Phew, Glad That’s Over!

Finally, Christmas is out of the way. Honestly, it gets more of a strain and less of a joy every single year. Sometimes I wish I could just forget about the whole thing, if only the Retailers would let me.

Anyway, I need a rest for a week or two, partly to recover, partly to sort out a few other niggling problems in my life, and partly because I often find it helpful to take a break and come back to a project later with a clear head.

-Ash

Back on the Trail

Feeling a lot better now, and back working on the project. I’ve finalised my basic layout and started doing the full spread for the first chapter, the basic rules. It’s 15 pages initially, but that’s going to extend a bit when I insert the illustrations and neater formating.

I’ve also been working on some simple diagrams to illustrate the more complex rules, but that’s stuff for the next chapter. When I get a chance, I’ll slip a few more images into the Artwork section.

Soon I hope to start work on a few more of the 3D aspects. I’m merging hand-drawn human characters with simple 3D backdrops and vehicles rendered with a quasi-comicbook filter. I rather like the way it looks, personally. Very individual. Anyway more on this as and when I have something to show! The important thing is, the show’s back on the road.

-Ash

Ill :(

Just so everyone knows, I’ve not given up on the project I’ve just been ill for a while Hope to be back at it in a week or two.

Quick Update

I’ve not posted anything in a few days, so I just thought I’d let everyone know things are still going well. I’ve coloured a few more images in, and fleshed out the Equipment section with some fun new toys including gliding suits and armour (mostly for the bad guys – it’ll only slow you down!)

I’m also working on styling the product. I’m trying out a method of putting hand-drawn characters onto a computer-rendered backdrop. I expect people are thinking it’s going to look stuck on. Well, that’s partly the effect I’m going for, so trust me on this one It’ll also allow me to digitally render sprawling cityscapes and funky vehicles with any luck. And if it doesn’t work, I can always scrap it and have more traditional backdrops done at a later date. That’s the great thing about working digitally, there’s always room to chop and change.

The Problem of Pretty Text

Hit a bit of a snag in designing the layout yesterday, but it was late and I didn’t have the energy to remedy it. I’d knocked up a basic layout that I’m happy with more or less, but when I tried a test PDF it crashed out the printer. On checking the log, it turned out to be the fault of the decorative font I was using, so I now have to find another. One that doesn’t cause problems when I try and make a print-ready PDF.

Fonts are always a tricky part of the process. It’s not just a case of finding one that looks nice. It has to be either free to use or very cheap, but most free fonts have a clause in the license that means they can’t be used in commercial products without the creator’s consent, and a good deal of the time the email address included in the file is old and defunct, making obtaining that permission troublesome at best. Then there’s the problem that many fonts can’t be embedded into a PDF at all, and you can never be sure which are OK until you download, install and try them out. You *can* get programs that remove these restrictions but doing so without the cretor’s consent is again illegal. I’m also quite picky. The decorative font has quite an effect on the appearance of the finished document. It has to be strongly in-theme, something futuristic, readable and maybe slightly urban.

So, as usual, I’m struggling to find a font that is attractive, free or cheap to use, and can be embedded into a document. I’ve been through about six now and none of them have had all three attributes.

Oh well, keep on trying I guess. Something will turn up.

-Ash

A little sample art

I’ve been getting quite a bit of art for the book recently. A lot of it I still need to fiddle with and add colour to, but I thought I’d share a few bits and pieces of it with everyone as I went along, just so you can see I’ve not been completely idle!

Also spare some love for Amanda Webb, who’s doing most of the hard work. I just colour the pictures in, she’s the one who draws and inks all the outlines for me. Check out her portfolio, there’s lots of great stuff in it. You might even spot a few pre-colour images from Velocity that aren’t on the blog.

Amanda Webb, Illustrator

Current Status

As of the start of this blog, I’d say Velocity is about 50% complete.

The rules are mostly ready but need playtesting. Before I can do that though I need to cook up some more resources, sample characters and equipment, that kind of thing, and generate a proper playtest document. The GM chapter needs the most work, and I may need to do a lot of rewriting, but I think the rules themselves should work well in practice.

New Velocity Blog

I mentioned this little project of mine a week or two ago over on Story Games and got a surprising amount of interest from it, so I thought maybe it was about time to give in, start a blog, and put it out there on the wild web.

So what is Velocity? It’s a Role-Playing Game where the focus is shifted away from the usual drama of fighting towards the exhileration of the Chase. It combines the creativity of a play with the freedom of a sandbox game and the fun and tactics of a board game to create a unique game set in a fascinating dystopic world.

I’ve laid down the basic synopsis of the plot on its own page over there on the right. Click on that for more information. More to come as I write it!