So what am I up to? Poetry stuff! While I may not use WordPress much anymore, I’ve been pretty active on Instagram, sharing my work in a more visual medium: https://www.instagram.com/shouldhavesentapoet/
There’s really no substitute for physical publication or live performance, but Instagram can be a fun medium. It’s certainly encouraged me to get better at image editing, here’s some previews!
What else? Well, I’ll be performing at the Fringe this month with the Loud Poets, just like old times (except bigger and better)! Hope to see you there 😀
I’m a big fan of games in the Metroidvania genre (named after the Metroid and Castlevania series which are classic examples) – mainly because I love the 2D exploration and the particular style of maps that they have. So I decided to design my own concept worldmap using Roll20.
The setting is a spooky, purgatory-like island where the protagonist arrives via a mysterious train they have no memory of boarding. They find themselves in a city of lost souls, and must strike out into the dangerous unknown to find out the truth and a way to return home.
The Island of Limnus
The areas are numbered and colour-coded, and include reference images from various existing games to give an idea of how they would look. In-game, they would be uncovered one at a time, slowly revealing the large detailed map as the player progresses – traversing misty marshes and flooded caverns with the aid of power-ups like Double Jump and Mist Form that unlock new parts of the map. This rewards back-tracking and exploration, two staples of Metroidvania game design.
Here are some more detailed maps of the first three areas of the game:
End of the Line: a city of lost souls, newly arrived in purgatory. The misty streets serve as a linear tutorial area, with the upper and lower areas inaccessible without upgrades found later in the game (in classic Metroidvania style).
Mire of Despond: begins with an endlessly repeating swamp, until the player finds a way to confront the Gloom Witch that put a curse on the area. After defeating the first major boss of the game, they are able to progress through a level of toxic bogs and barbed branches.
Goblin Market: unable to proceed forward from the Mire due to an iron gate, the player travels down into a confusing tangle of bushes where fairy shopkeepers peddle their unusual wares. Here they can buy the first major upgrade of the game, for an unusual price.
My proudest achievements in performance poetry have been representing Edinburgh University in poetry slams at UniSlam 2016 and CUPSI (College Union Poetry Slam Invitational), and curating a programme of pop-up performances at Seven Stories as part of the Late Shows.
I love the settings, lore and maps of games almost as much as the games themselves, so when it came to running my own tabletop roleplaying campaign I had a lot of fun with the worldbuilding. In particular, I’ve had a lot of experience designing maps, creating characters and writing in-universe texts to flesh out the lore of my world.
MAPS
I’ve designed quite a few maps at this point, but here’s the most ambitious and complex map I created for the campaign (made with Roll20, annotations below). It represents the hub of a major dungeon – The Trial of the Feathered Serpent. This floating monastery was once home to an order of sword-monks, and requires adventures to overcome many tests and challenges to prove themselves worthy of the wise serpent’s teachings.
MAP KEY:
1 – The Monks’ Garden 2 – Sleeping Quarters (trapped) 3 – To the Path of Harmony 4 – Meditation Wing 5 – Razorpetal Tree 6 – Training Hall (sealed sword) 7 – Statue of Eguchi the Moonbow
8 – Hall of Worship 9 – To the Path of Violence 10 – To the Pinnacle 11 – Statue of God-General Setsuna 12 – Entrance / Exit 13 – Statue of Amet the Sage 14 – To the Path of Tranquility
CHARACTERS
It’s challenging to represent the breadth of a campaign’s characters here, but here’s a sample of the variety I ended up creating to give the players a strong cast of allies, villains and incidental folks to interact with (note – the art is not my own):
Captain Killian, holy warrior and potential ally
Libbit, leader of a wererat street gang
Emeriss, scheming son of an evil dragon
Millicent, helpful librarian (if you can solve her dilemma)
1. FRAGMENT OF A DIARY (found in the ruined palace of a necromancer king):
“The days are like water now. Every day a new excess, a new indulgence, a new novelty. I am tired of novelty. But I can never stop, of course. There must always be spoils from the latest conquered land – new foods, new drinks, new forms of entertainment. For every kingdom my empire devours, my guilds suck the marrow from their bones and demand more. I no longer rule, all I do is feed. But if I falter for even a second, one of the other six lords would –
– but that was the condition. The fiend has kept it’s bargain – anything I want, the moment I want it, forever. And I will go on forever. Even the coming calamity will not end me, I will step beyond the veil and join my master. It can’t be worse than the alternative.”
2. TWO WANTED POSTERS (written in tiny, very bad handwriting)
“SEWER GOBLINZ BAD KILL SEWER GOBLIN BRING HEDS TO SWAMP NO REWARD BUT WE IZ GRATEFULL”
“KILL SWAMP GERBLINS SKILL THEM ALL GOOD MEET US IN SEWERS WE PAY U IN BACKRUBS.”
3. FROM A TREATISE ON SKYMETALS (academic text giving the players clues on how to find rare materials for weapons and armour)
“Phase Alloy – Pale grey with an opalescent sheen, this legendary metal can pass through solid matter under the right circumstances. For this reason it is highly coveted by assassins, as it can bypass armor in the hands of skilled wielder – many a secret war has been waged over just a single blade.
Lacium – This curious substance is always either extremely cold or blisteringly hot. It is hard to work with, as few smiths can withstand the extreme temperatures and it can lose its unique properties if not handled correctly (a technique that is commonplace only in lands far to the north), but it’s potential for forging weapons seems limitless.
Greensteel – A sickly blue-green metal that thrums with some unseen energy. It is thought to have magical properties, but also sickens those who spend too much time around it, so research into its potential uses is somewhat lacking. Archways made of this substance have supposedly been found in dark, hidden corners of the world, although none have ever fathomed their purpose.”
As a copywriter at AkzoNobel, I produced engaging Business-to-Business and Business-to-Consumer marketing content for the International and Awlgrip coating brands – from the home page and supporting articles for the Chartek fire protection range, to multiple case studies and testimonials showcasing Perfection Pro and the Awlgrip yacht coating ranges. A recent success was a press release introducing new product Awlfair SF, which was taken up by SuperyachtNews.com.
I have had a lot of fun hosting creative writing workshops for children and young adults, first at Ponteland Community Middle School and later at St. Cuthbert’s Catholic High School. I shared my prose fiction and poetry, ran exercises and worked with the children to build a shared science-fiction setting ‘Earth Station One’ in which they had the option of setting their stories. Child and teacher feedback was very positive.
I have also hosted workshops for the Edinburgh University Creative Writing and Murder Mystery Societies on a variety of topics, including fantasy, horror and choose-your-own-adventure stories.
While resident copywriter at Dissington Hall Enterprise Hub, I created press releases and engaging content for the Enterprise Hub and its diverse range of resident small businesses. My proudest achievements were securing a successful nomination for the 2017 Rural Diversification Award at the 2017 North East Rural Awards, and the content I was comissioned to create for Bidderlists – ‘The Beginner’s Guide to Selling Surplus’ and ‘Top Industrial Auctioneers Guide’.
I’ve always admired the creative team behind the digital cardgame Hearthstone – it takes a lot ingenuity design a card that is fun and balanced to play, while also using game mechanics to capture the flavor of who or what the card represents. When I discovered Hearthstone’s thriving custom card community, I had a lot of fun entering design competitions and making my own cards.
I ended up creating my own custom cardset – Enter the Maelstrom – themed around the ocean and World of Warcraft’s Cataclysm expansion. This represented a whole new challenge, with each of the 144 cards needing to be considered in terms of its interaction with the others, and fit within the design space of the class it belonged to (Mage, Warrior, Priest, etc). You can check out some of the cards below, or see the whole thing here.
I was delighted to receive recognition (and payment!) when my stinger for the game’s space pirate radio station, Radio Cheeta, was chosen by HitRecord and sent to Ubisoft. You can give it a listen here! Credit to Rloria, Jules62Â and ConnorCronus for their talented contributions as well.
I enjoyed collaborating on this illustrated pamphlet, combining my poems with the wonderful work of painter and digital artist Elena Purlyte. We both have a fondness for fairy-tales, sci-fi and mythology, and wanted to make a collection that combined creepiness, wholesomeness and curiosity. So we aimed to created a space where the line between the mundane and the supernatural could blur together.
This was also my first foray into using Adobe InDesign, and I’m pretty happy with the results. You can read some poems from the collection below the gallery:
Lewis Brown 