WorldEmber 2024 Homework
Well, I expect this December to be super busy for me this year, as I'll be working on Realm Studio and planning for an overseas trip that I'll be leaving on in late December, but I still want to do some writing for WorldEmber.
Week One Homework
Lately, I haven't been writing that much for Derkomai, but I've been working hard on the Realm Studio mapmaking software project, and I hope to share it in a way that is accessible for everyone soon. The source code is already publicly available on Github at https://github.com/PeteNelson372/RealmStudio. I've created and have been refining a Windows .msi installation script that people will be able to download to install the application and assets for making maps, and I've been writing a pretty detailed help file. You can check out a preliminary version here. I plan to have the .msi file that will install an alpha version of Realm Studio uploaded and available by the end of November. An issue I've run into is that to ensure that no one can modify the executable or the .msi file, they have to be signed with a code-signing certificate, and that means I have to buy a certificate and go through a vetting process with the certificate authority. Code signing certificates are pretty expensive - one that is good for three years will cost several hundred dollars, at least. Since Realm Studio is open-source, and I don't plan to charge anything for it, it's a little hard to justify spending that much money for the certificate. On the other hand, I want to give people some assurance that Realm Studio is secure and won't do anything bad to their computer. I'm debating with myself on what to do about this. Anyway, I didn't intend for this to be an advertisement for Realm Studio, so here's my plan for WorldEmber: I've committed to writing at least 10K words. I think I will concentrate on finishing (or at least expanding) the series of short stories I've written that focus on Cao Qigong, Crown Prince Yixing-Jiumin Jinhai, Amalie Nilsson, and Princess Yixing-Jiumin Jinyat and their relationships. If I'm inspired to write about anything else, I'll do that - I want to keep this WorldEmber pretty open-ended, because I know that I'll be really busy. I'd like to compile the short stories I've already done into a novel-ish format, but right now I just don't have time to work on that. The meta for Derkomai is in pretty good shape, so I don't think I need to work on that right now. Enough for now - I'll update this article week-by-week for the WorldEmber homework. Week Two Homework
Hmm. I will have to think about the topics of this week's homework topics. Last year, I spent quite a bit of time reworking the Derkomai homepage and the overall design of the article pages. I've also worked on the Derkomai meta article and other background, and it is linked from the homepage, so I think the introduction to Derkomai is in pretty good shape. I know it could be better, but I don't know how to make it better right now. I'm not a great artist, so I often struggle to come up with really nice-looking and interesting designs. I think my designs aren't terrible, and (in my opinion, anyway), some look pretty good, but I've seen quite a few that I recognize are much better. I'm pretty good with CSS, so I did some interesting things on the Derkomai homepage using CSS animations. There's also a link to a short video I made that (I hope) is interesting and gives a bit of background flavor to how humans ended up on Derkomai. So, I think for the time being, I won't rework the Derkomai homepage, CSS, or introduction/primer. Week Three Homework
In late December, I will be leaving on a trip to Bali, Indonesia, then on to Central Java, Indonesia, and finally to Taiwan. I'll be away for nearly a month, so it will be tiring, but I hope fun and interesting. I've been to Java before and through the airport in Taiwan, but not to Bali, and I wasn't able to travel around Taiwan because of the pandemic. So, I'm looking forward to seeing them a lot. Preparing for this trip and for the holidays is going to take a lot of time, so I know I'll be super busy over the next six weeks. When will I have time to prepare for WorldEmber or do any writing? Well, just today, I was browsing through Google Earth, looking at Bali and trying to figure out what places I'd like to visit. I'll be doing the same for Taiwan as well soon. (My itinerary in Java is pretty well set already, as I will be visiting friends there). As I was looking at all of the interesting places on Bali, I started thinking, "some of these places would be cool to use as a basis for places on Derkomai." And there's my inspiration for WorldEmber! I know pretty much everyone does this, so it isn't anything special that I do, but for me, life experiences are the basis for a lot of what I write for Derkomai. I enjoy reading and learning about other cultures and places around the real world, and I incorporate what I've learned into cultures and places on Derkomai. Sudland is a multicultural society (the US and western Europe, with touches of Asia). Senyon is ancient China. Chessa is ancient Japan and Korea. Da Therasti Okku is loosely modeled on the ancient Middle East. Danyund and Nodyund are ancient Scandinavia. Koyon, Teiyon, and Voatyon are southeast Asia. And so on. The languages of humans on Derkomai are also loosely derived from Earth languages spoken today (which makes sense, since the humans of Derkomai originated on Earth). Places that I've visited (I've had the opportunity to have traveled to quite a few places around the world) or read about have become the basis for places on Derkomai, as well. I enjoy finding interesting and unique places on Earth, then reimagining them as they might be on Derkomai, taking into account Derkomai's history, cultures, the influence of the Elvirim, Dwarvirim, and other sentient species, Derkomai's geography, etc. Anyway, enough for this week's homework. Though I'm going to be super busy, I know I am blessed to be able to take this long trip to see parts of the world I've never been. I'm going to use my preparation and planning as inspiration for WorldEmber, and I'm looking forward to both! Week Four Homework
Well, my big news is that the first pre-release version of Realm Studio is downloadable from Github here. The help file is here. If you'd like to try it out, I'd really appreciate any feedback you have. And if anyone would like to contribute to the project, either as a developer or as an artist developing mapmaking assets, that would be awesome! I've put a lot of hours into developing the application over the past 11 months or so, so I'm hoping people will find it useful and enjoyable to use. I know it isn't perfect. The performance (on my computer) on large maps (greater than 4K resolution) gets pretty bad, but I've put in a couple of switches that help somewhat. There may be bugs that I haven't discovered or things that don't work in a way people find intuitive. The Realm Studio UI and the way it works in general was based on a lot on Wonderdraft, which is the mapmaking application I've found to be perhaps easiest to use of all I've tried. There are some significant differences, though, in places where I thought maybe something could be done better. The differences show up noticeably, for example, when you create map regions that follow the coastline of a landform. In Wonderdraft, you have to tell it to calculate the landform boundaries before you can get a region to follow a coastline (and that can take a long time). In Realm Studio, landform coastline boundaries are calculated as they are created, so snapping region boundaries to a coastline is essentially instantaneous. There are a lot of other differences (Wonderdraft's performance on large maps is better, for sure), but many similarities. I am planning to continue adding new stuff, fixing bugs, and hopefully, improving performance on large maps. I have a big list of features I plan to add, including integration with World Anvil. Anyway, I encourage everyone to download the installer from the link above, install Realm Studio, and give it a try. Any and all feedback is super appreciated! You can email [email protected] or open an issue on Github here. Well, that's enough about Realm Studio. I'm looking forward to getting started on WorldEmber next week. As far as a writing community goes... Well, I'd say that's kind of a weakness for me. I do occasionally get onto the WA Reddit server, but not that often. I have a lot of things I work on (language learning, woodworking and crafting/making, helping out with a charity organization/business, and other stuff), so even though I'm retired and have a lot of "free" time, it tends to get filled up pretty quickly. I like to have a lot of different things to do, so my attention gets spread around a lot. My writing schedule is pretty open-ended. Even though I get pretty busy, I'm retired, so I can arrange my schedule pretty much however I want; though, I tend to have a pretty set routine. A lot of my writing tends to happen late in the evening and into the night (I'm kind of a night owl). As for getting some fresh air - yeah, I need to do that more. My wife is super diligent about exercising, but I am not so much. I go to a gym and work out a couple of times a week, but it isn't enough. I sit a lot, and I've been reading more and more about how sitting for long periods is really bad for one's health. I have to get off my backside and move more. I do have a standing desk; I will make use of it. I need to get in better condition for the long trip coming up at the end of December and into January, also. Time to get after it. And with that all said - here's to WorldEmber kicking off! I wish everyone blessings for WorldEmber and the upcoming holiday season. Enjoy it! The holidays can be stressful and difficult, so I hope everyone (including me!) can take some time to relax, try not to do too much, and enjoy what makes the holidays "the most wonderful time of the year!"
Lately, I haven't been writing that much for Derkomai, but I've been working hard on the Realm Studio mapmaking software project, and I hope to share it in a way that is accessible for everyone soon. The source code is already publicly available on Github at https://github.com/PeteNelson372/RealmStudio. I've created and have been refining a Windows .msi installation script that people will be able to download to install the application and assets for making maps, and I've been writing a pretty detailed help file. You can check out a preliminary version here. I plan to have the .msi file that will install an alpha version of Realm Studio uploaded and available by the end of November. An issue I've run into is that to ensure that no one can modify the executable or the .msi file, they have to be signed with a code-signing certificate, and that means I have to buy a certificate and go through a vetting process with the certificate authority. Code signing certificates are pretty expensive - one that is good for three years will cost several hundred dollars, at least. Since Realm Studio is open-source, and I don't plan to charge anything for it, it's a little hard to justify spending that much money for the certificate. On the other hand, I want to give people some assurance that Realm Studio is secure and won't do anything bad to their computer. I'm debating with myself on what to do about this. Anyway, I didn't intend for this to be an advertisement for Realm Studio, so here's my plan for WorldEmber: I've committed to writing at least 10K words. I think I will concentrate on finishing (or at least expanding) the series of short stories I've written that focus on Cao Qigong, Crown Prince Yixing-Jiumin Jinhai, Amalie Nilsson, and Princess Yixing-Jiumin Jinyat and their relationships. If I'm inspired to write about anything else, I'll do that - I want to keep this WorldEmber pretty open-ended, because I know that I'll be really busy. I'd like to compile the short stories I've already done into a novel-ish format, but right now I just don't have time to work on that. The meta for Derkomai is in pretty good shape, so I don't think I need to work on that right now. Enough for now - I'll update this article week-by-week for the WorldEmber homework. Week Two Homework
Hmm. I will have to think about the topics of this week's homework topics. Last year, I spent quite a bit of time reworking the Derkomai homepage and the overall design of the article pages. I've also worked on the Derkomai meta article and other background, and it is linked from the homepage, so I think the introduction to Derkomai is in pretty good shape. I know it could be better, but I don't know how to make it better right now. I'm not a great artist, so I often struggle to come up with really nice-looking and interesting designs. I think my designs aren't terrible, and (in my opinion, anyway), some look pretty good, but I've seen quite a few that I recognize are much better. I'm pretty good with CSS, so I did some interesting things on the Derkomai homepage using CSS animations. There's also a link to a short video I made that (I hope) is interesting and gives a bit of background flavor to how humans ended up on Derkomai. So, I think for the time being, I won't rework the Derkomai homepage, CSS, or introduction/primer. Week Three Homework
In late December, I will be leaving on a trip to Bali, Indonesia, then on to Central Java, Indonesia, and finally to Taiwan. I'll be away for nearly a month, so it will be tiring, but I hope fun and interesting. I've been to Java before and through the airport in Taiwan, but not to Bali, and I wasn't able to travel around Taiwan because of the pandemic. So, I'm looking forward to seeing them a lot. Preparing for this trip and for the holidays is going to take a lot of time, so I know I'll be super busy over the next six weeks. When will I have time to prepare for WorldEmber or do any writing? Well, just today, I was browsing through Google Earth, looking at Bali and trying to figure out what places I'd like to visit. I'll be doing the same for Taiwan as well soon. (My itinerary in Java is pretty well set already, as I will be visiting friends there). As I was looking at all of the interesting places on Bali, I started thinking, "some of these places would be cool to use as a basis for places on Derkomai." And there's my inspiration for WorldEmber! I know pretty much everyone does this, so it isn't anything special that I do, but for me, life experiences are the basis for a lot of what I write for Derkomai. I enjoy reading and learning about other cultures and places around the real world, and I incorporate what I've learned into cultures and places on Derkomai. Sudland is a multicultural society (the US and western Europe, with touches of Asia). Senyon is ancient China. Chessa is ancient Japan and Korea. Da Therasti Okku is loosely modeled on the ancient Middle East. Danyund and Nodyund are ancient Scandinavia. Koyon, Teiyon, and Voatyon are southeast Asia. And so on. The languages of humans on Derkomai are also loosely derived from Earth languages spoken today (which makes sense, since the humans of Derkomai originated on Earth). Places that I've visited (I've had the opportunity to have traveled to quite a few places around the world) or read about have become the basis for places on Derkomai, as well. I enjoy finding interesting and unique places on Earth, then reimagining them as they might be on Derkomai, taking into account Derkomai's history, cultures, the influence of the Elvirim, Dwarvirim, and other sentient species, Derkomai's geography, etc. Anyway, enough for this week's homework. Though I'm going to be super busy, I know I am blessed to be able to take this long trip to see parts of the world I've never been. I'm going to use my preparation and planning as inspiration for WorldEmber, and I'm looking forward to both! Week Four Homework
Well, my big news is that the first pre-release version of Realm Studio is downloadable from Github here. The help file is here. If you'd like to try it out, I'd really appreciate any feedback you have. And if anyone would like to contribute to the project, either as a developer or as an artist developing mapmaking assets, that would be awesome! I've put a lot of hours into developing the application over the past 11 months or so, so I'm hoping people will find it useful and enjoyable to use. I know it isn't perfect. The performance (on my computer) on large maps (greater than 4K resolution) gets pretty bad, but I've put in a couple of switches that help somewhat. There may be bugs that I haven't discovered or things that don't work in a way people find intuitive. The Realm Studio UI and the way it works in general was based on a lot on Wonderdraft, which is the mapmaking application I've found to be perhaps easiest to use of all I've tried. There are some significant differences, though, in places where I thought maybe something could be done better. The differences show up noticeably, for example, when you create map regions that follow the coastline of a landform. In Wonderdraft, you have to tell it to calculate the landform boundaries before you can get a region to follow a coastline (and that can take a long time). In Realm Studio, landform coastline boundaries are calculated as they are created, so snapping region boundaries to a coastline is essentially instantaneous. There are a lot of other differences (Wonderdraft's performance on large maps is better, for sure), but many similarities. I am planning to continue adding new stuff, fixing bugs, and hopefully, improving performance on large maps. I have a big list of features I plan to add, including integration with World Anvil. Anyway, I encourage everyone to download the installer from the link above, install Realm Studio, and give it a try. Any and all feedback is super appreciated! You can email [email protected] or open an issue on Github here. Well, that's enough about Realm Studio. I'm looking forward to getting started on WorldEmber next week. As far as a writing community goes... Well, I'd say that's kind of a weakness for me. I do occasionally get onto the WA Reddit server, but not that often. I have a lot of things I work on (language learning, woodworking and crafting/making, helping out with a charity organization/business, and other stuff), so even though I'm retired and have a lot of "free" time, it tends to get filled up pretty quickly. I like to have a lot of different things to do, so my attention gets spread around a lot. My writing schedule is pretty open-ended. Even though I get pretty busy, I'm retired, so I can arrange my schedule pretty much however I want; though, I tend to have a pretty set routine. A lot of my writing tends to happen late in the evening and into the night (I'm kind of a night owl). As for getting some fresh air - yeah, I need to do that more. My wife is super diligent about exercising, but I am not so much. I go to a gym and work out a couple of times a week, but it isn't enough. I sit a lot, and I've been reading more and more about how sitting for long periods is really bad for one's health. I have to get off my backside and move more. I do have a standing desk; I will make use of it. I need to get in better condition for the long trip coming up at the end of December and into January, also. Time to get after it. And with that all said - here's to WorldEmber kicking off! I wish everyone blessings for WorldEmber and the upcoming holiday season. Enjoy it! The holidays can be stressful and difficult, so I hope everyone (including me!) can take some time to relax, try not to do too much, and enjoy what makes the holidays "the most wonderful time of the year!"
WorldEmber 2024 Pledge Certificate by Peter Nelson (Zero Sum Games)
Good luck reaching your goal! Your travels sound really exciting. I hope you have a lot of fun and enjoy WorldEmber. :D
Thank you! I hope you also enjoy WorldEmber!