UMA

デバイス大好き

[UMA @_Uma_]

ぶいちゃ内でいけてるからまぁいいかな

[UMA @_Uma_]

ん～～～～わからない

[UMA @_Uma_]

お顔をいじっておる

[UMA @_Uma_]

お腹痛くてぇ

[Fins @VRCFins]

"What is your story?"

This is an introspection on what went into [Project: Lost Worlds - Journey to Erios], and how it started from a fleeting wish almost two decades ago, to a project that took over 8 years of attempts, and 4 years of development.

I usually don't do this, but the launch of Project: Lost Worlds feels like an important milestone for me in my journey not only as a world creator, but also as an artist. I just thought a little bit of reflection might be interesting for someone.

From the original Jurassic Park movies to Avatar, some of the biggest inspirations to me as a kid, growing up and watching exciting adventures into worlds beyond a child's imagination. I always had this desire to take part, not even as a protagonist, but simply to exist in some of these amazing worlds in these movies.
That desire never really truly goes away. If anything, it was amplified as I grew up.
From the gates of Stormwind in World of Warcraft, or the First Contact Demo by Oculus when trying VR for the first time.
These moments that I find myself yearning for over and over again. And I know that I was not alone in feeling this way.

Since joining VRChat in 2017, and made my first world for the first time. I experienced the first sparks that made me realize that for the first time in my career, a virtual space that I crafted affects people in ways I didn't understand before.

Right away, I wanted to re-create scenes, moments from these pop cultures I grew up with. But I lacked the skill to execute on that vision.
A simple cafe? Sure, maybe doable. A grand adventure with an exotic destination? Not quite yet.
Unity felt like a paintbrush I haven't yet learned how to wield, and even to this day, I don't consider myself anywhere near mastering it.

So, I kept creating; the vision of each project gets slightly bigger, not by a lot, but enough to force myself to keep learning, experimenting, getting me out of my comfort zone, because I know only by doing this that I can someday wield enough experience to execute the visions I have with a standard that I would actually be happy with.

[Project: Lost Worlds] essentially was an accumulation of everything I've learned over the past 8 years.
Every project at the time might have felt like a "distraction" that kept getting in the way of me working on [Lost Worlds], but now it felt like a necessary stepping stone.
How to bake lighting in the earlier chill worlds, how to make vast space with many animals in Aquarius and Deep Blue, how to create narrative-driven adventures in Magic Heist and Treasure Heist, how to properly do environmental storytelling with NPC and world-building lore in District Robot and Complex 7, and so on.

[Journey to Erios] was far from the first attempt or iteration.
In fact, the very first prototype for [Lost Worlds] was as early as 2019. It was a complete disaster, of course, as I did not know what I was doing. Then the second Attempt in 2020, then 2022, when I publicly started to give demo tours access. Even then, it took 2 more years for [Journey to Erios] to slowly take shape. It went from a modern-day Jurassic Park-type adventure to a grand Sci-fi journey to another planet.

The lore changed a couple of times. I did not want to simply spawn people at the destination already;
I felt like it was important for any adventure to begin with a sincere beginning and a heartfelt journey there.
The feeling of traveling and arriving, much of what I always felt stirring in my heart when traveling abroad to new places.
Getting lost at the airports, catching the flights, the disembark when you look out at the terminal windows to a new country, the transitional space between your destination felt just as important as the destination itself.

And so on, the project continues to receive incremental progress. Its development is not without hurdles. As I work a full-time job as a 3D artist, working on Unity all day, any time after work was immediately allocated to working on my personal projects, which were also in Unity.
Over the past few years, I’ve also become a full-time caretaker for my elderly parents as their health has declined. Balancing that responsibility with full-time work and personal development created a level of burnout I often had to brute-force through.
Sometimes, staring at the same project for year after year, you start to doubt yourself, after the 300-400th time riding the same spaceship, seeing the same sequence. You start wondering, "Is this even good?" "It's kind of boring, isn't it?" "Who would want to sit through this?" sits in the back of your mind constantly.

Development costs were also not cheap, as a solo project, I have to buy assets, license music and many other things to save on development time, which after a couple years ballooned to thousands of dollars, which I intend to not make any back as I want to keep 100% my content free and accessible to as many people as possible.
But the wish to see the project to completion persisted through, I wanted to see it done, and I want people to experience the project in its fullest potential.

It is not without flaws; optimization has a lot of room to improve and learn from. There is a persistent crash issue that is extremely hard to track down; the world might feel a bit short. All things I intend to learn from and continue to improve on.

Thankfully, along the way, I also gained valuable friends and peers, those who help me with logic, technical problems, testing, and translating; it would have been so much harder without them, and I cannot describe the gratitude I have for their kindness.

Sitting here now, 1 week post the launch of Part 1 of the adventure, clicking through thousands of pictures, posts, and feedback on [Journey to Erios]. I try to see every single one of them because, to me, for at least 1 hour, I was privileged to bring them to a world of mine even momentarily, a place that sat within me for the past 2 decades, and with all my heart, I hope that it brought some joy to them.

For now, I have another medium-sized project coming up soon after a bit of a break, and after that, production on Part 2 will officially start.
I still have so many worlds, ideas, and places I want to create. And for as long as I'm still around, I will work my hardest to make these ideas happen.

Some of you might have been here since the beginning of this journey of mine, and some of you just arrived. Regardless, I'm grateful for continued support and your company along the way, truly.

And as always,
Thank you for visiting.
See you on Erios.

#VRChat
#JourneytoErios
#VRChat_world紹介

[UMA @_Uma_]

デコ出しの時は目の位置高い方がバランス取れてかわいいね

[アプライド豊田店 @appliedtoyota]

おはようございます。
RTX698000
5090円です。

[亀井割引（君はスパークル） @waribiki_hu]

こんなもんチャッピーに飛ばせば一発で生成してくれるのに、この時代に色鉛筆なんか使って自筆で描いてんの良すぎるぞー絶対行くからな

[UMA @_Uma_]

@vr_Miria 🐺✌️

[UMA @_Uma_]

できたー✌

[UMA @_Uma_]

メロくないですか・・・？

[UMA @_Uma_]

ウルフカットすこ

[UMA @_Uma_]

𝑚𝑒𝑙𝑙𝑜𝑤...

[UMA @_Uma_]

体痛すぎる

[✨Equinox Asterius: Resurgant Revenant ARKS PRIME✨ @EquinoxNGS]

MAYDAY RED ALERT WE GETTING KEMONO FACES!!!
HOLY FUCKING SHIT THE #PSO2NGS FLOODGATES HAVE BEEN OPENED!!! WE ARE GETTING THE ENTIRE #FURRY COMMUNITY IN!!!!

[WALLHACK JAPAN 🇯🇵 @WALLHACK_JP]

Ascension Sora 限定版 - 7月8日発売

数量限定3000枚。完売後の再販はございません。

Discordに参加して、アーリーアクセスや、マウスパッドの当たるイベントをチェック。

イラスト：SOLANI @SOLANI_draw

[UMA @_Uma_]

#Snori3D