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Updates from the Forge 44: New Year 2022

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Jubal:
Issue 44: Winter 2021-22
EDITORIAL

Happy midwinter, one and all! Your regular editor Leafly is currently having a break, so you're back to yours truly, Jubal, and the imaginary editorial llama, to bring you this issue of Updates from the Forge.

We've had so many major bits of news demanding their own posts in the meantime that it's hard to know what's left for the newsletter in some ways - in particular, we can congratulate our very own Tusky on the successful release of Tourney: The Medieval Tournament Simulator, a game that allows you to create your own medieval tourney grounds with a wide array of different objectives and a fun little storyline. We've also announced our second Coding Medieval Worlds workshop after the success of the first last February, and had some new content out including an autumnal riddles article.

In other site news, we've got a new policy on Non-Fungible Tokens, which you can find details of here. In short, Exilian's voting members have decided that we will not be supporting NFT-based projects for the foreseeable future, as a result of the environmental and cultural negative impacts of the technology.

Finally, make sure you remember to enter our winter creative competition, this year on the theme Winter Sunset and judged by friends of Exilian, conservator and podcaster Jenny Mathiasson and author & game writer Victoria Corva! We're looking forward to releasing the showcase of everyone's works in a month or so.

And without further ado, onto the Updates themselves...

CONTENTS:


* Editorial

* Game Development

* Halloween Mode in Son of a Witch
* Infinitas Zero Hour: Shein's Revenge and Tulathrone
* Wonderdraft: Making Fantasy Maps
* Arts & Writing

* Missives from a Fallen City: Audio Drama by Jubal
* Tales from Infinitas
* Miscellany

* What've you been playing?GAME DEVHalloween Mode in Son of a Witch


Bigosaur's four player beat 'em up roguelike, Son of a Witch, now has a special Halloween mode! Available to replace the main game, the mode is automatically activated during Hallowe'en each year, and at other times of year can be accessed via the /hwon and/hwoff console codes in the character select screen. Son of Witch's Hallowe'en includes a number of changes - more skeletons, ghostly skins for regular enemies, and a significantly more direct route to hell than in the standard game. This seasonal mode, besides being a fun tweak for the time of year, will also thus be great for achievement hunters seeking those all too difficult wins against the bosses of hell. Check it out!

Bigosaur's DevlogGet Son of a Witch on Steam

Infinitas Zero Hour: Shein's Revenge and Tulathrone
BagaturKhan's Command and Conquer: Zero Hour modding and maps, created by him and DarkkozDarka, present his massive World of Infinitas project in game format. These especially challenging maps for veteran players are designed to present the challenges and dangers of the Infinitas setting in a fully interactive way, and there are two new recently released maps for CnC: Zero Hour fans to have a go at.


The first of these is Revenge of Shein, in which you as President Zanzibhar Shein must take on the pro-Acheronian forces of the rebellious General Shului to avert a catastrophic civil war in the Nargon Republic. Meanwhile, in Death of Tulothrone, a rogue AI a million years old has awakened and seeks to complete its mission to subvert technological systems and destroy all organic life in its path. Only you can stop it in its tracks and save yourself and the folk on which Tulothrone seeks to wreak bloody havoc.

Try these and more via BagaturKhan's Exilian thread for the Infinitas Zero Hour project!

Check out the Maps

Wonderdraft: Making Fantasy Maps

Spritelady has recently been sharing her experiences and tips on using the fantasy mapping software Wonderdraft, which she's found useful in creating a range of maps for TTRPG campaigns. Its features like being able to cycle through a range of preset symbols when painting, generation tools for landmasses, and easy area-paints make it ideal for creating certain map types, and Spritelady's thread takes us through the details of how some of the magic is done.

Do head over and join the discussion: do you use this, or other software for map generation? Do you have hints and tips to share or questions to ask? A cartographic world - or possibly quite a few of them - await...

Find Out More
ARTS AND WRITING
Missives from a Fallen City: Drama by Jubal
In the world of Failbetter Games' Fallen London, men with the faces of squid roam the streets, the waves of the Unterzee lap upon London's darkened shores, and factions from the Ministry of Public Decency to the Rooftop Urchins and even Hell itself vie for advantage in the fallen city. From that world comes Jubal's Missives From A Fallen City - a fifteen minute audiodrama of torrid romance, arson, ambulatory fungi, and cake! When Maisourias Sponderwick, Esq., gentleman of negotiable action, calls upon the heiress Astrabella C. Willoughby, all seems to be set for a tale of possibly-forbidden lust and excessive asjustment of moustaches. This is Fallen London, though, and here, everybody has secrets...

Through thirteen letters of Astrabella, Maisourias, and their acquaintances, uncover their tale, have a listen and give some feedback!

Listen on YouTubeDiscuss it on Exilian

Tales from Infinitas
BagaturKhan's Infinitas universe is having increasing numbers of tales available to read on Exilian with the release of the Tale about the Doge Bertolino and his wonderful house-pet and the continuing process of translating the immense story Revenge Of Tyrants - Darkness Is Coming from its original Russian. These stories, with wide arrays of nations and characters, deal with politics, love, and war across a universe of stories epic in scale. From the fate of the huge stellar Empire of Hyborea to the majesty of giant battle salamanders and the question of whether a kettle can have a soul, there's a great deal to be found in the Infinitas tales - good reading for a dark winter's evening, perhaps?

Revenge Of Tyrants - Darkness Is ComingTale about the Doge Bertolino and his wonderful house-pet
MISCELLANY
What've you been playing?
It's rare to find someone who makes games without appreciating playing them too, and a good place to see what fellow Exilians have been playing and join in with discussions and inspiration is the Exilian Arcade, our forum area for general gaming discussion. Threads on Wildermyth, the Witcher series, Dragon Age, and other popular games are hubs to share ideas, tips, and thoughts about those games and gain new perspectives on them. Learning more and sharing thoughts can be really important for sparking fresh creativity - and is also just a fun way to get to know folk and find new ideas about your favourite games.

Meanwhile, feel free to post about what you've been playing or ask for recommendations - there may well be an Exilian member out there who has the perfect idea for what games you'll love to play in future.

Enter the Arcade

2021 wasn't an easy year around the world, and 2022 will doubtless have its own uncertainties. There is always hope to come, though, and even the passage of sunsets are promises of dawns not yet broken. Through all these issues we'll be here on Exilian, running virtual meetups and competitions, providing space to chat and listen, and hopefully building the space for creativity and geekery that's often so needed and hard to find in difficult times. We look forward to having you with us on another year of that journey - happy new year, dear reader, with sincere hope that 2022 is kind to you.

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