This piece of game creation is outside of the digital box and instead on the war table. Lucky for me, building war game terrain pieces has plenty in common with designing video game levels. They both require consideration for game flow, model sizes, visual cues and an understanding of the game's core rules.
I've been hooked on Warmahordes since I purchased a starter pack at PAX Prime 2013. I've enjoyed painting and assembling models, but our tables were a little 2-dimensional, and I had an itch to exercise that level creation drive.
 |
| Family photo! |
I primarily field a Circle Orboros army and wanted a piece that would fit the forest theme, but without the complexity of a natural piece. I drafted a couple of concepts. The originals were more circular, but I settled with rectangles for simplicity of a first piece. That concept sat around for awhile. My fear of creating something imperfect prevented me from really starting.
A month or so later, while browsing through Michael's (art supply store), I stumbled across all sorts of awesome pieces that I could use for building this piece. Great inspiration. Within a week, I had decided on the direction for the piece and made another trip to pick up all the goods. The crafting materials sat for another month before I built the piece.
On a Friday night, I saw 'Lego the Movie'. By Saturday evening I nearly completed the piece. A part of the message of the Lego Movie is to let go of imperfection. I can say it felt quite liberating. I built the piece well knowing there were going to be flaws. I did not lock myself in unnecessary forethought or haw over trivial colour choices. I just built.
The end product turned out great. Sure, there are flaws. Some I'll know to circumvent next time. Some are so trivial that only I notice them when I search for them. None of them detract from the experience. Flaws are part of everything, especially if you're a beginner. If you're a perfectionist, don't let that hold you back.
Just go create something!
No comments:
Post a Comment