History of the Titanborn Build Team
Titanborn in its current form started development over 6 years ago. It has had a few names over the years, with “Athendria” being the project’s name for around 4 of those years. The Build Team, responsible for building all of the “physical” environments for the projects, has existed for as long as the project as a whole. I have improved immensely as a builder over these years and so have all of our volunteers. Dozens of volunteers have come and gone. Each of these people have contributed a part of themselves to give life to this ambitious project. The leadership of the Build Team has changed hands several times as well, with myself being the first. This history of the build team will ignore most of this. Instead the following will showcase what we have worked on, and how far we have come.
Prehistory: 2018
This version of the map of Athendria did not last very long. We attempted to do the entirety of the terrain using exclusively voxelsniper. This would not have been feasible in the long-term, but we were just excited to get started. At this stage, exact copies of youtube tutorials were used in the earliest versions of the starting area, Holbeck Village. Don’t worry, the Build Team has not done that with any of our builds since. This experience taught us to fully commit to a completely custom map.
Early Athendria: 2019
Early 2019 is when I convinced the other project leaders to allow me to use worldpainter to make the map. I had no skills in worldpainter, but it was at least going to be faster. “We’ll figure it out later” was a term we used a lot in this phase. We started to make some serious progress in 2019. This version of the map included…
A revised version of Holbeck
The first major population centre, Fort Camerune
Mine-turned dungeon, Ingot
However, after months of work, we decided that these builds were simply not up to our ever-improving quality standards. We were building quickly but our quality was suffering. Not to mention that the terrain it was built on was severely lacking in quality as well. So, we started again.
Middle Athendria: 2019-2022
With new, high-quality terrain, we had a fresh start and higher standards. This is the terrain we largely use for the map to this day. The project trudged along at a standard pace, with many changes in leadership and methodology. Over these 2-3 years, including lockdown, the majority of what is now seen on the map was built. This version of the map included…
A further revised version of Holbeck
A revised version of Camerune
Garrock Quarry
Although our builds were not up to a level of quality that ensured they would not have to be redone, they were both time consuming and difficult to pull off.
And much, much more
The Dark Ages: 2022-2023
As the project dragged on people lost motivation. People who had been working on the project for years simply stopped being interested, and development stopped altogether. There was no plan to bring it back at the time. For about a year nothing changed, until Athendria was once again revived under the name “Titanborn”.
Renaissance: 2023-present
Stability is what has defined the last few years of building. Keeping most of the progress from previous years, the Build Team picked up where it left off. We made edits where necessary but almost nothing had to be re-done. Since the project has picked back up the Build Team has worked on dungeons, immense cave systems, and final touches on the greater Camerune region to really bring it to life. This version of the map includes…
The Workshop Dungeon
The Prison Dungeon
The Command Dungeon
Odesia’s Grotto
And much, much more
Epilogue
The Build Team is currently multiple updates ahead of the other teams due to the fact that we as an entity have existed for so long. This means we can spend our time updating older builds to ensure that all of our players get the best that we have to offer. Titanborn, as it is presently known, has been our passion project for years. Although members of the Build Team have come and gone, personal dramas been dealt with, leadership been changed and replaced, and progress been undone, we are now nearing ever closer to release.
I speak for the entire build team when I say that we can’t wait to see how our growing community reacts to our work over the years. Every builder who has helped us over the years should be incredibly proud of what we have managed to accomplish