WORLDBUILDING! Part 1.

So here it is, the first of the... um... plus one, carry the two... sept weekly blog updates for The Seeker. I imagine they will get more regular as time goes on, but for now, business is slow.

So! Worldbuilding, sorry, I mean WORLDBUILDING.

Intended to be part of a series of 'episodes', The Seeker takes place in a large world which for the time being is called Bytonia. The episodes are designed to tell the history and current affairs of Bytonia, but in order for Bytonia to feel like a real place, we wanted it to be steeped in history, and rather than crafting an illusion to make it feel that way, we set about actually creating its past. Illusions after all can be shattered by simply asking the wrong question, we came to the conclusion it was far better to cover all our bases by actually creating a story for everything.

It all started when The Seeker had no name, and was nothing more than a tech-demo Pete had made in Uni. Myself, Pete and Ollie would throw around ideas of carrying it on while pushing each other off of cliffs in Minecraft. The notion grew and one night we all sat down threw around more ideas. Only this time we actually wrote them down. By the end of the evening we had copious amounts of post-it-notes covered in illegible scrawlings, but hidden in the scrawlings was a fairly sound set of plans. Most things were covered, right down from an extremely rudimentary map, to the characters and even the episodes concept. Pete even sat down one day and drew a map, from scratch, which I will post further down where it makes sense.

Then for a while nothing happened. I made a few models to be used as assets, Ollie starting working on the character concepts, and Pete began to re-familiarise himself with UDK.

Then my computer packed in making Maya a no go. Finding myself unable to continue working as an asset monkey, I turned to my other great love; writing.

Grabbing the map Pete had made, along with a rough (I mean it. Really rough.) timeline, I set about WORLDBUILDING!

I will say this now, the map was a good one, and even though the place names could be changed a little, being able to see the lay of the land as I wrote was a big help.

So that is it, in all its glory. Its still technically a work in progress and I'm sure we'll add more things to it in the future. We may even make it a world map rather than a Bytonia map.

So with map in one hand and timeline in the other, I began my work.

Using my paltry skills in photoshop, I made a quick overlay of the map, and assigned cultures to various regions. While some regions spoke for themselves, with others I tried to shy away from the more traditional clichés. The main tie that binds all of the nations together is that they all stem from the same people, and with only four hundred years since landing in Bytonia from North Bight, they have not had much time to grow apart. The Northmen are the ones who have changed the least, they are your traditional stereotyped Northmen down to a tee, in other words they run around in furs hitting things with axes. In the far north however, there are still remnants of the native people, who bear more resemblance to Inuit people than Celtic Vikings.

As you travel south you reach the midlands, where you come across your bog standard pseudo-medieval fantasy realm. Very much modelled after Britain and France, the men of the midlands sit around build castles and fighting with the other nations. The exception for the midlands comes from three places; the Point, the Bridge and the town of Farrock. The Point is an isolated mountain settlement where remnants of the native people dwell who are extremely similar to the Tibetan people. Next comes the town of Farrock. Home of the 'Order of the Three', their culture grows more unique over the course of the history of Bytonia. In the beginning they are essentially an extension of the midlands, and have no culture to speak of. As they gain more power though, and ultimately take the city of Farrock as their own, their religion is expressed through their culture and architecture, with them ultimately becoming the most 'fantasy-ish' people in Bytonia. Lastly in the midlands comes the Bridge. The Bridge was never meant to be a town at all. It just ended up that way. When the North severed ties to the South, people found themselves unable to travel North or South, so some of them quite simply stayed put. The Bridge is a peasant town, and as such is radically different from any of the other nations. They elect a mayor, govern themselves, and collect tolls from travellers. As such their culture is a bastardisation of just about every culture out there. Buildings sprout like growths on the sides of the bridge, and they use whatever materials they can find.

Then comes the South. It was with the South I tried to stray away from the stereotype fantasy nations. Rather than going for the traditional Persian/Middle Eastern feel for the South, they are surprisingly similar to the midlands. Their culture has stagnated, and ceased to progress, meaning they never got the chance to drift away from the culture of the midland settlers. As a result their culture is  rather more European that it is Middle Eastern, and their architecture is more along the lines of the crusader castles you find in the Mediterranean, than the elegant domed towers of 'Arabian Nights'.

The last two nations, are quite similar, and are more like city states than actual nations. The dwellers of the Kalgean Isles are moslty exiles from the midlands, and while they have adapted well to the ocean going life, their culture has not had much time to grow, giving their nation a small fishing village feel to it. The other nation that bears worth mentioning is Highwater, the obligatory pirate town. The difference lies in its location. While I will save the story for another blog post, Highwater is the town that invented airships, thanks to an extremely buoyant gas that only seems to exist high in their mountain home. That's right, it's a pirate town on top of a mountain. Much like the Bridge, Highwater is a mixture of other cultures; they don't even build their own boats to make into airships, they get them from the Kalgeans. Highwater, while not a lawless place at all feels like one due to its shanty town appearance. It is out of the city though, where the people of Highwater earn their reputation. They have a monopoly on airships, which means they pretty much have a monopoly on trade as well, which means they are envied and hated. Add to this the arrogance that being a 'Sky Captain' usually generates, it's not surprising that Highwater is reputed to be a town full of lawless scoundrels that steal for a living.

So there you have it, the basics of our WORLDBUILDING. I'll continue this post another time, and get started on telling the story of the evolution of the timeline.

I look forward to it.

It's alive! Again.

That's right, much like an undead bear my blog has once again jerked into life, clawed its way out of the shallow grave it was dumped in and is on the prowl for rubbish bins and brains.

With a new look and new motivation, lets see how long I can keep it running for this time.

The project on the horizon this time is a game called The Seeker; a first person puzzle adventure hybrid set in a fantasy universe, which I may add, I have had much joy in creating. Hopefully to be the first in a series of games (a little ambitious at the moment but that's the idea for the future). My main job as well as the script and game story, has been world building with Peter Harries.

I will be sure to write more later, we have a blog rota sorted out and everything, but for now that's it. Expect snippets of writing and short stories in the future!