Friday, January 22, 2010

Is Kev's Lounge dead? Definitely not!

Hi guys... There has been some speculation that this blog and all the associated projects have been abandoned. That is to be expected I suppose, given the amount of time that has passed since anything has been posted here, but I'm here to tell you all that reports of this blog's death have been greatly exaggerated!

The short explanation for my absence over the last 4 months is that I haven't had much spare time as my graphic design business has been keeping me incredibly busy. I have had some time, just not enough time. The dungeon tiles and counters I create for Kev's Lounge generally take a fair bit of time to create. There are ways I could speed up the production I suppose, but in my mind that'd only cheapen what I'm trying to do here. I do it for the art, and I don't like taking shortcuts. There's a sense of satisfaction I get from the pieces I produce, knowing that I've created something that looks good to myself and to anyone who downloads and uses it. Every piece that I design gets built and added to my collection and gets used at the game sessions that the crew and I hold here weekly, and if it's not ready for my games table, I won't put it online.

Here are some previews of the various projects that will be posted here in the near future:

New Dungeon Hazard and Obstacle markers. Got a big set of these on the way as soon as I finish up some of the last bits of artwork. The set will include all the markers already released in the dungeon tile sets as well as a several new markers to complement them. Pictured above are some of the new rubble markers, a chest marker and 2 bedroll markers.

The second set in the Rocklands outdoor tiles. The first set was limited to a serpentine linear trail, while this set includes crossroad sections and t-junctions making this set infinitely more useful! Naturally it will also include more hazard and obstacle markers, and like it's predecessor it will come with a 1" grid or without one. Also in the pipeline are a set of proper instructions for the assembly and a 1.5" grid for the Mage Knight crowd.



Brand new sets of tokens to follow on from the Ammo set. These sets are focused on Supplies and Money. Pictured above: One of the new Potion tokens, an Olive Oil token. a Standard Rations token and a Gold Coin token. The finished sets will include over 30 new double sided token designs with multiple denominations of all the common coin types, a range of ration types, a variety of consumables like spell components, and several new potions and poisons. Silver Coins and Gold Coins are now available!

There are several other projects on the drawing board, including further expansions to the dungeon tiles allowing for non rectangular rooms and angled and curving corridors. There will also be new papercraft doors in a variety of styles which will be a great improvement in both style and appearance on the previous ones.

Lastly, I intend to spend more time on articles for this site including reviews and possibly tutorials so that it doesn't sit quiet in between projects like it has in the past. Lately we've been playing a lot of Descent here in Kev's Lounge so I may write about that a little in the coming weeks while I get the new sets finished up. If you have any thoughts on things you'd like to see, please leave a comment!
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2 comments:

Ruben said...

Really nice, I'm glad this project is still kicking ;)

The new tokens look exceptionally good..
It would be nice to include a generic card like token that we user's could customize..
One where we could print our campaign specific item's
(legendary weapons for example)
and in it's back we could add some information about the item.

About the markers, a nice addition would be (stone/wooden) coffins for those undead infested dungeons..
(they would behave just like regular chests)
Some necromancers markers would look cool too..
(Blood drawn pentagons to enrich the environment)

The rocklands expansion is starting to look awesome too, with more junctions types will certainly make it much more useful.

Really an impressive job you guys are doing ;)

Lounge Lizard Kev said...

Hey Ruben,

Thanks for your support as always. :)

The tokens are something that I'm loving more and more, especially now that I have the new sets coming. They're great for keeping track in game, and they're pretty good for keeping the player's inventories from growing mysteriously between games too. Original plan was to limit it to consumables like ammunition and rations and such. I may also do Some tokens for hit points and game effects down the line, and a few people have requested a modern set with bullets and such. I always meant to keep the stats off the tokens so that they could be used for any game. However, your suggestion sounds good... Some item cards for the non-consumables might be a good idea though. :)

Those markers are really just a handful of the new ones I've designed. The new set will be coming soon and I don't want to ruin the surprise, but let's just say it's going to be very necromancer friendly!