Version 3. Redesign website

It has been done. After months of work Version 3. Redesigning the Website has been finished. It required rebuilding the whole website already build in WorldAnvil. Now, I really have a relational database behind the project, which makes it easier to create, update and maintain my website. While in WorldAnvil I had to spend quite some time in keeping everything up-to-date and neat, the relational database helps to update things automatically when one side of the relation has been updated. Because of this, I can focus more on content instead of the structure and integrity of my project. And I have much more freedom to change and add module. The downside however is, I need to have an understanding of my website and when things go wrong I need to figure it out myself (which did already happen when developing the new website). But, as a lover of complex systems and a bit of “not too difficult” ICT I think this may add an extra layer of excitement, especially when I found the cure for the error (after a long pondering through the house session :P).

The next step in my project will focus primarily on adding new content. I will focus on (1) History, (2) Politics and (3) Religion in the next version. This will require adding and updating my current articles and loads of new content. Meanwhile, I will also do some technical stuff, such as implementing “Maps” and “Walk-throughs” (which is like a virtual tour through the world) and refining the current modules. Also, I will set up my social media accounts and finally start publishing there (which I promised to do a few months ago, but my perfectionist(-ic) brain simply cannot handle showing this on an unfinished website. I cannot wait to start on the next chapter in this project. Stay tuned…

Hello everyone,

Again, a lot of work has been done to the new version of the website on the Guild of Stories. I have focused mostly on the development of the Feudal System, which is an important part to describe demography and politics of my world. This includes rewriting the original article, implement an ownership & shares system, ranks & social classes and rights & duties. I have already started assigning ranks, classes, rights, duties and ownership to some of my individuals and places, but will focus more on that in the next version of the Guild of Stories. In this version I will write more about Politics, Religion and History.

Besides the Feudal system, I have updated the detail page of “Places”. It is now possible to assign a flag, motto and coat of arms. I have written concept articles for the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Prussia and Hanover, as well as rewritten the article about the Region of Kilden. And these articles now include flags, coat of arms and motto’s :D.

I am now very close finishing the third version of the Guild of Stories, but I still have to finish some things. I have introduced “Organisations” as a new part of the world, and still have to design the detail page. I also have to redesign the page for “Beliefs”, which include religions. Then I have to do some tasks, such as displaying my Portfolio at the Creators page, make a new “Guide” page, redesign the template of “Traits” and replace the placeholders for all Newspaper Articles. This I will do the coming weeks. Of course, there are many more things I can change, but I have to remember to let go of perfectionism and move on to the next version. I’ll try at least :P

Hello everyone. The last weeks I have been working very hard on the new part of the website, I formerly called “The Community Section”. While developing, I found out how much easier it is to manage the worldbuilding website with WordPress instead of WordAnvil, since WordPress is a relational database with page templates that update when I add something or change something. This is much harder to achieve with WorldAnvil. This is why I have decided to dedicate the WordPress website for describing the world and only post Articles that are more static and important for the main story on WorldAnvil. I might even see WorldAnvil more of a social media platform, where I share some articles on my WorldAnvil website and discuss about it with other WorldBuilders.

This means I have (once again) build the entire thing in WordPress, which went much quicker than I thought. I hope, however, WordPress will not break under the large amounts of data it is going to hold, but we will see in the future.

I am happy to say that the current WordPress website is the most developed version of my project ever. I even managed to build the social section, newspapers and a fully functioning Homepage. Also, my full portfolio is back on the website (although I still have some problems showing the gallery, but I fill hopefully fix it soon).

The next weeks I will probably keep on fine tuning parts of the website, and start publishing new content. I will keep you updated!

Hello everyone,
In the last weeks, I have worked mainly on the second part of the website, which is going to house the Community section of Field of Stories. While the description of the world is published in WorldAnvil, I will use WordPress for the Community section, since I have a little bit more freedom in setting up and managing the pages. The community section will be more of a blog anyway, where the people living in my world keep diaries, which are presented in a (sort of) social feed style. I do not want to flood my WorldAnvil website with lots of diary entries and social posts of my characters. So, a blogging platform like WordPress seems the best choice.

Besides the Community, I have also moved the Development section of the website to WordPress, since placing updates is also more about “blogging” instead of Worldbuilding. I have managed to finish this page already. It will give a little bit more insight about the development stage of the Field of Stories and updates/behind the scenes. Next I am going to work on the Diary/Social pages of the Individuals, the Newspapers and the worlds Economy. I may also create a Search page in the future, which is a little bit more elaborate than the Search options of WorldAnvil.

I will try my best with blending WordPress in with my WorldAnvil style, so the two different platforms still feel like one website, although the domain name is different. And, talking about domain names. I have decided to name the Community the “Guild of Stories”. I feel like it fits the style and does not deviate to much from “The Field of Stories”. I want to keep the feel of being “one website” as much as possible. Let’s hope I will be able to achieve that…

Hello everyone. Yesterday, something totally unexpected happened. The Field of Stories managed to win “Most Beautiful World” in the World Anvil Worldbuilding Awards (WAWA). Stupidly, I totally forgot that the ceremony was yesterday (and also the invitation for it was hidden in my spam folder). I was lucky enough to check my Discord in the evening and catch the last part of the event. I would like to thank everyone who voted for me and also would like to congratulate all the other artists who won in one of the categories. I am very motivated now, so let’s get creative…

Hello everyone,

Today, I am going to start working on an overview of the history of the Region of Kilden. It will be an abstract view, but it will give an idea of how the area developed and where it originated. I will start with the moment the hunters and gatherers were roaming the lands and the influence of the Neolithic Revolution on these people, where they started to focus on agriculture and settled. Then the formation of (agricultural) tribes and the creation of larger settlements will be discussed, which later formed the major cities in the area. This will give me an idea of when the Neighbourhoods and cities like LutheriaLutheriaThe City of Lutheria is one of the main cities in the Region of Kilden and is situated along the important trade route to Belthem. The city is geographically located… were established and why. For now, I will focus on the history until 1100 – 1200 AC.

Meanwhile, I will continue to develop the Community section of the website. There is still a lot that needs to be done to integrate it with the main website and make sure it works on mobile devices too. Also, some work needs to be done to get the main website to work on the main domain name (fieldofstories.com), since some of the buttons keep disappearing. Hopefully I will be able to fix it this week. See you soon…

Greetings everyone,

Today I will start with establishing the Community section of this website. I am working hard to integrate this section, which is hosted on a platform different from World Anvil, into the main website. This entails copying the style of the main website, the main menu and preparing a somewhat smooth transition between the two. It is going the be a tremendous task to set the community up, so I am going to work on it parallel with working on the content of the world itself. See you soon!