Island Forge: Island Forging

Island Forge is an indie developed MMO adventure game / editor. I've already written an article focused on initial impressions and the game side of things, this time I'm going to talk more about the editor. After logging in to Island Forge, one of your options is the Islands tab. Through this interface you can create an island of your own and start the editor. The initial editor window looks like this:

Basic editor - click to embiggen

Playing With Island Forge

Island Forge is an indie-developed MMORPG that allows players to travel across player-created islands slaying monsters and pursuing quests and stories. The game is currently in beta test mode and the developer is looking for feedback, so I spent some time this weekend playing. Here are the results.

Dice Rollers and Other Things

Nothing like getting up at 2 AM with a fresh pot of coffee to get some productive time at the keyboard. As you may or may not know I have a web site with a bunch of dice rollers, random tables and assorted other RPG-related stuff. Since I used to run a couple of computer moderated strategy games (Eldritch, Monsters!, and Iron Kings), most of the stuff is email-oriented. The last week or so I've been working on a new dice roller that's web-based and backed by a server database. It's now up and running in beta mode right here.

The premise is pretty simple. Create an account, create a dice session, share the session info with whomever you want to allow access, and you're off. And yes, I know, it's a pain to have yet another login, but no login is not an option because of bots and spammers, and I don't have the cycles right now to integrate a global sign-in with Facebook, Google or the like.

I'm eager to hear any and all feedback, either in comments here, using the comment form on the web site, or via whatever social media you happen to see this on. Thanks for reading and (hopefully) checking out the dice roller.

Minecraft - Then and Now

I played Minecraft off and on over the weekend, and fell into my usual trap of poking around on various projects with no specific goal. I tend to get distracted when I play this game, and this leads to me starting too many projects and not finishing them. Sunday I decided to clean up some loose ends.

Random - Creature Generator

I recently added a new set of tables to the random generator. This one produces short descriptions of mundane creatures, predators, herbivores, and such. It's loosely based on the Traveller creature encounters tables, but the results should provide some fodder for the imagination. Here are some sample results. The first two lines in each entry are the generated value, the rest are my notes.

Image Inspiration

Just a short note today: this tumblr feed right here is absolutely full of inspirational pictures of underground places, cave entrances, and catacomb-type locales. If you need an idea for a dungeon entrance, underground combat scene, or similar, it's a great place to start.

New Belgium - Dig

This is a spring brew from New Belgium, who have become one of my favorite brewers. It's a very crisp pale ale with a very Spring-friendly hop profile. Lots of citrus, a hint of flowery, and a nice sharp and clean finish that leaves just a hint of malt behind. This is a great example of a well-hopped beer that doesn't fall into the OMG MOAR HOPZ trap. Pours clear and coppery with a floral / citrus aroma and a thick, creamy head that sticks around for a while, leaving moderate lacing. All in all a very nice brew, crisp and light enough to drink on warmer spring days, and with a great profile to pair with, say some good BBQ.