Life's pretty funny sometimes. Just when you're feeling that you've hit a rut, and that nothing will surprise you anymore, something comes along and proves you wrong. Second Life is no different. Recently, I've been wandering the grid, and more and more became despondent. With a few notable exceptions, I seemed to be travelling through almost identical sims, with the same houses, the same basic stores, thirsting and longing for something to jump out at me. Something new. Something different. I started to believe that this was it. I'd pretty much seen all there was to see in SL. Sure, there were new interesting little variations, but that's all they were, variations on a theme.

So, I started to try to imagine what I was looking for. And I guess the thing I really thirsted for was detail. There are some great builds around, and most of them have nice little objects and features, but, usually due to prim allowances, the details are always minimal, and almost all the places I went to looked like they'd been thrown up in a couple of days. Where was the effort? Where's the craftsmanship? SL is full of amazing people, with wonderful ideas, but those ideas get made, and then they move on to the next idea, rather than taking the time to fully work that idea to perfection. Ideas are all well and good, but without the workmanship, they are but amusements, after a while. And, I'm as guilty of this as most, to be perfectly honest.

Then, out of the blue, an old friend of mine, who back in the day often pointed me in the right direction of new and interesting places inworld, dropped a landmark on me, without a word of explanation. When the landmark image rezzed, I'll admit that I thought it hadn't been taken inworld, and it piqued my curiosity enough for me to head over to INSILICO (153,131, 3615) to investigate further.


Upon arrival, I was taken aback. You see, this was exactly what I was looking for, and without a word of asking, my friend managed to read my mind, and send me directly where I was seeking. INSILICO is a visually gorgeous futuristic metropolis, where neon signs shine through the darkness, television billboards flash and flicker, and spotlights glare through the mist. High textured skyscrapers tower into the night, while on the ground level, with a reserved smattering of stores, descend down, level after level, each one revealing new things to see. And impressive as the environment is, the closer you look, the details never fail to impress. The full prim allowance of the sim is utilised to glorious effect, along with an impressive use of sculpties, to mean that no corner has been cut. Not only is the detail intricate and well constructed, but also utilises functional innovations at the forefront of sl scripting, like the voice activated wall mounted web browser, which you can use in the public bar, a watering hole where the denizens of this place, along with many folks travelling through this futuristic landscape, can get together to shoot the breeze.

It was here that I met Skills Hak, the creator and owner of the sim, and managed to get a few words, to try to get a better idea of the woman behind this impressive project:

Voodoo Buwan: So, how did this place come about?

Skills Hak: Funny thing is it started with just being a store for my own products and it was so much fun building it, so I had to get my own sim. More prims more space etc… and I added another building and another one… then I thought it would look good if the whole place would look like a city. it wasn’t planned at all, just flowed.

Voodoo Buwan: What would you say your influences are with the build? There's a definite "Blade Runner" feel, but any other input?

Skills Hak: Actually I wasn’t thinking about a movie or book when I made it. Its just what I think what a city of the future would look like. of course we all watched blade runner hehe so I guess there are certain influences, but I'm trying not to use any ideas from movies or books actually. it should be something new

Voodoo Buwan: Is it all your own work, or have you had much assistance?

Skills Hak: Apart from some objects like chairs etc, its all self-made yes. Or like the bottles here. That’s a bit stressful cause I have problems with letting other people work here, when it comes to building lol. I know its silly but I want to keep that high standard

Voodoo Buwan: So, with the project being so personal, was there much thought put towards trying to make the place customer friendly, what with it essentially being a business district?

Skills Hak: The shops are here only to pay the tier and I want to keep the business part as hidden as possible cause I want to start with the rp as soon as possible. We have big plans for roleplay here and are working on a theme atm

Voodoo Buwan: Ah, so it's going to be a lot more than just a mall then?

Skills Hak: Yes if I could I would get rid of the mall completely and only have some shops for my friend, integrated into the RP. I keep the shop and apartment tiers as low as possible too and only accept top notch creators. I don’t want it to be a mall hehe.

Voodoo Buwan: You mentioned a theme. Can you tell me more about that?

Skills Hak: Yeah we are working on the background atm. The theme is quite futuristic: The year is ca 2100 and the city is one of many floating in the sky. The city is built 3600m high in the sky because the ground is covered in a toxic gas. Since the atmosphere collapsed its impossible for humans to live down there. Every city is connected to its own reactor farm on the ground via long cables and actually only androids work down there. The cables are heavily guarded against "rebel cyborg" groups and eco terrorists. We have alot of parties already and some of the brands here will play a role too, like the Gemini cybernetics which will be an evil weapon concern

Voodoo Buwan: So, your vision is more important than being a financial success then?

Skills Hak: I just want to build my "vision" (lol sounds cheesy) and play in it. My financial success I want to have with the products I make, not with a mall.

Voodoo Buwan: So, are you finding it easy to merge other people's, and brands, input into your vision.... it sounds very thought out

Skills Hak: No I think its really hard and I only let very few people work on it like Erik commons who does a project from saijo city here. An institute that uses human brains as information filter, but can’t really talk about that one yet hehe. There will be a redlight district, cyber combat arenas for different melee sorts, an artificial park, apartments all over the city, underground clubs… We are going to have a combat evolutions fight club here too… but all in all I just want to have a nice community. I’m not really into combat myself, Its more about the build and art here and the rp makes it alive.

Voodoo Buwan: Just one more question.... what advice would you give anyone considering trying to follow in your footsteps, and wanting to set up their own place?

Skills Hak: Hmm maybe patience, as I don’t have that. Well, hard to give any advice. Its important a sim grows on all ends at the same time. Not only the build, but the group management, rp things, financial stuff… And don’t be afraid to say no if others are asking to be involved, but don’t 100% get what you’re doing. If you have a vision do it alone!