Ilkor: Mike Collins the new Ilkor GameMaster
This is just a very quick news update from the developments taking place at Ilkor: Dark Rising.
I'm very pleased to introduce our new Gamemaster; Mike Collins. Mike has just joined the Gamemaster team, swelling its ranks to three! 
Not a huge number I agree, but we're extremely grateful for the help that each of every Gamemaster brings to the game. The three of us will be working closely over the next 6 months as we start to pull the game together.
There is much work to be done, but together I think we're really going to be producing a solid game, rich is background & history. Scott has already made a good start, the quality of the wiki is test to this. If you haven't yet visited the Gazetteer of Arcadia, then I really think you should!
Mike is busy devising his 'Avatar'. Once this has been done we'll get Simon to draw a portrait and reveal everything on the wiki.
Anyway, welcome aboard Mike. We are extremely pleased to have you on the team.
Cheers,
Sean.
Ilkor: A Website update, the Gazetteer, Maps & Character Creation
We've had a very busy week. There is much to report. So here goes:
Website Update: ilkor.com has just had an update. Please go and check it out. There have been numerous bug fixes, enhancements and new content. The most visually and obvious enhancement must be the browser requirement indicator that appears in the bottom right of the page. It will detect whether your browser is going to be able to run the game successfully. Ilkor requires browsers that support HTML5. Most of the new browsers that have been out in the past 6 months or so should be fine. To check, go to ilkor.com and look at the indicator.
Browser Requirement Indicator
If the globe is green then your browser will have no trouble running the game. An orange globe indicates that you may have some trouble and it is advisable to update your browser to the latest version. A red globe will require that you upgrade your browser before you'll be able to play. You will still be able to signup however.
The Gazetteer of Arcadia: For those of you who don't know. The Gazetteer is a wiki that we're in the process of populating with the rich world setting information and background. GM Senyors and Lord Vega are both busy at work here. Please spend some time here, it'll help you get a better understanding of the game's setting and prepare you for when the game starts. If you have any questions or feedback, please feel free to contact us.
We've recently added some of the game maps and very soon we'll be including a number of new hand-drawn portraits of races and classes, supplied by Simon Lee Tranter.
Maps: Jon Roberts is very close now to completing our various versions of the world and regional maps. They have been some time in the making for a number of reasons, but the wait is proving to be well worth it. I've already shared some of these maps with you via Twitter, Facebook, this blog and the Gazetteer wiki. The big one we are now waiting for is of course the detailed map of Caledon. So watch this space, it will be appearing here soon.
The Blue Region: Caledon
Character Creation: This is really the most exciting area of development. This is because, beside the GameMaster sections of the website, this is the first real functional areas that we are starting to see and it really is looking amazing!! Unfortunately we can't share this with you yet, not even screenshots, but soon we will do just that followed by an alpha version of the website where you'll be able to experience the character creation process for yourself and supply us with feedback. This will be our first real playtest request. Please consider joining in!
Thats it for the moment. Hopefully I'll have more news in the coming week.
Ilkor: Spreading the word
We're about to up the level of our communication. This is already happening (hopefully) to our existing player-base, but equally important we are now looking for new channels and websites where we feel Ilkor news will be of some interest.
As you might know we are gaining some nice momentum on the game development side and while we are still some way away from launching into beta, the game is really starting to take shape now. Hopefully by the end of March we'll have the signup and character creation up and running and will be only too pleased to give those that are on the playtest waiting list a sneak preview and brief 'alpha test'.
So, in preparation for this we are seeking new and exciting channels where we might be able to prompt Ilkor: Dark Rising.
If you have any suggestions or can help in any shape or form regarding such advertising / promoting then we'd love to hear from you. Such channels that are of great interest to us are:
- Beta Sign-up: If you haven't yet signed up, then please do so. There is nothing to be scared about (honest) and it won't cost you a penny.
- Tell a Friend: If you could at least try and get 1 friend to visit the Ilkor website and sign-up then that would be amazing.
- Facebook and Twitter: While signing up for the beta playtest, why not get yourself and your friend to follow us on Facebook and on Twiiter?
- Forum Mention: If you are a member or a suitable gaming forum, then why not start-up a thread about Ilkor.
- Forum List: We are always on the lookout for new forums that we could get involved in. If you know of any, please drop us a line or two about it and we'll be only too pleased to check them out.
- Blog Mention: Maybe you run your own blog or know of one that could be interested in writing an article about Ilkor? If so let us in!!!
- Advert Banners: We have a couple of Ilkor advert banners. If you know of a website that might be willing to display them, then let me know.
I'm sure there are other channels, so if you can think of anything at all then I'd love to hear from you.
Cheers,
Sean.
Ilkor: Sign-up Screen shots
We finished the new homepage for Ilkor: Dark Rising late last year that we'll be using when we go into Beta and allowing players to sign-up for free to join and play the game in beta mode.
We thought you'd be interested in checking out the screenshots and hopefully soon even get a chance to experience it in alpha mode. Yes thats right we'll be launching an alpha version of Ilkor in the next week or so. We'll be updating the website on a fairly regular basis so you can experience the latest advancement in our development. At the moment you'll only be able to have a peek at the sign-up process and an incomplete Character Creation process, but I imagine it is better than nothing.
In the meantime, here are a couple of screenshots. Click on the thumbnails and check out the detailed screenshots:
Sign-up Screenshot
Sign-up with Class dropdown
We would love to hear what you have to say, any feedback, good or bad would be greatly appreciated. If you looking closely at the full detailed screenshot of the Sign-up page you'll see there is a Log In button in the top right-hand corner. The homepage will have two modes and you'll be able to toggle between both of them. It can either be in Sign-up mode or Login mode.
As I have already said we've completed the signup process completely now aswell as the login process.
Anyway, thats all for now folks.
Enjoy,
Sean.
Ilkor: A Long Overdue Development Update
Sorry guys, it’s been a long time since I last blogged. It's not due to the lack of progress and news about Ilkor. Far from it. We've been very busy. However, I do feel rather tired, it’s been a busy year and I think my mind and body has already gone into 'holiday mode'.
OK, so here's a quick status report on where we are with the project:
Content: The website (http://ilkor.com) has had continuous updates over the past month. The website has had numerous subtle changes made to the 'Features' area. If you haven't gone over and visited for a while then now might be a good time. Besides new content, we have also fixed up a few reported bugs specifically around cross-browser layout issues. In the next day or two the site is due for another update, this time we'll be supplying detailed information on each 'base class': fighter, wizard, rogue, priest.
Wiki: Our newest GM, Senyors (a.k.a Scott) has been working hard on populating the Arcadia Gazetteer wiki (http://gazetteer.ilkor.com). It is taking shape, but it is still far from being ready for public viewing really. However we don't mind sharing this info here, we know you'll understand that it is very much 'work in progress'. So by all means check the wiki out and let’s hear your comments.
Sign-up: The sign-up process has been developed and complete. This isn't available to the public yet. Don't get confused with the 'beta sign-up' that is currently on the website. The actual sign-up process will require you to sign-up and submit 4 pieces of information (email address, class, race & gender).
Character Creation: This follows the sign-up process. The sign-up flows straight into the character creation. Here the player will be able to make last minute changes to his original sign-up options and deal with additional options such as character name, stat allocation, starting town, and so on. The early stages of development has started and we'll be working on this going into 2012.
Security: The login and logout process has been developed and complete. This handles 'role management' which basically grants or restricts access to various areas of the website.
Metadata: The last metadata screen has now been completed. It has been a huge job that has taken several months. We have 48 different metadata screens, some of them rather complex, others fairly basic. The metadata screens are used to create the world of Arcadia. The screens will never be seen nor used by players. They are for GameMaster eyes only. The Metadata screens form a small part of the GM section. Early into 2012 we will start to use these Metadata screens to design, populate and configure the world of Arcadia
Map: We've had a bit of an unfortunate setback with the Arcadia world map. Jon Roberts, our cartographer has had his laptop stolen and with it alot of his cartography work. The Arcadia maps are part of this 'lost' work. Jon has had resort to backups so he can finish the maps. I will keep you informed with the progress, hopefully Jon doesn't have to perform too much rework.
Artwork: Simon is due to deliver a fairly large amount of illustrations which will be used specifically within the 'character creation' stage of sign-up. No doubt you'll also come across pieces of this new artwork stash throughout the website and wiki - keep your eyes peeled.
Game Engine: We now have a 'Game Engine Service' in its early stages of development. This accompanies the website and is used to process turns and phases. It has been written in a modular fashion so that as Ilkor becomes richer in functionality we have a mechanism to plug in new features.
And thats all for now folks. I'll do my best to post more frequently from now on.
Cheers,
Sean.
Ilkor: Welcome GameMaster Scott Huelsman
Welcome aboard Scott Huelsman: Ilkor's first Community GameMaster
We were approached by Scott just over a week ago, offering his services to get involved in the Ilkor project. Scott brings with him many talents such as vast knowledge and experience in role-playing, a gamemaster, webmaster and programmer. Scott has even developed his own 'Role-Playing Novel' which is a very interesting concept. You should really check out his work at: http://www.thehway.com/WizardReborn/RolePlayingNovel/PlaytheRPN/tabid/2924/Default.aspx.
So Scott is to be our first Community GameMaster. Early in the New Year he will aid myself (Sean) in populating the game with all the various metadata tokens such as; weapons, armour, shields, monsters, spells, settlements, magical items, etc. This is no small feat and will take many months to get the bulk done.
In the meantime Scott has wasted no time at all and has taken on board a very important job of constructing 'The Arcadia Gazetteer'. You can read more about this in the next section.
The Arcadia Gazetteer
The latest development from the Ilkor / HeroQuest project is the release of 'The Arcadia Gazetteer'.
For those of you, who might be a little unsure what a 'Gazetteer' is I've included a small extract from wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gazetteer) below:
A gazetteer is a geographical dictionary or directory, an important reference for information about places and place names, used in conjunction with a map or a full atlas. It typically contains information concerning the geographical makeup of a country, region, or continent as well as the social statistics and physical features.
We have plans to release quite soon (sometime during the month of November) a wiki that will serve as a Gazetteer for 'The World of Arcadia' which is the setting for Ilkor: Dark Rising (http://ilkor.com).
To begin with it will be rather thin on content, but our first community GameMaster (Scott Huelsman) will be driving this over the coming months to bring it to life. This should prove to be an important area of the game for players to read, discover and learn about Arcadia.
So look out for this. It should be available within a couple of weeks with any luck. I'll keep you posted.
Cheers,
Sean.
Ilkor: Donations
We've just pushed a new update to our website (ilkor.com). The update includes quite a large number of content improvements. Go and hunt around the homepage / features section and see what you can discover. More will be coming online over the next couple of weeks aswell.
What I really want to chat about is donations. Although we aren't going to be charging for playing the game, nor will we be surfing up adverts to ruin your gaming experience, we do need to find ways of re-coping our development and running costs (at the very least).
We have a few ideas up our sleeve on how we might be able to charge for some value added services and products, but that is some way down the line once the game goes live. Luckily we aren't doing this to get rich fast and we are developing it ourselves in our free time, thus keeping the current expenses down to a minimum. However there are ongoing and regular costs that need paying. The biggest is our monthly hosting cost of $70. We also have some ad hoc artwork costs from time to time.
I know times are getting tougher with the so called 'global recession' re-emerging but if anyone can and wants to support us by making a donation we would be over the moon. Any amount no matter how small will really help us in the long run. Donations can be made through PayPal who accept payment from all major credit cards. You can either click on the link below or go to ilkor.com and on the features section scroll down to the bottom left and click on the link which will present you with more information on making a donation.
Do the right thing and make a kind donation
We are looking at rewarding those that have faith in what we are doing in a number of ways. For starters we have created a new link in the footer on the homepage called Heroes. This link throws up a scroll popup that lists everyone that has and is aiding us in developing and running Ilkor. I know it isn't much, but it is a small 'thankyou' to show our appreciation.
Kind regards,
Sean.
Ilkor: Brief Update
We've alot happening right now on all fronts. I'll get straight on with it.
Game Engine: Work started on this about a month ago. Obviously we still have a long way to go, but we already have a bare bones service that processes the turn, advances the turn and phase number, seasons and years. Over the next few weeks we will be integrating into this cycle the introduction of players. The engine persists its data straight to MongoDB.
Registration Process: Development here has slowed down a little due to our move from using SQL to Mongo for our database requirements. So there is little to report, but we'll be re-starting this in a few days time.
New Content: With the website now 95% optimized we are really focusing on pushing new content to the live website on a regular basis. Our aim is to have something new on the website every two weeks. New content will be mostly added to the 'Features' section of the homepage for a little while. This is being achieved by serving up the content in our specially skinned 'scroll popups'!! Go to ilkor.com and see for yourself, we are revealing more and more about the game features and details.
Map: Jon, our fab cartographer is still working hard on completing our world and regional maps. We hope to get the final finished maps very soon now, hopefully before the end of October. You can then expect to see a number of sneak previews of the finished maps!
Avatars: Simon, our amazing Artist will be delivering the first batch of avatar 'facial parts' (head, shoulders, eyes, nose, hair, mouth). He has dealt with a male human for starters. We need this so we can then test our our avatar generating code. If it all works out as planned Simon will then have a few amount of work to do over the next few months coming up with the facial parts for all the other 7 possibilities. Personally I'm really excited about this and will certainly be blogging about the Avatars in far more detail soon.
Database Migration: As mentioned last time, we are busy migrated across from MS-SQL to MongDB. The process is good and we hope to have everything in place by the end of October...hopefully!
And thats about it for now..