The end of the year approaches and I thought I’d spend this blog update reflecting on this project’s past and future. That’s why there’s no picture today. Not because I played more video games than I should have last night!
But really, I think it’s time I get some of my thoughts and plans in order, and this is the perfect place to do that.
The Future
I’m starting with the future partly because if I start with the past, you guys won’t get to the future. If you’ve been following me, you know I can get pretty long-winded sometimes.
I realized if I’m going to launch Djinnborn by mid-2012 as planned, I need to sit down and really look at what world-building needs to be done first, versus what I want to do. I have enough I want to include that it would take me years to finish fully fleshing out the Djinnborn world. I still plan to do all of that, but if I do so much world-building that I never draw the comic, I’m not doing myself or you any favors. So I’ve refocused my efforts toward doing the things I need to do in order to start the comic. I can write the rest of the world-building while I produce the comic.
I eventually want to make Djinnborn into an expanded universe. The world is large enough that I could have other stories run in other places. I’ve wanted to run a story set in Ropoldi since I began working on that country. I could even run another story in Aremshah. The city and nation are large enough that I could do something completely different from the story of Osoron and Company all within the familiar setting of Aremshah. I have plans for some things beyond the five known nations and races, too! Eventually I’ll start exploring the rest of the world.
I’d love to see the Djinnborn setting take off as something fans produce works for, too. My goal is to create enough of a framework that people can game, write, and draw for Djinnborn. I’m even seriously thinking about releasing much of Djinnborn under a Non-Commercial Attribution Creative Commons license to encourage creativity under the Djinnborn banner. It may or may not happen, but a guy can dream, right?
The Plan
This is the stuff I need to do before I start drawing the comic. These are all concepts I need to have prepared so I know what I’m drawing when the time comes. Many of these will either show up early in the comic or will appear frequently during the comic or both.
- Figure and clothing profiles for the other four races. I feel this will help me finalize my five main characters’ designs.
- Osoron’s ship design since this will appear frequently in the early parts of the comic.
- Cyricus’ mount design.The bird will virtually be a character all on its own.
- Aremshah architecture templates. Enough visual information that I can create new and interesting buildings as I need to, while keeping them all within a unified theme. In addition, I want to roughly sketch some landmarks.
- Aremshah soldier/military/armed service gear. Since Osoron is the Caliph, he’s going to be surrounded by armed guard a lot of the time. It will be to my benefit to know what these look like.
Once that is done, I should have everything I need to get the comic rolling. If I keep mostly to the same schedule I’ve been working on I think I can have all of this ready to go within a couple months. Then I start drawing and I think I’m still on track to start releasing Issue 1 by June. I will continue making blog posts about the setting and I will keep developing the world as I draw the comic.
I have Issue 1 scripted out and I have outlines planned through Issues 2-3. I have begun outlines for successive story arcs. My plan is to draw up all of Issue 1, and start work on Issue 2 while using Issue 1 as the start of my buffer. Once that is done, I will start posting! And then you all can read the story I’ve been working on!
The Past
Djinnborn has come a long way. What started as a simple D&D roleplaying adventure with a friend of mine has transformed into something much bigger. It wasn’t even called Djinnborn back then. Most of the characters have evolved significantly since I started building Djinnborn. Osoron’s background has gone through a huge transformation since his original concept. Naskos is virtually unrecognizable since his race, his personality, and his backstory are nothing like what they were before. Kollan and Cyricus didn’t even exist as characters. Even the world itself is very different from the world the game took place in before.
I’ve made a lot of strides as a writer, and I think the changes I’ve made reflect that. Since I’ve begun taking writing more seriously, I’ve learned how to create interesting characters and how to develop solid plots. I’m still learning and I frequently still feel like my writing is a load of crap or my characters are shallow and uninteresting. But I am confident I have improved, that Djinnborn is a much more solid creation than it was during the adventure. It was not bad then, but now it’s a lot better.
It makes me happy to be able to share this with you and I really hope you all will enjoy reading the comic and learning the world as much as I do. Thank you all for your support and stay tuned next week for an update with pictures!