January Update

As 2020 comes to an end and the new year starts, we’re excited to announce that our map builder beta will open up March 31st, 2021.

A Note for Previous Patrons

With this release, any previous patrons who have contributed at least $1 to our page will still be eligible for a beta key. We’re thankful for your support and hope that what we’ve built helps improve your tabletop gaming experience.

Pledge Format Updates

For all new patrons, please note that our pledge settings are set as “per creation” for the time being. There will be new content shared on this page, however, all of it will be marked to not charge anyone. This is done so that anyone can pledge and leave their subscription active without the fear of being charged continuously + still gain access to our discord community. Once the builder is live, the page will return to flat pledge per month format and everyone will receive their beta keys.

Art Releases

With the builder launching in March, all of the assets being created will not be released as individual files through this page. Instead, you will gain access to all assets within the builder itself when it goes live.

New assets will be built around a theme or single building (e.g., blacksmith shop). Each release (roughly 1 a month) will include a downloadable high-res map of the building, a prefabricated map of the building accessible through the builder, and all assets accessible through the builder.

Art Polls

All art in development will be planned beforehand and visible on our public art board here. When new assets need to be planned out, we’ll host a poll on this page and in our discord channel to gather feedback from everyone. We’ll use this feedback to determine what art gets worked on next.

Once a theme or building type has been selected and added to the queue, all patrons are invited to give suggestions for individual tiles they’d like to see. For example, if the theme is a blacksmith shop, someone may want to have a specific sword type or blacksmithing tool drawn. The more input, the better. We want everyone to feel like they can be a part of this process if they choose to be.

Joining the Discord

If any patrons have not joined the discord server yet or are running into issues trying to do so, please reach out to me directly at jl@owlbear.co so that I can help! For some reason, the automatic invite system through Patreon isn’t working as expected.

If anyone has experience with this, advice is certainly welcome. I’d like to get our discord server polished and functioning properly.

About the Builder

Over the next several weeks, we’ll be putting together promotional material for the builder showcasing what it is capable of and how it’s used. If you have any specific questions about the builder itself, please feel free to reach out on the #beta channel in our discord group. We’ll be happy to answer any questions you have!

Update to Page Bio

We’ve updated our page bio to reflect our plans for 2021. If you’re interested in learning more about what we’re trying to build, how things will work for the beta, and what features we’re working on, take a look.

Archiving Old Releases

As we move forward with the builder, we also plan to clean up our old posts. All previously released posts will be taken down, put into a zip file, and held onto locally. If anyone has not already downloaded the files, please reach out to me directly on our Discord server and I’ll forward the files along.

And finally, to close, THANK YOU.

2020 was certainly a year of highs and lows. We hope everyone made it through safe and sound – here’s to 2021!

Sincerely, JL & Ant