Creator Insights 03: Knowing When to Strike

 Letting ideas incubate and evolve is a great luxury to have when creating something new, but there comes a time when it may be best to act upon them, and actually make something tangible.

Previously, we discussed the growth of the world of Tinderkell as a result of exploration and collaboration in 2020. In this insight we’ll be taking a look at the continued progression of the world up to the end of 2023, and what caused the change from Landy’s story to the one in Tinderkell: Siltria.

6. Identify Shortfalls, and Don’t be Afraid to Change Things.

As the story was set up before, Landy and her Sorya companion Mehrik were a pair of traveling partners whose adventures across the world would make them grow and bond. Though there were many plot elements that could’ve made for an interesting story, sitting on these concepts would open our eyes to expanding the cast.

Without diving too deep into the inner workings, Landy’s arc had an emphasis on her mental growth and becoming stronger through finding balance. Originally there were four deities of this world: The pride of Dawnterkell, the wrath of Rendalkell, the humility of Sunderkell, and the peace of Tinderkell. These were meant to be very much related to the personality and growth of Landy, as she would learn these principles throughout the course of the story. Her initial warlike tendencies were supposed to represent Rendalkell, and Mehrik’s peaceful nature represented Tinderkell and so their beliefs often clashed. But this begs the question: What about the other two? Well, we thought it would be best to give Landy some more friends.

 For Dawnterkell, Jackie suggested a prideful Mandaskan champion, and he would end up becoming Janko, a character that would encounter Landy early in the story and soon accompany her throughout Hovehko. Janko and her were always conceptualized to get into all kinds of shenanigans and tomfoolery.

 They first met in a rally between two allied armies against the Nanzuul. Landy overheard that a duelist by the name of Janko was beating up every Qoth that challenged him. Landy, wanting to show the Qothic superiority, stepped up to the challenge. As they fought, the crowd quickly noticed Landy was getting her ass handed to her, and Janko’s merry band of hype-men added insult to injury. Frustrated, Landy threw her sword at Janko and tackled him, who was unprepared for the subversive double-leg takedown. After Janko soon yielded to a few blows of her gauntlets, Landy technically won the fight, but at the cost of her pride.

Janko took an interest in the unusually large kunehva, and they would soon become friends. 

 As for Sunderkell, I was really wanting a cat character, and after some talk we realized that we could give some of the land in the north of our map to a culture of lynx-like species, eventually evolving into Gnomanyans. Her name was “Silver Bug”, a self-taught surgeon that resided in this fallen kingdom, and soon she would cross paths with an injured Landy, washed ashore.

 As Silver dragged this weird creature back to her home, she nursed her back to health, though there was much tension once she figured out Landy was a Qoth, as both are proximal enemies. There was a thick language barrier between them, so Landy had to learn Wulnic to communicate effectively. She would eventually piece together that Silver’s clan was under threat by a Gnomanyan Warlord, Bone Saw, and so she worked with them to defeat him.

 Landy would learn humility from her injuries, which made it easier for Silver to manage her. Ultimately refusing single combat with Bone Saw and learning to work with her new friends to defeat him as one.

 Eventually we would work to put the group together as a large adventuring party, with these three companions playing a supporting role to Landy. But seeing them together, things weren’t really working; everything was growing very complicated, and while these characters could work with landy alone, something had to be done.

Mehrik, having existed since almost the beginning, was starting to become the odd one out, so we removed him. With Janko and Silver, we had something more manageable, but we also had a feeling that in retrospect, it was a sign that the initial story for Tinderkell was outgrown by its own evolution, and while making this story led to some great things, we realized that it was not the story we wanted to tell.

And so we’d make contributions and add more to Tinderkell, but nothing that would result in a tangible story that we could share. But we also knew that if we just “slept” on the idea, then nothing would ever be made.

7. Know When to Strike

We knew there was a world we wanted to share, but as we were waiting for the right time to make the story we thought we always wanted to make, we discovered that committing to a project is where most of our progress would be made, and it was becoming more and more apparent. And by actually committing, our ideas would finally find meaning.

But that said, the time spent concepting was tremendously important. When we started with Glass’s story, we already had so much of the work already done, and in hindsight our new ideas became more appealing.

And so in late 2023, we decided to do something.

 Thanks again for your support and we look forward to sharing with you the rapid creation of Tinderkell: Siltria in our next insight!