I’m Loco about these Pocos: Damien Fate evolves tiny avatars

Video courtesy of my gorgeous wife, the exquisite Ravenelle Zugzwang
 

I love experiencing exceptional stuff in Second Life, and this is an exception among exceptions! Disclosure: I’m beta-testing Damien Fate’s newest creations, the Loco Pocos, which effectively translates to “Crazy Tinies” from Spanish. What a catchy name, and a nice guy: he graciously gave my wife and me a tour of the forthcoming Loco Pocos Island, and you can learn more at the Loco Pocos website.

So why I am I gushing so much over these beautiful creatures? Simply put, they excel on many levels: I’ve known many SL products which were great in some ways, but felt like they were missing quality in others, and would benefit from a collaboration or further development on the part of the maker. For example, a well-crafted club which lacks event hosts so it’s always empty, or a brilliantly-scripted device which looks like crap. (What I say: can’t do it yourself? Team up with a friend… or friend-to-be!)

When evaluating Loco Pocos, let’s start with the base judgement of an avatar: how they look. In two words, they’re fantastic. Sculpted for maximum adorability and loaded with potential personality you can infuse more fun into, it’s hard to gaze at them for longer than a few seconds without going, “Awww!”

Loco Pocos are severely easy-to-use and come in different animal varieties: the Heads-Up Display allows you to easily customize your accessories, which is going to be mighty handy for both (1) newcomers and (2) non-English speakers. Damien even went to great lengths to translate the manual into 7 languages (incl. English), but the HUD itself is primarily visual and works across any tongue. You can even click a part of your body to show its options on the HUD, and wearing an accessory will also bring up the relevant palette. Soon enough, I had gone watermelon (as I’m expected to).

Next! Within seconds, I was clicking the HUD to activate my body animations. I used to lament why Second Life was missing the particle-enhanced gestural fun that There has, and there’ve been scant leaps forward over the years, but the Loco Pocos package makes animations so simple and rewarding to use: again, just click the HUD to make your Loco Poco emote. From a good belly laugh to bawling your eyes out to Zzzing lazily on the ground, there’s a fine assortment. And there are both facial and full-body animations.

Loco Pocos also make sound when emoting, and there’s currently a basic male/female selection. Damien’s planning to do more voice packs, and that’s got me intrigued. (Since I’m an aspiring voice actor.)

In a move that’d make Popeil proud, BUT WAIT, THERE’S MORE! Loco Pocos have a story. That’s right, Damien put a lot of thinking into crafting a plot, and Loco Pocos Island will include not just a store (with more accessories), but games to play in mini-modular worlds, too. I tried 3, and while I can’t reveal the surprises, each had a different mode of play and was reminiscent of 3D action platformers. One of them did heavily engage our powers of observation, and the end result led to more curiosity — always a good thing if you want your audience to engage the product.

That being said, it looks like the Loco Pocos marketing is similarly awesome. On top of all the preceding elements, how is anyone going to enjoy your creation if they don’t know about it? The packages in the store were well-designed and evoke memories of the cartoony fun I had in Taco years ago. I hope word-of-mouth spreads massively here; it really deserves to, like how it benefited the spread of the earliest tiny culture.

Tiny culture is an abundantly cute part of Second Life, but it’s also overflowing with innovation. From Wynx Whiplash & ExtroVirtual’s initial accomplishments, to the advanced Japanese refinements of form, to these Loco Pocos — there’s a lot to celebrate!

^ Oh, and that points to why I hope fantabulous machinima is made with them. My wife remarked, “They look so 3D!”, referring to my post-processing having brought out the cyber-natural sheen of the Loco Pocos such that they could be in a Pixar film. Sculpted prims are really suited for these curvy, plush avatar bodies, and I’m eager to see what creations come in kind.

Tagged as: General, Inworld Exploring, Pictures