Welcome to today's blurb!

Apologies for the 8-hour delay in today's release, I got called in for work at the last second. Yeah, that's all I got, but hey, at least I might get a promotion soon, let's hope at least.

Now before I end up doxx'ing myself, I should at least talk about the banner!

For this blurb, the banner is specifically based on ancient Greek pottery. Unfortunately, it is just a tad bit difficult to replicate. Why would I say that? Well, generally speaking, it's one of those issues where you typically see this sort of art as being scratched up, dirtied, perhaps even flakey or discolored. Think of it like heiroglyphs, we've all seen what they look like, but we don't commonly see them in a clean, legible appearance. So for me, this felt a little odd to make when all your sources and references are all scratched up.

Interestingly enough, I had originally intended for the outline to be in the same color as the brown-orange background. Want to see what that looks like?

Credit: me lol

I should say too that the figures in the scene of the banner bear influence from the Greek vase depicting Achilles and Ajax playing a game together in reference to their appearance. I will say that it is somewhat interesting taking a deeper look into how these sorts of pieces were done. Did you know that while some pots featured characters in a white-form, the black-form characters (as depicted above) were achieved by planting a clay-slip (or a distinctly thin layer of clay) over the pot in particular areas, and etching out lines within that silhouette to create that character! When the pot was put into the kiln to be fired up, the clay would then turn black, creating that distinct appearance that you see in those ancient pots today! This doesn't mean I put my monitor into a fire kiln, but isn't it crazy what methods are created just to express specific artistic visions, ideas, and scenes?

Funnily enough, there's only ever been one other time where I've made something culturally distinct like this, and that was for the Japanese woodblock print-art themed banner that I made for blurb #28. Just like how I made distinct text for that, I made distinct (and hopefully accurate) text for this! Can you guess what it says? One thing to keep in mind is that the text is in ANCIENT Greek, and while it is not too different from modern Greek, there are some technical differences, from what I understand.

Aside from that, we also have our regular guest writer for the blurb for today's speculation column: Tantiem!

What will be covered? What will be revealed? What about that darn release date? Do we talk about it here today? Let's find out, but first, let's see what the community's up to!

Brief note from Durb: Reason as to why pictures are back for this column is that a lot has to be quoted, and on top of that, I really needed to get this out ASAP. Enjoy the pictured text for this blurb!

Thanks to Durb for allowing me another speculation column.

What's in store for this week you may ask? Well, we already know a good amount about how behaviours behave, we know generally what to expect from vehicles, but there is one elusive piece of Brickadia development lore that has been too secretive for far too long now. These secrets have caused chaos, confusion, even (potentially) rioting! Some of you may have already guessed it based on recent dev activity in the server, but today we are talking about...

The Gallery!

Yes yes, hold your applause I know this is what everyone wanted to know more about- or, at the very least, I definitely was curious. The Gallery system is something I have been wondering about for a long time, ever since Zeblote first mentioned the "removal of minigames" which definitley made some people sideways.

Credit: In-Screenshot

I think the first thing to mention about what we know about the Gallery is that people seemed really confused about the removal of minigames, and understandably so. Most people are already used to it in the alpha, and the majority of people that came from Blockland expect it to be a core feature. However, I think it is important to note that the design philosophy of Brickadia is much different, and that doesn't have to be a bad thing. More information on how the Gallery actually is designed to work with sharing game modes and worlds will also help to show what the intentions are, and why this should be seen as more of an upgrade than a step back.

The following interactions shed some more light on the intentions behind the new system, and what to expect with it in play:

Credit: In-Screenshot

This was the information from about five months ago, and at that point it was pretty general what the information about the gallery functionality as it pertained to builds and the new term "game modes" was. What I'm hoping to explore now is a little bit more in depth of what this system will allow for that shows how it can potentially not only be just as good as multiple minigames, but even better.

But, for those of you still subscribed to the old ways, there may be hope for you in the future!

Credit: In-Screenshot

Moving on to the modern era, I was able to create a new discussion on the topic that unloaded a lot more clarification for me that allowed me to better understand what exactly the core idea of game modes and worlds was going to add to the game, as well as some good news for multi-minigame-lovers!

Credit: In-Screenshot

So, the roller coaster of multiple minigames, a new saving system that can bundle what we know as saves into something called a "world" that also contains environment presets, as well as game modes being saved separately, and the potential for that to even be controlled by behaviours sometime in the future?

Credit: In-Screenshot

I think the first thing to address is the original need for multiple minigames. In Blockland, loading into a server, especially one with an average amount of mods, could take upwards of 10 minutes. Mix that with how slow loading builds used to be, it is easy to see how player hosted minigames in certain servers was a key element of being able to enjoy the game in some ways.

The counterpoint I make here is that, not only are most if not all functionalities of Brickadia going to be baked into the base game- leaving any potential need for mods to be to a much lesser scale- but loading worlds and bricks in Brickadia in the current Alpha is blazing fast. Hosting a gamemode to play with your friends in a world is designed to be just as simple as joining a server and making a minigame. One could even see the entirety of Brickadia as a server, and the serverlist as the list of gamemodes!

The speed of Brickadia in general, as well as the intended speed of world / gamemode switching in game could make for an extremely seamless hub-world-esque experience in the grand scheme of Brickadia.

The further speculation of the unknown also suggests the ability for regular players to make a deathmatch gamemode, load up a list of worlds, and use behaviours to easily switch between them on round end. It opens up the ability for people to make single player challenge map experiences, or just linear challenges for anybody to download and play with their friends. Instead of waiting for your favorite server hoster to maybe be online when you want to play a rocket jump challenge, or an escape room, you can simply find the world / gamemode combination, download it, host it, and invite your friends to play instantly!

This also allows for the ability to make larger linear experiences, such as a three part story mission where when you get to the end of one part, it automatically loads the server into the next part.

In summary, the potential for the way the Gallery is looking to be utilized for the game and the removal of minigames as we know it shouldn't be seen as a step back; but rather, many, many steps forward for the overall experience of the game. It is designed against petty gatekeeping of experiences, encourages collaboration, and will make the game much more user friendly when it is released to the general public- which is something I am definitley excited for! Anyway, that is all for now. Keep on brickin' Brickadia!