It has been brought to my attention that I haven't talked about Jupiter's Ghost recently enough for even people who know me well to know what the hell I am talking about so
It's time to talk about my pet project.
Not the #zinestation or the #zinestation486
and not the #spacelarpcafe (although very nearly the space larp cafe)
Today, right now, and for the foreseeable future, I'm talking about #jupitersghost or #jg, what it is, what I want it to be, and how you can get involved.
Every once in a while my brain decides that it's time to think about the #SpaceLARPCafe again.
Today is that time.
I'm thinking we turn one room of it it in to a screening room/old movie theater, stage for live concerts and small plays (and maybe it's #spacelarpcafe when it's not anything else.)
Then we wall off a tiny portion of the upstairs and make it a retail store for things made at the maker space.
That leaves the downstairs and a good portion of the upstairs of the building, which becomes The Museum of Early Pop Culture (about radio and TV shows from the 30s, 40s, and 50s).
We're looking at a commercial building up the road from the coffee shop.
It needs a lot of work.
But it would make an excellent home for the makerspace's retail endeavors, with plenty of room left over for a Museum or a #spacelarpcafe
This was such a big deal to me as a kid. Everything about the Star Tours ride captivated my imagination in a Big way.
It's the only ride I ever enjoyed standing in line for, too.
I was sad when they rebuilt it, and I'll probably never ride the new one.
I don't know that I'd ever build something so elaborate for Star Tours either, unless it was at the request of someone else, but I will totally do something like this with OC on the way to the #spacelarpcafe
So this is where I am at the moment re: #spacelarpcafe
I need to design a uniform and produce it.
I need to design some gear (side arms, communicators, etc) and make them.
I need to make fancy scifi housing for some of the laptops I have sitting around, and figure out if I'm going to run Space Nerds in Space or Empty Epsilon.
Then it's:
- Design and print quickstart guides for the various stations for new recruits
- Build some spaceship props/sets
- invite my friends to alpha
It's #Sunday! I'm listening to #Jazz, drinking #coffee and trying to buy a #coffeeshop
(And fighting everything in me not to turn it in to a #spacelarpcafe)
Thinking about #SpaceLARPCafe again today as I plan a #SNIS party for some friends.
We're renting a room, I'm covering everything in silver foil and passing out (nerf) side arms and uniforms.
I imagine it's going to be a lot of fun.
Order of Operations:
- Sasquatch (In progress)
- Intergalactic Computers (coming fall 2019)
- Jupiter's Ghost community site (coming winter 2019)
- Yesterday, Tomorrow (coming spring 2020)
- Jupiter's Ghost podcast (coming whenever it's ready and no later)
- #SpaceLARPCafe (coming whenever I don't have to work for someone else anymore.)
(and, like, yeah it'd be way easier to tell a convincing story about people aboard a spaceship if I had a physical cabin for the to board, and if that cabin was apparently fully functional, but I've already established that that part can be done for $5k DIY with arduinos and hydraulics, and I need a compelling story first anyway.
Build the universe. Make it interactive on it's own. Bolt the flight sim on later, if at all.
It's a #SpaceLARPCafe, not a Spaceship Simulator Building.
And, obviously, the coolest application of motion simulators and animatronics is the original Star Tours.
The first time I rode that ride I was obsessed with it. I've been talking about it endlessly for the last week. I've gone off about the #SpaceLARPCafe several times, but that's just an extension of my desire to combine physical special effects with story telling and play in a way that makes something unique.
It's born straight out of my Imagineering childhood.
There's a building for rent on the square of the town where my home is (which is far away from the town where I live.)
It's RIGHT on the main drag in the little tourist area of town, and I so much wish that I could turn it in to a #SPACELARPCAFE
Two years ago, on another social site, I said:" Okay, but seriously: Take the idea of a haunted house, replace all the horror elements with sci-fi/space stuff.
Add basic plot, and some interactive elements.
Result = best day ever."
Clearly the #SpaceLARPCafe idea has been kicking around in my head for a while.
SNIS
@ajroach42 I've swapped a couple of emails with a local 3d modeler about designing custom ships and other assets, once we're a little further along.
I've even been considering (re/actually)learning C so that I can contribute to the core game.
Of course, my ultimate goal is to get 4 or 5 full ships outfitted, complete with hardware controls and props, and then stick them in to 6 person Motion Simulators tied to the game, and throw those in the back of a LARP cafe ( #spaceLARPCafe )
Shitballs
It's 1am again.
and I'm watching Space Cases and thinking about #spaceLARPcafe and #SNIS and how I'm going to need to do training missions so folks can learn various command posts (A STAR ACADEMY!) and probably some aptitude tests for command positions and to set difficult levels so that the missions are fun (Kobiashi Maru?)
That last bit doesn't make sense without context. Let me explain.
Remember #spaceLARPCafe?
That's my dumb idea of a LARP coffee shop where you can crew spaceships and interact with folks.
It came up today in conversation about hovercraft.
And then I found Space Nerds in Space (#SNIS #SpaceNerdsInSpace) https://smcameron.github.io/space-nerds-in-space/
This is a bridge simulation game. FLOSS. Written in C, with scriptable missions written in LUA, and support for multiple ships in one universe.
... I don't know what to do with this information, but I'm glad to have it.
The motion sims would be complicated to build on that scale, but not impossible.
And honestly, it'd be So Much Fun.
Even if it was just LARP style as a weekend installation somewhere, you know?
AND there's no reason that #spaceLARPCafe has to be SPACE-y.
It could just as easily be a steampunk thing! The combat could be done in airships instead of spaceships.
Or just boats? but that's boring.
But yeah, Disney could do this and it not even impact their overhead.
Basically, I want a #spaceLARPCafe that has an actual cafe open to the public, but that also serves as an in universe hangout.
And then in the back, I want big ol "Star Tours" style flight sims, connected directly to starfleet style controls and piloted by small crews.
Engagements can be PvP or PvActor. It's 1/2 LARP, 1/2 computer game, except that even the computer game parts happen in a realistic environment.
Award Winning Filmmaker (No really, I've been awarded at smallfile.ca two years running.)
I write and build stuff.
Est. 1990. (He, Him, Etc.)
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