Updates from the Forge 21: January 2018

[Jubal]

Issue 21: January 2018

EDITORIAL

Hello and welcome to the first Updates from the Forge of 2018! This month we've got the usual great range of projects. There's always more than we can fit into this showcase in any month, so do keep browsing the rest of the site - we've had some great new poetry and items in the writing section, Bigosaur's level 7 of Son of a Witch, the release of Minesweeper Go, and the latest chapters of Phoenixguard's RPG AAR, The Great Maw, to name but a few of the other things going on across Exilian!

In site news, we've had our January staff election: Jubal is now our chair (Basileus) again, and we welcome Clockwork back as Tribounos, and thank GMD and Glaurung who are stepping down as Spatharios and Basileus respectively. If you want to know any more about how the site's democracy works, or want to get involved, please do check the Questions & Suggestions forum, where new volunteering opportunities to join Exilian staff will be appearing in the coming weeks.

And with that - on to this month's updates!

CONTENTS:

• Silver Spook's Podcast
• Some Not-So Frozen Skies?
• Gone With The Wind(y Meadow)...
• Matyas, Mystery, and Monsters!
• A Rogue Empire Rises...

Silver Spook's Podcast

Silverspook, designer and creator of the dark cyberpunk adventure game Neofeud, has more strings to his bow (or perhaps trigger mechanisms to his high-tech gun) than just producing games - he's also the host of the excellent Silver Spook Podcast, where he can be found interviewing a range of fascinating adventure game designers and discussing sci-fi and game design topics. If you're a sci-fi geek or adventure gamer or game dev - or some mix of the three - it's well worth checking out the podcast to discover more from a wide range of designers about how they put their games together and how they see both sci-fi and the real world unfolding in the years to come.

More Episodes Here

Some Not-So Frozen Skies?

Pamdinia - in case you'd ever wondered what Switzerland with more ships would be like!

Utherwald Press' stormwell has been busy lately, churning out short primer materials for many of the areas of his fantasy world of Darmonica that lie outside the frost-bitten lands of Aleyska where his upcoming RPG book Frozen Skies is set. Recent posts cover everything from the tight-lipped Sultanate of Taramate, to the small seafaring nation of Pamdinia, to the mysterious southern continent, to hints of the lands across the great mountain range known as Serlov's Bulwark. With a whole world out there to explore, do go and take a look at what's going on in the Utherwald Press forum! There are regular updates and posts fleshing out the world more, which are great to ead both to discover more about Darmonica and as inspiration for your own work.

Visit Utherwald Press

Gone With The Wind(y Meadow)...

At least, we've certainly been blown away by recent screenshots of this game! Tales from Windy Meadow is a story-adventure with beautiful pixel graphics accompaniments, set in a mystical world of giant beasts, ferocious dragons, and the tough life of ordinary humans who have to scrape by. Recent updates have showcased a lot more of the graphical work, including the death of a giant boar, images of the houses, and this mysteriously abandoned boat:

We're pretty sure that's the moon, not a death star. Like eighty percent?

The team from Moral Anxiety studios post regular devlog updates and posts on their Exilian thread: these include pixel art videos where you can get a great behind the scenes look into the procress of creating the game, and of course hints and info about the gameplay and world of Tales from Windy Meadow itself.

Visit the Meadow

Matyas, Mystery, and Monsters!

Out there in the void, there is a mysterious power that blesses developers with tons of free music, and his name is Eric. Sound too good to be true? Well, it is true regardless, and we've seen some awesome new tracks from royalty-free music creator Eric Matyas recently. This month, new tracks include "Riding Thermals", an easy-going piece that could make an epic backing for a travel scene, and "Mysterious Deep", which summons the majestic scale and quiet mystery of the oceans to create an expansive musical backdrop for some future game or video. Could it be yours? Take a look at Eric's music and his regularly updated Exilian thread to find out!

Eric's Music Thread

A Rogue Empire Rises...

New Exilian member gw-roguempire has come to show off his game Rogue Empire, a classic roguelike where you must save five kingdoms, offering a wide variety of class & race combinations for different playstyles as well as numerous enemy types to take on!

The skeleton who dodged is probably feeling SO smug right now.

In the world of Rogue Empire, peace and harmony between the great races has been shattered by a mysterious enemy known only as the First Shadow. They have erected mysterious shadow barriers over the world's great capital cities, sealing them from the world outside. The First Shadow appears to have disappeared, along with the last great army that was sent in a final attempt to defeat them, but who knows what they may be plotting, or whether there is any way to undo the havoc they have wreaked... you'll have to play to find out!

Check out the thread

We'll be back in February as ever, but that's all for this issue of Updates from the Forge. In the next month we'll be advertising for a new volunteer editor for Exilian's articles and newsletter, so if you think that could be you, please get in touch! As ever, do also let us know in the comments, by PM, or on Social Media whether you liked this issue and what you think we could improve for next time. See you then!

[Phoenixguard09]

Good issue mate. Rogue Empire looks pretty sweet, must go check it out.