Jump to content
Xathoa

Dragon Cave Official Art, Lore, and World Book ?

Recommended Posts

I'm not sure where to put this, and I'm not even sure about the feasibility of this idea- since I think it would take a lot of work, and the site itself, I'm sure, is a lot of work. But I was tossing the thought around after speaking with my partner.

 

Dragon Cave has been a long living site fueled by passion, community, and the love of dragons and art.
It has remained steady and continues to this day, despite many sites I used to frequent all disappearing or being shadows of their former selves.

At first, it was a small site with a few dragons and a simple idea. Over the years, Dragon Cave has grown to have it's own lore, events, stories, and even world dynamics. Even going through a few map changes.

 

And I thought, what if we could have this all in a nice physical book? The world lore, how it all started, the beautiful sprite-work, the art, the dragon nuances and ideas, interviews from all of the artists, how the world grew, etc....

I know there is a Wiki, but I feel there can be something beautiful in a book that you can hold in your hands, to see all the amazing sprite-work in some close-ups, and interviews with the designs as well as the thought of biology.  A close up on the maps regions, maybe even towns and such. 

 

Again, I think this might not even be feasible. There are so many artists contributing to this beautiful world, and I don't know if everyone would agree to the idea of having their art in a book like that. Even getting a hold of all of the people, some who may have stopped arting.

 

Maybe this is a little too far reaching.. but I really like the idea, and I would back/kickstart this in a heartbeat.

(I think my ordering of the unofficial Dark Souls What If Artbook from VaatiVidya made me think of this as a possibility)

Share this post


Link to post

That would be kind of hard since you'd have to get every single artist's permission to have them in a book (and some haven't been on in years) not to mention there's always a guaranteed release every month PLUS you got DC's birthday coming up in like, 2 months which could contain as little as 4 dragons or as many as TJ could fit (7 dragons in 7 days cough). 

 

I'm going full no support on this 

Edited by Dalek

Share this post


Link to post

I'm afraid I rather have to agree. A nice idea (not that I'd want a copy) but unworkable. Not least because it grows, even in lore, the whole time.

Share this post


Link to post

As interesting as this would be (and I'd love it, book nerd that I am), I'd rather that if so much information was going to be compiled together (if it was possible, which it likely isn't for reasons that Dalek and Fuzz stated, among others) that it'd be put into the on-site Encyclopedia first. Because to me, it'd look weird to make this fantastic physical book and then come to DC and look at the actual on-site Encyclopedia...and see so much blank there...

 

Just my two cents on it.

Edited by animatedrose
typed too fast, too early to be typing, waugh

Share this post


Link to post

I'd love a book, but I don't think it's feasible.

 

Rather than echoing what everyone has said, I do want to note that there used to be a podcast where some of this was discussed. I'm not sure what happened to it, but you are welcome to give it a listen. I believe it's still on YouTube somewhere.

Share this post


Link to post

I also don't think it's realistically doable, but my goodness this is an amazing idea. I would LOVE to have a physical DC book like this!

Share this post


Link to post

There's also the issue of would you need to release new editions whenever sprites got updated?  What about if something major happens and an artist either pulls all their sprites or they get kicked out and all their sprites replaced?  (I dunno if they can still pull their sprites, I think now there's a contract to prevent that?  But they can definitely still get kicked out and their work stripped)

 

Something like an eBook might work better than a physical one?  Certainly easier to release new "volumes" for, so to speak, if it was more of a "series"--an on-going encyclopedia type deal updated at regular intervals with new sprites (maybe once at the very start of the year containing all the releases for the previous year or something?).

 

That said, however, you'd run into the issue of updated sprites.  Would a new version of the original be released that contained the new sprites?  What would happen to existing copies?  People get rightly uneasy about the idea of digital files they own being modified or removed without their consent.

 

Would it be paid?  If so, there's a LOT of questions that come with that unless it's a case of "if your dragon gets used you sign a contract to forfeit all rights to profit from your work", but at that point you would definitely not be able to include any legacy sprites (even if the people who worked on them are still active) because there wasn't anything like that back when the very first replacement happened and the site got all original sprites.

 

Basically, I'm not opposed and think it could be a pretty cool idea but there's a LOT of logistical issues that would need to be carefully considered before it could be feasible.  That's not to say it's impossible, but a lot of those would have to be things that would be solved by TJ and the artists rather than the users.

 

I've followed enough artists and writers who've ventured into merch making and getting their stuff published to have seen a small slice of the kind of things that need to be considered for ventures like this, and it's a lot of work.  It can definitely be worth it, of course, but it's a lot of work.

 

Still be pretty neat, though.  Even if it was just a lorebook without the art, honestly.

Edited by KageSora

Share this post


Link to post

Yeah, I thought it would be too may pain points in this idea.

I just thought that people who agreed could get a portion of the kickstarter funds.
VaatiVidya went to pay all the artists who contributed to the contests/art in the book, and when he got way more than he expected, he increased the pay to the artists.
 

As far as new dragons, I thought it could either be neither necessary, as it could be an anniversary thing, or every 5 years there's a mini supplement book released.

 

But yeah... It was a hopeful idea and a thought, but I knew a little too far out of reach and a bit too hard to do. I've never done merch myself, so I guess that's pretty evident.

I like the idea though.

Share this post


Link to post

Yeah, it's a fun idea and would be pretty neat!  There's just a lot of things to figure out how to manage with things like thus, especially a collaborative effort between a lot of artists.

 

If it could all be ironed out, though, that woul be pretty neat to see.  It's not impossible, just difficult and that's have to be on TJ and the artists to figure out if any of them wanted to put the effort in.

 

But it would be very pretty and cool to see.

Share this post


Link to post


  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.