Updates from the Forge 12: April 2017

[Jubal]

Issue 12: April 2017

EDITORIAL
April has rolled round and become May, so it's probably (past) time for April's issue of Updates from the Forge! It's been a busy month as usual, and the five projects featured this month are all either new or have made major jumps forward since we last looked at them, which is always nice to see!

Behind the scenes there's a lot of future planning going on around Exilian, and improvements being made - thanks in particular to Koobazaur for being a new CSS/tech volunteer for us and fixing the forum's image scaling/sizing issue. It's likely we'll archive some more unused forums soon to streamline what we have remaining, and plans for some new site-level ideas and projects are in the pipeline. If you think you can help with any of our organisation, social media, or staffing activity, please get in touch.

But anyhow... take a look at what we've got featured this month!

CONTENTS:

• LIFE trailer released
• There are Empires in the Undergrowth!
• R3nnor!
• The Songs of Westeros
• The Spaceship just left the Shipyard..

LIFE trailer released!

A new trailer has come out for Jubal's classic-style Whovian adventure game LIFE, teasing some of the major planets, minigames, and other events in the adventure! Take a look:

LIFE is a mainly text based adventure with a range of puzzles to solve and minigames to play, based in the Doctor Who universe. It's being developed as a free hobby project and will cost you nothing to download and play when it's finished! You can find out more about LIFE, including upcoming beta testing opportunities, in the LIFE forum on Exilian.

Teleport to the LIFE Forum

There are Empires in the Undergrowth!

JeffNevington has recently been sharing the demo version of his ant-colony themed RTS, Empires of the Undergrowth. It's an impressively constructed piece of work with beautiful graphics, as worker and soldier ants scuttle around a range of scenarios and battle not only opposing colonies but huge, plodding beetles and other foes that tread heavy through the underground tunnels and can crush ants with a single bite of their powerful jaws. It's a gorgeous game and there's lots more to come, so definitely one to watch!

There's a lot to be said beyond the look as well, with innovative concepts such as commanding your ants via scent trails to give a high level of detail to the Empires of the Undergrowth experience. Enemy creatures also have a range of options, including toxic sprays, and there's already a balance between food storage, mining new areas, and more to be had as you build up your colony. Download to have a go yourself!

Enter the Undergrowth

R3nnor!

A new platformer game project from ndnninja, R3nnor is a neat little 2d sidescrolling platformer with challenging jumps and obstacles across four well designed levels. Despite the foreboding look of those skyscrapers in the background, we're sure that the little dark blob-character is going to have some rather exciting adventures in the near future; adventure is always just one more platform away!

You can check out R3nnor's thread for more:

Get R3nning!

The Songs of Westeros

Jubal has recently been adding more of his "A Bard of Ice and Fire" songs to our Exilian Media YouTube channel. The new additions are the Baratheon and Greyjoy songs - the former a drum-beating marching song for soldiers treading their way through the rugged Stormlands, the latter a thumping sea shanty for sailing down the coast to raid the Reach or the Westerlands. There's lots of great content coming out on Exilian Media, so if you're not yet subscribed then head over and give the channel some likes & subscriptions! Here's the short Greyjoy sea shanty "We Do Not Sow..." as a taster...

Visit Exilian Media

The Spaceship just left the Shipyard...

...as a new demo of Space Shipyard has appeared, including the first battle demos, lasers, fires, and all the things you'd expect as you battle it out with other spaceships to keep your systems running and get your crew at battle stations!

Battles in Space Shipyard include a wide range of fast-paced tactical options, redeploying your crew members to put out fires and boost certain ship areas as well as being able to use vital special abilities such as high-powered shields and brutal blasting weapons as you attempt to ensure yours is the last ship standing. Opening bulkheads can help put out fires, but at the risk of starving parts of your ship of oxygen - will you manage to cope and lead your little crew to victory? Download the demo to find out...

Visit the Space Shipyard

Another month has rolled round and we've still got plenty for these issues - if you can contribute or think of more that should've been in here, please get in touch as usual.

That's all for now - see you next time for Issue 13...!