Updates from the Forge 54: Summer 2024

[Jubal]

Issue 54: Summer 2024

EDITORIAL & COMMUNITY NEWS

Hello and welcome to another issue of Updates from the Forge, your Exilian newsletter of geekery and creativity!

Quite a bit of news this time as we've just updated Exilian to the Simple Machines Forum 2.1 software series. This is a big jump, we've been running the 2.0 series since ca 2011-12, and it will mean a few changes for how the site works. You'll be able to see some visual changes on the forum, and that we've got a much more responsive system for using the site on mobile browsers: we've also now got some useful new functionality for saving draft versions of posts, and there'll be other new features coming soon. That said, tech changes (and this is the first of several planned for the second half of 2024) can come with teething problems, so do let us know your thoughts or if you encounter any issues.

Do also refresh yourself on our new rules on generative language/image model ("AI") systems. As a community we've decided against supporting the use of these technologies – the very large environmental impact, the damage done to artists in our community, and the very difficult potential issues with intellectual property rights were all things we discussed in coming to that decision. As such, we won't be giving slots to AI-driven work in newsletters like this one or in Exilian competitions and social media, and we're committed to support projects in avoiding generative AI becoming something  that they use.

We've also got some really interesting new site content for you to check out if you missed it: this includes the various entries for our Hibernation creative competition, which was won by the excellent Spritelady, and also three new articles, both the second parts of two-part series. The first of these was a discussion of travel in Mexico by indiekid, covering reflections on the later parts of his journey through the country down to the southern border: the third, in much the same vein, has been a fascinating travelogue on indiekid's journey to the isle of Chiloe and the 'edge of the world' facing the Pacific ocean If you'd rather mystery instead of discovery, though, we have you covered there too: Jubal's "The Problem of Focus 2: Focus and Magic" is an article for writers and developers on how to use what he terms "low focus" magic, constructing magic systems based on ideas of miracle and virtue instead of magic being a reliable, studied toolkit. If that sounds good, do give those things a read!

Finally, we have a couple of recent welcomes, where Exilian has now started sponsoring independent academic groups by providing them with web space and infrastructure. Two organisations, the Medieval Caucasus Network of scholars who work on (shockingly) the medieval Caucasus, and the Middle Ages in Modern Games conference, now  have Exilian-hosted websites. If you're in a similar position with a network or collective that needs a small amount of online space, then do have a chat with us and we'll see what we might be able to do to help.

And with all that said - it's time for a bunch more updates from the nerd forges of Exilian. Do take a look at what's going on below...

CONTENTS:

• Editorial & Community News
  
• Game Development
  
  • Set off for the stars in Cepheida: The Exploration Game
  • Where does the Devil Hide?
  • Tusky's TTRPG GM-Pad
• Arts & Writing
  
  • Microfiction on Exilian
  • Jubal's Writing Blog
  • The Earthwitch Approaches...
• Miscellany
  
  • Summer game fest discussions on Exilian
  • Elden Ring Explorations with Rob Haines

GAME DEV

Set off for the stars in Cepheida: The Exploration Game

Jubal's game setting Cepheida has been knocking around on Exilian for a number of years: it's a sci-fi setting that focuses on a quirky, less human-centred, more exploration focused approach to spacefaring. It was originally conceived in the early 2010s to be the setting for some sort of skirmish wargame, with randomised planetary. It's been given sporadic world-building updates since then, including one published short story, but now there's some significant new development going on.

As of recent months, Jubal has been adapting the Hetairos ruleset to produce a new Cepheida exploration game. The new game and rules will include a range of different alien factions and asymmetric objectives: as crews of explorers, playing aggressively at the expense of your real aims might spell disaster. You can find out more about this project at the Cepheida forum, and learn how to make your way across hostile environments as dedicated S'ruba recon missions, lordly Verwynn out to carve out new homes for their subjects, or strange Tangalak cyborgs, among other inhabitants of the Cepheid star cluster.

That's not all the updates either, as we've had some new little bits of concept art released, including not only some alien sketches of Jubal's but some lovely new banner art with a planet by the talented Adriana Pasierb, as seen above. Stay tuned - more updates will come along in the next few months!

Visit Cepheida's project forum on Exilian

Where does the Devil Hide?

From the maker of the zany sci-fi Twilight Oracle comes a much darker adventure in Devil's Hideout, still in the point and click genre but with a classic cultic horror feel and story. When Lauren, the protagonist, learns from a mystic that the little sister she once thought dead is still alive, she must return to the hospital where her sister was once cared for and unravel how a mysterious cult wove a web of false deaths, disappearances, and devilry...

Sometimes it really is too quiet...

Devil's Hideout promises immersive, horror-saturated pixel art settings for Lauren and her friend Atticus to explore, with an abandoned hospital and its surrounding town brought to live with chilling sound effects and seen from a first-person perspective. With classic item/inventory gameplay and other staples of the point-and-click genre very much in place, this looks an interesting piece for horror adventure game fans to check out.

Check out Devil's Hideout on Steam

Discuss the game on Exilian

Tusky's TTRPG GM-Pad

Relax: it's when there start being moving red dots that you know there's trouble. Right? Right...?

Tusky has a new project for folks running sci-fi TTRPGs: he's aiming to create an updateable tablet/laptop app to allow game masters to beam information through to an interactive "ship's computer" or pip-boy or similar for players at the table. Originally designed to work with Mothership it should also work well for Starfinder or other SF space-crew RPG settings.

The testing version of the software already has a good range of features, including not only log messages with image support but also a flexible system for editable mini-maps for the players to use which can include variably visible icons and visible/invisible region designations. If you're interested in getting an early look at the project and being able to get in on the early features discussion, do head over to the relevant thread below.

Discover Tusky's Tabletop Tools on Exilian

ARTS AND WRITING

Microfiction on Exilian

...still we feel the breath of the hunters, hot on our necks. Still, we lose friends to the ether as each transient community we build is shattered and rent in the pursuit of profit.

In our darker moments, we fear - collectively, huddled around our intangible campfire - that the Hounds have hunted too long; that in seeking out adaptation and inspiration, their instincts draw them to the very concept of fiction.

And yet we persist, telling stories in the dark.

- Rob Haines, 'While We Run'

From very long form to very short form indeed: new Exilian member Rob Haines has been posting about his microfiction writing! Microfiction, often seen as a format on microblogging sites like BlueSky and Mastodon, is the art of writing extremely short minimalist stories or vignettes that imply much of the surrounding tale. It's a great exercise for writers in what can be done with very limited word counts and how to imply the surroundings of a story quickly without providing long information passages.

Some of Rob's archive of over a hundred microfiction pieces include the sci-fi vignette While We Run, exploring the image of being hunted in a futuristic-tinged world; Song and Sonnet, a tale about what might happen to a sword long un-used; and For Having Been Broken, a story of repairs to shattered things and of the giants we might make of them. You can find all of these and more at his collection – links below:

Microfiction at Rob Haines' Creative Space

Share & read microfiction on Exilian

Jubal's Writing Blog

In any case, Jean-Jacques: I'm wearing a wedding ring, and have been since we met."

"I've worn wedding rings plenty of times! They were just from other people's weddings!"

"You are a dreadful thief and a scoundrel, d'Alvaratanne. You know that?"

"In this life," said Jeanne, leaning back in the punt and gesturing with an imagined wine glass at the world, "we're all scoundrels in our way. Or ruffians, or weirdos, and I know which of the three I'd rather be."

"In my professional opinion as a weirdo," Ansaler began, and Jeanne burst out laughing before he could finish the sentence.

After finishing a (still as yet unpublished) children's book in 2020, we've not had much in the way of updates on long-form fiction writing from Jubal for a few years, as he's focused on game dev, academic writing, and short stories among other formats. Recently, however, his writing blog has creaked back into life, with a few new snippets from a story recently appearing with a cast of paladins and scoundrels taking shape.

The as yet unnamed story will be book-length and currently sits at a bit over 10,000 words in its draft form: we know that it will be a fantasy adventuring tale, and the snippets posted reveal a concerned council of holy warriors, a linguistic mishap over explaining the birds and the bees, and a discussion of weirdos and wedding rings. If that all sounds like the sort of thing you might be keen to read, why not take a look at the thread?

Jubal's Writing Blog on Exilian

The Earthwitch Approaches...

"Say goodbye to Maxwell, children," said the Earthwitch, without looking at them.

"Goodbye," said Roy.

"Goodbye," said Mina.

"Sleep," said the Earthwitch, in a deep voice that made Mina's toes tingle.

There was silence for a moment. Mina and Roy could the stones of Maxwell's body, and his smiling face, but they could not see Maxwell. Mina smelled something nasty and looked towards the fire: Maxwell's last fish was still there, burnt black.

A new story from rbuxton, The Earthwitch is a short tale of environmental damage given a magical twist. Two children have a companion, Maxwell, a beach-spirit of stones and pebbles: but when something goes wrong for him, the children are drawn by a mysterious figure into a far more deep and fearsome world of spirits, pains, and fears than they could have imagined.

In a world where we're all very aware of the potential dangers humans pose to the planet, the idea of the planet fighting back or being corrupted into our own destruction is a powerful one, and the questions of danger, sacrifice, and what we can ask of people are very real ones even if approached through the fantastical.

Read on to discover more of this witching tale – with its deeply uncertain ending...

Read the Earthwitch on Exilian

MISCELLANY

Summer game fest discussions on Exilian

Clockwise from top left: Mixtape, Tiny Glade, Generation Exile, and Arco.

Regular game fests throughout the year are often interesting showcases of what's coming out in the ludic world, and we've had some good recent discussions on the forum of upcoming games and game projects which might make a good read for some recommendations. Rob, Spritelady, and Jubal have been discussing things including fantasy revenge tales from South America, a generation ship city builder holding the last remnants of humanity, and a cosy castles and glades builder among other upcoming titles. If you're looking for some new games to play and want to uncover a few titles you never realised existed, this may well be something to check out:

Summer Games chatter on Exilian

Elden Ring Explorations with Rob Haines

FromSoft may be famous for crushing combat mechanics, but their worlds can be suddenly tranquil in the right hands...

It's an exciting issue when we get two new projects from a new member, and we have just such an eventuality here as Rob Haines, whose microfiction we report on above, has also been doing a really lovely screenshot project in Elden Ring. Taking on the mantle of an in-world recorder of place and aesthetic, Rob delves around the world and find places and spaces that maybe even the devs might not have thought of as a vantage point or angle on the setting, recording the lavish game world with a photographer's eye for vistas and settings as he goes.

This isn't Rob's first game screenshot project: he's also done a similar adventure for the cosy environmental horror sci-fi puzzle game Outer Wilds (yes that's a lot of adjectives, and arguably self-contradictory ones, but some games defy easy tagging). This sort of game art and appreciation is something we're keen to support and see more of, so if you're thinking of tinkering with something similar, do let us know about it!

Rob's Elden Ring Explorations on Exilian

And that's all this issue has to offer! It is, of course, only a taste of what Exilian as a whole has to give: we hope to see lots more developing projects across our new-look forum space in the coming months. If you've got something you're working on, whether big or small, practice or profession, a little new hobby or a grand design - we'd love to see it here and help support and encourage your creativity. That's what we do here, and we're very keen to host and help more of it happen in the months to come. See you then, and see you in autumn for another set of updates from the Exilian community's creative endeavours!