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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.