2013: Our year in review (Part 2)

This is the second part of our review of Z&A's 2013. You can find part 1 here.

July started out with the announcement that we'd started a project to make copy-permission versions of our newer products available in the main store. This was a project that would happen in the background for the next couple of months (and all new devices and furniture would be released with a copy-permission version available at the same time).

This was also the month that SSA (previous known as SSB) came to Z&A and Raven Park. It came and went a couple of times, as things were tested, but caused us no obvious problems and was well received by those of us who live and work on the region.

The product releases for this month were a set of reboots of our original sphere cage.

Behind the scenes more work was taking place on planning The Femdom Hunt IV, and we were working away on the three gifts we'd be making available (two from Z&A and one from Raven Park).

Raven Park dances this month included Second Life SNAFU (in celebration of SSA coming and also in celebration of those times when SL goes horribly wrong) and Star Trek.

We also sponsored a dance over at The Velvet Thorn. The theme was Mad Scientists so we built a gift for the theme.

August kicked off with the official announcement of The Femdom Hunt IV. Much of the background work at Z&A this month related to organising the hunt, building for the hunt and handling applications to be in the hunt.

That didn't stop us making product releases though. Releases this month included a rebooted kneeling post, a rebooted holding cell, rebooted flying kneel displays and subbie thrones. To help make it easier to find products we also launched an online catalogue using Pinterest.

Over on Raven Park we finally got round to putting a seating area in the hallway of the Mansion, something we'd being meaning to do for quite a while.

Raven Park dances this month were The Fifth Element and Stereotypes.

September started with a release of a new Raven Street dress. Other product releases this month included the Horizontal Pony, petite versions of the Floor Sphere Cage, the RLV-enabled van and a reboot of the ceiling fan.

The organising of the Femdom Hunt IV carried on with applications still open for the whole of September.

Raven Park dances this month included Goth (to celebrate Vila and Antony's rez days) and Tron. By this point the dances had become a firmly established "thing" and, in most cases, a custom built or specially-purchased build was the backdrop. The purchased backdrop for the Goth dance would reappear as a permanent fixture on Raven Park towards the end of the year.

October was, unsurprisingly, a very busy month. We started the month by taking part in the Kinky Halloween hunt. Also on the theme of Halloween, a little later in the month, we put our usual Halloween gifts out in the shop for everyone to grab.

The big event this month was, of course, The Femdom Hunt IV. Applications closed on the 1st of the month and the hunt itself kicked off on the 18th. The first day was crazy busy with the group being very active and a record number of hunters visiting Z&A.

Even though we were busy with the hunt we still managed to make a couple of product releases: first there was the Z&A Ground Box and then, a little later, at Antony's Mistress' request (something to do with the two of them changing their house), the Z&A Coat Stand.

This month only one dance actually took place on Raven Park, the theme was Star Wars. The second dance of the month moved over to Z&A and served as the opening dance for The Femdom Hunt IV.

October was also a little unusual for Raven Park in that, for the first time in quite a long time, some plots became available at Raven Park Rentals. They were soon let.

November saw The Femdom Hunt IV end, and the release of our gifts as actual products. First we released the display case and RLV Rickshaw and then, a little later in the month, the Z&A Submission HUD (this also marked the moment that Antony's Mistress locked a copy on him for good).

Somewhat related to the release of the Submission HUD (because Antony's Mistress was now wearing the dominant HUD that goes with it) was the release of a free product into the main store: the Z&A HUD Locker.

Other than that it looked pretty quiet at Z&A. But it only looked that way. Much like this time last year Antony started work on a longish-term project that should turn into a new range of products in the new year. Again, all being well, released in time for Z&A's birthday in February.

The first dance of the month was again at Z&A, serving as the closing dance for The Femdom Hunt IV. After that the dances returned to Raven Park itself, the first themed as The Green Fairy, the second themed in celebration of 50 years of Doctor Who.

December started with us putting out our usual seasonal gifts for people to grab. This month also saw the release of the Z&A Chain Cushion and the Z&A Laying Head Box. We also added to the free product area of the main store by releasing The Slave in a Box.

Meanwhile, in the background, Antony carried on working on the new product range that should appear earlier next year.

We had just the one dance at Raven Park this month, the dances now taking a break until early in the new year. The theme of the last dance for the year was famous person of your choice.

Finally, towards the end of the month, Vila and Antony demolished the oldest building on Raven Park and replaced it with a new build. Work on this will be ongoing into the new year with all sorts of tinkering and new items being added.

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And that brings us to the end of our review of Z&A's 2013. It's been another really enjoyable year for Z&A with lots of fun developments. We've grown and evolved and, we hope, made some fun stuff that people have enjoyed. As we said last year, while we don't really have a master plan there are again plans for what should happen early on in the new year. Work is well under way so watch this blog over the next couple or so months to see what we've been up to.

To everyone who has shopped with us, hunted with us, visited Raven park, made Raven Park their home and have come and had fun with as at the Raven Park dances: thank you so much for helping make 2013 a really fun year for us. We hope it was fun for you.