Weekly Developer Log #6: Ship Builder Kickstarter

Hello everyone!

It's Friday and I have something new to show on the project. If you missed last week's update here's the link: Weekly Developer Log #5: Ship Builder Kickstarter | Patreon

First of all, I was planning to show my results for the floor test print but, due to this week's Patreon production things got busy and I was unable to print those files, this will be done next week.

I would like to discuss the sides/guard rails for the ship.

On the top of the image, there are 3 ships (one of them is not really at the top but at the mid-right section).

The Concept presents a flat deck while the art on the right and the gameplay model have a different level. Even though the concept is easier to be done and probably more practical the others will add a bit more interest to the model. So I decided to do both, I mean this project is about making your ship, if I don't give options, it won't be your ship right?

Sketch 1: 

 This sketch shows my initial plan for connecting ship walls and floor. The Guard rail will have a pin that will attach to the floor tile this will work as a lid over the lower parts. I can use the same scheme on the guard rail to stack walls and lower floors.

Sketch 2:

In this sketch, I tried to represent the second-floor tile for the front part. This will require a higher guard rail. The awesome green draw is my sketch for where the cannons would be.

I still need to think about how to support the floor tile at a higher elevation without leaving too many gaps. 

Sketch 3:

I started to sketch the side view, if things kept the way I was thinking it would be a boring tip since the walls would be kept straight to the bottom. To fix this I will add a bit of angle on the tip inwards (orange). The wall would become straight at blue, making it possible to stack more height to the ship. The bottom part (purple) would have a light curve. The Guard rails would be stacked over orange.

What does this idea mean? I would need to think about every ship possible to create a curve for each tip, some of them might be possible to reuse.

KS Planning

Tier - for now, I thought about 2 tiers a Ship Builder that includes all the ship parts and a Ship tile set, this tier would include only floors and stretched goals that are placed on the floor.

The idea behind this is that you don't need to print a whole ship to play on a ship, many people print only tiles or craft only a section of the ship to play.

Upon reaching the goal at the end of KS, Patrons will receive the Ship Builder as a 09 month Loyalty reward, this would not include stretched goals. If the campaign is unsuccessful I will try again on another platform if it does not work also, the Shipbuilder will be available.

Stretch Goals 

• Playable interior - In this part, I would plan the interior of the ship making it playable and you may add more decorations to it. this would Include Walls, Doors, Cannons
• Floor Extras (need a better name): These include things to glue on the floor to add a bit more interest Ropes, Cannonballs, Anchor
• Harpoon Stand Small and Large, I think a talked about this before, but now it's officially registered on my notes. 
• Platform: The side or back of the ship is open and there is a platform for a gun, cannon, or other object
• Floor Extras 2: Hatches and cargo doors are nice to be glued over the floor tiles to give them a bit more interest.
• Large Cargo side door, The side of the ship is open for aerial units like a Gyrocopter or a Gryphon to get inside 
• Broken ship parts

That's it for now, hope you have liked this week's update. If you have any suggestions, please let me know.

Best regards,

Ivo