This week, I narrated episode 20 of the Civilization Battle Royale X. For those not in with the lingo, this is the current Civilization Battle Royale simulation, which started a new game earlier in the year. Each week the creators upload a series of screenshots with narration by a guest, as well as a YouTube version. It's a different narrator every week, prior notables including Ed Beach, lead designer of Civilization VI. This week it was me, for episode 20 of the first season of CBRX. It might not make a hell of a lot of sense without seeing episodes 1-19, but it's available on the site as well as on YouTube.
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It is indeed true, the final version of the Civilization novel is complete. The original book was written in the form of weekly released chapters, which did lend itself to some issues, but with this final proof read and edit the book is now finally complete. The edited copy contains the following changes:
-Chapter artwork for each era. There are also some super cute little Babylonian lions used to separate subsections, which were previously just a centre-aligned dash. -General editing, tweaks to improve the flow of language, etc. A few slight expansions here and there, often a few sentences to round out scenes that were a little short. This also includes consistency for some terms, such as the old “hoverbike, hover-bike, hover bike” problem. -Formatting, including the addition of chapter banners and adjustment of margins, removal of unneeded double spaces, and general consistency throughout. There are more words per page with the adjustments. -Some names adjusted to include the proper accents and so forth, such as “Māori”. It's something I had been working on throughout the summer, now that I have had some time to myself. What's next for me? Tales from Aquis needs some love- I'll also be starting my Masters in Visual Communication (art) in a month, which I am rather looking forward to. So, until next time, folks! Enjoy the novel! Hey there folks. I had my second graduation ceremony this week, with my postgraduate certificate in education now under my belt. I'm going to be continuing to study alongside my work at the university of course, going straight from here into a Masters, potentially with a PHD to follow that?
With the arrival of summer, I have some free time on my hands at long last, time for family visits and such. I'm using some of that time to complete the long overdue proofread of the Civilization Battle Royale novel. I'm around two thirds of the way through right now, and definitely want to complete it this summer. For those who are interested, the community launched their new game last month, so a fresh battle is well underway. Until next time! Whoa. The entirety of the book, all 146,000 words of it, is now available on the site for free and always will be.
This update also contains the acknowledgements section, just as a way of thanking the many people without whom this book would not have been possible. It’s been an incredible journey writing this. A quick reminder of our road map from here: I plan on doing a proof-read of the book from start to finish, along with consistency editing (hoverbike, hover bike or hover-bike?) to give the text that final layer of polish. I have been doing some of that as we have been going, but taking a step back and going from the top down is always important. As part of this final polish, I also plan on adding a set of small illustrated banners into chapter title pages, indicating what approximate era we are in. It’s been one hell of a ride, and I think I’ve become a better writer somewhere along the journey. Until next time, seeya! Hi there folks. After three years, the Civilization Battle Royale Mk II, the game upon which the novel is based, has concluded. It’s been one hell of a journey, with the game almost being lost a couple of times to crashes. At one point the organisers had to reconstruct the entire game by hand, tile by tile, unit by unit in a fresh save. But after trials and tribulations, high times and low, the game has finally concluded.
The novel too is not far from completion now, seeing as it rapidly caught up with the game during hiatuses. Based on the content I have yet to adapt, I estimate that the final chapter of the novel will go out in February of 2019. It won’t truly be the end, as I am planning on doing a comprehensive edit and polish of the book as a whole after that date. Additionally, the team behind the revived incarnation of the game will be running fresh incarnations of the format under the name CBRX. I’d like to thank everyone involved- Tpangolin and the BluCassette team, as well as the myriad of artists, narrators and the community who built such a wonderful project. Hi there folks. Good lord, I can’t believe we hit 100 chapters- but this October it will have been two years since I began my endeavour, releasing one chapter a week to adapt the entirety of the Civilization Battle Royale. Well, here we are- and 100 chapters in we are rapidly approaching the endgame. In The Thin Green Line, Forces are mobilising for what will be the final war of this epic game. I estimate we have another 20 chapters of content remaining, give or take a few for wrapping up, so I can say with some certainty that the book will be complete in the first few months of 2019, perhaps around February.
Dungeons & Dragons continues- at the moment the players have worked out that an evil organisation is hunting one of them- but they could be after one of two players, so it’s all resulting in delightful paranoia. The two of them have escaped the wreckage of the Prophet I, but it seems their problems are only just beginning. In other news, I’ll be starting my first actual lectures at the university soon, which I am looking forward to delivering. It includes a unit that centres on tabletop games, including D&D– which is literally perfect. Until next time! Hi folks.
I ran a wonderful Dungeons & Dragons session last night, one I had put considerable planning into as the culmination of the party’s recent quest. Continuing on our sci-fi adventure, the party had been searching for a lost science ship known as the Prophet I, last seen in the rings of Pelagius, a vast blood red gas giant in an unclaimed region of space. Our players began having strange dreams and headaches as soon as they arrived in the system, but they were able to complete the side-quest on a nearby moon to fire up a relay tower with which to locate the craft. Last night they found and boarded it, only to discover that the interior was immaculate, warm food left out on the tables, the television in the corner playing some old comedy movie… The party were incredibly suspicious of course, and determined that the two spacesuits in the corner were not only enchanted, but had something inside. After going right up to the glass case they were in, their cleric had the smart idea of using the spell command on the enchanted suits, with the order to reveal, and I read out the following text: You cast the command, and the space suit on the right begins to turn. Its body creaks as it faces you, one hand reaching up to the golden visor that obscures its face. As it pulls back the visor, you see the emaciated corpse within- and suddenly everything changes. The lights go out, and you see how the room truly is; a horrifying husk of a living space. Most of the furniture is broken, the floor littered with blood and rotting debris. Messages have been scrawled over the walls in haphazard, jagged letters. “I must pour it out of my head”, “This is the dream”, and much more illegible mess. There is a shrine against one wall, a painting of the planet and rings in blood and some other dark liquid, maybe engine grease. Below is the message “Praise the red god”, the letters irregular and smeared. Turning back, you see the second space suit suddenly jerk into motion- and both begin to step towards you. They were then trapped for several quite nasty fights. In time, they discovered that something about the planet itself was off; it corrupted the minds of those who tarried near it for too long. Alas, the poor crew of the Prophet I had been there a very long time. They were able to rescue the lone survivor in the cargo hold, who had sealed themselves in there and constructed magical barriers to keep the madness at bay- and then they got the hell out of there. As they flew away, they spotted the frozen body of a lone crewman who had thrown himself out of the airlock years prior- even in death, his body bowed in prayer to the red planet. It was a great session, and one I very much enjoyed running. They were highly unnerved by each new horror as they progressed further into the ship. D&D has been on my mind a lot recently, as I will be running a unit with the university focused around tabletop gaming. In unrelated news, the Civilization Battle Royale is approaching its 100th chapter. I’ll make a post about it in mid September when that comes to pass. I have also added a bar for it with the other novels, as its now over three quarters of the way to completion. Till next time! A new job is on the horizon for me! Starting in the new academic year, I am moving on from my video game desing teaching role at the college to lecture at Solent University! I am really looking forward to the new changes and opportunities over there. The university has some truly amazing facilities for video games- and I’m already working out lectures for the game art students over there.
The Civilization Battle Royale Novel hit 120,000 words this week with its 92nd chapter. The novel is a little over two thirds of the way to completion judging by the progress of the game over on Reddit, which is itself close to finishing. On the side, I’ve also been running a new D&D campaign for my close friends, using some custom rules and homebrew content to develop a science fiction setting. The first puzzle of the campaign involved them having to stop their capsule from spinning chaotically as they entered the atmosphere of another planet. The control panels of course had no markings on them, the labels having long since rubbed off- but they did adjust the pitch, roll and yaw of the craft. It proved for some entertaining if panicked experimentation on their part, but they did land successfully. Hi there folks. The wheel of time turns, and I can’t believe it’s March already. A few little tidbits to share with you guys; check out the latest trailer for The Missing Few, a video game project I have been working on for the last two years as a technical artist. I just uploaded the 72nd (!) chapter of the Civilization Battle Royale novel. With this latest installment, the book is now over a hundred thousand words in length and drawing into its final phase, as great futuristic empires battle it out for global dominance. The title says it all. Sixty chapters now- covering the first 4700 years of the great game. In that time, countless nations have risen and fallen, technologies developed and made obsolete, and religions have spread and faded. The world now broils in the atomic age, and boy are some things going to be changing. As always, the page for the project has the entire book up for grabs, totally free.
My next main book, Tales from Aquis just went through its third major proofreading. I’m currently working on structuring the second act of the book, which is shaping up quite nicely. |
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