Forging a World

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What does it take to build a unique game world? Imagination? Dedication? Research? Perhaps just artistic talent. Well, if you ever wondered I might be an expert on the matter soon enough. Let me tell you what I have discovered so far.

Patience is one of the first things I have noticed is needed. The amount of time I have spent working on the capital city of Busciples has now exceeded the time spent on a racial remastering, and it's not even half done!!! I am going to be adding some maps to the blog allowing followers to see what has been accomplished. Keeping things to scale is an ongoing process. Things are currently at a point where we might want to produce more floorplans before moving forward with the city map as we attempt to keep things consistent.

Research is still a fundamental part of this game's development. What were the common elements in a medieval castle? What was the difference between a castle, keep, fortress and a stronghold? How will this play out in an actual game? You see where I am going with this? Sticking with the desire to mix fantasy with reality and add an underlying current of education for our players requires research of stellar proportions. To place myself in the right frame of mind I have been playing a fair amount of Baldur's Gate recently. The artwork and structures alongside the world itself is a good foundation. But I wish to surpass even World of Warcraft in scope someday.

Perseverance is playing a big part in this en devour. After hours upon hours of work in paint.net while listening to medieval-themed music I often find myself losing interest. My whole life I have drawn creatures and humanoids, but rarely drawing something as detail-oriented and time-consuming as a world. Thankfully,  some city maps have already been drawn up. So, I have a very small 'toolbox' of skill and techniques in accomplishing this task. Honestly, not nearly as much time has been spent working on it as could have been, but forward progress should never be minimized.

It really helps to have an end goal in mind. Without a destination, I could very well be wandering around in my head aimlessly. Now THAT could be a very intimidating idea in of itself. The goal is to create the fundamentals first. Meaning, drawing fortifications and necessity structures like inns, blacksmiths, barracks, stables, the castle and such. I would imagine that is how many cities were originally developed in the first place. People were drawn to the convenience and security that a Lord had to offer. Obviously, there is more to it than that, but feudalism flourished, in part, due to the need for security. Convenience resulted out of necessity. So the erection of certain structures would take precedence over others.

As always we welcome input from our followers. If you have anything you wish to contribute, whether it be artwork or suggestions, information or artistic direction, we here at Team Epimetheus welcome your input. All such correspondence can be sent to nathan.epimetheus@gmail.com.

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We appreciate your feedback. Remember to keep your dreams alive, your imagination may depend on it.

Nathan

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