UPDATE: Olivier Battini updated the NWS Group page with this great news:

OK, here is the state of New World Studio :
• Principal features are implemented and working quite fine
• Updater system should work but needs testing
• Some bugs left to fix

In the last spurt of activity last year, my error has been to try implementing a whole bunch of features at once or at least in a short period of time, and as I became less available I could not manage the resulting load of work.

This time, I will concentrate on adding stuff step by step at the appropriate pace. Feature requests won’t be examined until I can provide a stable and working product.

So, a paid version will be made available. Some of you may disagree about that, but given that the project can’t rely exclusively on donations to be maintained, the paid version will be the only way to make New World Studio a viable and sustainable project. Of course, a free version will still be available.

I’ll be able to tell more about the next steps tomorrow or the coming days… 😉

Thanks everyone for your dedicated support !

I’ve recently gotten back into goofing around on my standalone Open Sim grid – which was originally created using the very easy New World Studio that I read about on Maria Korolov’s Hypergrid Business blog.

A discussion on the NWS Facebook group has shown developer Olivier Battini that there’s a LOT of interest in the New World Studio Open Sim package, even though the full-featured New World Grid announced an “evolution” recently. He’s busy with wrapping things up at New World Grid and arranging hosting, etc., but has agreed to work on updating to the latest version of Open Sim by the end of March. He mentions that a paid version may be coming out, but I think it’s not likely to be terribly expensive.

I had been wondering what to do about upgrading my installation down the line, and hoping not to have to get Sim on a Stick working better (I uninstalled it for now, too confusing to have both).

I’ve just donated $25.00 via the donation page – it’s fun figuring out the French on a Paypal page, but I managed. My typist posted a Pledge Break update on the group, and she hopes that others will also donate to NWS, so that Olivier can devote time to the project.

Ok I see that this is very important for you and may be for many other educators who don’t show up yet here. So I will take the time to update NWS to last OpenSim version with a paid version. I will update this page as I progress. Hopefully, I should have something before the end of march.

via New World Studio