An Introduction Heya brave Aurafall adventurers! It's been a minute since I've addressed anything serious or really given solid updates. There's just been so little time to do anything these last few months that some stuff got pushed back a bit, including the review of applications for new potential players. It's time though that I address a few things. Questions, concerns, etc from the community even. Heck, long past time that I explain a bit more about what Aurafall is before jumping into it, seeing as there are so many new faces over the last few years who've joined and only got a brief understanding about what this place is. The Story Aurafall is a series of short stories that I drew and wrote up as a kid starting around 2005, though it was never called Aurafall until much later. The series tells the stories of different folks across the world of Aurafall, all from different walks of life. Some separate, and some taking place side by side. Humanity is one of the few intelligent beings left in the wake of the Great Cataclysm that occurred thousands of years prior, an event that destroyed the Andel, keepers of the towers that served as archives of vast knowledge and barriers between worlds. Barriers that kept reality safe from the horrors that roamed in-between. They who dwell in the Endless Sea, nameless and deathless. Gods in their own right. Beings older than creation itself, the essence of nothingness. To some, an embodiment of chaos. But to the wise, a manifestation of order and absolution. In the end, the Andel gave everything to sever the ties between our reality, and those of the Dwellers' in a series of conflicts around the world. Their once mighty and technologically advanced kingdoms lie forgotten, rotting and buried deep. Mere tombs for those who once roamed the massive halls and streets. The Towers that once stood as mighty barriers and weapons remain to this day, but are fragmented, much of the archives and knowledge held within lost save for the sealed vaults below. Of course, many would believe the Andel and their towers to be mere myth, and the Great Cataclysm to have been nothing more than a bed time story. As the end of another age comes to a close, a weight can be felt across the world. An aura that only those with a connection to magic can feel so clearly, while others only a numbing on the spirit from time to time. The fabled towers have begun to shift, bellowing a deafening call like war horns that thunders across the heavens. Maybe the myths had a ring of truth to them after all? In a sense, this is a post-post apocalypse, where one world has been covered up by a newer one that has no memory or scarce knowledge of how the other one ended so violently. The technology and knowledge of the previous world buried or lost to time, reverting progress to a more primitive medieval dark age. The world works a lot like our world in the sense that nothing remains hidden forever. Old ruins are uncovered, and the past is put together bit by bit. Far off into my tale, there are advances made in technology both by pure human hand, or influenced by discovered Andel tech. It gets a bit more scifi/fantasy at that point, but our focus isnt there. The story we are telling for Minecraft Aurafall takes place much closer to a time after the first Great Cataclysm, after civilization and life has returned from the brink of ruin. It is here where our medieval dark age fantasy begins. Process and Progress of the RPG Map Our work is inspired by many books, movies, shows, and videogames that we've experienced growing up. Parts of us in that respect are put into the world as we go along. For me, Adventure Time, Lord of the Rings, Elder Scrolls, Zelda, Dark Souls, and Witcher are huge inspirations and it's important to design the gameplay aspect using mechanics that really stuck out to me. The end result is something with charm, yet a gritty dark undertone that is hard to ignore. Much of that is seen in my texture pack that I've been working on for the last year and a half. As for lore, much of it is tucked away in dungeons, lore books, letters, and even item descriptions in a way that mirrors dark souls story telling. Discovering and piecing together the lore behind something with your own effort without cutscenes or a thick manual allows for so much more engagement and mystery. It allows the player the freedom to explore and come to their own conclusions instead of being handed everything upfront. That's half the fun. We've been working on this particular iteration of the world for the last 4 years now and have been through many changes that alter our gameplay mechanics, previously completed builds, and more recently, a call for a revamp of the entire terrain map. So, what needs to be done? -RPG Terrain Map Much needs to be done for this part of the project first and foremost before we can do a whole lot. This step is where things have gone stagnant for the team since it relies on me to upload the actual maps we are building on. The process for making the map goes like this:
This sets the tone of the world and makes building for us so much better. The pack will probably take another half year to a full year to complete, so this won't hold us back from launching other things. Eventually, the pack will be put on the Marketplace for folks to purchase and use in their own worlds. -Behavior Pack There's still a lot to do with this and frankly I've only got parts of it ready from our previous Beta. Villagers need to be revamped, mob stats adjusted, as well as the creation and implementation of all new mobs. There's lots I want to do with this section, so for now, stay tuned. -Builds for Points of Interest (POI) NPC towns, Dungeons, ruined towers, farmlands, shrines, carriages, shipwrecks, etc all need to be built. We've got some things nearing completion, but with our move to a better map, some tweaks will have to be made. This is where we need the most hands and where just about everyone on the team can contribute. -Mechanics Redstone, command blocks, and quest systems. Thanks to some brilliant minds on our team, we have lots of mockups that we can implement into our builds and systems once those phases are complete. -Website Revamping this site has been a long time goal of mine to bring more life and interest to our project. For now, some old pages will be disabled, leaving only the most basic and necessary stuff available until a later date. Stay tuned! Beta? Yes, some of you guessed correctly. I will be resetting the Vanilla realm very soon, and it will have all new features including an entirely new map! It will be considerably smaller than the 8k x 8k vanilla map you are used to and will feature more ore generation closer to that of the RPG map along with a change to the villager trades (FINALLY) among lots of other things. You can even expect new and upgraded randomly generated structures! Pretty excited for this one and can't wait to share more! The Vanilla realm will be renamed to "Beta" as we begin to transition more and more of our RPG like features into it. Within a few weeks, the world will be replaced with the new one and a new adventure can begin there. Again, it's all Beta so things are expected to be half baked or broken as we test it all over time. Joining the Build Team We're very picky about who we let in on this project simply because there are a lot of moving parts and the lead builders and developers cannot always be on to assist. We look for talented builders who show a knack for creating believable medieval/fantasy environments from houses and castles, to farmlands and ruins. It's one thing to show a single house, but another level to show a city quarter of crammed houses and dirty streets with just enough space between roof tops to see the sky, as an example. Candidates must also be able to work well with others, follow lead builder instructions, and above all respect their fellow builders and their work. We do critique each other from time to time if something is off, but never tear into one another. We're family, and we treat each other as such. That all said, if your builds can stand out from the rest in the Beta realm or another realm/world elsewhere, and you mesh well with others, you can expect an invite to our Creative Plot World. The Plot World is where the team and I will be creating the many set pieces needed for the full RPG map. This is so that our builds stay focused and progress can be tracked easier. This world will also be our proving ground for our invited guests who will receive the discord role of "builders apprentice". Those who are invited to this realm will have a chance to show their skill within their own plot and where our team can mentor them along the way before allowing them access to the RPG realm set pieces and plot areas. The Plot World is still in development and not yet live, so hang tight! Some of you already received the Apprentice role and are awaiting word. Are there other ways to contribute? Heck yes! Simply being here, part of the community is motivating in many ways to push on. If you're one of those who likes to go a bit above and beyond, we even have a PayPal setup in our discord for donations which all go towards the realm bill cycles. (Totally optional, you are not obligated to give a cent for anything and we simply appreciate you even reading this). Conclusion I realize this isn't everyone's cup of tea and the wait is probably far longer than most of you expected. We're no longer the young high school/college students who had all of the time in the world. Most of us are now parents, grad students, have full time careers and a mortgage, or any combination of these things. Life happens and it comes first. We look forward to the day that we can finally finish this and rest easy knowing our work is done, and that something extraordinary is given to the community. And yes, this means that the map will eventually head to the Minecraft Marketplace months after we have launched it for you lovely folks on our realm first. In a way, that's just extra incentive for us to finish this damn thing. <3 Joe
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JoeAlso known as ARK Gunslinger around the gaming community. Creator of Aurafall, a story that's been in my mind for over a decade and was adapted into Minecraft. ArchivesCategories |