When I hear "showcase age" I imagine an art gallery of some kind - rooms or spaces with 2d planar surfaces in a variety of dimensions on which image textures can be mapped - 2d artworks by the community.
Each room would also have an audio source looping - a musical piece from a community artist.
The audio and image files could be replaced with new ones on a weekly or monthly basis - the best new art of the Uru community would be displayed there.
In addition to the smaller areas, there would also be a large open area, auditorium, garden, or some other kind of community space. This would be conducive to parties, discussions, meetings, announcements, performances, or whatever the Uru community wants to do there.
Perhaps in this area or one of the others would be a platform upon which a 3d object could be placed - allowing GoW artists to make small, high-quality 3d sculptures that could be displayed and replaced once in a while with new ones.
Beyond that, the goal would be to make the whole place beautiful and highly detailed. Not too big, just big enough to contain the described spaces - several small ones and one large one.
Maybe also some sort of multiplayer minigame would be available there. I don't know what that would be though. One of the more eccentric concepts that popped into my head would be using kickable small objects as pieces in a board game - something along the lines of a chess/checkers board or something, in a low space so that it's less likely that people will try to kick the pieces out into the garden/open area or the gallery spaces.
However, there are many things that could be done as minigames. I just mentioned that one because it is a simple one to implement.
There could be a swimming area, that would be easy to make, too. I wonder if it's possible to make moveable floating objects? Like kickables, but on water? Just a thought.
Then there'd be the programming-intensive games, somebody could make a good interactive minigame, possibly.
There doesn't have to be any minigame, though, it's just a thought about how to make the age fun - and replayable.
Genesis could be about the same size and attention to detail as Eder Delin, though in a completely new visual style.
What that visual design would be I haven't thought about yet but I might scribble a few sample concepts down just to get the ball rolling.
I hope you guys will also start drawing concepts and maps and possible layouts, and we'll see what ideas and components stick - plants from one artist, a spatial layout from another, a sky and horizon from a third, an architectural design, etc.
Blending the best of everyone's contributions is fitting for the design of a community project - as is integrating spaces where community members can place their art and music.
The gallery concept makes Genesis a dynamic, changing age, not a static one - and while that's a lot of work, it also gives the age a degree of longevity; it will keep people coming back to Genesis repeatedly to see if anything has changed - or perhaps, to see it once more the way it is before it changes again.
Whoever is the curator of the Genesis Showcase, or Genesis Gallery, or whatever it is - could also bring back old art, music, sculpture, or whatever - from time to time when there is popular demand for a particularly great piece to reappear there.
Or maybe rotating through old art would just be a nice way to deal with any empty spaces where nobody submitted anything for display.
The gallery would be a second tier of the stated goal of the age - to showcase the talent of the Uru community. Both the design of the age itself, and the streams of new content within it, would make a statement that we are capable of the extraordinary, the beautiful, the sublime.
Does anyone else like the idea of an art/music gallery in Genesis?
I'll post some concept art for it at some point. I'd like to hear your ideas too.
BTW, when we have agreed on a design, I volunteer to help Shevek with the modelling and texturing. Not much of it, but I could do a little of it at least. I'm committed to a load of other stuff but I'd like to help in some way.
It'd also be good to have areas showcasing all of the Guilds as well; Shevek has discussed the idea elsewhere.
I'm not sure in what way, however, but something ought to be present that represents the guilds.
_________________ Matthew L. Hornbostel, creator of Panoramic Worlds, a Myst fansite, and various other stuff.
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