DarkLife - Second Life's MMORPG

Goodbye, DarkLife!

TinyPirate — Tue, 10 May 2011 09:58:11 +0000

Seven years ago I was in the UK and playing Second Life. Well, playing isn’t the right word, perhaps just exploring what was a new online space back then. It was seven years ago when I met Bram, a European comp-sci student, and suggested that SL was missing any kind of real game content. With this thought in mind we started building a fantasy MMO inside Second Life. We called it DarkLife and it was uniquely interesting content in a world that, at times, wasn’t very interactive. And seven years on, it’s closing.

From our little home DarkLife proved so popular with other Second Life players that we quickly moved to our own island (borrowed, and then bought) and for six years-or-so we owned and operated the island of Navora with DarkLife content covering every square inch. DarkLife let players level, chose skills, buy and sell weapons, items and armor, purchase spells and potions and battle a range of animated monsters. For Second Life, I think it was an awesome achievement and I’ve not heard of much that has matched it – or lasted as long. Almost all of the credit goes to Bram and Crash Adams; Bram programmed and Crash honed his increasingly awesome art skills on building the world, both of them battling with the code and art limitations of Second Life, and all of us battling with the lack of interest from SL devs in promoting the content of their players.

My involvement ended many years ago as I lacked either art of code skills and my interest in Second Life had generally faded as the developers failed to offer any kind of support to their own player “developers”. However, I maintained a close interest in what Crash and Bram got up to and it was fun to hear Crash’s ideas and hear of new features.

But I’ve been told the time has come to close DarkLife. Both Crash and Bram are busy with real life and after seven years the game would need a total re-write and more promotion work to be cost-neutral (or profitable). As a side-note, DarkLife was profitable from day 1 until very recently! Another awesome achievement, I reckon! Neither can face this task and so Navora island has been sold to Crash for some future projects and the game closed.

It as a fun ride and I’m very proud of Crash and Bram for what they’ve achieved, but all good things must come to an end one day, and so it is with DarkLife!

Oh, and a fan made a video saying goodbye!

Pirate Cotton

DarkLife article on SL Entrepreneur

TinyPirate — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 10:53:20 +0000

Check out this nice article over on SL Entrepreneur. Good coverage of DarkLife as our sim was 500th most popular in December. The article mistakenly says Pirate Cotton is the owner of the place, when it is in fact Mark Busch, but it’s nice to have a little shout out anyway.

PvP Tournament – 3 December!

TinyPirate — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 06:15:50 +0000

Mark Busch, head coder dood, has promised a PvP tournament for teams of 2 on the 3rd of December. You can read more on the DarkLife Forums.

DarkLife – prettier, bigger, better!

TinyPirate — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 09:15:35 +0000

Graveyard entrance - Darklife

A lot of work has gone in to DarkLife over the last year, lots of it by Crash and Bram and the end result is Navora sim is looking gorgeous and the game continues to grow. Check out some more visuals before the cut!

An Airship Has Arrived!

piratecotton — Mon, 20 Aug 2007 11:01:31 +0000

An airship has come to Navora, and instead of it being filled with the traditional bevy of happy fat traders, it’s covered in strange creatures! The poor crew must have been ambushed somewhere, and the airship had clearly been drifting for weeks before it’s trailing rope snagged itself in some trees. But don’t fear! Brave adventurers have climbed the rope to do battle with the beasties on board.

CafePress for DarkLife?

piratecotton — Sat, 23 Jun 2007 03:47:05 +0000

An idea we’ve been tossing back and forth is that of working up some CafePress type gear for DarkLife – perhaps throw in a logo or two from Second Life on the back? If you have an opinion, drop Pirate Cotton a message in game, or drop a comment here!

[FIXED] Light Magic Hats

piratecotton — Thu, 21 Jun 2007 21:19:31 +0000

The issue is taken care of, if you still own a Light Magic Hat that gives a Dark Magic bonus, please send it to Mark Busch and it will be replaced!

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Light magic hats are currently bugged – Mark is working to fix the issue. If you’ve bought a Light Magic hat recently, then please message Mark and he’ll get it fixed for you.

DarkLife Opens on Navora!

piratecotton — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 21:48:14 +0000

Yes, we’re back home in Navora! We managed to get a 1/4 of the sim pretty much done in response to the heavy lag we experienced over at Istaria Prime. You can turn up now and play! We will set up a facility to upgrade your packs (if you’re an old player) once more content is available for high levels. Until then, why not grab a new pack and try a different combination of skills and equipment. See you in DarkLife!

Lag in Istaria Prime

piratecotton — Mon, 18 Jun 2007 21:44:22 +0000

While we’re based in Istaria Prime we’re all going to have to put up with some lag unfortunately. There seems to be a ton of physics scripts running there and it’s slowing everything down a lot. But don’t worry players! We’re working hard and will have some parts of Navora up sooner than we expected so we can keep the game play fun and, more importantly, working!

Mark has some tips to reduce lag on a recent announcement thread he made on the forum. Please follow these if possible.

Second Life Herald on DL2

piratecotton — Mon, 18 Jun 2007 02:03:25 +0000

There’s a great new article on DarkLife on the Second Life Herald. Thanks for the kind words Heartun! Go have a read and post a comment if you feel inclined. It’s exciting to be back!