Given the relatively dismal performance of Lively, Google’s short lived browser-based virtual world, you’d think that smaller startups might be a little hesitant to jump into the space. But Canadian-based Leap In Entertainment thinks it can do what Google couldn’t, and has just launched a brand new virtual world that might actually stand a chance.
Just Leap In (JLI) is a new browser-based virtual world that opens today in public beta. The company’s creative director, Michael Griffin, is quick to acknowledge Lively’s failure, but says that Google positioned Lively towards a younger demographic that is already saturated with other virtual worlds. JLI is going in a different direction, with graphics and an atmosphere that targets the 18-34 audience - a group Griffin says has more early adopters, which may help the company get over the initial hump that accompanies the launch of most virtual worlds.
The world itself is impressive, sporting 3D graphics and a semi-realistic physics engine (they may not be quite as good as modern 3D games, but for a browser-based world they more than suffice). The game has strong support for multimedia, allowing users to drag and drop their own photos to create in-game art galleries, play live video from in-game screens, and stream their own music. Users can also syndicate their in-game activites to news feeds around the web.
I also like the way the game handles friends. Every user can create their own room, which they can spruce up with in-game furniture, multimedia, and so on. Inside of these rooms you can add doors that link you to your friends’ rooms, allowing you to virtually walk through your social graph. For now you’ll have to manually add these ‘friend doors’ yourself, but in the future you’ll be able to important your social graph using Facebook Connect and eventually OpenSocial.
The game supports both Mac and Windows at launch (something else Lively didn’t have), and is played through the browser after installing a small plugin. For now it is free to play and ad-free, with plans to eventually implement some subscription fees for premium features as well as a virtual goods store.
Just Leap In will face competition from a number of other virtual worlds, ranging from full-on downloadable clients like Second Life to 3D chatrooms like Club Cooee, which we recently covered.
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I guess hope springs eternal in the virtual and VC world. I mean why else would someone fund yet another 3D venture?! Yeah, yeah, it’s different, but then again, so claims every other startup out there.
I don’t see much potential for a standalone version, however, if it were integrated with some of the popular social networking sites, it could be a huge hit.
Looks like there’s Facebook Connect integration…
I think it could really work. I started an account this morning, and spent a little time playing chess with an old college buddy of mine this afternoon. A lot of people are geographically separated from people they wish they could spend time with. I saw one lady’s baby showcase. I dunno. If this were better hooked in with Facebook it’d be a real force.
Yup, I registered. It’s actually pretty cool. When you make a space, it feels more like a 3D wordpress than SL. Could even be fun for… gasp… people with a life.
Looks pretty cool, but life is too short, I enjoy my physical life so much that I don’t think I will be partaking in this 3D world.
When I get the urge to stand around in a group of jerky people looking at each other I just go down to the bus terminal. It’s low tech, but better than any 3d world I have tried.
Yep, those Canadians sure are showing us the way to 2025! Snowcrash rules!
I like the strategy of all these VW startups - lets do the same thing we did in 1996 only this time it will work - ActiveWorlds and Worlds.com anyone?
* nothing against Canadians, some of my best friends are Canadians
*some of my best friends.
How many best friends do you have? Are they virtual?
powerpop,
I’m not saying this will work, but you act like in 1996 *we* had millions of people around the world on high-speed broadband with dual core processors.
That is simply not the case.
I don’t think this will do well. I know I wouldn’t want to hang out in a virtual world. I’m too involved in my own as it is
Yawwwwwwwwwwwn! I am sorry, but I would rather watch paint dry than stumble around in another cheesy 3D environment…
Until a super fast, super detailed and radically immersive (even it it includes wearing a silly headset) experience emerges this sort of thing is never gonna go exponential…
Anybody actually tried this out yet?
Yip. I like, so far. It’s simple.
You can find me on the site as ‘CJ’.
lame… again
have you guys actually even been in there yet? It’s pretty nice. physics, your own room off the bat, you can build stuff. pretty badass. you can link out to other websites, and can link in from your own or embed your place. they’re onto somthing, i think.
For the record, Google’s Lively also had the ability for users to link rooms together. In addition, users could link to external webpages too.
more lame 3d nonesense. if sony can’t make it stick with actual gamers, i don’t think this stands a chance.
i think these VW work best for the younger demo who is more than happy to spend free time in front of computer. Those of us who WORK with computers would probably rather PLAY in the real world.
move on.
I don’t think this is aimed at gamers. It’s more likely aimed at everyone else, who are interested in 3d stuff, but don’t really want to make a carreer of messing with it. To be able to get together with some friends and do something together- or show off your art or music or something without too much mucking about. It’s a cool app that way.
I don’t think that Lively failed, so much as it was abandoned. They needed a radical change of approach, but they chose to abandon the project rather than to do the redesign.
This looks like it has much of what was missing from google’s entry. I’ll be interested to see where it goes.
Jamie: I’ve been closed-beta user from the beginning (summer 2008) and was enthusiastic about their approach from the start. Now that you can actually meet people and integrate your rooms - or landscapes, even islands - into any webpage and Facebook, we’ll see if the Canadians did hit the right strings. Log in and meet me in my test lounge, you’ll find me and my rooms as “consiliera”, if you want to try it out for yourself
I think it is very cool. The quality of the 3D worlds is amazing. I work all day on a computer and agree I don’t have hours on end to spend emmersed in virtual worlds and having “fun” outside of work time. But JLI is quick to pick up an in no time you can build your own personal space and play your music (you can even upload music) check out videos and interact with others. The time I do spend in JLI seems well worth it.
I’m not really into the virtual world thing either but decided to give this a whirl and I really enjoyed putting my space together, and seeing what others do with theirs.
Lots of people have great things to say about this here in the comments though it just launched today .
We now return you to your regularly scheduled “astroturf” session…
uh… beta has been going since like july, 1.0 was new years eve. just saying…
And I’m just saying that most of the comments being left demonstrate far too much product knowledge and positioning to be simply casual users. You are being disingenuous.
coldbrew: Definitely, it’s obvious there is a lot of astroturfing going on here.
You’d hope they’d do their astroturfing in a more subtle manner. Ah well.
Let’s hope that they can in fact conquer where the big G left off. Agreed that Google tried to enter a market plastered with virtual worlds for a younger demographic, but I’m still not seeing anything here that makes it stand head and shoulders above the rest. Where’s the sizzle?
Some people need to go outside… We live in a beautiful 3D world already.
Interesting But that has to be pretty risky
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We just don’t think 3D is the most efficient interface for interacting with other people online, given that the interaction is likely to be through chat, pictures and webcams, so we built a 2D virtual world instead….
Looks promising but when I tried it, it crashed within about 10 minutes. Got a 502 Error from the site.
You keep calling it a game but never mention what the game is. It’s probably more accurate to call it a virtual world and just leave it at that. Also, you fail to mention if the virtual world is purely browser based or requires a software download that interacts with the website as Lively did. You also failed to mention a big reason why Lively failed: it was a playground for pervs. I experienced it for myself so I could write a review of it. Luckily the skeevs chasing me around in Lively were hilarious enough to write a fairly entertaining post around. Better luck to “Just Let Me In” or whatever it’s called.
Thanks for the chuckle.
There are many here sitting in front of their computers chattering away about how superior they are because they have a life…as opposed to others sitting at their computers chattering away in a 3d environment. I just thought that was funny.
As an educator attempting to create a virtual student lounge, I’ve looked at a few programs out there. For what it’s worth, here’s my assessment.
Lively had possibilities but they could not get their photo and video displays to work well enough to make it worthwhile. Pervs were not a problem if you made your room private or url-link shared.
Just Leap In has some great potential. They are building the pieces incrementally and, most importantly, they are requesting and receiving intelligent feedback from their members.
3Dxplorer, which requires no download, offers its best features for a fee. They do, however, have beautiful graphics and an ability to import items from Google SketchUp.
Vivaty seems to be ahead of the game right now. Their video displays offer a play list and sound distance controls. Room admittance is manageable. Avatars can now sit, although, for now, sittable furniture is limited to heart-shaped chairs in the private rooms. And, for my purposes, functioning message boards are a plus.
I would love to know if there are any others out there that might meet my needs.
Thanks