Lockwood Expands its Virtual Real Estate
by BONZO, HSM team writer
Lockwood made a great announcement that it would introduce two new personal spaces this month. Being summer, they have introduced a series of summer themed clothing items, but it doesn’t end there.
In this teaser image we can clearly see waterfront properties. In one of their previous ads for Drey clothing items, the boat in the background looked similar to the Dream Yacht, or at least in the same vein. The Lockwood personal spaces have mainly stuck to a strict atmosphere that defines them as a part of the Lockwood universe. Sodium Hub, SodiumOne, Sodium2, and the personal space Silicon Lounge have stuck to the Sodium theme. The Blaster’s Paradise bridges the gap between the Sodium Universe and the Figment line. Blaster’s Paradise looks very similar to the island where the Dream Yacht is docked, as if it were a different side of the island, but developed with Sodium universe elements. The Lockwood Midnight Glade seems to be the only personal space to stand on it’s own without ties to Sodium or the Figment universe.
The two new spaces, though not much has been released of them, hint at a tropical paradise. With the teaser image from the aforementioned Drey ad, can we speculate that it is the same island? At the very least, in the same general geographic region?
Prehistoric Looking
One of the hints suggest an open beach area, with large rocks and a sailboat in the background. From past experience with vehicles in spaces it is almost certain that these will be just props and not active usable items. The second image suggests a lagoon of some sort, similar to the Granzella Tropical Hideaway public space.
Now that we have seen the nDreams Blueprint in action, can more personal spaces exist as just non-dynamic personal spaces? Considering the limitations of customization and graphical quality of Blueprint, it’s a safe bet that it is. Add to that the fact that it is from Lockwood and you have a winning combination.
Without having more information or more images of the rocky lagoon space, there is something prehistoric about it. Granzella seems to have understood this to some degree, since they integrated a fossil hunting game into that public space. Lockwood recently released four different dinosaur companions, so could this space tie into the Dinosaur theme? The ad graphics for the dinosaur companions were set in a lush green background but those images were composites of digital images and not a rendered 3d space.
Wood Ceiling, Wood Floor
A closer look on the open beach personal space reveals wood panel floors and a wooden ceiling with track lighting, so it’s relatively safe to assume some sort of edifice will be the main domicile for the personal space. Lockwood is infamous for their attention to detail so I am sure the living space will be pretty amazing, but the real breathtaker here is the view.
Sandy beach, large boulders, beautiful atmospheric perspective and more islands in the distance. There is a real element of fantasy here, and it is gorgeous. You can almost see the sails waving in the wind, hear the roar of the waves, and feel the mist of the spray on your skin. We have been longing for beaches, and though we have personal space beaches already what we really want is a public beach.
One of the shortcomings of the beaches past and present, both public and personal, has been the lack of waves. The Mui Mui island graphically suggested the motion of the water, but there is no real undulation of the surface. Next to the sail boat there seems to be an undulation of waves; could this be the first beach space that gives us waves? Then again it could just be a graphical representation of the caustic refraction of light from the water. Either way it is keeping in tow with Lockwood’s reputation for attention to detail.
Waves? or caustics?
The pastel wash of the colors in this space really hints at a perfect wrap of ambient lighting accurate to a midday period of a tropical paradise. That period of day where every surface seems to reflect lighting. While that detail might suggest the time of day may be locked, the beach hosts a square modernized construction which hints at a fire pit. That may suggest it lights up at night, if there is a diurnal control; it may also happen automatically, which would still be pretty awesome.
Does a firepit suggest diurnal control?
The beauty of the beach is the basking in the sun, but also the breathtaking sunsets, and among my fondest memories are beach bonfires at night. So if Lockwood somehow manages to integrate all those into a single personal space, I for one am sold.
One of the coolest design elements from this teaser is the flat rock walkway leading you into the apartment, which from what I can only guess is likely a bungalow. A closer look at the wood flooring reveals a railing that supports the flat rock leading you onto the beach. Although it is at a distance, the ladder on the side of the sail boat seems to fall on sand. So if not actually operable, you may be able to get on the sail boat itself.
All of this is of course speculative at this point; stay tuned as more is revealed, but when Lockwood leaks out a teaser image you break out the magnifying lens and explore every pixel.
Very cool stone walkway
Maybe we are at a saturation point with personal spaces, but variety is the spice of life. Lockwood has proven to be an outside-the-box developer, and they have given us some very cool content in the past; there is no reason to believe they would stop now. Maybe user created content isn’t necessary to keep us interested because from the teaser images alone I want that beach space already, and I am very curious to see more of that prehistoric lagoon.
August 3rd, 2012 by BONZO | 7 comments
BONZO is an editor and artist for HomeStation Magazine.
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If I ever need a private detective on Home I know who to call! lol
Amazing the amount of detail you can find in those preview pictures. Good article.
I don’t know how accurate any of it is, it could all just be wishful thinking. Specially the waves thing. I miss waves. *sigh*
ooo sailboats… *Riff drools -with the America’s Cup coming to hometown San Francisco and having been a former masthead for Blue Keel and Santana 20 races (That is bow- hang on with your eye-lashes -pretty Spinnacker downwind Jibber) Riff oos and ahhs over any rag ship fantasy. I liked the LOOT yacht because it actually gives the facimile of tacking… Dare I see something more evolved from Lockwood then they shall have my dime.
Good read Bon!
What can I say, boredom and money are a dangerous mix! Only yesterday I bought the Waterfall Terrace, I’d had my eye on it for ages in all honesty, but decided against it as I already have the tree house space and the Diesel beach space (with added tree houses) but it was slow yesterday and I stupidly thought about “browsing” the estates store. I nearly bought the dame Tycoon place (and all its furniture) too!
My failing is my own imagination, and desire to create pleasant or unique spaces. Which is why Blueprint nearly ended up on my bill yesterday too.
I’m not sure I need another beach space really, but if it’s rendered nicely and it gives me enough incentive visually through that, I usually find myself giving in. The Loot yacht is still (IMO) the single best boaty space available for Home so far, and I doubt we’ll ever get a beach or lake space that comes with a rowboat that you can push off of the shore from. That would be pretty damn cool, the amount of times I’ve stood on the small dock of my other lake side space (I forget its name -- not the log cabin, the bigger one) and wished I could take that little boat out the middle of the lake.
the Shire
space is pretty awesome though, I really dig the fishing game. That space would have been perfect for a row boat, it has one but you cant use it. The fishing game could have been expanded into the boat though its still a good buy, I think there’s a budget pack that comes with furniture for that space. Might be wrong about that though. The LOOT boat is my favorite as well mainly because of the wild life, we need more un-lockable wild life in spaces. I think the Luxury weekend lake house is the one you are referring to. That’s a cool space too, but yet another tease on a row boat, and a double whamy (I finally know what that refers to) for teasing with the koi pond from the window upstairs.
The second picture I believe is the “Another Beach” or “Beach for Two” in JP.
I believe that space is similar to the former irem beach, and it’s from Granzella. Different developer. Would be awesome if Granzella brings that space to NA as well. Keep fingers crossed. That swimming emote looks pretty cool.