Seven Skies Dev: Update #1

[marimbamonk 1501]

Hello, everyone. This is BGBuster.

 

For those of you who don't know, I'm currently developing an unofficial expansion for the Lord of the Craft entitled “The Seven Skies”, which will focus on the realm of the Aenguls and Daemons. If you haven't listened to the teaser trailer, go ahead and click the link here.
This expansion will work similarly to the end-game raids that Lord of the Craft has had previously, such as the battle against the Undead and Iblees, the presence of the Cultists and Dragons in Asulon, and the battle against Setherien in Anthos. It will either be a large-scale, server-wide raid on the Lord of the Craft itself, or an independent singleplayer “adventure map”.

After working on this project for about a year now, I've decided to open up the development to a select few players. The Seven Skies is being developed independently, meaning that this is an unofficial expansion as of now, although players that are a part of the development team may also be members of different staff teams on the server. Once the project is nearing completion, it will be proposed to the official Lord of the Craft staff for review and tentative acceptance to the server.

Recently, I made a post revealing the project and prompting potential developers to PM me on the forums. So far, I've had more than a dozen people express interest in the expansion, but a choice few had actually gone through the trial tasks I provided and had a successful interview.
With that, I'd like to reveal the members of the 7S development team so far. These are XSKip and cmack1028.

 

XSKip has been a part of this project for quite a while. Not only is he a friend of mine, but he actually helped me to adapt the Seven Skies into a traditional Dungeons and Dragons campaign. At times, he has been much more active on the server than me, and the passion that he has for events and fantasy lore makes him a great addition to the project.
cmack1028 has done excellent work for both me and the server in the past, and has proven to be a trustworthy and reliable member of the team. In addition to his creativity, cmack's skills in Minecraft skinning will provide a boost to the visual aspects of the expansion.

 

If you are interested in becoming a part of the development team, I'll tell you that I'm only looking for a select few players. Those of you that strive to make quality content, those of you that wish to pursue a career in video game design or development, those of you with unique specialties such as artwork, animations, music composition, creative writing skills, voice-acting, and more — I'm looking for you.
If you already messaged me previously, I still need you to fill out this application. The trial tasks I gave you can be dismissed.

The development team will be providing progress updates to the Lord of the Craft community every now and then. For more updates or to ask questions you may have about us or the project, follow us on Twitter, @7SDev, or use the hashtag #sevenskies.

 

 

--'∆~∆'--

 

Please fill out the application provided below.
As of now, we have a crucial need for the following:

• Concept artists
• Developers (raid/Minecraft mechanics, campaign)
• Lore developers
• Composers

Application

 

First Name:
LotC Forums Username:
Minecraft Username:
Skype Username:
I am a member of the following official Lord of the Craft staff teams (i.e. Global Moderator, Event Team, etc. Please put N/A if you are not a member of any official Lord of the Craft staff teams):
Tell me something about yourself:
What are your skills? What aspects of this project's development do you see yourself being useful for? Please provide examples of your work, if any.
Pick a game that you are familiar with and describe one aspect of the gameplay that you think is great:

 

 

Leave your filled application as a reply in this thread.

That's all for now! Thank you for your time. 

[LaCabra (Soda) 1519]

So it's essentially a PvP server? That could be sick.

[marimbamonk 1501]

So it's essentially a PvP server? That could be sick.

More PvE, actually. There will be PvP aspects, though. There will be. ;)

[Sky 0]

Is it supported by the staff? 

[marimbamonk 1501]

Is it supported by the staff? 

As far as I know, the staff is indifferent (other than a select few that said the idea was cool or interesting while making an idle comment, more as a player rather than a LotC staff member).

[DrakeHaze. 2524]

This idea is already better than the angel-demon decension but we can't just toss out that hard work like we can with someones code.

Get it? Life is tough.

I believe in the dream.

[Sky 0]

Why not combine your efforts being put into this, by opting into the development of the server itself and make the base Lord of the Craft better than having some sort of unofficial expansion upon it? 

[oblivionsbane 714]

You could make this a human only plot line. One of the human's blessings was that they would all explore the seven skies. Even though that was interpreted as when they die they go there. this could be viewed as the same thing.

 

Edit: Actually it was their only blessing.

[marimbamonk 1501]

Why not combine your efforts being put into this, by opting into the development of the server itself and make the base Lord of the Craft better than having some sort of unofficial expansion upon it? 

After years of being here, something that I've noticed is that the community will always have additions, changes, and features that they'd like to see happen in the Lord of the Craft, but the process to enact these additions, changes, or features is long and often unsuccessful.

Of course there are things that I want to see improve in the base of Lord of the Craft. One can look at any of the server idea or community feedback posts and see that; but I wanted to take something into my own hands, and see how far I'd get. There is also the hope that, if this expansion is implemented, the base of the server will grow because of it.

I'm opting into the development of the server in my own way. One can try to enact change within the Lord of the Craft through forum post after forum post of excellently posited arguments or reasons why we should add this or that, but this is a creative endeavor that not a lot of players have ever tried to attempt before. As an aspiring game developer, this is a big step for me, whether it is successful or not.

Thanks for asking that, Sky.

 

You could make this a human only plot line. One of the human's blessings was that they would all explore the seven skies. Even though that was interpreted as when they die they go there. this could be viewed as the same thing.

 

The development team is aware of this. We don't intend to limit the expansion to only humans, and the lore of the campaign itself takes care of that issue.

[Mj. 697]

First Name: Cole
LotC Forums Username: Aethos Tyberian
Minecraft Username: mjsc10
Skype Username: coler88
I am a member of the following official Lord of the Craft staff teams (i.e. Global Moderator, Event Team, etc. Please put N/A if you are not a member of any official Lord of the Craft staff teams): n/a
Tell me something about yourself: Feeding ducks can be fun depending on if the ducks attack you or not. Uhhhh, I like that school is about to be over and uh...hrm...I can't draw to save my life
What are your skills? What aspects of this project's development do you see yourself being useful for?Please provide examples of your work, if any:j You have an example of a quickly and briefly done small bio/description for a possible Aengul in your DM.
Pick a game that you are familiar with and describe one aspect of the gameplay that you think is great: Both CS:GO and Insurgency are fun tactical shooters, the best part about the game-play being that you actually have to communicate with your team in order to win. Also familiar with MC PvP, and while many people don't like it (or at least on LoTC) I think that it is quite the system, even as basic as it is, as well as being fun.

[Booklight12 481]

You could make this a human only plot line. One of the human's blessings was that they would all explore the seven skies. Even though that was interpreted as when they die they go there. this could be viewed as the same thing.

 

Edit: Actually it was their only blessing.

Pretty sure everyone is able to enter the seven skies, but humans are able to go to the seventh realm. Either way the entire idea is rather vague so im sure this can be opened upt eveotoone.

[Pandan 1452]

If you're going to be using any LotC assets including lore and the likes, I'm pretty sure you need staff permission.

 

[Samson Option 9652]

You could do something useful and get the indifferent smug look off the face of whomever BoogerBuster contacted than to wench, whine, moan with a little LotC "All Rights Reserved". I'd dine to see some donations allocated to lawyers instead of steam games myself.

 

And Sky, you aren't administrator anymore. The reality of the situation is that B-Buster will have a better time and improved chances hand-picking a good, solid team than to rely on something that you yourself left as well.

[Swgrclan 2682]

First Name: Cameron.

LotC Forums Username: Swgrclan.

Minecraft Username: Swgrclan.

Skype Username: notxephos.

I am a member of the following official Lord of the Craft staff teams (i.e. Global Moderator, Event Team, etc. Please put N/A if you are not a member of any official Lord of the Craft staff teams): I am of the ET and acted as a primary manager before the decline of my in-game activity.

Tell me something about yourself:

I suppose there isn't much to say that couldn't be shown by working with me - I'm not so much involved in the community based on my current living situation and lacking status of internet services. I have contributed however I may through my work of literature, which I often take pride in. Otherwise I am cooperative and can deal well in a team, considering my long-standing service as an ET actor and manager after that.

What are your skills? What aspects of this project's development do you see yourself being useful for? Please provide examples of your work, if any.

As suggested before, I wouldn't be able to contribute much to progress in terms of in-game development. What I can do is offer my ability as a sound writer to help form a broad and indepth story in which this all works off on. When I do have stable internet, however, I may certainly help with in-game stuff.

Pick a game that you are familiar with and describe one aspect of the gameplay that you think is great:

I value Dark Souls as a concrete and impressive game, alongside it's sequel and spiritual successor(s). It's not so much the gameplay I enjoy most of all (though it is very good in some aspects), but the game's means of storytelling. It is ambiguous and is never carried directly, only portrayed by the primary goal, items and unique and well-developed characters. The player must make an effort to discern the mystery in this universe as he fights through it with only understanding half of the reason why everything is how it is.

It's a system that makes boundless interpretation a possibility, which in an RPG game is something big to pay attention to.

[cmack1028 549]

I can vouch for Swgr and his writing talent, he's a level-headed guy and could definitely contribute.

 

I also wanted to say that with the amount of work that has been put into this project already and will continue to be put in to develop this expansion, it will be nothing less than great in the end, whether it is accepted as part of the server or becomes a single player experience. If you have a talent that you believe can be used to help develop this massive project, I urge you to apply because in the end, your work will be well worth it.