By Tracy Hickman

Last year, Laura and I were working on our Kickstarter project, ‘Skyraiders of Abarax.’ It is a game setting about pirates sailing their ships of plunder through the sky in a unique world. About this time I first became aware of Loot Studios.

Designing worlds is something I’ve been doing for over forty years, usually with my wife Laura. We are known as the creators of the ‘Dragonlance’ world setting as well as ‘Ravenloft.’ I’ve created worlds with Margaret Weis as well for our ‘Deathgate Cycle’, ‘Nightsword’ and ‘Rose of the Prophet’ series of novels. ‘Skyraiders’ was a new world by Laura and me being built in collaboration with our friends Kim and Joe Bourrie. Joe is a gifted game designer and programmer while Kim is an extremely talented artist, especially in 3D printing. She was creating the models and STL files for the characters in our game and a ship that players could use to sail through the skies.

I was something of a novice at 3D printing – well, perhaps enthusiast is a better word. Laura had given me a 3D PLA printer for Christmas the previous year. Since then, the sound of its step motors and filament feed had sounded in my office non-stop. I was mad about 3D printing. My Ender 3 was humming around the clock building stuff – and mostly game objects like miniatures, set pieces, or, very often, organizer boxes for my favorite games.

So, in March of 2022 I saw an advertisement on Facebook for a collection of 3D printable fantasy pirate miniatures. All of the figures resonated with what my team had been building. Loot Studios models are not only perfect game miniatures, but amazing pieces of art. Loot is an art company and the people who work at Loot have been passionate about art since long before they were a company at all. It shows in their work. I signed up and downloaded the first set immediately.

The results, of course, were not perfect on my PLA printer but still amazing. So you might imagine my surprise when Loot Studios contacted me. I was delighted to discover that they knew my work! They were surprised to learn that I was already a subscriber to their work as well.

The conversation soon turned into a very interesting proposal. They told me they had a game they were developing that needed a world setting to support it. Would I be interested in creating this setting with them?

At the time, I was working on several different job contracts including the Kickstarter. I was not sure I had the time or the energy to take on another project, especially of this magnitude. We emailed back and forth a few times and then my main email account failed … and I lost contact with Loot Studios.

It looked like the end of working with this cool, creative company.

However, after the Christmas holiday of 2022, I was in a different place in my work situation. As the new year started, most of my work contracts were completed. I wondered; did that miniatures company still have room for a world designer?

The timing was fated.

As it happened, Loot Studios was surprised and delighted to hear from me. They thought I had ‘ghosted’ them because of the email account failure. My reconnection could not have happened at a better time for either of us. Contract negotiations proceeded quickly and based on the initial deal letter alone, I started working on their project within a week.

It was a secret project – known only to us as ‘Relics Untold’. It is a fantasy miniatures game using a unique card system in play for resolution – and it is being set in a world created by me for Loot Studios.

Loot Studios is based in Brazil. The experience of the pandemic had left both the company and me familiar and set up for remote work. We established performance benchmarks and a schedule for online video meetings between me and the design team in Brazil. Fortunately for me, their team all speaks excellent English and communication has been no problem at all. We meet each Thursday online to discuss ideas about the world and to brainstorm new directions for this rich and complex world.

Workflow was vital in order to maximize the design, collaboration and approval processes. We are utilizing my highly recommended World Anvil online system to create our living, incredibly detailed world. I’ve also been using Profantasy’s Fractal Terrain software to create the base world and then the tremendous online mapping system Inkarnate to quickly recreate (and update from feedback) maps of the entire world at any required scale. The World Anvil system then allows members of our team simultaneous and in real-time access to view the complete design as I create it – both in terms of the written word and map graphics posted up to the site.

I work in my office in the United States. Loot Studios is headquartered in Brazil. World Anvil makes its physical home in Greece and Profantasy is located in England. This is a truly international effort!

But what about the GAME? What about the WORLD? What about the STORY? Did Loot Studios team really make sad, disappointed faces when you told them that you did not own a RESIN printer?

Well, I’ll be back here from time to time to tell you about those as well. I’m still getting used to using the actual name of our secret project!

One step at a time.