Inkwell Ideas

Airships & Steampunk Classic World/Kingdom Preview

Hi All,

As we approach the end of the month, it is time for another preview.  Here are the Classic World/Kingdom icons created by artist/cartographer Keith Curtis.  As usual, the icons match up roughly to the isometric style world/kingdom icons.

One more preview before the end of the month--likely tomorrow.  Later today, barring unforeseen circumstances, we'll post the poll for next month's theme.

As always, thank you for your support!

Joe

Isometric World/Kingdom Steampunk & Airships Preview

Hi All, 

Keith has finished up another subset of this month's icons!  In addition to the standard capital, city, town, village, & fort, this month we've got a dam, airship hangar, airship (of course!), mooring, forge, factory, mines, university, floating city, and even a volcano that has been tapped for its energy! 

So it has been nice to get to a few themes these past couple of months that had never quite made it to the top of the list.  But if you have so...

Airships & Steampunk Settlement Icons Preview

Hi All,

We still may add a couple icons to this subset, but here are the Airships & Steampunk settlement icons for the month.  In includes several airships, a couple airship hangars, and a factory.  For non-airship buildings we have a steampunk university, workshops, library, mansion, cathedral, opera house, a few houses, and more!  As usual we'll post the actual icons at the end of the month.

Thank you for your support!

Also, If you've missed any of our m...

Several Battlemat Samples & Poll Request

Hey folks,

I'll be posting our poll for October's theme tomorrow & sending out the month's icons.  So If you have theme suggestions, please post a comment.

Here are several ship battlemats (which will be part of the download) which really helped us make sure the set was complete.

Joe

Classic & Isometric Icons Previews

As with our "settlement" icons, we're making most of our "world" classic & isometric style icons into ship tokens.  We've also got a couple of non-ships for asteroid cities & towns as well as ports to place on planets.

We'll have a few more battlemat ships to show off as we wrap up the month!

And of course the actual icons will be posted on the 30th.

Thank you,

Joe

Mosquito Battlemat

Hey folks,

This month's battlemat previews are going to be a bit different from the past.  I'll be making several ship battlemats with the graphics artist/cartographer Keith Curtis has created. 

Here we're starting small: This ship is a small Mosquito with a low forward deck, a main deck and top deck.  The new graphics in the set are the wings, hatch, stairs, door, chair, table, bed, and a really cool ballista.  The catapult, cooktop, and gear come from prior s...

Magic in Space Not-Settlement Icons

It was the dawn of the 3rd age of mankind... The Deep Space 5 asteroid station was a dream given form. Its mission: to provide a neutral territory for the factions of cosmic space to meet and negotiate in peace.  One faction's ships are inspired by sea creatures, another by insects, and the third has bird-like ships.

*Ahem*. OK, I'm really liking how these have turned out. Keith and I worked up the various ship types we'd like to see inspired by what is used in Spelljammer obviousl...

Magic in Space Ideas

Hi Folks,

This post is just for you at our highest backing level to have some extra insight & input into our new icon set for the month.

Keith and I have talked over what to do, and while we can't do anything exactly Spelljammer, we can do our own take on a nautilus ship, moth ship, hammerhead ship, etc.

So I've broken things down to three main types/factions:

• Sea organic ships: nautilus, flying fish, hammerhead, squid.
• Insectoid ships: mosquito, sco...
  2022-09-07 20:27:22 +0000 UTC View Post

August's Utopian Future Icons (& Two Prior Sets)

Another month is in the books! Below are links to the Utopian Future icons Keith Curtis has created.  As a bonus/in case you forget to get them, we have links to the past couple of month's icons as well.

Don't forget to vote in our theme poll if you're at the $3 pledge level or higher. It ends at 11pm US eastern time tonight.

August's icons: ...

Utopian Future Battlemat Sample/Preview

I'm really happy with how this battlemat preview of a small ship has turned out!  Instead of our often contrived maps, here's a map you can use for your far future game. We'll include the raw battlemat image & .wxx file for your use too.

We will post the links to get this month's icons (& the image above & .wxx file) tomorrow for all patrons.

Happy gaming!

Joe

September's Theme Poll

We've got one more preview for this month, which we'll post tomorrow.  Meanwhile, what should we do next month?

Utopian Future Classic World/Cosmic Icons Preview

As with our isometric icons previewed a week or so ago, here we have a mix of icons useful for cosmic/sector maps as well as some for an alien's planet surface. 

In the case of the planet surface icons, I adjusted the background colors of the terrain to have no blue so we get a more alien look using our "alt classic" icons.  But note the only new terrain icons in the set are for the robofarms and terraformed land.  It does also have the new Utopian Capital/City/Town/Villa...

Utopian Future Buildings & Top-Down Ships Preview

As posted the other day, Keith and I looked to Star Trek Federation for inspiration fitting our Utopian Future theme.  While before for the settlement subset of our Outer Space Expanded set (Sept 2020) we did several buildings for a moon colony, here we're doing another set that could b...

Utopian Future Isometric Map Icons Preview

Let the previews begin!  "Utopia Future" won our poll for the run-off for what type of future icon set we should make... which implied to us to look for inspiration from Star Trek's Federation.  We did this a couple years back (and to a small degree even before that)... so while we're designing this set to stand on its own, you may also want to go back and get those prior related sets for even more options:

• 2022-08-16 19:17:00 +0000 UTC View Post

Theme Clarification Poll (take 2)

[My apologies--I intended to let you vote for all the ones you like, not just your favorite.]

"In the Year 3000" won our poll, but that can vary quite a bit--do we create far future icons of a Utopia that are Star Trek-y? Or has society collapsed and now we have a Mutant Future along the lines of Gamma World?  Maybe we want more of an Gritty Future with exposed gizmos and wires look like Battletech and many other mecha settings use? A fourth option is something Retro Future-ish lik...

Theme Clarification: What do you want to see?

Hey folks,

In the Year 3000 (Far Future) is our winning theme of the month, but that can be taken several different ways... so we want to ask especially those of you at the $7+ level what you'd like to see.

To Keith, "In the Year 3000" suggests a more utopian society (Star Trek ish) than something Dystopian (Blade Runner like).  But we could also take it in a more Buck Rogers-y way and if you've got other ideas please post a comment.  Keep in mind in June 2019 we did 2022-08-01 18:05:33 +0000 UTC View Post

August's Ancient China Icons (+2 previous sets)

Below is a link to the Ancient China icons Keith Curtis has created.  As a bonus/in case you forget to get them, we have links to the past couple of month's icons as well.

Don't forget to vote in our theme poll if you're at the $3 pledge level or higher. It ends at 9pm US eastern time tonight.

July's icons: Ancient China 

2022-07-31 13:30:14 +0000 UTC View Post

August's Theme Poll

Hi Folks,

As usual, vote for all the themes of icons you're likely to use.  Looks like we'll be doing something different thematically from prior months which have focused on medieval and earlier time periods or fantasy.

We'll have July's icons posted tomorrow.

Joe

Ancient China Battlemat Icons Preview

It is a bit hard to come up with a single map idea that will incorporate a fishing boat, tents, furniture, weapons, four sets of stairs, and more.  So I had to fall back on just making a labelled collage of all of this month's Battlemat icons.

As usual, we'll have links to get the actual icons on the last day of the month.  We'll also have the poll for next month's theme later today or tomorrow.

Thank you!

Joe

Chinese City/Village Settlement Map Icons Preview

We're nearing the end of the month, so here is one of the final two previews!  I'm very happy with how this example map turned out, even if I had to shoe-horn the bridge & ship into it.  It would be nice if I added a few more copies of the houses on the lower left and upper right but I also don't want to confuse folks over how many icons are in the set.

Keith took the time to understand the differences in the architecture of the various east Asian countries so we could mak...

Ancient China Classic World/Kingdom Icons Preview

Here is a sample map with all the "classic world/kingdom" icons that artist/cartographer Keith Curtis has created this month.  More previews coming!

Revised Ancient China Isometric Map Icons

After yesterday's post, we had a couple of good suggestions and I realized Keith & I forgot a couple of additional terrain icons we had planned.  So here we have the same preview plus those additions & some tweaks to fit all the new stuff. For terrain, on the far left we have bamboo forest & rice paddy icons and on the far right bottom we have a forested Chinese mountain and a plain version.  We also added a warrior tomb with a cut-away look to see the terracotta warrior...

First Ancient China Icons Preview: Isometric World/Kingdom

Artist/Cartographer Keith Curtis has cooked up over 20 ancient China isometric world/kingdom map icons in this month's set.  Yes, it has several icons to let you build a great wall and of course there is an imperial city, palace, and martial arts temple.  We also have a couple shrines, pagodas, towns, other cities, villages, forts, and more!

Thanks again for your support!  Did we overlook anything? Let us know in a comment below.  We'll post the actual icons at the e...

Ancient China Icon List

Hi Folks,

This is a special message for those of you at the $7 pledge level to have some extra input on the icons this month.  Keith and I have brainstormed the lists, and here is what we came up with for each set.

Classic & Isometric World/Kingdom:  City, Town, Village, Palace, Fort, Temple, Ruins, Castle, Shrine, Martial Arts School, Port City, Imperial City, Fishing Village, Bridge, Tower, Bamboo Forest, Misty Mountain, Forested Misty Mountain (the last 3 are new ...

June's Undersea Icons Download Links

Below is a link to the new Undersea icons and the past couple of month's icons as well in case you didn't get a chance to download them.

Don't forget to vote in our theme poll if you're at the $3 pledge level or higher.  It ends at 9am US eastern time tomorrow.

June's icons: Undersea 

2022-06-30 15:30:21 +0000 UTC View Post

July's Theme Poll

Help us pick next month's map icons theme!  Please vote for as many as you'd find useful. Thanks again for your support!

Undersea Battlemat Icons Preview

Hi All,

First of all, if you've got an idea for next month's theme poll, please get it to me soon.  I'll post the poll for July's theme tomorrow.

Meanwhile, this post has all the battlemat icons for our Undersea set.

The other big Worldographer news is a new feature just added today in version 1.53 that generates a sector/sub-sector cosmic map.  This tweet has a screensh...

Undersea Settlement Scale Icons

Hi Folks,

We'll be adding a few of the suggestions based on our last post to the sets.  Meanwhile, here is our settlement scale map icons preview.  It is divided into two main groups: ancient looking undersea buildings and futuristic buildings.  Hopefully we've hit all the main needed buildings!

Joe

Classic Undersea Map Icons Preview

As promised, here is a preview of the classic style world/kingdom icons!

Just like the isometric icons, here we have kelp areas, some algae "farmland", undersea hills, mountains, a smoker, and a volcano.  For features, we have ancient domed city, town, village, villa, fort, and ruins icons. The future subset has city, town, village, fort, lab, and residence icons. Plus the set has a couple monster lairs and shipwrecks.

More in a couple days.  If you think of an icon...

Undersea Isometric World/Kingdom Preview

Hi Folks,

Keith Curtis and I are set to have a shortened month because we both were exhibiting at Origins last weekend and we both have short trips set for late this month. So Keith has completed all the isometric & classic icons. Above is a sample showing the isometrics, and I'll likely have a sample of the classics ready tomorrow.

For terrain, Keith has cooked up a couple of flat sea floors, then light & heavy coral, a few different kelp areas, some algae "farmland", und...