Project Update!

[Halaster Blackcloak]

Well, for those of you not on the development team, I am pleased to announce some really good news for you!

First, the map to Level 7 is done. Finished.

The map to Level 8 is completely drawn and will be at Doirche's doorstep either today or tomorrow, depending on how vigorous the post office is. He's going to start converting Level 8 once it gets there. I have a couple of tweaks to add to the map that I forgot, but not much of any significance (there's a slime lake I need to expand the branches to, that's about it).

The writing is coming along quite well. I have the first 20 core rooms totally written out, and about 20 of them are transcribed right now to final Word format. There are 41 core rooms, so I'm half done. The first 13 rooms are triple-proofed already, so that part is done. When I get through transcribing Rooms #14-33, I'll be sending them to Varl for proof reading. [Note: I need to know who else is available for proof reading].

The areas of interest (there are 26 of them...A-Z) are done! All written up. I transcribed Areas A-T into Word format and emailed them to Varl this morning to start proofing. The last areas of interest (Areas U-Z) are more extensive and I'm wrapping up transcribing them tonight, so Varl will have them before the weekend. Aside from any tweaks or small changes, the areas of interest for Level 7 are done, as are more than half the rooms. I'm stoked over all the good news, so my inspiration is skyrocketing and I should plow through the rest with ease.

I finished writing up the backgrounds for the two new apprentices we're unveiling as well.

I have room description notes for at least a good dozen room in Level 8 jotted down and filled out in my brain. As soon as I wrap up Level 7 (in the next week), I'll be sitting down to transcribe those rooms for Level 8 and fleshing out the rest of the 41 rooms and 26 areas of interest for that level.

Which, by the way brings up the news that Ruins of Undermountain III: The Deadly Levels is going to run about 175 developed rooms and areas of interest, compared to 124 for the first box set and 134 for the second (dreadful) box set.

I have 7 new magic items, 8 new spells, and 5 or 6 new monsters created for Ruins of Undermountain III: The Deadly Levels, although some of those are coming from Halaster's Tome of Monsters. There will be plenty more of each before we're done, trust me!

I decided on the sub-level for this release, which will be a sub-level dominated by an apprentice who will be a surprising revelation for everyone. This will also have a full sized map similar to Level 7, though I have not started that one yet. I have ideas for it though. I'll start work on that one only after I finish all the writing for Levels 7 & 8, though I will probably draw the map and get it to Doirche as soon as he finished Level 8's map.

And even more good news! We found an artist who absolutely rocks, and who has been a fan since Chainmail came out, and who loves 1E and 2E. he's excited about it and so am I. I'll wait to reveal his work until he hands in the first piece, so that you'll all have something to drool over.

I'm probably being overly optimistic for a July release, however I strongly believe that we'll have it all wrapped up no later than October. Things are moving quite quickly now, and the more people who get involved and the more excitement it generates, the more energy I have to work with. So we'll be able to fine tune the release date as we get closer.

Also, Mira has fixed the main page and added the download and FAQ pages, and is working on the links page (er...as soon as I send her the list of links that is! ).

This is how I always imagined the BIP Project to be...some very enthusiastic people, each throwing in their part, and all of us excited about it. And when that happens, we jet forward faster than the space shuttle! So a big thank you to everyone involved. We've gotten further in the past month and a half than in the previous 2 years!

Well, that's all for now. Stay tuned. I'll post future updates to this thread.

[Halaster Blackcloak]

I'll post updates to this thread regularly.

Ok, the Areas of Interest for Level 7 are done, and Varl has all 26 of them, A-Z, for proof reading. While he's proofing those, I'll be wrapping up writing the final 21 core rooms (we have 41 core rooms and 26 areas of interest for Level 7). Then it's off to Varl for proofing while I tweak any errors on the areas of interest.

Doirche has the hand-drawn maps for Level 8 and is converting them to digital format as we speak. He and I will be coordinating the maps and making any changes as needed. We should have the maps for Level 8 done in I'd assume maybe two weeks, but there may be some final changes as we tweak stuff that comes up during the writing.

In between writing rooms, when I'm not feeling particularly creative, I'm starting to write up (in Word format) the new spells, monsters, and magic items for RoUIII. So there's little if any downtime...if I can't create new rooms today, then I'll simply transcribe spells and other text that needs writing and on creative days I'll polish off a bunch of rooms.

Regardless of where I am with the writing of Level 8, as soon as Doirche is finishing up the maps for Level 8, I'll draw up the sub-level which will be included with this release and get those to him for conversion. It's like a factor now, folks...everything keeps moving one way or another!

I'm waiting for the first few pieces of art from our new artist, and should be seeing something in the next few days.

I'm getting more excited about Level 8 than ever, so that will be a blast to get to. I can't wait to see the finished map. We probably won't release a preview of it because we want the actual release to be a big thing, but we may release a preview of the sub-level map, or more likely some of the room descriptions just to whet your appetite.

Also, I may have the new artist start with the full color cover, because we may just end up releasing a pic of that for preview.

Stay tuned!

[Halaster Blackcloak]

Ok, more updates.

Got a thumbs-up on the 26 areas of interest from Varl, so that part is pretty much wrapped up. I have core rooms #1-20 in Varl's hands now for proofing. I'm somewhere in the next set of 20 rooms, fleshing them out.

I had to re-draw the map for Level 8.

Or rather, I had to add a ton of rooms to the east half of the map and make some other tweaks. It was just looking too bare compared to the west side of the map. It needed a more uniform look.

I scanned it and got the scan to Doirche, so he's converting them in Illustrator now. I'm still not too keen on previewing the maps for Level 8 because I want a lot of the impact to remain in the product itself, but I do want to eventually show the before and after maps, so everyone can see how much change went into it. Kinda neat seeing how it gets tweaked.

Once we get some of the finished art, I'll be posting a preview of the art. You're gonna love it, trust me!

I'm also going to work on getting the dungeon dressing cards done so we can preview on of those, since people have been requesting a preview of that.

I'd like to have all of Level 7 written and done this week, so that's what I'm shooting for. Well, more to come!

[Halaster Blackcloak]

Well, got more rooms written. Working on finishing them. Got behind this week. Really rough week.

Jason is moving forward with the art, and I'll be unveiling Arcturia's new look soon. Jason is doing a room sketch with her this weekend, then we tweak it, then when he finishes it I'll post it. So sometime in the next week or two.

I've seen the western half of the map for Level 8 that Doirche just sent me, and it rocks! You can have two football games going on in one of the rooms, so imagine how big that is! I think the room measures 1,200 ft x 600 ft.

Everyone got slowed down just a tad these past two weeks, but we're moving forward quickly again. I was hoping to have all the Level 7 rooms done by the end of April, but that was a bit too hopeful. In another week or two, though, I should have them wrapped up.

More to come soon!

[Halaster Blackcloak]

Ok, now that we have the development team better organized, I'm finally able to create material. Had a major setback with that food poisoning in the tomatoes last weekend though.

Anyway, Jason (the artist) re-designed Kalarus and he looks fantastic! He's wrapping up art for Kalarus (which will serve as art for one of the rooms once the background scene is done). He also had a setback - a house full of chicken pox (the kids)! But he's back to working on more rooms as we speak.

I've gotten the final rooms for Level 7 designed and planned, and should be able to finish them off this weekend. So by Monday I hope to be starting the writing for Level 8. The map for Level 8 is finished!

Also, this coming week I'll be drawing up the designs for the sub-level maps and then I'll have that back to Doirche before we see July coming around.

I've written up the intro for the BIP Project chapter, and some of the major background material for the main book. Three out of the 11 non-room-description chapters are done.

The development team is kicking ass on the project! They have most of the dungeon dressing cards finished, and we'll be posting a preview soon. They're also contributing lots of cool new monsters and magical items.

Well, more to come later, as always!