER is a one-woman operation. I have to do things one at a time.
My hope is that the new colors in Series 2 will appeal to a wider number of people. And hopefully this system will allow me to fairly easily add-colors down the line, without needing to rewrite scripts and redesign whole menus.
When can you look forward to seeing these new colors? Hopefully soon. I need to get some basic colors decided on, so I can begin working on Series 2 items... whatever the first ones are likely to be.
When all this started, it started because I wanted to add new colors of latex. Most of my latex products have been developed on the same 12 colors that I started with back in 2008. Those colors were borrowed from Powers of Creation, at a time when I didn't think I'd ever make my own catsuits.
In addition to the "Series 1" catsuits and their applier kits, ER has 11 color-changing latex attachments.
Some of these are among ER's oldest items... and some are among ER's best selling items even to this day.
One new color of catsuit for "Series 1" would mean that all of these items would need to be updated. That's not a small undertaking.. made more complicated because these "Series 1" items (with the exception of the boots) made use of "dialog" menus.
 |
| Click the rainbow |
Dialogs are limited to 12 buttons, and conveniently, Series 1 had 12 colors. It worked out pretty well, but as we saw with the "Fetish Doll Hood", once you start adding a few different textureable areas.. things start getting complicated, and it starts becoming awkward to keep the menus looking organized.
 |
| Right column is "tints" center column is "textures" |
The HUD has changed that. Now I'm not limited to 12 buttons, and of course I can use actual texture samples right on the button, so you can know if "Red" means dark red, or light red before you even press it.
 |
| Simpler.. and expandable |
Like I say, I'm no longer limited to just 12 buttons per texture-able area. There's a technical limit, of course, there's only so many textures I can store in a script.. but that too can be worked around with the HUD system I'm using now.
The oft asked question came up again a couple of days ago..
How about adding tattoo layers for your catsuits, including full suit plus hoods? or multiple style Hood add on set for catsuits like Open, closed, minimal, cat hoods.
This is something that I've been asked before.. really since the "Tattoo Layer" was released in 2010. The problem is the same today as it was in 2010.. I can't practically offer "free updates" to clothing items. There's no scripted attachment in that set which checks for updates, there's no "proof of purchase" item in there either. (the idea of something like that wouldn't occur to me until years after I'd released the sets). And there's no way I can practically deal with handing out hundreds of free items to anyone who asks.
The workaround solution then, is to sell a "tattoo hood pack" that would be purchased separately. This was one of the product ideas that made me realize I NEEDED lower-prim multi-color item vendors. If I could make several variant designs, I could sell them separately or in small packs, to keep the costs low, and increase ER's product line at the same time.
Making a "Series 1" hood clothing item is easy enough.. and I'll probably put that idea on a "fast track" in the short term future. A unified "total body catsuit" on the tattoo layer.. that's something that will need to wait for Series 2.
• Series 2 •
I was never happy with the "Generic Shiny" effect that features so heavily on so many of my earlier products. Those textures were designed at a time when I was trying to make attachments that would work with other makers' latex clothing. Once I made my own catsuits, I started wanting to make the attachments really 'blend in' with the catsuits.
You've seen how good it can look when I do that. The Plateau Boots, the Jouet Doll.. the new appliers for the catsuits.. the look and feel of the newer items is more finished.. and just better overall.
A while back, I started working on trying to improve my latex base, and thanks to some inspiration from Coyote Seattle's Rubber Skunk project, I was able to really get things looking nice and glossy. You've seen the results of that in the Jouet Doll's skin.
The Series 2 latex base (the base textures that get cut up and modified to make clothing layers) will have some of that look. It is similar to the "Series 1" catsuits, but more complete. The Series 2 Latex attachments will have textures more consistent with the catsuits as well.
But Series 2 presents me with 2 major obstacles.
- A new selection of colors
- A new series of attachments
Now, I want to be clear here.. this doesn't mean that the older items will be completely abandoned. Some may get rebuilt, while others may just continue the way they are. I have no immediate plans to stop selling any of the existing latex items.
Similarly, Series 2 items may provide some backwards compatible colors to work with Series 1 items. This is something I'm still trying to sort out in my head, so it's not exactly a final decision either way.
So then, what does this all mean? In part, it means that I want to make new colors.. and some of the older items may not always work with all the new colors. (they certainly won't at first!). I am only one person, and ER is a one-woman operation. I have to do things one at a time.
My hope is that the new colors in Series 2 will appeal to a wider number of people. And hopefully this system will allow me to fairly easily add-colors down the line, without needing to rewrite scripts and redesign whole menus.
When can you look forward to seeing these new colors? Hopefully soon. I need to get some basic colors decided on, so I can begin working on Series 2 items... whatever the first ones are likely to be.
Friday, May 9, 2014
Notes on the Mega release
Well, the big release is done, and I managed to screw it up a little.
Sent out all the group notices with a link to the marketplace.. http://bit.ly/1izsVVT .. and I hadn't published the marketplace listings for the new items yet. I scrambled to hit "list" as fast as I could once I realized the issue, but it took 5 minutes for the newly listed items to be visible to search. 5 long, agonizing minutes.
All in all tho, everything was relatively smooth. The items had already been preloaded into the vendor networks, so there was no need to push publish there. The marketplace listings were all pre-made (after 2 days of work to get them done!).. the affiliate pack too had been put together last night, so it was a small matter to simply replace the packs in the givers and in the updater. Even the in-store vendors had been pre-built so all I needed to do was put them in place and turn them on.
Still, the release took a couple of hours to complete, and while the 5 minute Marketplace delay was.. unfortunately timed to coincide with all the group notices... it is done now. At one point, this was considered to be over a year's worth of releasable products, then revised down to 10 weeks, then 5.. It has now all been released in one single release. Just to get it over with.
What now? What's left? a handful of not-quite-finished projects, and a few awkward ideas I'm not sure how to go about implementing. Nothing that says loudly and clearly 'I should work on THIS'.. which is an issue.
The lock scripting, and this big release have left me emotionally drained... and impetus is hard to find.
Sent out all the group notices with a link to the marketplace.. http://bit.ly/1izsVVT .. and I hadn't published the marketplace listings for the new items yet. I scrambled to hit "list" as fast as I could once I realized the issue, but it took 5 minutes for the newly listed items to be visible to search. 5 long, agonizing minutes.
All in all tho, everything was relatively smooth. The items had already been preloaded into the vendor networks, so there was no need to push publish there. The marketplace listings were all pre-made (after 2 days of work to get them done!).. the affiliate pack too had been put together last night, so it was a small matter to simply replace the packs in the givers and in the updater. Even the in-store vendors had been pre-built so all I needed to do was put them in place and turn them on.
Still, the release took a couple of hours to complete, and while the 5 minute Marketplace delay was.. unfortunately timed to coincide with all the group notices... it is done now. At one point, this was considered to be over a year's worth of releasable products, then revised down to 10 weeks, then 5.. It has now all been released in one single release. Just to get it over with.
What now? What's left? a handful of not-quite-finished projects, and a few awkward ideas I'm not sure how to go about implementing. Nothing that says loudly and clearly 'I should work on THIS'.. which is an issue.
The lock scripting, and this big release have left me emotionally drained... and impetus is hard to find.
Thursday, May 8, 2014
The Pipeline
A while back, when the Jouet Doll avatar was still new, I was aware that the writing was on the wall.
I had to get some time to dedicate to sitting down and working on that locking script. It was holding up too many projects, keeping me firmly in the 'screwing around trying to make things that didn't need locks' zone.
Around that time, the idea had come up to create some new skins for Jouet, and in the process I found I'd unintentionally created 9 new products. As I sat there mechanically repeating the task of making appliers for prim boobs, I realized I could also be making similar applier sets for my catsuits.
I started stacking up boxes on the ground as I filled them, 9, 10, 22, 34... and then standing back, admiring the grand pile of boxes at my feet, I realized that if I released these a few at a time, I'd have weeks or months of new items to release.. and would have some time free to work on that scripting project.
Well, the best laid plans and all that, I ended up screwing around with new projects instead. Working on a house design, developing yet another product (Ares), and another (IconTalk) and mostly experimenting. I also fell into a bit of an emotional slump at the time, and that's why the releases were a bit.. let's just say.. uneven.
Well as you know, I've spent the last week or so, solidly working on the long-lost Lock script. And as it reached a truly feature-complete stage today, I looked again at the pile of boxes I'd queued for release, particularly those that hadn't been released yet.
And as I sat there today looking at the pile, I thought.. why not? Why not pick them all up, and try and release them this weekend?
I've got 12 sets of "boob appliers" for eCorp, vString, Lolas Tango/Mirage, and Mused.. to match my 12 latex catsuits, and 12 sets of "more appliers" to bring those catsuits to Slink hands and feet, the SMD Baby Bump, and the Phat Azz too.
In addition, I'm bringing the power of Megapacks to these items as well, with a Megapack of the Boob Appliers, the 'More Appliers', and even a megapack of all 12 catsuits. Each megapack uses the "4 free" pricing model, so you get 12 for the price of 8.
Today I spent a great deal of time completing the vendor art for the boxes that didn't have them yet, and retouched a couple that had minor errors. (incorrect permissions on one, the wrong title on another). And once that was done, I loaded up some vendors with the new items, and began loading the items into my marketplace store. Once all 27 listings were created, I copied the URLs into the vendors I'd set up.
Tomorrow, I'll spend a bit more time loading all the items into the affiliate networks. Eagle-eyed affiliates may notice the items showing up here and there as I work.
My hope is that sometime on Friday, I'd like to release all of these items... and flush out the backlog of 'ready to ship' items, so I can get back to work creating new things without them having to wait til the pipeline is clear.
I had to get some time to dedicate to sitting down and working on that locking script. It was holding up too many projects, keeping me firmly in the 'screwing around trying to make things that didn't need locks' zone.
Around that time, the idea had come up to create some new skins for Jouet, and in the process I found I'd unintentionally created 9 new products. As I sat there mechanically repeating the task of making appliers for prim boobs, I realized I could also be making similar applier sets for my catsuits.
I started stacking up boxes on the ground as I filled them, 9, 10, 22, 34... and then standing back, admiring the grand pile of boxes at my feet, I realized that if I released these a few at a time, I'd have weeks or months of new items to release.. and would have some time free to work on that scripting project.
Well, the best laid plans and all that, I ended up screwing around with new projects instead. Working on a house design, developing yet another product (Ares), and another (IconTalk) and mostly experimenting. I also fell into a bit of an emotional slump at the time, and that's why the releases were a bit.. let's just say.. uneven.
Well as you know, I've spent the last week or so, solidly working on the long-lost Lock script. And as it reached a truly feature-complete stage today, I looked again at the pile of boxes I'd queued for release, particularly those that hadn't been released yet.
And as I sat there today looking at the pile, I thought.. why not? Why not pick them all up, and try and release them this weekend?
I've got 12 sets of "boob appliers" for eCorp, vString, Lolas Tango/Mirage, and Mused.. to match my 12 latex catsuits, and 12 sets of "more appliers" to bring those catsuits to Slink hands and feet, the SMD Baby Bump, and the Phat Azz too.
In addition, I'm bringing the power of Megapacks to these items as well, with a Megapack of the Boob Appliers, the 'More Appliers', and even a megapack of all 12 catsuits. Each megapack uses the "4 free" pricing model, so you get 12 for the price of 8.
Today I spent a great deal of time completing the vendor art for the boxes that didn't have them yet, and retouched a couple that had minor errors. (incorrect permissions on one, the wrong title on another). And once that was done, I loaded up some vendors with the new items, and began loading the items into my marketplace store. Once all 27 listings were created, I copied the URLs into the vendors I'd set up.
Tomorrow, I'll spend a bit more time loading all the items into the affiliate networks. Eagle-eyed affiliates may notice the items showing up here and there as I work.
My hope is that sometime on Friday, I'd like to release all of these items... and flush out the backlog of 'ready to ship' items, so I can get back to work creating new things without them having to wait til the pipeline is clear.
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