Combat & Conversation

[zach_holbrook]

Hey everyone. I've decided to try to keep my thread here updated a little bit more regularly. I'd really like to finish Malkin sooner rather than later, and I think posting about it more often might help me organize and prioritize in a way that's always hard to do with a project this big. (The way Karl works is a great inspiration!) It'll also keep everyone here up to speed.

For the next few weeks, I'm going to focus on area design. The goal is to be able to traverse the overland map from one end to the other. Here's what I'm working with -- I have more than a third of these maps done at this point.

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To make this doable, I'm going to concentrate on working on exterior maps that need only a few new assets.

Back to work!

[slowdive]

That does look ambitious and well organized
Looking forward to following your progress as you find time to work on the project and share status updates with us!

[zach_holbrook]

Thanks Jer! I've got an area I'm working on right now that I'll post a picture of soon.

[youngneil1]

That's an awesome overview map there, Zach ! It reminds me so much of the old pen&paper dungeon mastering days. And it's impressive in scope as well as in structure. Makes the mind start to wander on a fantastical journey by just looking at it. Sharing plans for things to do here is a great way to maintain focus and motivation for me (and keep things active in the forum). Ah, and a clever naming system for the maps is quite crucial to maintain the overview when building a large campaign (at best, like you did, combined with good notes and hand made overview maps). Basically, IB is really well suited to transfer handwritten modules onto the computer screen .

[zach_holbrook]

Here's a new area. Along with some new tree models and the recently created dead leaves tile I've now added to other maps, there's a bunch of new NPC icons here and some tents. The area also has new music! (I'm up to six songs now. Here's a link to that: .)

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[zach_holbrook]

Unfortunately not much done this week, what with a surprise eye infection and the first days of classes proper. I have made a few new trees though.

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I'm trying to decide how different in character I want to make the western part of the forest from the eastern part (the enemies there are harder and that's where I imagine most of the endgame taking place) -- certainly I'll have new trees, but I also wonder if I should alter the bread and butter ground tiles I've been using -- I'm thinking of darkening them and tinting them purple to give a more sinister look.

[slowdive]

Ah, now I can see the area map and it is incredible. Such amazing details. It will be a lot of fun to explore these areas and story. Thanks again for taking a break to share progress with us. Good luck with starting of school season!

[zach_holbrook]

Thank you! Work on the game was slow this week, but I did manage to get started on a big prop that's the same scale as the wolf prop from a while back. Bit by bit.

[slowdive]

Sounds great. My moving out of our house into an apartment, searching for a new home, finding a home, and moving into that home this coming week has slowed things down here on my end as well . That's okay because turtles always win in books

[zach_holbrook]

Any one of those things would be difficult to do in one week! Good luck settling in.