A Chordal Beginning
After a week off, I’m feeling mostly rested, but also reminded how incredible sleep is. I’m not sure if that's good or not. What is good is reflection, and the start of a new year is a great time for that. So, I figured I'd take some notes and catalogue it all for anyone who might be interested.
In this inaugural edition:
A brief look back at my experience with #dungeon23.
What I'm working on in 2024!
365 Days of #dungeon23
I tend to do some of my best work when there is a time limit. Game jams are responsible for a majority of my completed (i.e.: usable) work. Knowing there is an exact end date, I will use every available moment to make the best thing I can, to get it to a state of “done” and "usable". I also have a penchant for large projects. There's always room for detail to creep in, and I’m okay with that.
When Sean McCoy introduced the #dungeon23 challenge at the end of 2022, I had just finished up a game jam and was looking for something new. A mega-dungeon with 365 rooms? This seemed like a project where lots of detail could creep in. I had also been looking for an excuse to get away from the computer and use up the collection of pens and notebooks I had laying around. So, this was a fit. I set to work on The Electric Triptych of the Tetric Necromancer.
It was an experiment, to start. In the first few areas, I was trying to land on a specific style. I can definitely see a difference in the visual choices used early on in The Sewers (done in January) compared to the final areas completed in the last quarter of 2023. A fascinating and very personal artifact, 365 days later.
A lesson was learned with The Gatehouse (done in March). A few late nights told me I needed to scale back. This amount of detail would not be sustainable for the entire duration of the project. I was happy to chalk it up to it being an “outdoor area”, where it made sense that more of the walls were visible.
The Cliffs (done in April) were another outdoor area where I was able to play with more organic shapes. I had specifically planned to do a visually divergent area part way through the challenge, to ensure that I gave myself a break, in case I was getting bored of a specific style.
In the end, The Cliffs were quite costly! Due to the number of markers I ended up using to fill in the ground areas. From there on, introducing “earthy” features became a bit more selective for the rest of the dungeon.
Spending an entire year on it, I have a lot more to say about The Electric Triptych of the Tetric Necromancer. In the coming months I’ll use this space as a chance to collect my thoughts on each dungeon area, and continue my retrospective as I get everything plugged into the end product.
Speaking of!
Plans for 2024
Assembling The Electric Triptych
Now that all the maps and first drafts are complete, I can start on getting everything edited, scanned, and laid out over the next few months. The first four areas of the mega-dungeon are currently available on my Itch.io page. I have no idea where I found the time to get those compiled earlier in the year, but they're there if you'd like to check them out.
For the rest, I plan to have the eight remaining areas added later this summer, so that everything is in a playable state from start to finish.
In addition to the room key text, I’ve been writing random encounter tables for each area, with up to 20 happenings that players might run into. This is in addition to the original text written during the challenge. It’s been some of the funnest material to write and I’m excited to get back to it!
Once all that’s complete, I’m likely to call this project “done” for a good long while. I’d say an adventure with fully illustrated maps, 365 keyed locations, and a dozen random encounter tables is “enough” and I can be satisfied with that. And I hope people who pick it up will be satisfied too! If you happen to play any portion of it, I'd love to hear about your experience.
Adding spot art would be nice, but as a solo creator, it is beyond my means at this time, especially for something of this scale. And really, I just want to move on to something else for a bit. But maybe someday I’ll get ambitious and pick up a pen again.
Regarding printing, I don’t know if I’m brave enough to print something this large. I’ve never had any of my work printed. That might be an adventure for another day, once I have a few more projects under my belt and I have a better understanding of the process at a smaller scale.
Monster Art for Bowler
Right before #dungeon23 started, I was working on a series of illustrations for the monsters in Bowler, my autumnal horror adventure. Most are complete, at this point it’s just a matter of adjusting the existing layout and plugging them into the PDF. So, I'd like to get that done this year too.
And After That?
I have a lengthy backlog of partially complete projects to choose from, different formats and medias I want to try out. I also want to revisit creating an adventure for Troika!!
One thing I know for sure, with #dungeon23 being such a large project, I want to do something smaller, something with limitations, something with a shorter page count. ;]
Ok! That’s all for now. If you’ve read this far, thank you! Until next time!
Steve (Cog5)
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