Getting Started: Drafting Room Guidelines
Posted: Tue Feb 24, 2009 8:23 pm
Welcome to the Foundry Drafting Room - Where Map Ideas are Hammered Out!
This Foundry sub-forum is where all CC maps begin to take shape... Here you will find raw ideas, working drafts, and an assortment of unfinished projects. All of them are in the melting pot, waiting to be hammered-out, before the Foundlings (maps and their makers) are thrust into the heat of the Main Foundry.
'Drafting Room'
'Raw Ideas/Suggestions Chamber'.
'Recycling Bin'
This Foundry sub-forum is where all CC maps begin to take shape... Here you will find raw ideas, working drafts, and an assortment of unfinished projects. All of them are in the melting pot, waiting to be hammered-out, before the Foundlings (maps and their makers) are thrust into the heat of the Main Foundry.
'Drafting Room'
- To be considered a Working Draft a project must be more than just an idea; a Draft should have a clear thematic focus, a plan for how the gameplay will work, and a basic image which should include:
- 1. Territory Labels - temporary names or numbers will suffice, and are always open to change.
2. Borders/Paths/Impassables - it should be made clear where territories do/do not connect.
3. Bonus Areas - where combinations/groups of territories will award a bonus, this should be indicated on the map.
4. Legend - speculative bonus values and explanations of any attack rules or gameplay features.
While in the drafting room, it is expected that a mapmaker will demonstrate:
- a. significant knowledge of graphics tools and techniques,
b. the willingness to consider and respond appropriately to critical feedback
c. the ability to make multiple changes based on ongoing feedback
d. a solid understanding of the Foundry standards and process.
Before being moved on to the next stage of development in the mapmaker must have a plan for the production of the map, and present key map information and updates in a manner that is user friendly and consistent with the foundry standards. Once these criteria have been met, the Working Draft will receive the first of the Foundry Brands:
'Raw Ideas/Suggestions Chamber'.
- This is the place for CC members to discuss what kind of new maps they would like to see at this site. You don't have to be a mapmaker to post a new topic here - you just have to have an idea that you would like to see turned into a map. And if you are a mapmaker - or would like to be one - this is the place to kick around new ideas before you get started.
Map ideas may contain accompanying images which slowly develop to become a Working Draft, at which point they'll be ready to move into the Drafting Room.
'Recycling Bin'
- For every map that makes it out of the Drafting Room and eventually into Live Play, there are lots more that don’t survive the hammer and tongs of the Foundry, and end up in the Recycling Bin. In some cases the map has not gained enough community support, and in others the mapmaker has simply run out of steam and abandoned their development.
Map ideas in this subforum tend to contain raw material that has already been tempered, and may be picked by new mapmakers; an effort should be made to inform the original mapmaker of your interest in using his/her idea. The new mapmaker must start a new Draft topic and any artwork from the abandoned map may not be used without the original mapmaker's consent.
Map ideas in this subforum that have been tagged as [Vacation] should not be taken up by a new mapmakers unless permission has been secured. Maps that seem to spend an eternity on vacation will eventually be considered abandoned and re-tagged.