Updates from the Forge 23: March 2018

[Jubal]

Issue 23: March 2018

EDITORIAL

Exilian is now over ten years old, with some fun celebrations done on Exilian Day back on March 18, and in the next week or so we'll be getting the results of our epic "Exile" 10th anniversary contest, which has seen a great range of entries in areas from animation to artwork, poetry and writing! We'll be doing a full post containing all the entries when the results come in, so you can see the fantastic range of things people have created (including non-competing bonus pieces from both our judges!) Thanks very much to everyone who entered.

And of course more than that, thanks again to everyone who's been part of Exilian in the first decade of our existence. We've had a huge amount of fun and created (or helped create) some amazing geek projects over the years. We've plenty more planned for the future too, and we're hoping to get some new staff on board to help shortly. Until we do, one downside - we're cutting down Exilian Article posting rates to once per fortnight to take some strain off our articles editor (that is, me). We hope to get back up to weekly articles as soon as possible, and we're still absolutely keen to hear from anyone who wants to write for us, as we've had some great stuff recently - including our Exilian Day bonus article, An Unexpected Bestiary Pt. 2 - and we're very keen to keep supporting the articles section on into the future.

The anniversary isn't all that's happened this month, either, of course - we've got a packed six-item set of updates for you to discover (and there's plenty more we could've packed in besides if we'd had space). Not only that, but it's one of our best diversities ever, with six things from six different types of creative geekery! Excited? You should be...

CONTENTS:

• Magic, Melee and Manga
• Art abounds from Windy Meadow
• Are you ready to get Minted?
• Rockets rise again!
• Neofeud Soundtrack
• Cold War Skirmishes break out...

Magic, Melee and Manga

New Exilian member Naky93 has joined and, as well as entering our aforementioned anniversary competition, has posted about her comic art! Here's a panel from the first of her two stories, "The Assassin and the Sorceress", a tale of romance, magic and swordfighting in a classic fantasy setting:

Guarding fantasy palaces: basically redshirting before it was cool.

You can also read her second (and still ongoing) story, The Royal Conspiracy - set as a precursor to The Assassin and the Sorceress, a few decades earlier in the same world - linked from her thread below. You'll also find links to a range of her other awesome artworks, which very much deserve a look in their own right. We're always keen to see more diversity of geek crafts across Exilian, and the more comics and artwork we get here very much the merrier!

Visit Naky's Manga and Anime Thread

Art abounds from Windy Meadow

Aure and the Tales from Windy Meadow team at Moral Anxiety Studios have been hard at work as ever - this screenshot is of the house of Vena, the huntress, and we've also seen a range of art updates from other scenes, including the forest and the central square of Windy Meadow itself. Recent devlog updates include looking at the role of character sprites in Windy Meadow, and their high importance in the team's work compared to the dominance of portrait art in other similar games. The Windy Meadow devlogs are extremely well worth reading for anyone interested in gamedev and storytelling - the team are excellent at putting their work into context and explaining clearly why they're making the design choices they are. With all that and more art to come, it's definitely a good time to head to Windy Meadow and see what's going on!

Find updates from Windy Meadow here

Are you ready to get Minted?

Coin clipping: it's just a haircut for coins. If haircuts were illegal.

Jubal has released Minted - the Game of Byzantine Coins, a freely downloadable and playable card game for 2-4 players about minting coins in the medieval Byzantine world. Placing each player as the master of a royal/imperial mint in the medieval world, you must switch and move cards and make decisions to ensure you get the best opportunities & improve your currency as much as possible! From concave coins to clipping, and debasement to dies breaking, you must face all the ups and downs of coin-making in the cards that you get to play.

The download contains all the PDFs you need to play the game, and can be printed onto card from any good printer near you (warning: does require quite a bit of purple-red ink - blame the Byzantines!).

See the thread, mint the coins

Rockets rise again!

Strap yourself into the rocket now... if you're small enough!

This month has seen the return of our very own Comrade_General, and some new updates on what he's been up to in the months he's been away. As well as some devious wall painting and a new updated release of his awesome Rome: Total War mod Valar Morghulis, he's been getting back to work on his excellent collection of model rockets, of which one is shown above - and many more. Providing awesome replicas of a number of NASA's greatest pieces of work in the 20th century, this small fireable rockets are a great geek craft project - you can go and ask more about them in his "Exilian Missile Agency" thread!

Visit the XMA

Neofeud Soundtrack Released

Fresh from winning the AGS awards 2017 best soundtrack award, Silverspook's awesome game Neofeud is on the way to having its sequel made, and between that and his podcast he's got some fantastic work going on. All that hasn't stopped him from getting the soundtrack in question RELEASED on Spotify, ITunes, and Google Play for your enjoyment, edification and delight! With tracks from "Leviathan Cometh" and "Duel of the Nephilim" to "The King is Dead" and of course the Neofeud title theme, this is one game soundtrack that is very, very well worth a listen in its own right - do check it out.

Neofeud Soundtrack on BandCamp

Silverspook's Neofeud Thread

Cold War Skirmishes break out...

Utherwald Press' updates for this month have been about their Cold War Skirmishes game rules and ideas. This has included a look at the Sterling SMG submachine gun, and the Blackburn Buccanneer aircraft, as well as an update on plans for the Cold War Skirmishes part of Utherwald Press more generally.

The Blackburn Buccaneer. Challenging it to duels with a cutlass is not recommended.

The Cold War Skirmishes line is set to include Op THULE, a fantasy-war scenario that sees the players facing up against a terrifying Chupacabra against a backdrop of the Falklands conflict, and then look at ANZAC forces in the Cold War with a view to building them into modern-fantasy settings and games. With a good response to the line so far, it looks like there's plenty to look forward to!

Read more about Cold War Skirmishes

And that's Issue 23 done! April will be our 24th issue, meaning we'll have done Updates from the Forge for a whole two years! We're expecting some releases over the next month, including Jubal's new game The Exile Princes and hopefully more music, writing, and artwork too - stay tuned and we'll see you next time. As ever, if you think you could help with writing Updates or you have things you particularly want us to cover, please do get in touch.

[Rosarioz]

The reason I came in, I need some helpful info, can you help me?

[Phoenixguard09]

I'm going to look into giving Minted a go at some stage over the next few weeks. Looking forward to it.