The first week of the expanded early beta is going great! We’ve been checking out all the interesting spaces people have been building with JLI, and hearing some great feedback from the community. So far the response has been very positive among our rapidly growing group of beta testers. We’ve even seen more than 1000 hits on a YouTube video about JLI:

It’s a very exciting experience for us, watching the rubber hit the road for the first time. We’re very happy to see people having fun with all the stuff we’ve put in our toybox over the last several months. We’ve also been pleasantly surprised to see people using objects in ways we hadn’t thought of to achieve effects we hadn’t foreseen. That’s what’s so exciting about this kind of project; the community is always ready to innovate and help us create something bigger than the sum of its parts.

We’re also happy to be weathering the new load on our servers without any suffering any major earthquakes. We’re adding accounts everyday as we increase the size of the beta test, and busily working away at the list of upcoming features:

• - Multiple spaces per user
• - Controllable human avatars (followed by full customization and other enhancements)
• - Comments and “notes”
• - Total custom surfacing for objects & spaces
• - Uploadable audio
• - Deep social network integration
• - The obligatory “much more”

In the future, we will also be integrating 3D user-generated content – with a commitment to open standards – and looking for contributions from third-party developers. If you’re interested in testing these particular features when they’re ready, please get in touch.

The user AngryBeth posted this image on flickr yesterday. Well, gosh. That’s how we feel about you, too.

Thanks to all of you for helping this beta go so well. Great things are still ahead.

“Infirmo”

Community Guide
Just Leap In

Ahoy there, readers!

This is my first of many posts as the new Community Guide for Just Leap In. I have been with the company for a short while, and it seems somebody thought I had a knack for talking to the public, so here I am talking to all of the fine people that visit our blog daily. Since we’re going to be seeing so much more of each other, I thought I’d tell you a little about myself, just to break the ice.

I’m a long time gamer, first time blogger. Online, my handle has been Infirmo for a little over 10 years now. I have worked on some major titles and quite a few smaller games, mostly doing quality assurance. Like many QA people, I started out as an enthusiastic gamer, playing text-based adventures and early RPG and primitive side-scroller games on archaic platforms. I became a frequent beta tester for various games and projects, and eventually landed work in game testing, which I have done off and on for many years now. I have also worked in tech support and documentation for other software projects, including educational software and video editing tools.

But my first love is games and interactive media. The possibilities they afford and the stories they tell are inspiring to me in a powerful way, one that has directed me along (what looks, in retrospect, to be) a very direct path pointing right at the position I hold today.

So what do I do here? Put simply, I’m here to do what you are doing, which is to use the interface Just Leap In has provided to create new worlds, new spaces, and new ways for people to connect to each other. But I’m also here to hear from you, to see what you are doing with the application, to listen to your wishes and complaints, and to learn what you want do to with 3D spaces, interactive media, and social networking. We’re here to deliver what you want, and I’m on the task of figuring out what, exactly, that is.

So, as user myself, I have been playing around with the tools for a while now, and have created what feels like a nice little space.

Here’s a picture:

Here’s Office Racer, a video I made a couple years ago:

Here’s where I might be hanging out with friends, having a coffee:

Hrrm. These pictures really don’t do it justice. You might just need to see it for yourself. Try this:

Use contingent on these terms
[After installing the Player, click above “Click to Enter” to jump into 3D].

A picture may be worth a thousand words. But a 3D space lets every visitor write their own chapter in the book.

From my place we can visit my friends Joanna, Seven, and DJ Simple through portals (doors in this case) that directly connect my space with theirs, or they can all come over for a get-together. We can watch a movie, listen to music, and talk amongst ourselves. If we get a fresh idea for my area, I can change things around and get their opinions of the new stuff.

This is where I like to hang out. Drop by for a visit any time.

Just don’t drink up all my espresso.

“Infirmo”

Community Guide
Just Leap In

We’ve been busy!

• The website has had a facelift. Today we’re looking nice and clean and web-two-point-oh-ey. It’s a work in progress, and comments are very welcome.

• The 3D Demo has had an update. See if it works for you. If it doesn’t work (or doesn’t look very good, or throws an exception and eats you), let us know. Try throwing objects around, manipulating media, and opening a door. And try double-clicking on any movable objects to jump around the space. There are a couple of “Easter eggs” in the room as well.

• Behind the scenes, the “real” application has hit another milestone. We’re now previewing most of the core 3D multimedia functions in active beta (at varying levels of completion), and sampling a handful of animated 3D characters from the next phase. We’re also allowing 3D spaces to be shared and embedded in other places. You might see a handful of them around. Do sign up to join in…

• We’ve moved! Not virtually, but in real life. We’ve found ourselves in a beautiful, spacious, lively new facility with lots of space and jacuzzis and DJs. But maybe the jacuzzis and DJs are virtual. :)

• We’ve got some interesting new faces on the team. We’ll persuade them to introduce themselves here in the next few weeks. For the moment, they’re all whiling away the hours looking agile.

More soon.