Thursday, July 29, 2010

The long road to Now...

Well, hello there!

Many of you have probably been wondering where I've been. Much has happened over the past year, so I do have quite a few things to share with you. Agape locations have opened and closed and we actually do have a proper Mainstore now in a pretty-much-permanent location (more on that later). We've loved and lost and loved again, come up with new ideas, revisited old ones, underwent criticism which caused us to take a long hard look at ourselves (and decide that much of it was silliness to begin with), and even did some work on our long-suffering not-so-secret project.

I suppose I should start with the basics. In April 2009 I bought a parcel of land on a sim known as Creamy Shores (yes, that's what it was really and truly called) and began construction on a proper Mainstore. Even though I never really blogged about it, the store proved to be popular and I was happy with the way it turned out - yet there was something missing. Neighbors with questionable building taste moved in and promptly set up ban lines, which totally ruined the concept I had going, so once the parcel in the NE corner of the sim became available I bought it.

The next 3 months or so were spent terraforming the land and re-creating my build on the new parcel while the original store remained open. Correcting what I saw as its flaws, my hope was to bring our customers a new and improved Agape experience. The fantastic Tymus Tenk of Envision Landscaping was on hand to assist in the terraforming and landscape the location. With most of his time being taken up by the creation of his fabulous Calas Galadhon sims, I cannot thank him enough for undertaking this project. Because a whole sim or private island was not in the stars for me, we did everything in our power to minimize the possible effect any of our neighbors' builds might have upon our customers' shopping experience and came up with the idea of disguising the our corner of the sim as a private island.

Actually, this is not as difficult to do as one might think. with some careful planning and consideration given to possible sight lines, we were able to to pull off the illusion rather well I think. This newly-improved Mainstore opened in February 2010, but unfortunately for me, Dreamland Estates decided to close down the Creamy Shores sim, forcing us to relocate a mere 2 months after it had opened. The incredible Mr. Tenk and the talented Mr. Regi Yifu of Regimade heeded my desperate call and aided in moving the build to its current home on the Liberation sim, and I must say... the current version of the build is even better than the last! I would also like to thank Mr. Lef Leven of Ars Avette for so graciously coming out and replacing the ancient sailing vessel that got eaten in a sim crash at our previous location. It is truly a fine ship that graces our shores!

If you've not been out yet, please do stop by and pay us a visit. A lot has changed, and I must say it's all for the better. Also, our free photo studio is back for those of you who need to make a new profile picture. Just look for the TP pad under the spiral staircase next to the brass brazier. there are also areas out in front of the store that make great photo spots.

Until next time!
-Zim