Zombie Nirvana Games

Hey all! We’re pretty well settled in here at the new place, so I thought I’d hop back on to let you know what I’ve got in store for the next few months.

FCAP

First, I’ve come to a decision about the Fantasy Cartography book. (Don’t worry, it’s not bad!) I finally realized that I really enjoy doing the podcast and I really don’t enjoy working on a full-length tutorial book. Rather than abandon the book altogether, though, I’m going to do something that a lot of you suggested right from the outset of the podcast: I’m going to do the FCAP “book” as a video series instead.

Here’s why:

1. As I pointed out, I really enjoy doing the podcast a lot more than writing the same thing.
2. After doing both, I think video is a better format for showing off Photoshop techniques than print all around.
3. It’s going to be a heck of a lot cheaper! For the same cost to print one copy of a full-color book (because, frankly, I don’t think it would work in b&w), before I’d even see a dime of profit, I can offer a DVD chock full of videos, map templates, custom brushes, and example files AND get a healthy payout to boot.

One thing the DVD will NOT be is a compilation of the podcasts. The will contain the same material you’ve seen so far in the podcasts, re-recorded in a much higher resolution and (particularly when compared to the earlier episodes) with better sound.

So what does that mean for the podcast? The FCAP podcast will continue, though they’ll probably be shorter for awhile!

Two Books & A Blog

Meanwhile, I’m also going to be working on a couple of new M&M Superlink books, A Dirty Dozen and New Troy: City Under Siege. The former is a villain collection, and since it’s relatively short I hope to have out within a couple of months. The latter is a city setting book that I’ve been dying to do for a long time now, and will take awhile to complete, I’m sure!

As part of the work on these two new books, I’ve started a design blog over at Blogger, Butch’s Zombie Brains. It’s going to be pretty specific to those two books, and much “bloggier” than I like to make ZombieNirvana.com, hence the new page. Keeping the design blog will not only allow me to put up a lot of previews and get feedback from the fans, but will also keep me motivated and honest about how the work is progressing!

Starting next week, I’ll be working on the Superlink stuff and updating the blog on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, and working on the FCAP videos Tuesdays and Thursdays for as long as my voice holds out!

So that’s the skinny! Sorry to any of you who were looking forward to a print copy of FCAP, but at least with the DVD you’ll be getting more of what you’ve already come to enjoy!

Now that 10 Towns & Villages is out, I’ve started working on 10 Cities. Here’s a quick screenshot of the work in progress!

I’ve just put out my first map collection, 10 Towns & Villages! These are fully customizable, 150 dpi JPG images, with both color versions as well as black and white versions optimized for grayscale printing. The collection comes with a set of compass roses you can add with the image editing software of your choice.

You can check out a preview here, or head on over to any of the Purchase sites – preferably YourGamesNow.com! – to pick up a copy.

A lot of folks have been asking me when Fantasy Cartography will be available. I’ve learned that it’s generally a bad idea to announce a release date for something until you’re darn sure it’ll actually be ready on that date, so I’m not ready to go that far yet!

 What I can do is give you a sneak peek at a few pages from the introductory chapter. Just a few pages, but it should give you some idea of what the finished product will look like.

You can download it here!

 The technical bits: After playing with a few different formats, I decided on a 9″x7″ landscape format. I really felt like I was either wasting space or having to cram things in with an 8.5″x11″ format. Plus, 9×7 is one of Lulu’s standard formats, which will make converting all the PDF’s into a printed book.

 Like I mentioned over on the Fantasy Cartography page, the book will initially come out in 5 PDF’s: the introductory Basics chapter (which will be free for download here and at YourGamesNow.com) which will come out at the same time as the first section, Overland. These will be followed (as quickly as possible!) by Cities and Towns, Dungeons, and Interiors.

Once Interiors is out, all the PDF’s will be available in a big bundle, and I’ll compile the whole thing for print in a full-color edition on Lulu. At that point, I’ll have a better idea if some kind of video version – either in the form of downloadable content or as a DVD – will be worth pursuing.

That’s all for tonight! I’ll be recording the next installment of FCAP tomorrow, and I’ll post some ponderings about a possible future direction for the podcast in the next day or two.

Work on Fantasy Cartography is proceeding along faster than I’d have guessed! As it stands now, I’m most likely going to initially release it in several sections.

Part 1, The Basics, will be an overview of some of the tools I regularly use in my mapmaking: layer styles, layer masks, and the like. This one will be released for free.

Part 2, Overland, will cover large-scale outdoor maps: worlds, continents, and countries. I’ll include tips for creating relief maps, elevation maps,  and more.

After that will come Cities and Towns, Interiors, and Dungeons. When they’re all done, I’ll release them as a single PDF bundle as well as compiling them for a print edition with Lulu.

I’m really excited about this one! I’ve been working like mad on maps I’ll be using as examples for the book, including this one (still a work in progress) for the chapter on interiors. I’m hoping folks really enjoy the book and the podcast!