June 2014 – Chronicler's Note:

Logo Design

June 18, 2014July 15, 2014 ChroniclerLeave a comment

The first five logos in the gallery below are the result of a project I did a few years ago to teach myself Adobe Illustrator. I chose a typeface with an evocative name (Algerian, Crack’d, Chalkduster, Caduceus, Eccentric – you can tell I didn’t get far in the alphabet) and designed a logo inspired by and utilizing the typeface.

The sixth logo, Petal + Stump, was an prototype I developed for a garden blog a friend was contemplating doing. After downloading numerous free fonts from the internet to play with and working for about two or three hours tweaking the design, I discovered that garden writer Valerie Easton had already published a book called Petal & Twig. So much for that idea. But the experience was worthwhile. The typefaces in Petal + Stump are PetalGlyph by Stephen Knousse and JF Wildwood by Jester Font Studio. I did Petal + Stump in Inkscape.

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How’s the Writing Going?

June 7, 2014July 15, 2014 ChroniclerLeave a comment

People ask me this all the time, and I never really know what to say. Usually I say either ‘good’ or ‘slow’, and leave it at that. But it dawned on me the other day that since I track my own progress (more because I’m an Excel nerd than anything), I always have an easy answer to that question at my fingertips. So here it is, broken down by project, with grand totals at the bottom. I’ll keep you updated. 😉

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Board Game Spinner

June 5, 2014July 15, 2014 ChroniclerLeave a comment

I designed this after I first had the idea for a Perilous Jack board game. I’m still debating whether to use it with The Curse of Numerian Nine, but I’m not convinced it works with that game. We’ll see how Numerian Nine evolves.

I did this in Inkscape, with a little bit of touch-up and prep work in MS Paint. The typeface is Hobo. The sprites are all ripped from Final Fantasy ™ by the good folks at VideoGameSprites.net

The Curse of Numerian Nine

June 5, 2014July 15, 2014 ChroniclerLeave a comment

The Troll Bridge in the Muttering Swamp

The ladder to Cloud Castle

The village of Knackrattle

The village of Lael

Entrance to the mines under Black Door Mountain

The Elven village of Whisperleaf

The Sacred Grove

The town of Deneb

The Curse of Numerian Nine is a fantasy adventure board game I’ve been developing. The game is for two to eight players and it is set in the Kingdom of Numeria, on the world of Malkat. I did the board game map in Campaign Cartographer 3, with symbols borrowed from Dungeon Designer 3 and City Designer 3. I’ll add the finishing touches in Inkscape.

Here’s the premise of the game:

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How to Cross the Flaming Chasm of ZLORK

June 5, 2014November 11, 2014 ChroniclerLeave a comment

How to Cross the Flaming Chasm of Zlork is a Rube Goldberg machine featuring Perilous Jack and sprites ripped from Super Mario Brothers ™, Final Fantasy ™, BattleToads ™, and (I think) Castlevania ™.

The gallery below is just snippets from the whole image. As soon as I figure out the best presentation for the whole image, I’ll post it here, with labels corresponding to each numbered segment so you can follow the action.

If you like sprite comics and want to see them continue as an art form, please support the talented game designers who created the sprites in the first place by only buying authentic games.

Zlork also appears briefly in my novel Tattered Faces Volume One: The Alchemist.

For more of the Perilous Adventures of Jack the Dragonslayer, click here.