Updates from the Forge 24: April 2018

[Jubal]

Issue 24: April 2018

EDITORIAL

Two full years of Updates from the Forge! Over the past two years we've covered a huge array of projects, and we hope to keep doing the same in months to come. We've not had much general site news this month, though we can announce Phoenixguard09 and Tusky as the winner and runner-up respectively of our 10th anniversary "Exile" creative competition. Congratulations to both of them - and if you want to see both their entries, and a fantastic range of other pieces that were entered including poetry, manga, stories, and animation, do check out the thread here.

It's a busy time around Exilian generally - besides what we've got in this month's updates, the teams from Utherwald, Windy Meadow, and more have all been hard at work as ever. We've also broken the 1000 posts a month barrier for the first time since late 2016, with the best month for post counts in the last two years; it's great to see the site getting busier again, and we'll hopefully be unveiling more plans and supporting more projects in the coming months. As ever, we're very keen to hear from anyone who'd like to volunteer with helping out with the running and organisation of the community, so just ping Jubal or another member of staff if you'd like to get involved there.

And with that - here's five great creative projects for April. Hope you enjoy the ride!

CONTENTS:

• LIFE Epsilon (1.0) Released
• Enter the Unicorn Dungeon!
• Discover Caradilis' Poems
• Environmental War in Epicinium
• Introducing Tourney - a Medieval Tournament Sim

LIFE Epsilon (1.0) Released

Spaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaace!

This should perhaps have had its own news item, but since we didn't get round to that, it gets to the top of this month's updates instead - LIFE, the Whovian adventure game, has been released! By our own Jubal, this game uses a text-parser system and pixel graphics to allow players to explore several different planets and quests in an open world game system. With a range of minigames, achievements to obtain, original characters to meet, and a wide variety of types of sandwich for your character to eat, this is a whimsical sci-fi adventure not to miss!

Fly into the Whoniverse...

Enter the Unicorn Dungeon!

A new project from a new user - Unicorn Dungeon is a comedy point and click adventure game. Inspired by absurdist comedy like Monty Python, the game is set to be one of a series chronicling the adventures of Sir Typhil as he aims to find a unicorn in order to be crowed king. The game features swords, goblins, snarky voice acting, and possibly cheese. And roguelike gameplay segments as well as the point and click elements! And possibly cheese. What more could you want?

Check out the Unicorn Dungeon thread

Discover Caradilis' Poems

Of course Exilian does much more than just game dev, and our own Caradilis has as usual been hard at work in the poetry section, working on some new writings, one about the joys of working by candlelight, and this one, about her favourite month of the year (making this a double appropriate time to showcase her poetry thread!)

Janus has hailed the year,
With skies both cold and clear,
And February's an icy king,
And Mars has called to spring.

But April wears her flowing bright green gown,
And in her hair a periwinkle crown,
She dances in the snow, the rain and hail,
And sings when sun and cloudless skies prevail.

Remember that you can also share your poems or stories in the creative writing area, and don't be afraid to ask for feedback! We're very happy to see new writing from beginner to expert level, and it's an area of the site we'd love to expand further in future. Poems and stories are great geek creative works and can both inspire and be inspired by the projects we have elsewhere around Exilian. Take a look, jump in and join in!

Read More Here

Environmental War in Epicinium

Caption Goes Here

Epicinium, the turn-based strategy battler with unique environmental mechanics, has seen some UI changes and improvements this month. This includes an easier dragging system for changing your orders, a new visualisation to show turn order, and new orders floating from the screen to the sidebar to make ordering clearer for the players. The game pits two players against each other across a world that can be scarred, impacted, warmed or cooled by the players' effects on the environment, with point scores being tied not only to victory but to keeping a wold that is worth ruling after the guns have fallen silent - land wrecked beyond repair is a poor prize, and it may often be beneficial to make peace and end the game earlier to improve your score (and advance in the game's multiplayer rankings). The team are looking to get more testers and grow their player base, so now's a great time to jump in and have a go!

Find Out More

Introducing Tourney - a Medieval Tournament Sim

You know your tournament is a good one when the beer mugs are larger than the drinker's head...!

And yet another new project - medieval comedy is always a great thing to be covering in Updates, and Tourney, a light-hearted medieval life sim, is no exception. There will be 13 playable noble houses, each with its own colour scheme for armour, horses, and more. Will you take up the bold cause of William Warless, or Tancred Haughtyville? Perhaps Wilfred Ivanhole, or Neddard Northgrim, will be more to your liking? Either way, there will be tournament fields to explore, peasants drinking booze, the Black Knight and the mysterious Sid to meet, and more besides. Why not saddle your horse, call your squire, and head on over to Tusky's dev thread?

Enter a Tourney Here!

And that's all for issue 24... This is the first issue to be formally done under the auspices of our new content editor Vulcanology, who's likely to be taking over a lot more of the writing and editorials for future issues, so many welcomes to her and let's hope we get another two years of fantastic updates from the forge to come!

[Bautistaz]

I want to know what the most direct content is.

[Tusky]

I want to know what the most indirect content is.