Not a lot of time since the last Future Plans post, but it is time for another. I have a lot to talk about, to let you know where the summer takes us. It’s a pretty exhaustive list, even to talk about in fairly brief ways. I’ll try and keep each bullet to a paragraph, mainly to keep it clear for you readers. (A kind of long TL;DR at the end)
Summer To-Do List:
- Finish the modeled map of Davo
- Finish the -Space articles
- Get artwork out for the Reykata
- Get close to (or finish) having the Deity articles done
- More Desktops
- Begin writing Dead Run
- Another Species EP
- In Extremis Orchestral Suite
- Assorted Articles
The modeled map of Davo is coming along quite well, I had a few sections of the modeling done and textured, before I decided to finish the entirety of the height map. I am at the last stage of the height map at the time of writing. The height map I refer to is essentially this image that I’ve posted before (It’s on the Davo page) but coloured over in grayscale. It really is a topographic map but instead of just lines indicating height, the brightness indicates height. White is the highest location, and black is the lowest, and this allows me to very quickly and easily render maps in Blender without having to spend time imprecisely tugging and pulling at a model.
The -Space articles are forthcoming; I am halfway there so far. Divine Forge, Pale Shores, Matriarch Grove, and Parallelium are already published. The four that are left to go are The Outcropping, Vale Reef, The Hilt, and The Blade. All are pending more artwork at the moment and some clarifications on sub-sections of each space. No idea what order the articles are going to come out in, but The Outcropping might be first.
Artwork for the Reykata is something I’ve wanted to get done and put out for a while now. I keep it high on my to-do lists in hope that I might actually do it, but it’s a large undertaking. I want to redo the entire art direction I’ve gone with the Reykata, or at least re-define the art direction. I feel like the Reykata artwork I’ve done in the past hasn’t been uniform enough and they don’t look like derivations of a single species, which is why not much (or any) has ever really come out. I think getting the basis of each race done by the end of the summer that would be good and achievable. There’s a lot of varieties of Reykata, especially once Dead Run comes out.
The Deity articles have been a thorn in my side like the -Space articles and the Reykata for a long time. They come out slowly because the Deities have defined personalities that shape their appearance and getting their “pure”est appearance just right is something that means a lot to me. I don’t want to redo these in the future. Right now I’ve completed the Aster, Davoto, Porrair, and Quarrnyl articles. Again, halfway here, so that leaves Extiru, Haket, Sham’ayn, and Taruthe. Not sure which will come out first. The articles themselves are fairly well along in writing, it’s just the artwork that lags behind really. Extiru’s artwork is well along, but he has some intricate designs that take a while. I haven’t started Sham’ayn’s artwork but I have a really strong idea about her, so she could be next.
More Desktops! I haven’t opened that document with all of the plans for desktop-sized artwork since the last round of them came out which was … February. It’s been a while. Because of this, I’m not sure how many I have to work on or want to get out. But I do want to work on these. I think I have a few cellphone sized wallpapers, and a few normal desktop resolution items. After I get the Davo map done, I’ll take a look and see what I have to work with.
Dead Run is coming! The outline and the last stages of planning are done. Places, People, and Things are all named like it’s a Wheel of Fortune show. All that’s really left for me to do with Dead Run right now is write the actual details of the plot. The overall story has been in place for a couple years, I’ve spent the last several months refining the outline, and over the past 3-5 weeks I have finished up some additional planning details. We’re getting closer to the conclusion of Before The Wind!
I really liked how the Pale Shores EP came out (check it out if you haven’t yet, it’s only $1), and am looking forward to writing another EP of about the same amount of music for a different species. I have a few of the species in mind, but I’m thinking Quarryn so far. I’ll do a couple demos for my thoughts and see where to go from there. Like Pale Shores EP, this one will also only be a dollar, so getting all 8 EPs will eventually cost you the same as an average album. How about that?
In more music news, I’ve begun work on my first Orchestral piece, which has slowly morphed into Pieces. Right now it’s a five-movement suite, but the 5th movement is kind of modular, and additional movements for future In Extremis work could come before or after it later on down the road. Before the summer ends I definitely want to have a movement or two done.
Last but not least I’ve lumped a bunch of improvements to articles and smaller articles that don’t have the gravity or finality of finishing all of the -Space or Deity articles into one item on this to-do list. They’re several items on my own personal list, but you’ll see them come out sporadically across the summer. Probably things like a legend for the new style of map, perhaps finally an article about Lott, and a look at either expanding the underutilized Time article or making a new one based on some other new fun things.
TL;DR: Going to try and finish the Deity and -Space series of articles, going to get out artwork in the way of new map styles starting with Davo, then more desktop artwork, new Reykata artwork, and then new music in the form of another Species EP and an Orchestral Suite. Also, some assorted articles throughout the summer.
Skeli'n Studios 
