Absolute beginner, looking to try my hand at module creation

Module Design
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There is a specific game that I’m hoping to create a Vassel module for. The publisher is all for it if I can make it happen. The problem is, I know absolutely nothing about how the process works. I’m also not super great at learning things by reading, as in the how to make a module section here on the site. So I’m wondering if anyone could recommend good YouTube video getting started tutorial kinds of things for me to look at. Then I could ascertain if it’s even worth starting down this road for me or not. I have no programming experience, graphic, design experience, or any kind of experience that I think would be related to making one of these modules. So I would literally be starting from scratch. Any thoughts from more experienced folks would be helpful.

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Google vassal 101 by Joel Toppen. That is a youtube series that matches what you are looking for.

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Some YouTube playlists, in no particular order:

(Perhaps there should be a Documentation post with links to YouTube (and other places) videos).

Useful tools:

  • Gimp Free (as in beer and speech) image manipulation application - Linux, MacOSX, Windows, …
  • Inkscape Free (as in beer and speech) vector graphics editor - Linux, MacOSX, Windows, …
  • piece_manip.sh Free (as in beer and speech) script to do various manipulations on piece (and other) images (shameless self-plug, based on work by @grouchysmurf) - Used Bash and ImageMagick available for Linux, MacOSX, Windows, …

(Perhaps there should be a Documentation post with links useful tools).

Hope this is of some help.

Yours,
Christian

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You’re more than welcome to create one!

And again…

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I have done lots of game modules from scratch.

  1. To start open the editor ‘New Module’
  2. Add the main map (required)
  3. Add a multi-zone grid to that map board (my opinion)
  4. Assuming a hex grid. add a Zone that is just the area of the map with playable hexes (or close to it.(my opinion)
  5. Add a Hex Grid to that zone. START from the upper Left corner and stretch the grid right and down. Every so often in this process (if the hexes don’t start in the very upper left of your graphic) you will need to go back to UL and reset your starting point. rinse and repeat. If you try to do this from the middle of the map, you will probably go insane.(my opinion)
  6. I like to add/adjust ‘Game Piece Layers’ on the map at this time.(my opinion)
  7. Go to top line of your module edit screen, double click to open Name your module and add version number. IMO version control is critical to creating a module. save early & often. make a new version before and MAJOR changes that might break the module. After taking a break I also make a new version as soon as a new editing session starts. I also remove the older line item in the vassal menu.
  8. I cannot tell you how much it sucks to be an hour into a new session and realize you started with an older version, rather than the latest one.
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See here

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See here

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Thank you to everyone for the recommendations and advice. I think you’ve given me plenty to go on to see if I can even begin this project, but any other advice would certainly be appreciated.

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My advice is more general in nature than specific to the task of actually creating a module. By your own admission you aren’t bringing in any skills that are directly relevant, so if you want to start moving in the direction of acquiring those skills, I’d recommend spending time learning to manipulate graphics in whatever software you find easiest to use. You’re very unlikely to be given the art and images by the publisher in a “turn key” format ready to start making a module with. It’s probably going to take some drudgery, like cutting up a countersheet images into lots of separate images, one per piece–or you might need to do some resizing of images, etc.

I’m also not super great at learning things by reading, as in the how to make a module section here on the site.

Here I have to be honest and say that you’ll have to spend a considerable amount of time reading the documentation and working to develop a “mental model” of what a module is and how all its components work in concert with each other. There is no existing video you can watch or any ultra-detailed step by step tutorial to follow that will give you this. Some amount of self-starter ability and willingness to experiment and go through trial-and-error is going to be necessary if you’re starting from square one.

Having said all that, a stripped down minimal module that’s usable is an achievable goal. You might try just mocking up a test module (not of a real game) to get started. Get an image of some game’s map, doesn’t matter what. Get some images to stand in as pieces. See if you can create a map and a piece palette that contains a couple pieces you can drag onto the map and move around. If you get that far, try and iterate a little bit more. Think about something that you might want to add and see if you can start from the root of the documentation to find how to design it in. You will need this ability to traverse the length and breadth of the documentation eventually anyway.

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That may all be true; in fact, it may prove to be a bigger hurdle than I’m willing to clear. We will see if I can get just the bare bones part of it done, then maybe try for some more advanced features. Thanks for your input, I appreciate you taking the time to lay that out.

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Hang in there, Vassal was magic when I first started had no clue how to create, slowly got the hang of things over time. Sadly at mid 60s I forget some of the tricks I learn over the years lol!

Just keep banging!!

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I recommend using a module for a game similar to the one you have and edit it to see the structure. Try replacing some of the graphics, map etc in this existing module with your game components. This was easier for me to understand than starting entirely from scratch with zero knowledge other than the help files.