Just Leap In

Introducing Just Leap In

Michael — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 09:32:00 -0800

Today we’re opening up Just Leap In to a wider beta group. After an engaging private beta, and thousands of stunning, media-rich 3D worlds on the web (thanks to an amazing beta group: You. Guys. Rock), we figure it’s time to kick the tires a little harder.

... and hey, to show the world how much liveliness there is in 2009’s Fellowship of Virtual Worlds. Our industry’s Boromir may have fallen, but even the smallest person, we hear, can change the course of the future.

Just Leap In?

Just Leap In (JLI for short) aims to broaden the appeal of web-based 3D for a mainstream audience, especially – early on – the kind of audience that uses a lot of social media tools: Facebook, Flickr, Friendfeed, YouTube, you name it.

Goals

We’re focused on delivering

• a simple, great experience of Web-based 3D media sharing
(photos, videos, music)
• useful social interactions (comments, chat, networking)
• ease-of-use (everything is drag-and-drop)
• a jaw-drapping 3D environment for web browsers on Mac & PC platforms.

We’re not (just) another virtual chatroom. Uniquely, we offer an RSSable newsfeed that syndicates 3D events ‘off-world’. While we’re delivering full game-state networking, we’re also after an asynchronous browsing experience, in order to make a 3D world function like a YouTube embed—or like any personal/corporate blog or webpage.

Mainly, though, we seek to ‘grow the pie’ for true 3D worlds on the Web, and appeal beyond an already-experienced 3D audience.

Mission

The first day I leap into 3D to find a friend or watch a film, and I forget it’s a “virtual world,” on that day the virtual worlds industry has grown up.

In that spirit, we’re aiming to make 3D part of the lifestream of the social web.

Who’s using this thing?

Most our private beta users are around the peak social media demographic (18-34), haven’t spent much time in a virtual world before, but are avid users of tools like Flickr and YouTube who are totally interested in swapping to a 3D environment. If you listen to those kinds of users, they want to do stuff like browse for friends and share photos and videos online. Other virtual worlds don’t actually make that stuff easy to do. So we’ve grown organically to make those key activities as simple as possible.

How do I get started?

It’s a free public beta—hop in over at JustLeapIn.com, create a 3D space, share it anywhere on the web, and let us know what you think.

Happy New Year to all!

Major Update! And a very Happy New Year...

the leapfrog — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 20:49:00 -0800

3… 2… 1…

Season’s Greetings from Just Leap In!

We’re delighted to tell you about a major upgrade to JustLeapIn.com today—just in time to ring in the New Year.

When you’re next online, dive right in to JLI to try out the new beta, or read on for the details.

Here’s the big news! Today, we’re introducing the following features for beta testing:

Multi-user 3D networking & collaborative editing – invite your friends to help you build a world, and play in real time on the Web. Please help us experiment!
Multiple spaces per user – create up to 100 3D spaces on the Web, share up to 3 at a time
Facebook Connect – link JLI to your Facebook account (more coming soon)
Audio upload – upload your sound clips and music and attach to objects in 3D space
Private spaces – only friends with your share link can play in your space
Increased object limits – you can now have up to 50 objects per space, and up to 30 unique objects.
Next-gen Portals – one of our signature features has a major facelift: open any Portal, and you can see your 3D destination space right away! (Current users will have to re-deploy their portals to see the new effect).
Faster caching – we’re caching more 3D content for faster access. So the more often you visit, the faster your downloads. :-)
Lots of brand new 3D content, seasonal spaces, and delightful toys – read on beneath the fold for details.

As ever, JLI supports both Mac OS X and PC web browsers (Firefox and IE 7). We let you share your favorite 3D spaces with friends anywhere on the Web—just hit the “Share” button from any 3D space.

It’s a beta test, so you hit any trouble with the new beta or have a suggestion to share, please (please!) contact us for help, or hop on the JLI Forum.

Very best wishes from all of us here in the Great White North (brrrr). We want to take this opportunity to thank you SO much for your help, your creative suggestions, and all the time you’ve spent with JLI in 2008—not least your thousands of incredible spaces and contributions. It’s going to be an incredible New Year!

Read on for new 3D content…

Spaces

Victorian Mansions (Haunted and Restored)
Western Ghost Town
Future Sky home
New Windowed Loft Space
Chess Room
Snowy Hut

Props

3 Bed ( Euro platform, Kids Car, Classic headboard)
Chess Pieces
Checker Pieces
Animated TV case
Wooden Artist’s Mannequin Character
Kitchen cabinets (3)
Christmas theme decorations (stocking, fireplace, wreath, presents, tree)
Santa Character

Just Leap In aims to be your free, high-quality space to create and share brilliant, creative, multimedia-rich 3D worlds on the web. We’re a rapidly growing beta, and we thrive on your feedback: please contact us, hop on the Forum, or use JLI itself to get in touch. We can’t wait to see you online!

Season's Greetings!

the leapfrog — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 20:52:00 -0800

Minor update

the leapfrog — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 18:19:00 -0800

Hi folks! While we’re working on our next major update, we’re also busy responding to feedback.

Our sample avatars just returned from physiotherapy today. So the next time you log in and see your avatar in action, look for:

- Sprint mode (Shift + run over 2 seconds)
- More variety in idle animations
- More natural responses, sidesteps, stair climbs, etc.

More motion soon.

You’ll also notice a charming tweak to interactivity in today’s update: lights in any space are now interactive (click once to turn off, click again to turn on).

A 3D Message from Sarah

the leapfrog — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 18:43:00 -0700

Love her or hate her, Vice Presidental nominee Sarah Palin is one of the most popular celebrities on the world stage today—and she can sure deliver a punchy line.

You might have noticed our new Palingram 3D applet, a cheeky toy that lets you write your own speeches for Governor Palin to deliver in a 3D world, and share with your friends:

Check out Sarah’s default message, Sarah Speaks, then click “Create Your Own” to write new lines for a (virtual) Governor Palin to deliver to the world.

Click Send to Friends to share your Palingram by email or to embed it in your blog (or anywhere on the web) by pasting the html code.

Enjoy! As always, we look forward to your feedback as our beta evolves at www.justleapin.com.

Avatar update and more

the leapfrog — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 19:01:00 -0700

We’re excited to announce a major update to Just Leap In today, including controllable avatars. We’d like to invite you to visit us and test out the new features at justleapin.com:

Avatars: You can now select and control a character in the Just Leap In world – just click “Identities” to pick one. To view your avatar in action, click the “person” icon at the top-right of any space, or use your scroll wheel to zoom out. (This is just the first step towards fully functioning avatars: over the coming weeks we’ll add key features like networking, customization, and “surround view” for cinematic viewing of your character).

Newsfeeds and RSS: keep in touch with your friends’ actions in JLI (starting with comments) without logging in. Read the newsfeed for your space, your links, and the entire site: just click the RSS link beneath any newsfeed to subscribe in your browser or reader of choice.

Invitations: invite your friends to your space by e-mail.

Popularity: browse the most popular spaces on JLI, by most Comments and incoming Portals.

Lots of new art and content to play with, ranging from French cafe furniture to gondolas and toys like a (suspicious) gnome and a fish.

We’re also looking for volunteers to suggest new space templates, objects, and games. Please jump on the Suggestions thread on our Forum to participate!

JLI Update: Player upgrade, RSS for newsfeeds, and more (0.8)

the leapfrog — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 18:01:00 -0700

Ahoy! We rolled out an update to JLI today, adding a handful of new features—just ahead of a major release planned for the next week or so.

The JLI Player has been upgraded. If you downloaded an earlier version, you’ll be auto-upgraded the next time you enter a space (please be patient!). Alternately, you can download the upgrade directly here.

You can now subscribe to specific in-world newsfeeds by RSS, and receive updates from the virtual world (like when someone leaves a comment in your space) without logging in. Click the RSS link beneath any newsfeed to subscribe in your browser or reader of choice.

You can also connect your portals to other spaces to subscribe to their events and comments. Remember, you can always “hide” your space to prevent it from appearing in the sitewide beta newsfeed.

There are several new popularity filters in the Explore view, so you can find and visit and comment on the most discussed and linked spaces.

There’s new art and content today, including new space templates (like a forest mansion and a grand landmark) and new objects to use, with some special new Toys.

So come on, log in or register to try it out—please share your feedback. And look out for another update coming soon!

JLI Update: Newsfeeds, Venice, and more (0.7.9)

the leapfrog — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 16:07:00 -0700

We’re delighted to roll out a new update to JLI today. Log in to test the new features, including a simple newsfeed enabling you to track what’s happening around the site—starting with Comments. This is the first version of the newsfeed; we’ll be adding a lot of functionality and control over the next couple of releases.

Today’s art update features two more Spaces: a Fashion Boutique (Boutique) and a Venetian style Canal (Venice). You can preview these in the application (Explore for “Templates”) or use them for yourself. We’ve added a new sample character (animation), and about 18 Objects as well as 12 new Textures. Some of you will also notice a massive improvement to spaces with Water, which is now reflective and gorgeous on a wider array of hardware.

We’re also continuing to work on various bug fixes and hardware issues. Read on for the complete update.

JLI Release 0.7.9

New Features

Newsfeed
Reflective (gorgeous) water for more graphics cards
Some physics fixes and general bugfixes

New Spaces

Boutique
Venice

New Objects

Room Dividers (2)
Candles
Bowling Ball and Pin
Clothes on a Hanger
Wall Sconces (4)
Circular Display Table
Lost City Frame
Lost City Bench
Piggy Bank

New Doors (Portals)

Phone booth
Manhole
Cellar Door
Space Ship Sliding Door

New Character

Martial (Martial Art move)

New Textures (Remember, you can upload your own Images to customise your Space)

Black Brick
Ceramic Tile
Corrugation
Mosaic
NightClub
Paving Stone
Red Brick
Scratches
Southwest
Steel Plate
Gray Stucco
Tatami Mat

Blogosphere update

the leapfrog — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 14:28:00 -0700

Hey, thanks to Paul Glazowski over at Mashable for a great review of JLI:

Mashable’s Take: The concept of a virtual world in terms of a graphical, game-like environment doesn’t particularly suit my interests. Yet I find Just Leap In, a beta release launched out of Vancouver, Canada, offers a surprisingly rich experience… Its browser-based nature makes it something of a stunner. The physics engine is a treat, and visual detail again is an outstanding highlight. A look at the world in full-screen is pretty remarkable when one considers the setting in which the application is operating.

Thanks to the commenters on that post as well. Actually, we’ve read and appreciated several thoughtful comments about JLI this week. Susan Reynolds, who writes Case-Notes from the Artsy Asylum, got our joke about empty islands (and shared some very salient thoughts about community-building and relevance for virtual worlds). She also warmed our hearts with this review:

Now comes Just Leap In a newcomer from Canada which, at first blush, sounds like none of the others and could beat Google’s Lively in everything except name recognition. The first clue? You don’t have to search through Google’s annoying database-like setup of questions and answers to figure out how to move around. That alone makes Just Leap In worth a second look.

There’s a lot more out there today, and we’re hoping to round up some responses. At the moment, we’re working towards a major feature release next week that we think you’ll enjoy. Back to the grindstone…

Thanks for checking in.

JLI Update: Commentable spaces, new 3D stuff, and other novelties (0.7.8)

the leapfrog — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 13:48:00 -0700

Today we're rolling out an update to JLI. (Hooray!) In addition to the last release's "freeform" texturing feature, the new version introduces lots of bells and whistles, including commentable spaces and fresh content. Read on for the details.

First, here's a new YouTube video showcasing the latest content and features. Check it out, share it around, sign up to try JLI if you haven't already, and invite others to come and comment on your 3D space! Thanks for testing.

This release (0.7.8) adds:

Comments on spaces. (For now, you have to be logged in to read and write comments. We'll soon be adding RSS, social syndication, and optional notifications).

New space templates, props, and objects for you to personalize, including a Beach Resort, Labyrinth, and Roadside Motel.

Enhanced Explore presentation and interface.

JLI 0.7.8: Release Notes

COMMENTS. You can now add comments to every space in JLI, including your own. In any 3D space, click on the Comments button at the upper right of the screen. To test this properly, we need lots of comments on lots of spaces, so go wild - and invite some other folks to join JLI and check out your world. Keep an eye out for comments on your space. Soon, we'll be adding RSS and other social syndication/notification functionality so that you can choose to be notified (or not) if someone comments on any of your spaces, or your friends' spaces. NEW SPACE TEMPLATES. We've added a new Beach Resort, Labyrinth, and Roadside Motel. Inside JLI, you can check these spaces out by clicking the Explore button then "Sample Templates", or you can create a new personal space based on any of these new templates and add your own multimedia and customizations. To create a new space, click NEW inside "Your Space." (You'll have to replace your old space and republish - sorry! This will be rectified in the coming weeks when we add the Multiple Spaces feature. But if you don't want to delete your old space just yet, see Create Extra Accounts below). NEW PROPS. We've added another animation (sample character) - a martial artist - and lots of new objects in several categories. Controllable avatars are still en route, naturally. USER SETTINGS. You can (finally) change your password and screen name. Click the Settings button at the upper right of the site. There have also been facelifts and visual improvements throughout: the Explore interface looks much prettier now, in preparation for more significant enhancements coming soon, and is a little more usable. For those of you who are still encountering hardware compatibility issues, we're anticipating fixes for you to try out in the next release. Thanks for your patience. If you can't see some of the new changes or they aren't working for you, try clearing your browser cache, and let us know on the Forum!