The latest Shroud of the Avatar newsletter is, as usual packed with information about all that has been going on in the game. Of particular interest in this week's letter are a pair of articles dealing with the creative process: The first of an in-game demon; the second how a PvP arena was created using the provided tools. Each is packed with screens to give readers a visual look at how things were accomplished.
Once I had the idea of making the arena in my head, the first thing I did was test some designs on a lot. I wanted to see what was possible with them and to get a general idea of what I wanted to make. This also helped me to avoid certain issues with blocks when I started building for real. More about that later.
After finally settling on a design, I started working on the arena for real on a castle lot. Now the first thing I did was to determine the absolute center of that lot. I used rough stones fences to achieve that.
You can read the entire newsletter on the Shroud of the Avatar site.