Getting Started
Create the board image
You'll first need to create an image to use to form the background of the board. This can be done in a graphics program such as Adobe Photoshop or Paint.NET. If you can't afford the $$$ for Photoshop then Paint.NET is the next best thing as it's free and has all the features you need to create a board. You may want to base your board off a publicly available map or design something different completely different depending on your ideas. Board images should be in either PNG or JPG format - note that PNG transparency is fully supported if you wish to use it. The maximum board image size at present is 1.5MB. In general you should look at restricting your board size to 1024x768 pixels as anything bigger than that will mean players with smaller monitors will need to scroll around to play the game.
Circle Mode vs Fill Mode
Before you start on your board you'll need to decide whether you are going to do a 'Circle Mode' or Fill Mode' design. Circle Mode means the player's color and units are drawn inside a predefined circle. It is very important to note that Circle Mode maps will NOT be allowed to be submitted for Review for public release.
In a Fill Mode design the occupying player color is flood filled into an area defined by a single continous color on the board as shown below. The game engine will flood fill the color underneath the territory until it meets a pixel of a different color. Pulling an image off of the internet and simply placing territories on the image is NOT going to work for Fill Mode.
It's generally more work to create a Fill Mode design as you will need to carefully draw each territory boundary to ensure that it is cleanly delineated but the overall effect is often visually superior. Be careful when using dithering on the lines that make up your borders as this can lead to a messy effect when the territory is flood filled. For more information on borders and anti-aliasing, see the Fill Mode - Anti-Aliasing Help page. Also, utilize the the Fill All toggle to test that Fill Mode will function correctly and as expected once player owned.
Creating a Board
Access the board designer page by clicking on the Boards tab at the top of the page then select the 'Board Designer' tab. Initially this will be an empty page so get started by typing the name of your new board into the 'Create New Board' field and click Go. It doesn't matter what the name is set to, you can change this later on if needed.
Board Status Types
There are 4 different board status types:
- Live: Live boards are publicly available for any player on the site to start a game on. Once a board is in the Live state the designer is no longer able to make any changes to the board except the description, background color/border, and player colors.
- Submitted: For a board to be made publicly available it must first be submitted for review by the site's board administrators. Setting your board status to 'Submitted' signifies that your board is ready for review. Your board design will be checked and you will be provided with constructive feedback if the board needs any amendments prior to public release. As per Live status you won't be able to make any changes to your board during this period.
- Dev: Boards with Dev status can be changed in any way at any time by the designer. Games played while they are in Dev status (or in fact any status other than Live) don't count towards player rankings (even games played / won). In addition, the designer can start private games on the board with play testers and can terminate or restart games at any time - this is to make it easier for developers to manage updates to their boards.
- Retired: Retired boards are those live versions of a board that have been superceded by another version - this is to ensure that only one version of a board exists in the Live state at any one time. If you create a new version of an existing Live board then the old Live board is automatically set to Retired when the new version is promoted.
Check out the Development Testers and Review Team thread in the Board Designer's Chat forum for a list of players who would be happy to help play and test your board!