In James Hinton’s first guest post for the Worldbuilding School he compares two maps.
One of London in 1653 and the other is an artists impression of Tolkein’s Osgiliath.
Both cities are built on a major river yet James argues that the map of Osgiliath doesn’t make sense when compared to the map of London.
See for yourself and read the full comparison – Continue reading “Real world maps vs Fantasy Maps: Which makes sense?”
This is a question I’ve long asked myself, should we use “World Building” or “Worldbuilding”?
Over the past few years the Worldbuilding community has begun to mature online and I’ve settled on my preferred version. When relating to the art, science and hobby of creating fictional worlds I use the term “worldbuilding” and have been doing so for the past couple of years.
To understand my reason we need to go back to the beginning of The Worldbuilding School, it’s a simple reason but one I hope you’ll agree makes sense.
Back in late 2009 early 2010 the search landscape was much different than it is now. If you searched for World Building then Google would…
Continue reading “World building or Worldbuilding, that is the question”
If you love the idea of building your own town then you will LOVE this game.
Banished is a city-building strategy game that is all about life and survival as you control a group of exiled travellers who decide to build their own city. The object of this game is to keep the population alive and to grow it into a powerful civilisation.
It has the feel of a modern Caesar 3 or Zeus: Master of Olympus but with much deeper gameplay. That’s because sustainable resource gathering must be considered if you want your settlement to survive in the long term.
This game has appeared out of nowhere but the initial youtube videos look brilliant. What’s more impressive is that it’s been developed by just 1 guy, Luke Hodorowicz .
Jonathan Roberts of Fantastic Maps has published a fantastic quick tutorial that teaches you how to design a town. I’ve been a fan of Jonathan’s work for a long time especially since he was commissioned to produce The Lands Of Fire And Ice.
I’ve also been playing with the idea of focusing my whole world building efforts on just one city. So here is the result of a city I’ve sketched out using the tutorial and it may very well be the city I use for my future world building.
The following is an interview with creature creator Kathryn Zalecka. I’ve long been a fan of Kathryn’s art style but especially a fan of her main race the Easkull, so I was rather excited when she agreed to do this interview. However, I must make a public apology to Kathryn as this interview was done month’s ago but I’ve only just published it. If you have questions for Kathryn please leave them in the comments below and I’ll be sure she sees them.
Steven Sanders has drawn a number of comics for Marvel and Image; from Wolverine and The X-Men to Deadpool and Five Fists Of Science. He has over a decade of professional experience in the illustration field and now he’s turning his attention to world building.
Symbiosis is a world where technology and biology are inextricably linked, where man and technology need each other to survive. Think of it as ”1940’s Bio-punk”.
However, the most exciting thing is that Steven is releasing the world of Symbiosis under a creative commons license. So that means you can write your own stories, games or any other project using this world and add to the existing cannon. Therefore if you’re an author looking for a new exciting world to write in then Symbiosis provides all of the world information and artwork you’ll need to get started.
If you’ve read last week’s article on Sanderson’s First Law Of Magic then you’ll want to visit The World Building School and take a read of this second article.
When you add limitations to your magic system it makes it more interesting for readers. This article also focuses on the elements of a magic system defined by Michael James Liljenberg – the gears that power your system and then the knobs and buttons used to control it.
While this article is more useful for those of us who are building a hard magic system it doesn’t mean that Sanderson’s Second Law Of Magic is any less relevant for soft magic systems.
A great new article has been posted up on The World Building School. If you’ve ever wondered about how to add magic to your story and world then this law in the fundamental lesson you need to learn. It was first established by Brandon Sanderson in 2007. Click here to visit The World Building School and read the article.
A second article will be posted this Friday and it will delve deeper into the laws of magic in your world.
Are you an author, dungeon master or simply looking for a treasure map to use in a school or for kids parties? Well I’ve just published my first map pack on Graphic River – and it’s only $3.
This pack provides a fully drawn map detailed in two different styles and supported by 4 jpeg renders of the map, 2 for each style.
So it doesn’t matter if you don’t have Photoshop, you can still benefit from purchasing the map pack thanks to the inclusion of the 4 renders.
The first render is an ‘out of the box’ map complete with location names so you can instantly use it to create a world for your RPG , print and hang it on a wall or use it in an exotic treasure hunt.
The second render is the same as the first render however all of the place names have been removed. This means you can write on your own place names and even add extra icons and features to the map. All without the need of Photoshop. Simply print off the map and draw directly on it or take it into paint and draw in there.
However if you do have Photoshop you’ll be able to customise each map layer by layer.
Included in “Elfcarron: Customise Your Own Map”
1 Map
2 Styles
4 Jpegs
1 Layered PSD
Visit Graphic River to purchase the map. I would also really appreciate it if you could help spread the word about my maps and help me to rank on the Graphic River market place. It all helps towards the running of The World Builders Guild group on DeviantART and The World Building School website.
P.S. the link to the map pack is here. Please share.
The 4th and final part of the Elfcarron tutorial is now up on The World Building School.
This tutorial teaches all about adding typography and a boarder to your map.
If you haven’t heard of this before then The World Building School has been publishing tutorials on how to draw a map similar to the Elfcarron map:
I’ve included links to the other articles below:
Part 1: How To Rangomly Generate Terrain Using Photoshop
Part 2: Adding Texture To The Ocean And Land
Part 3: Drawing The Sea And Coastline For Your Map
Part 4: Finishing Your Map With Typography And A Boarder
I hope you find the tutorial useful.
Please share.
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