Starbright University of Magic | Map Progress

**The Guy** · 12-19-2022, 09:42 PM

Galaxy of Magic | Starbright University of Magic | Custom Map Progress

[Image: https://i.imgur.com/wRy75gR.png]

Hello everyone!

As promised, we are here with the first-ever official map progress update in regard to our currently in-development custom map "Starbright University of Magic". Combining elements of Mythology, Magic, and even a splash of Sci-Fi, we're hoping to bring an immersive and expansive new home for our server to reside. We hope to use these same elements to help mold the lore of the server in the future as well. After a ton of thorough and intricate planning, and a solid timeline of progress made, we're finally to a point where we feel that it's worthy to share what's been done so far. With a handful of memorable and highly requested elements of our old home map returning with this map and a ton of new dynamics, we think you're going to love what we have in store. In our opinion, this map will overshadow anything we've had done level design-wise in the past. The freedom to design this map the way we want, and not having to follow any already existing layouts or features for the sake of fitting into an already existing universe, it has allowed for a lot of extremely cool and unique elements to be brought to life with this map. Additionally, unlike in the past, where we would periodically post new additional announcements for map progress updates, we will continue to update you on progress as it's made going forward in this very same announcement via replies to the thread itself. We will allow for feedback and comments to be posted in response to this initial announcement until the next update is ready to be shared, to which all responses to this thread will be removed and disabled moving forward from that point, that way we can share and keep all updates in a cleanly and organized manner until the map is ready to be released. This initial announcement is still a very early look, and you can watch the walkthrough video below made by Shy Studios for a virtual tour with more information regarding the map development process in general. The video goes into more depth about the thought process behind some of the areas, why they look the way they do now in an early state and even the specific names of various sections of the university that you will see both in the screenshots below and the video itself. With that being said, you can either immediately dive right into the video and skim over the rest of the announcement afterward, or dive in a little more beforehand we'll share some images of various sections of the university's layout and conclude this announcement with some final details until we're ready to share the next update.

[Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=quhn8xCulHs]

[Image: https://i.imgur.com/15K0Aiw.png]

Starting with the exterior:

[Image: https://i.imgur.com/uf3qw4c.jpg]

[Image: https://i.imgur.com/S8Vl0ov.jpg]

[Image: https://i.imgur.com/kQimnnx.jpg]

[Image: https://i.imgur.com/GB0WzIw.png]

The main entrance hall moving into the foyer:

[Image: https://i.imgur.com/YM5f8cy.jpg]

[Image: https://i.imgur.com/j6fcUEo.jpg]

[Image: https://i.imgur.com/Jzzx83a.jpg]

[Image: https://i.imgur.com/wG0ojvv.jpg]

[Image: https://i.imgur.com/b1Vu5j1.jpg]

[Image: https://i.imgur.com/al2LW8B.png]

[Image: https://i.imgur.com/EyGmNcr.png]

The theatre, which is currently the only detailed classroom, as the rest of the classrooms (going by the names of study, forum, and workshop respectively) are all currently empty and unfinished boxes:

[Image: https://i.imgur.com/WKm9RIJ.jpg]

[Image: https://i.imgur.com/7BJ6NHw.jpg]

[Image: https://i.imgur.com/okzaLQL.jpg]

[Image: https://i.imgur.com/wCqcUQq.jpg]

[Image: https://i.imgur.com/K9DcOUg.png]

The concourse, a main convergent point that sits at the northern side of the courtyard, and the middle passage (aka mid passage) another main, and the largest, convergent point which sits at the southern side of the courtyard:

[Image: https://i.imgur.com/uPDN0qd.jpg]

[Image: https://i.imgur.com/9FtaJeD.jpg]

[Image: https://i.imgur.com/7fsOWrC.jpg]

[Image: https://i.imgur.com/WFY120A.jpg]

[Image: https://i.imgur.com/W52iPfJ.jpg]

[Image: https://i.imgur.com/A0QNKUj.jpg]

[Image: https://i.imgur.com/HJlpo3H.jpg]

[Image: https://i.imgur.com/mVY7AEN.png]

The plaza, which is the largest open and main focal point, leads into many sections of the university, but most notably, it connects to the Ansible Chamber where assemblies might take place:

[Image: https://i.imgur.com/UNAXFnw.jpg]

[Image: https://i.imgur.com/fZI1skP.jpg]

[Image: https://i.imgur.com/6Ytwjo0.jpg]

[Image: https://i.imgur.com/NWHfsv3.jpg]

[Image: https://i.imgur.com/rqKfI8g.png]

The planetarium, which can be easily reached from the connecting hallway within the ansible chamber, or from the undercroft via the water lift:

[Image: https://i.imgur.com/XDa3Wwm.jpg]

[Image: https://i.imgur.com/tbB37Qm.jpg]

[Image: https://i.imgur.com/ift0elD.jpg]

[Image: https://i.imgur.com/cti7bxK.jpg]

[Image: https://i.imgur.com/yzGrdel.jpg]

[Image: https://i.imgur.com/WmgqdwM.jpg]

[Image: https://i.imgur.com/pDUdW8c.jpg]

[Image: https://i.imgur.com/gN8s1OA.jpg]

[Image: https://i.imgur.com/YDnSDDY.png]

The aforementioned undercroft areas, which include the detainment center, laboratory, greenhouse, grottos, and more:

[Image: https://i.imgur.com/xwGwqWc.jpg]

[Image: https://i.imgur.com/BcwUIt0.jpg]

[Image: https://i.imgur.com/PrBbEcv.jpg]

[Image: https://i.imgur.com/RhFrMaN.jpg]

[Image: https://i.imgur.com/O7zQsVJ.jpg]

[Image: https://i.imgur.com/daXQNY0.jpg]

[Image: https://i.imgur.com/iWYTvx6.png]

Final Notes

Traversal of this map, especially within the university itself, is extremely dynamic in comparison to our previous home map, and it's not even close. It's a huge element of this map that we believe is a big upgrade in itself.
Currently, we have chosen to not share any specific time frames for releases just yet, but you can be confident that the wheels are turning. When it feels right, information such as time frames regarding releases of different phases of the map will be shared in this same announcement in the future.
Now that the university is essentially finished layout-wise, the terrain creation process will begin, as well as the surrounding areas of the university, including the mountain passageway, the ruins, the colosseum, and the temple. We will of course share more of this with you as more is completed. To be clear, the university itself was and is the biggest first hurdle to get through before the rest of the map could be started and or completed, as the rest of the map must be built around it. Now that it's mostly out of the way, everything else can start being created.

The current plan is to release the first version of the map in an early pre-alpha state. This will allow us to playtest the layouts and scale of the map before any final and complex details are completed. The video Shy Studios made that we've linked at the beginning of this announcement goes into a bit more detail regarding what this means specifically, as well as a ton of other information that's not included here, so do yourself a favor and be sure to watch it if you've made it this far into the announcement without already doing so. As previously mentioned, we will be using this announcement to periodically and randomly share progress updates as we see fit, so you can continually refer back here if you'd like to keep up with the progress of the map until its various release points. We hope this first official and early look at the map has you just as excited as us for it to be released.

Star by Star;

- The Guy


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