Novelties on Novale

Another splendid Canadian winter on sim Novale, with lots of familiar features and novelties for all to enjoy! Dabici Straulino and Kelso Uxlay of Creanovale have once again created an immersive snowbound experience for everyone in Opensim. HG Address is of course, at the end of the post - but you knew that already.

There is a fabulous mixture of real life places and fantasy elements on Novale, it's always been so, no matter the season. Revamping the var region to reflect the passing from spring to summer to fall to wintertime is a major job for these two very accomplished builders. It's also a real achievement that they combine novelty with those elements or landmarks that we've all come to recognize and love over the years. They make the place feel real, while never allowing it to become stale or predictable.

Snowglobe landing point

Dabici and Kelso love their Quebecois heritage and they feature the landscape and culture in every season - for example some Safari goers will remember the Maple Syrup Safari  tour we did back in 2022 where there was so much to learn and to enjoy. 

Dabici and Kelso

Sap time is long past, and it's all about the frosty landscape and the winter sports, the snowmen and the gifts, of course! We met at the highest point on the region,  a mountain outlook platform where you can spy out the landscape and enjoy a nice sit down after some strenuous hunting. The idea is to encourage you to really get out there and explore the sim thoroughly, rather than camming. 

A zipline, snow saucer, skating and skiing, horses and of course just shank's pony are possible modes of transport here. Actually traveling around the region enjoying the sounds is so rewarding, there are so many photo ops. 

Speaking of rewarding, though...

Dabici Straulino: this year we prepare a new hunt with all original gifts.  A hybrid between Advent Calendar and Hunt.

Kelso Uxlay: All the gift were made by Dabici; she is the master gifter

Kelso shows off the Advent tree

Look for this tree of baubles, each one has a number on it that corresponds to a day in the month. You can click on today's date, and also the day before and after, to get a hunt that will take you to a hidden bauble somewhere on the sim, so that means on any given day you have the chance of getting up to three prizes.

Dabici helps an alien visitor locate the Bauble prize of the day

Kelso Uxlay: You need to be located less than 5 meters of a bauble to get the prize

Dabici Straulino: They are all original gifts, I have explored AI 3d this month, it has been a lot of fun to devise the clues and chose what presents to give people. Each piece is the result of a text description, which is an interesting process, because you never know quite what you'll get.

Items up for grabs include this Showering Santa, and a steampunk reindeer, just to give you an idea of what awaits you on this region. As usual the sim features a Christmas Market, which has a fun feature for gridhoppers looking for festive decorations 

Dabici Straulino: We call it the Winter Worlds Travel Agency. This year we have 58 destinations. 

Dabici Straulino and the reindeer outside the doorway to the North Pole

These are HG portals that take you to all the other Christmas themed sims across opensim - there's hypergrid solidarity for you, and a very easy way to make sure you get the most out of the festive fun being had on other grids. 

But as this year draws to an end, things are really stirring rather than hibernating here on creanovale. New projects are in the air, and they include a North Pole section, that will include Santa's workshop - here is the imposing and at the same time candy flavored entrance to it, the whole build will probably be ready for Yuletide 2025, so something to bear in mind for the future.

 This and other neat novelties that are still somewhat secret mean that 2025 promises to be a great year for Creanovale, can't wait to see what happens next!

HG Address: hg.creanovale.ca:8052:NOVALE