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Mapping BotLG

It’s October now, so that means NaMuBuMo is upon us! This seems like a perfect excuse to take some time to plot out the world of BONES of the LOST GOD; luckily, I have some geography already, from it’s first incarnation as a play by mail game. I’ve started a Twine project to help with the mapping, more for the editor’s layout and connection tools:

There’s a lot more stuff in Rooksfoot that needs adding — the forge-shrine to Phaestus, Myxile’s Menagerie, the various Guild Houses, the offices of the Statistique, the Temple of Anama, the Halls of the Stone-Blood Fists, Froome’s the chemists, Wilson & Co., (a cheese shop of some good standing), and I’m sure a bunch of other places that got mentioned once in passing.

That’s great and all — Rooksfoot is the main hub location after all — but it’s also a little daunting given that BotLG is now a lot more graphical, with each location having a couple of sentences of description, but more significantly, a tiled map to explore (complete with fog of war and line of sight). I’ve made a start on a graphical map editor, and, while not strictly in the spirit of NaMuBuMo, I’ll be using some time this month to also work on that.

I can lean on some procedural generation to create some of the maps — the forests, for example, and some of the more dungeon-like content (like the Rat’s Nest, and the eventual procedural dungeon beneath The Skull), but I think much of the city will end up being hand-made. I’m thinking I can use a traditional dungeon generator to dig out room shapes, and then re-connect them with wider passageways and hand-decorate them to produce some sections of the city; but to really do justice to some of the more “iconic” locations, like the ribcage arena, I’ll be making those from scratch.

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Upcoming game jams

There are two game jam events coming up in the next couple of months that are of distinct interest to me. Next month, the Mud Coder’s Guild are holding a month-long jam in association with the folks at Written Realms, the first National Mud Building Month (or namubumo, if you’d rather).

NaMuBuMo challenges you to create 100 MUD rooms (or substantive locations) in 31 days, mirroring the long-running NaNoWriMo novel-writing challenge:

Writing up 100 rooms in 31 days doesn’t sound quite as daunting as 50,000 words over 30 days but making an interesting world in those 100 rooms (or more) within that month will be more challenging than one might suspect. Like NaNoWriMo participants are expected to craft this world within the confines of the given month, concept to completion. There is no one holding you to that or any other rule but yourself, of course, and there is nothing to gain other than personal satisfaction.

Secondly, November will bring 2019’s Procjam. It’s always a great event:

The goal is to Make Something That Makes Something – that could be a videogame with procedural generation in, or maybe an artwork that uses generative systems somehow, or a physical card deck that randomly creates Shakespeare plots – whatever you like, whatever makes you excited to make things. As usual, we encourage you to make it your own by starting early, finishing late, or adapting the times to make it healthier for you. We can’t wait to see what you’ll make!

This year’s announcement post from long-time organiser Mike Cook contains some further news; after this year he’ll be stepping down and is looking for volunteers to take over the reins.